Another home match and another home draw has left Nashville SC sliding further down the Points Off Playoff Pace table. The Boys in Gold could not manage to find the back of the net as expansion-year rivals Inter Miami held Nashville to a goalless draw on Sunday afternoon. While the 0-0 scoreline sees Nashville gain a point on the official table, a home draw loses one point in the highly unofficial Points Off Playoff Pace table.
Points off Playoff Place explained
For those unfamiliar, the Points Off Playoff Pace (“POPP”) table is a set of standings that I created that aims to show how a club is progressing towards earning a playoff spot.
The basic premise that underlies the POPP table is that the target line for making the MLS playoffs is 50 points. In any typical season, 50 points is enough to safely secure a playoff berth.
On average, MLS teams earn roughly 1.85 points per home match and 0.93 point per road game. Rounded up, it comes to 2 points / 1 point. Hitting this target of 2 points per home game and 1 point per away game would yield 51 points in a 34-game season, one point clear of the playoff target line.
With Sunday’s draw, Nashville finds itself three points behind the 51-point pace and 12th place in the Eastern Conference POPP standings. Three points in three homes games will not get the job done, and the team understands this.
Nashville will look to get back on track on Saturday with a big home match against New England before hitting the road to Real Salt Lake.
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