We're now three games into the 2005 playoffs and we're averaging a whopping 1/3 of a goal per game. ONE-THIRD of a goal PER GAME. Anybody still awake? Zzzzz .... I'm having some doubts about the wisdom of the aggregate goals, home and away system. Hopefully the Quakes-Galaxy game is better than these last three matches ... not that the standard is very high.
uh.....MLS is trying to reward the better seed. Is it just me or the road team (better seed) is trying to play for a draw so they can have home field advantage in the second game? This lead to one team playing attacking football and the other team bunkering. MLS needs to fix this playoff format and reward the better seed.
The MLS playoffs suck, we need road goals These 0-0 first leg games suck. There is no reason for the teams to push forward and risk blowing there season on the first game of the playoffs. What is needed is for road goals to count as tie breakers. This gives incentive for the road team to push forward and create a better game in the process. Thoughts?
The main problem with the current playoff setup is that many higher seeds are all too happy to go home with a 0-0 tie. I'd like to MLS go to a single-elimination format. But if owners are insistant that each playoff team must host a postseaon game, then go back to the old best of 3 system, with PK's to break any tied games.
Re: The MLS playoffs suck, we need road goals A thought worth consideration... I think teams still will be more conservative and "careful" on the first leg but perhaps an "away goal" rule might help some..
Re: The MLS playoffs suck, we need road goals How about this instead? Keep the format they have now. The regular season counts. The reward for being 1st or 2nd is homefield advantage and being able to bunker in the first game of the playoffs. Maybe next year more coaches will remember the bunkering we're seeing and will push their teams harder during the regular season. Finally, let's get rid of the revisionist thinking now cropping up regarding these scoreless ties. Any given Saturday no one gives a second thought to an EPL team "playing for a draw". By contrast you rarely hear of MLS teams playing for a draw during the regular season. And the boring, draw-inducing 4-5-1 formation is rarely seen in MLS, while it is common in Europe. Let's not forget that for the few MLS games where there is a strategic advantage to the higher seed bunkering,
Best-of-3 would be a great idea. It would be much needed. If the series is tied after 3, at 1-1-1 or 0-0-3, then the series goes to a 30 minute OT followed by PKs. Personally, I'd like PKs after every game, but that will not happen, eh?
I'd just as soon see a single elimination tournament throughout, especially since playoff attendances don't seem all that great anyway, and the higher seed barely gets any advantage in the current 1st round format. Away goals would be my second choice, except hearing all the moaning about how a team could advance on a "draw" would get old quickly. A three match series is best left in the dustbin of history, in my opinion.
Exactly, yesterday when asked about if Coach Nowak would be happy with a 0-0 tie at around the 60 minutes, he didn't seem too displeased. I don't think FC Dallas is displeased at the 0-0 tie today either. Poor NE, they at least tried to attack and got the worst of it. Solution: 3 teams in each Conference get into the playoff 1st round bye for #1 seed (Western and Eastern) 3rd vs. 2nd in single-elimination at 2nd home field (thus giving #2 seed a home field advantage) Week 1: Colorado(#3) at FC Dallas (#2) Chicago(#3) at DC(#2) Week 2: Conference Final (winner of week 1 vs. #1 seed bye) Week 3: MLS Cup. This reward the regular season Conference Champion with a bye. It also reward #2 by the home field advantage but penaltize it because it didn't finish #1 in the conference. #3 is happy because it got to play in the playoff.
I knew a bunch of idiots would overreact to this, so a little while ago I figured out the stats for the regular vs postseason goals per game: Code: Regular Playoffs 1996 3.37 3.12 1997 3.26 2.77 1998 3.57 3.14 1999 2.86 3.06 2000 3.19 2.94 2001 3.28 2.72 2002 3.01 3.00 2003 2.89 3.00 2004 2.61 2.55 Most seasons the goals per game goes down a little bit, but it's barely noticable. Alltime, the difference is only 0.17 per game.
