MLS Multiplex’s Matchday 9 Predictions

Mar 5, 2017; Atlanta, GA, USA; Fireworks are fired before the start of their game between the Atlanta United the New York Red Bulls at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 5, 2017; Atlanta, GA, USA; Fireworks are fired before the start of their game between the Atlanta United the New York Red Bulls at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports /
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Another week is behind us, and the writers sure did well in week eight. The question is, can they keep up that streak into another matchday? Here are the writer predictions for the weekend.

Fortunately for the writers, there were not any real upsets in the MLS last week. Sure, some underdogs, like Orlando, got wins or pulled out a draw, but even those weren’t completely shocking. That means that event the surprise results still had a few writers predicting them correctly. Here are last week’s results:

One of the first things that jumps out is the fact the no games really went terrible for the writers. Not many writers chose Orlando to win or Philadelphia to pull out a draw, but even those still had at least three of the twelve writers get them right. Compare that to some of the bad games earlier in the season where only one writer, or even nobody, would get the game right and it doesn’t look too bad.

Looking at the overall results, it is clear that this was probably the best week the writers have had all season. In total, eight of the twelve writers got more than half of the games right, so there was a solid jump in most people’s percentages on the season. A lot of this was boosted by the fact that many of the favorites came through with victories last week.

Without further ado, here are the predictions for this week:

One of the most noteworthy things we can see in this picture is the growing divide between the top half of the table and the bottom half. Many people in the top are separated by only a few percentage points, but there is a sharp cut off from 41% to 37% between Tyler Hanson and Antonio Rubio. Now that we are in our ninth week, it is starting to become clear which writers are going to be challenging for the predictions title, and which might want to focus their efforts in our MLSM Fantasy league.

Next: MLS Attendance: Week 8 figures & 2017 update

Looking at the actual picks, we can see that only four of the eleven games have much discrepancy. This means that most of the writers are in for either a good week or a bad week. Check back in next week to see how everyone did and where the standings lie.