Barrett rolled the ball back onto the field, so KC couldn't take the goal kick. But they took it anyway, ref let em play. I like it.
Typical Barrett on that play on the endline--"gets into good positions" and then turns into a pile of mush.
The argument is, however, that regular season performance in MLS does not translate in meaningful seeding advantage in the playoffs. So why play well all season, when all you really need to do is be like Houston.
It pisses me off when frugal / boring ownership succeeds. Curses Houston and Boston. Long live Portland. And soon to be OCSC. Whatever I'm libated.
The format of the playoffs is fine. The problem is the spacing. They could have played one leg per saturday from the week after the season ended until Dec 7th. Instead they compressed the semis and first leg of the conference finals into 3 games in 7-8 days, then 2 weeks off, then the second leg, then two weeks off, then MLS Cup. The unevenness, excessive travel, then excessive rest is the worst possible way to make things like momentum matter.
Despite what the recent playoff trends have shown, home field advantage in MLS is a real thing. Winning on the road in MLS is incredibly difficult. I don't have exact numbers, but someone crunched the numbers that showed home team winning percentage being being way out of balance with other major leagues where home teams don't have the same kind of advantage.
Pretty much this. NY dominated Houston in the regular season. SKC didn't lose to NE in the regular season. Handle your business in the playoffs like you did in the regular season. (The west is a crap shoot since Seattle and Portland split the regular season and LA won the season series against RSL despite being a lower seed)
A terrible DC United, a cursed NY Red Bulls that last lost to W Connection in a CCL tie and a Houston Dynamo team whose coach hates the tournament and craps on the CCL these days could potentially be 3 of the 4 US teams in the tournament next year. Good grief.
I'm cool with that too. But if the dynamo did still advance, then people would say that format isn't good enough. Fact is, there is a difference between a long distance runner and a sprint. Dynamo are built for the sprint which is what the playoffs are.
The same thing happens in the NHL, and no one complains about the format there. Look at how many low seeds have gone to Stanley Cup Finals over the last ten years, and yet no one makes a fuss. I just think soccer fans love complaining to complain.
There are some chants that I absolutely hate (NY and KC each have one that really grates on me), but simplicity and repetition aren't the problem. KC also has one of my favorites . . . the wordless dissonant, off-key one. Similar to Section 8 doing the tetris theme. It sounds good and is atmospheric.