How's this format. It's how they do things somewhere but I can't remember where. Conference 1st Round Game 1: 2nd @ 1st - winner advances to Game 4, loser goes on to Game 3 Game 2: 4th @ 3rd - loser eliminated, winner advances to Game 3 Conference 2nd Round Game 3: Game 2 winner @ Game 1 loser, loser eliminated Conference Final Game 4: Game 3 winner @ Game 1 winner, loser eliminated MLS Cup 2 Conference Champions 4th gets no home games, 3rd gets exactly one home game, 2nd gets one home game with the possibility of another, and 1st gets exactly two home games. There is an advantage gained from each position over the next.
If we go to away goals, I'd love to see the conference champs get a 1st round bye so the regular season has at least some meaning for the top teams. Perhaps a setup like this would work out OK: Sat 10/15: end of regular season Tues 10/18 or Wed 10/19: 3rd seed hosts 1st leg of the first round Sat 10/22: 2nd seed hosts 2nd leg of the first round -- away goals break any aggragate tie Sat 10/29: Regular season conference champion hosts conference championship vs first round winner.
Good stuff, scary, but it's important to note that the playoff format changed quite a bit along the way -- best of 3, to first to five, to home-away. Anyone remember what playoff formats applied to what seasons?
OK, we are now seeing criticism of the low goal scoring in the playoffs. Let's dispense with a couple of suggestions that attack the 2 leg system because the 2 leg (total goals) system is better than either a 1 game or a best of 3 for the following reasons: + The problem with a one game playoff is that half of the teams don't get a home date; + The problem wiht a best of 3 is much worse, as getting stadium dates is difficult, there would be midweek games, and since teams would try to get 2 wins out of 3, there would be zero incentive to score goals. But there IS a problem with the current MLS 2 leg system because the league -- once again like the idiotic shootout system that took MLS years to finally bury -- fails to follow time-tested patterns used around the world for decades: 1) Away goals as the first tiebreaker. There is no incentive for the away teams to attack now, especially as the higher seeds think they can bunker and hold on for the 2nd leg. And even my Revs played such defensive game that they didn't even try to get a goal back against the Mutts, preferring to try to outscore them at home next week. Add the away goal tiebreaker and you would have seen DC, the Revs, and Dallas come out smoking and try to put Chicago, Metros, and Colorado away early. And if any of these teams did score first, the home team would have had to go all out and we wouldn't have been treated with 3 snoozefests. 2) As the Mexican Liguilla used to do, have the next tiebreaker go to the higher seeded team. In other words, if away goals were equal, let the higher seeded team qualify. Why? because one of the other complaints mentioned above is that the team with the better regular season record is not rewarded for their season-long work. With these two suggesions, MLS would get higher goal scoring AND reward the higher seeded teams for playing well for the entire season. C'mon guys, you wisely dumped the CrapShootout, why not use these suggestions to increase the goal scoring incentive AND reward the better teams for their season's work?
Interesting. But wouldn't there be a problem with coaches like Clarke and Nowak playing for a 0-0 tie on the road, followed by a 0-0 tie at home?
If you want a home playoff game, you have to earn it during the regular season by finishing ahead of your other Conference teams. Giving every playoff team a home playoff freebie doesn't reward a team with a better record. MLS home and away aggregate playoff is as flawed as the BCS. Need fixing.
Thanks. So the mean during the years we had best of 3 was 3.02 The mean for first to five years was 2.89 And the mean for aggregate is 2.78 (and probably falling after this year's playoff games are added to the mix). Not a great trend.
But that trend follows along with decreasing scoring in the regular season as well. I'll chalk that up to far more organized defenses these days than we saw at inception.
Good point. But, unfortunately, the playoff format now used doesn't help matters. FCD and its organized defense visit the Rapids and are happy to return back to Dallas with a 0-0 result. And no doubt the Rapids and their organized defense will be more than happy to play for a 0-0 result next week and take their chances with PK's.