Closing the Book on DCU's 2013 Regular Season

Well, since we've slogged through reviewing what happened each and every month of the 2013 Major League Soccer regular season here on Black and Red United, let's close the book on this season which saw the fall and rise and fall of Major League Soccer's most storied empire. How better to do that than to review what happened in October and record all the important final tables of the season? I had nothing else to write about for this week, so humor me.

1. October's MLS Results. With only a few notable exceptions, the teams that played well in October will still be playing in the playoffs. The primary exception was the Chicago Fire who played very well during the month (3-1-0, 9 points), but in the end they needed a result in their final match on the road at New Jersey. Although they took a lead in that game, they fell spectacularly 5-2 to the New York Red Bulls, and in so doing, both missed the playoffs and allowed the Metros to earn their first trophy in their non-descript, but very expensive history. The second exception was the San Jose Earthquakes who went 2-0-1, earning 7 points. Although the team went undefeated in their final 7 matches (5-0-2), they needed a result in their second-to-the-last match on the road against the LA Galaxy to make the playoffs--and the Earthquakes only earned a draw.

The table below is sorted based on points per game earned during October:

2. The Best and Worst for Every Month of the Season. We've been tracking who were the best and worst teams during each month of the season, so here's a review:

A couple interesting points from this listing of each month's "best" and "worst":

- FC Dallas and the Montreal Impact started the season en fuego. And while normally the performance in the beginning of the season is a good indicator of how teams will do overall in the season, Dallas and Montreal fell dramatically as the season wore on with Dallas finishing next-to-last in the Western Conference and Montreal backing into the final Eastern Conference playoff spot as the limpest of limp fish.

- After Dallas and Montreal, who was the next best team in March? Chivas USA (let that sink in for a moment).

- On the other end of the spectrum, Chicago and the Seattle Sounders were the worst teams in March. As already mentioned, Chicago just missed making the playoffs while Seattle had the inside track on the Supporters' Shield entering October before they tanked down the home stretch.

- D.C. United has the ignoble distinction of winning the most of these monthly awards, whether the good ones or the bad ones. While earning the title of "worst" team in four separate months (April, July, August, and September), D.C. United was also second worst in May.

3. Final Supporters' Shield Standings. Avert your eyes if you can't stand to see D.C. United's hated rivals atop a table. And, while D.C. United is at the bottom of this same table, we can all take solace that the good guys earned the same number of trophies in our worst year (heck, the worst season in MLS history) that New York has so far earned in their best year. We will both be in CONCACAF Champions League next season, so maybe the spring of 2015 will bring a huge showdown with the Red Bulls for an international trophy (although many D.C. United fans would likely prefer to see New York crash out in the group stage).

4. Final MLS Eastern Conference Standings. So, who you got in the Eastern Conference playoffs? I'll take the Houston Dynamo over Montreal in the play-in game. Then, I'll take Houston over New York and Sporting Kansas City over the New England Revolution in the conference semi-finals. In the Eastern Conference finals, I'll take Sporting to finally slay their personal demon (Dominic Kinnear) and reach the MLS Cup.

5. Final MLS Attendance Table. You've probably already read Steven Goff's tweet that D.C. United set it's all-time worst home attendance average this season:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>D.C. United attendance average for the year is now official: 13,646. Lowest in club&#39;s 18 seasons. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23dcu&amp;src=hash">#dcu</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23mls&amp;src=hash">#mls</a></p>&mdash; Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) <a href="https://twitter.com/SoccerInsider/statuses/394542306151235584">October 27, 2013</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

For 2013, home attendance at RFK averaged 13,646, a 1.45% reduction from 2012's 13,846. For 2013, MLS averaged 18,594 for each match, down 1.13% from last year's 18,807 average. So, while it's really not good to set an all-time worst season attendance average, at least D.C. United's decline this season is comparable to what happened overall across the league (I'm reaching here for good news).

D.C. United now enters a 4+ month break until their next MLS regular season match. This may well be the most consequential offseason in the history of the franchise. With final votes still to come on the existential issue of their Buzzard Point stadium, with Ben Olsen and Dave Kasper desperately seeking to turnaround D.C. United's fortunes, with an ownership group building for the future yet having to keep an eye on the present to not lose its fan base, with the future of individual players on the squad in doubt, and with the absolute need for offseason signings to pan out as the Black-and-Red compete in MLS, the US Open Cup (as defending champions!), and in CONCACAF Champions League, we should have plenty to talk about for the next few months here on B&RU.

What else do we need to record for posterity now that 2013's regular season is complete? Anything? Or, is it just time to look forward and start plotting the overthrow of MLS's temporary Barbarian overlords in Harrison?

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