2 a Cer0

In hindsight, that was pretty obvious, huh? Still, I think the US played exactly how they should have (and almost exactly how I drew it up), and I really thought Mexico would come out less toothless and with more fire. A lot of fans and pundits seemed to think the US played poorly during the first 20 minutes, but I really think that was just the storm they knew they were going to have to weather, and Mexico looked just gassed and beaten in the second half, especially after the EJ goal.

Here's a look at Player Ratings for both sides. The only real discrepency I see between my numbers and numbers others have thrown out is Reyes, who Mexico fans seem happy to lay the blame for the goals on, but who, statistically speaking, had a really solid game.

Perhaps Donovan was just lucky that EJ found his ball and that he was in the right space at the right time, but he had a typical Donovan v Mexico game and earned Man of the Match from me on this one.

I also iterated the Group Power Rankigns again. Here's the table.

And now, the chart. Mexico dipping fast, Panama on the slight upturn. Still a theoretical gap between the two sides though... Click to embiggen.

Right now, though they're ranked 4th overall in the group on quality using my spreadsheet system, have slipped to dead last on recent performance.

So where does this result leave Mexico? In pretty bad shape, actually. It's now a real stretch for them to hit the auto spot, and they're actually going to need to beat Panama at home. If Panama can do what other teams have done at Azteca and play smart, staying compact defensively and smart going forward, Mexico could be in serious trouble. Missing the World Cup would be devasting for them. I would love it.

And we'll go out  with this. Classic.

Roll on, Oblivion

Okay, ratings starting to come together again. Still a group of teams lagging a bit at 3 games, which is throwing off the comparison somewhat, but I think it's starting to gel nicely. Columbus may feel a little hard done actually losing points even though they won, but no ranking drop, and its hard to argue the other teams don't belong up there as well.

Full table. Click to embiggen.

LA still flying high and Montreal is making their case. Chicago stuck down in the basement, and look at little Chivas go. GO CHIVAS, GO!

Seattle and New York still with plenty of time to figure it out, but definitely not how they wanted to start the season. And who thought Philly would get it together after their three goal first half meltdown against SKC?

Edit - And, what the hell, never too early in the season for a graph, right? As always, click for pops.

SHFR trends for the first four week. Note that the y axis is a log. LA's high rating makes a linear chart hard to read. Should clear up in a few weeks once LA levels out a bit (assuming they lose a game or two...).