They are also trying to avoid the International Weekends. Admirable, but it ends up distorting the continuity of the finals.
I assume MLS Cup is on this weekend some time, either FS1 or ESPN, but I have yet to see an ad for it. I watch a lot of FS1 for racing but not much ESPN.
I'm watching MLS Cup right now (ABC). It might just be me, but the quality of play is crap. TFC has Jozy on the bench. Without him, TFC has no offensive creativity-- taking all their shots from outside the penalty area. Lex Luthor took a shot from 30 yards that missed laughably. Seattle is misfiring. Both sides with tons of very sloppy midfield giveaways. Pure shite, as of the 35th minute. I feel sorry for Jon Champion having to call this game.
Somewhere Bobby Boswell is smiling about the own goal.... Completely changed the game, up to that point, Seattle was out of it -- after Toronto had to chase the game with the usual result.
Seattle had the better chances even before the own goal. Toronto dominated early play, but was never dangerous.
And so, the season is now completely over. Next appointment early March 2020, basically 5 months away. I think only the Pepsideild in Iceland lasts shorter. But they also have 12 teams only and no playoff system.
IIRC the season start will begin creeping into February. So.... 2 to 3 months of shit weather to start the season as opposed to 1 month of shit weather if the playoffs continued into early December and the season started mid or late March. Geniuses.
You are right, it's only 4 months since the MLS cup (more or less), unfortunately the MLS Cup is only between two teams, all the ones who did not clinch the playoffs are facing an almost 5 months off (I don't recall exactly when regular season ended). Too long to be taken seriously in a prospect to become a top league.
Stop it. We go from Montreal to Houston. We can't start in early February. Thats impossible in half the league. And if you want to go into November for regular season, we would have to have all Wed/Thurs night games to avoid competing AND GETTING THRASHED by college football. It ain't happening.
It really seemed like MLS playoffs and the cup championship games were afterthoughts this year largely because of the mid-week scheduling for the conference semi-final and final games. As opposed to past years, there just wasn't much build-up or anticipation before and between the games leading up to the cup championship. Better scheduling would have been to play the play-in or wild card games during the week and the conference semi-finals and finals on weekends. Also, as I mentioned either last year or the year before, the smart move would be to play the cup championship game on Friday in the late afternoon or early evening of Thanksgiving Weekend. That way, broadcasting the game on national T.V. would be counter-programming to all of the ubiquitous college football games. Playing the championship game annual during Thanksgiving Weekend would make the championship game more of an annual event and, perhaps, even "must see" T.V.