Schedule and results
NextPitch combines published MLS NEXT competition feeds for Academy, Homegrown, and Flex divisions. Dates are stored as universal timestamps and displayed in the venue’s time zone and, where supported, your local time zone. Source corrections may change times, venues, opponents, and scores.
Team matching
Teams are grouped by club, age group, division, conference, and season. Prior-season teams are matched to current clubs by exact normalized club name. NextPitch avoids speculative fuzzy matches; a team may remain unrated when its history cannot be connected confidently.
Ratings and rankings
The preseason model estimates offensive and defensive strength from completed prior-season results. It adjusts for opponent strength, home advantage, and the connectivity of the results network. Rankings are ordered from the resulting power ratings. Conference rankings use the same ratings but compare teams within their listed conference.
Match projections
Projected goals use a Poisson scoring model based on each team’s schedule-adjusted attacking and defensive ratings and the competition scoring baseline. Score probabilities are combined into home-win, draw, and away-win probabilities. Neutral-site projections remove the home-advantage adjustment.
Confidence and limitations
Confidence reflects the amount and quality of connected historical evidence. A high value does not guarantee a result. Youth rosters, player development, coaching, travel, injuries, and incomplete source data can change performance rapidly. Models will be recalculated as verified results arrive.