Overtime gone - what should be next?

[the101er]

The change that I would most like to see is in the broadcasting of the games. In the NHL, when your watching a boring 0-0 draw, your not just watching a boring 0-0 draw, because they show highlights and goals scored, as they happen from ongoing games.

It would be great to have all the MLS games played at 4PM on Saturday. I could switch on the game ABC/ESPN is showing, and I know I'm going to see every goal scored in the league that week in the next 2 hours.

I think MLS is doing exactly what it set out to do. It is slowly building a viable soccer league in the USA.

I wish the whole Eurosnob/MLSnob rift would go away.

[Agogwe]

It would be great to have all the MLS games played at 4PM on Saturday. I could switch on the game ABC/ESPN is showing, and I know I'm going to see every goal scored in the league that week in the next 2 hours.

I think the folks in California would be kind of upset with this, actually, I think the consensus is that the evening starts are better, correct?

[MasterShake29]

The change that I would most like to see is in the broadcasting of the games. In the NHL, when your watching a boring 0-0 draw, your not just watching a boring 0-0 draw, because they show highlights and goals scored, as they happen from ongoing games.

It would be great to have all the MLS games played at 4PM on Saturday. I could switch on the game ABC/ESPN is showing, and I know I'm going to see every goal scored in the league that week in the next 2 hours.
Unless you go to the game, in which case you can't.

England has a single start time for most games, but not all, and more importantly they have only one time zone, whereas the continental U.S. has 4. I like the 4 PM and then evening games setup. Maybe the only thing I'd change is making evening games start at either 7:30 or 10:00 Eastern, but even that's not a huge deal.

[denver_mugwamp]

[QUOTE=the101er]
It would be great to have all the MLS games played at 4PM on Saturday.
QUOTE]

It gets a bit hot in Denver in the summer but usually pretty pleasant around 7PM. 4PM might work great for certain sections of the country but I think people in Texas and other southwestern states might not agree with you.

[KCWiz]

"We took out the Shootout and put in secret timekeeping, and attendance went down."

Biggest mistake ever. The Shootout is much better. Overtime or no overtime, the Shootout is the best. Bring it back. No more ties. I don't like Europe.

[moejash]

"We took out the Shootout and put in secret timekeeping, and attendance went down."

Biggest mistake ever. The Shootout is much better. Overtime or no overtime, the Shootout is the best. Bring it back. No more ties. I don't like Europe.
u really think thats the reason att. went down. :rolleyes:
shootout is much better..u must be a redneck from kansas ,u are the kind of people the shootout was intended for i guess it works in kansass.

[352gialloblu]

England has a single start time for most games
They do that because TV is specifically not allowed to show those games, to encourage people to go. The games that aren't played at 3pm on Saturday are the ones that Sky can show live.

I was watching the DC-SJ game yesterday with a friend who is not a soccer fan, and he was annoyed that the game was going to end in a tie.

Maybe the reason that MLS teams are willing to settle for a tie is that 8 teams make the playoffs, so who really needs all three points every week. Add to that the fact that MLS teams don't seem 90-minutes-in-the-hot-sun fit (well, SJ and DC didn't), and you get ugly ends to games. The night games had better finishes, didn't they? LA scored in the 95th last night, but I don't know what was going on in Columbus, where they should have been desparate for the points.

Anyway, it's too bad we have to play in scorching American summers, and it's too bad there is little pressure on teams to win early season games. Ties are a part of the sport, but it's up to the teams to play for a win. We have a lot of pragmatic, defensive coaches in this league, and that doesn't help.

0 points for a 0-0 draw is dumb. The Fire played two 0-0 draws so far this season, and both were good results that we've built on.

It's early days yet, too. Once the situation for some teams get more desparate, and once players to full fitness, we'll see better play at the ends of games. Stretching it into overtime didn't help, and the shootout always seemed a gimmicky way to decide things.

[the101er]

Here is the one change I would like to see: Show highlights from other games during the televised game.

All of the games don't need to start at the same time. Just show highlights from recent games at halftime or during a break in the action.

[KCWiz]

i absolutely hate ties. ties should be 0 points, losses 0, and wins 1.

[Mr. Bandwagon]

Why not play with a silver-colored soccer ball? Make it all silver except for a black cross. That would be really cool looking and make the game a lot better.

[dice50]

Get rid of the 1.7 million dollar salary cap. Double it bring in some exciting players and reap the rewards.

[Stevedm]

In an effort to be more in line with the rest of the world, MLS has decided to abandon the overtime period for tied games.

What other changes do you think MLS should make to align itself with the rest of the world?

I think a single-table system would be one of the better changes we could make at this point, doing away with the conferences.

What do you think?


Ummm not listen to soccer fans on these boards as much as they do?? that would help them out alot!!

