It's Not Us, It's Everyone: Just About Everybody in MLS is Awful on the Road

The guys over at Sounder at Heart have a post up about home field advantage in MLS.

It's a bit of a long one, but here's the jist: Nobody in MLS is particularly good away from home.

Over at Sounder at Heart, author agtk points out there's an average difference of 12 goals, between home goal difference and road goal difference. Just looking at the records, few teams have positive road records. Sporting Kansas City being the only team with more wins than losses. Two teams -- the Philadelphia Union and Real Salt Lake -- have an equal number of wins and losses. The Portland Timbers are draw magnets away, posting a 2-2-8 record outside of Oregon.

For the record, the Red Bulls are 4-6-3, which isn't great, but it's not the worst. That'd be, unsurprisingly, D.C. United, who are 0-8-3 away from home, in keeping with their bid to be one of the worst teams in MLS history.

As far as difference of goal differential, the Red Bulls sit at 17, below the average, but, again, not the worst.

Basically, no matter how bad things get with the Red Bulls -- and it always seems awful, because the sky is always falling in Red Bulls Land -- everyone else is God awful on the road, too.

If you think it'd follow that the Supporters' Shield challengers are usually the better road teams, you'd be right. Last year, the San Jose Earthquakes posted a 9-5-3 road record. Sporting, who finished in second last, posted an 8-5-4 road record.

So good and bad news for the Red Bulls: They're about average away from home. Bad news: If the Red Bulls want the 2013 Supporters' Shield to be their first trophy, they'll have to step it up away from Red Bull Arena.