M.L.S. Preview: FIFA 12 Predicts M.L.S. '12 Major League Soccer's 17th season opens with five games on Saturday, two Sunday and one Monday. Until then, the Goal blog is looking ahead to the season from a variety of angles. Fantasy and reality meet at the intersection of soccer and video games in FIFA Soccer 12"s simulation of the 2012 M.L.S. season, which begins Saturday. And for the second consecutive year, the game's engine simulated the entire M.L.S. season (in the space of six-minute games). It predicts that Los Angeles will win its third consecutive Supporters Shield as the No. 1 team over all during the 34-game regular season. Last year, FIFA 12"s simulation (games are played on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) correctly predicted that the Galaxy would do the double, and Bruce Arena's boys kindly obliged. Last season was also the first time the game was used to simulate the entire M.L.S. season, but the seventh time EA engineers and soccer geeks performed soccer simulations in their bunker in Vancouver, British Columbia. The results: ¶ 2012 M.L.S. regular season - prediction, Los Angeles ¶ 2011 M.L.S. Cup - predicted Los Angeles (correct) ¶ 2011 M.L.S. regular season - predicted Los Angeles (correct) ¶ 2010 World Cup - predicted Spain (correct) ¶ 2006 World Cup - predicted Czech Republic (won by Italy) ¶ 2007 M.L.S. Cup - predicted Houston (correct) ¶ 2008 European Championship - predicted Portugal (won by Spain) The company's Madden N.F.L. game has predicted seven of the past nine Super Bowl champions in simulations, said Aaron McHardy, FIFA 12"s game-play producer. "When you talk about currency, it's kind of interesting when you look at track record for predicting," McHardy said in a telephone interview. McHardy also played internationally for Jamaica on the under-21, Olympic and senior national team level. "It stands to reason people around the world are studying teams and games," he said. There's a lot of code and behavior built into the game, so players behave sensibly in the game, in what we call the Career Mode. It's cool and rewarding when you can come up with results that are pretty accurate, and the last few years we've been bang on. It's not just any old ESPN sportscaster saying, "This is who I think will win." " FIFA 12 played 34 regular-season games for each of the 19 M.L.S. clubs, with the Galaxy finishing on top in the regular season with a league-record 75 points and 22 wins, 9 ties and 3 losses (also a record for the fewest losses in league history). In addition, the game gave the Galaxy's Irish international striker, Robbie Keane, the goal-scoring crown, with 19 (perhaps not taking into account that Keane could miss significant time in June during the European championship). McHardy was asked if he was surprised by the result and the Galaxy's predicted repeat. Surprises? It depends who you ask," he said. We're in Vancouver, and the Whitecaps are second from the bottom. We were hoping for a better result. The Red Bulls finished on top of the East - not too much of a surprise. Thierry Henry had 11 goals, which is great because I'm an Arsenal fan. The only surprise that I think jumps off the page is that the Galaxy has 75 points and only 3 losses, which set M.L.S. records. I don't know if all that will happen. You'll just have to watch the season to find out. Here is the FIFA 12 predicted order of finish by conference, with the top scorers at the bottom. Eastern Conference Team Red Bulls Columbus Kansas City Houston Philadelphia Toronto D.C. United New England Montreal Western Conference Los Angeles Real Salt Lake Dallas Seattle Colorado Chivas USA San Jose Vancouver Portland Top Goal Scorers Player Robbie Keane Dwayne De Rosario Fredy Montero Landon Donovan Danny Koevermans Chris Wondolowski Thierry Henry Eric Hassli Milovan Mirosevic Juan Agudelo