[Stevedm]

Get rid of the 1.7 million dollar salary cap. Double it bring in some exciting players and reap the rewards.


Sure as long as you pay for it, I bet they would love to do that.

[CeltTexan]

IMHO I want MLS to stop following MLB's season format i.e. April strait thru till October. Our league, Russia, Sweden and "cold nations" have to play when its not so cold fans can't come but in the U.S. our summers can be just as intimidating for middle of the road soccer fans.
I would suggest to the Don that MLS kicks off on St. Patty's Day. Green beer and the beautiful game to kick off that nights festivites. New American footie tradition? Just a few weeks earlier allows MLS to serve The Bruce and the USSF with Summer Championships like the WC, Copa America or the Gold Cup. Northern MLS clubs can play in SJ/LA or in the South like Dallas Blanks or D.C.U. The Opening stretch runs from St. Patty's Day till the second Sat. in June. Add 1 or perhaps 2 mid week encounters in there and that's about 12 Sat.s from mid March till early June. 14/15 matches played and MLS breaks when the Latino/Euro leagues are shuting down also creating FIFA desired calender harmony.
Here's my idea. US-Soccer turns down a Copa America invite cuz of player conflicts and the club vs. country issue. Having a small summer break opens a window for that issue to not be an issue. Definitely when the World Cup is upon us and MLS matches honestly have no business being played, broadcast or whatever when the freakin' Mundial is on! Our whole world is on shutdown amigos.
Then the closing stretch kicks off on the 4th of July, could be a good new tradition?...the Rapids make it a big day for soccer in Denver. The Sat. only scheduel is held intact because there are 16 Sat. from the first of July till the end of October.
I would cut to only 6 clubs making the playoffs, top three from each Conference, 2-3 play the agg. home and home and the 1st place holder gets a reward in a buy week to rest and watch game film. Thus winning the Supporters Shield/Point race over the "Opening" and "Closing" runs is truely a prized item. Then the Conf. Finals and so on are like we now understand it.
Well friends is that too much for MLS to swallow. Or is that too logical for MLS and The Bruce to live in a win-win scenario. Also, this from the family angle. Those weeks "off" in June is when kids are getting out of school and many families are "off" on vacation. Also, nagging injuries picked up in the first 3 months can be rested and not played thru to October.

[mcontento]

IMHO I want MLS to stop following MLB's season format i.e. April strait thru till October. Our league, Russia, Sweden and "cold nations" have to play when its not so cold fans can't come but in the U.S. our summers can be just as intimidating for middle of the road soccer fans.
I would suggest to the Don that MLS kicks off on St. Patty's Day. Green beer and the beautiful game to kick off that nights festivites. New American footie tradition? Just a few weeks earlier allows MLS to serve The Bruce and the USSF with Summer Championships like the WC, Copa America or the Gold Cup. Northern MLS clubs can play in SJ/LA or in the South like Dallas Blanks or D.C.U.

Guess you've never been to DC in March, it is not much different than NYC that time of year (nor is it much different any other time of year for that matter) and is sometimes colder and wetter (e.g. snow/ice/freezing rain) than Chicago, NY and KC in late winter/early spring.

[quakes_4_life]

the way the post season is should be changed... for example, the quakes last year had a kick a** season, but the season would have ended more dramaticly if we had lost to LA, and if we had lost, pretty much the whole season would've been useless...

[Bonji]

Raise the salary cap. Lower the number of teams making the playoffs.

[Khansingh]

the way the post season is should be changed... for example, the quakes last year had a kick a** season, but the season would have ended more dramaticly if we had lost to LA, and if we had lost, pretty much the whole season would've been useless...

I don't like that eight out of ten make the playoffs, but we might not have had such a dramatic finish otherwise. Arguably the best match in the history of the League.

What was hilarious was when Bruce Arena talked about the great environment at that second game in San Jose, and in the next sentence criticized MLS for having such a large playoff field. Hello, McFly!

[NewhamRed]

whilst disposing of a wage cap seems like a good idea at the moment, you have to think of the future implications of going out and splashing the cash. Leeds, Forest, Leicester, Derby, Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday are all excellent examples of English clubs that gambled with money and got burned. Once all Premiership sides; Leeds, Forest, Derby and Leicester are first division teams and Wimbledon (now a franchise team, to be called MK Dons apparently) and Wednesday have been relegated twice, down to division two.

Whilst you might want to see the big names playing over here straight away, you must increase your turnovers dramatically to make this a reality.

Back on topic though, who needs overtime? 'Soccer' is the worlds most popular sport and to my knowledge no-one else uses OT. It might work in Hockey, but it will never work in football. Play the 90 minutes like everyone else does with 1 point to each side in the event of a draw.

[Ze_Pequeno]

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