Discouraging words and cloudy skies
Posted on November 17, 2012 12:53 am
Put up a stop sign, I said. People aren’t stopping, and there’s gonna be a crash, I said. Nah, said MLS. We’ll put up a sign that says “Go real real fast,” said MLS. It’s what the people want, said MLS. Fine, I said. But you’ll be sorry, I said.
Technically, of course, Seattle and DC United are not dead. They’re milling about in the barn, waiting for Hershel to find a cure.
You know, if DC gets a goal early, then that game’s going to have a rocket in its jock. For grits and shiggles, I looked it up on Major League Soccer Soccer – out of DC’s eighteen games at Robert Fitzgerald this year (I didn’t count the Open Cup game), they have won by two goals or more six times.
How does that stack up against the rest of the league? Well, how the crap should I know? Fine, I’ll look it up. Chivas USA didn’t beat anyone by more than one. Toronto did once – in Montreal. Montreal themselves? Seven, and they canned Marsch anyway. The Timbers did it once, badly misleading their fans since it was their home opener.
As far as the other playoff teams – Houston did it five times, the Galaxy eight times (not counting the CUSA road win), and the Sounders seven times. New York did it six times, so did San Jose. Salt Lake only did it four times, and Kansas City only three.
Well, sorry, I thought I was going to be able to do more with that stat. Anyway, taken in a vacuum, DC United has about a one in three chance of sending this into extra time, and…well, usually the home team goes on to win in that scenario, but me and Dario Sala recall at least one time when it didn’t.
That’s a lot better chance than Seattle has, and it’s all their fault. I think.
Last year, Seattle was seeded ahead of Real Salt Lake in the first round, and celebrated by taking a ski vacation in or around Sandy, Utah. The next thing you know, old Jed’s a millionaire. And also, Salt Lake was having the epic confrontation in Carson and not the Sounders.
Around this time, the league was mulling over the playoff format, and it was widely speculated (by me) (I speculate quite widely indeed) that the format would be changed so that such a travesty of justice could never happen again.
Instead, we learned at the Supporters Summit that the league liked and enjoyed said travesties. Before you go and blaming the league, though, keep in mind who the league is and who actually makes decisions – the owners.
I wasn’t there. But bet you a nickel it went a lot like this:
SCENE ONE
INT – MLS SECRET UNDERGROUND BUNKER – NIGHT
PAUL ALLEN: We just got boned out of a semifinal spot because we had to go on the road for no reason!
DON GARBER: A two-legged series guarantees you a home game in each round.
PAUL ALLEN: Home and home it is. (Exit, pursued by a bear.)
Sure, maybe this was passed over the screaming, howling objections of the league’s richest and most popular team, and with the support of teams that have historically lost attendance and money in the playoffs – but I tend to doubt it. Sounders fans, assuming a miracle fails to materialize, might try to push the undo button on this decision – but the precedent goes back to Aesop, and “What if we finish first?” is going to be trumped by “What if we finish second, third, fourth or fifth?”
The NFL does single elimination, because they can, and probably because they have to – gridiron football is not a game you can play more than once a week. But soccer isn’t baseball, hockey, or basketball, where teams can play multiple games a week over the course of a month without a dropoff in quality. DC United is the best example here, simply because they’re missing so many players in such a short time. An extra few days to heal during the week, rather than flying to the next city and going full speed 72 hours later, would make a world of difference. But that’s cash right out of popular teams’ pockets, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.
It’s Robert Francis Kennedy. John Fitzferald Kennedy was his brother. Good read though.
Not to worry; Taylor Swift makes the same mistake all the time.
Paul Allen doesn’t have much to do with running the Sounders, but having as many fixtures as possible might be where he would weigh in.
Joe Roth: You wan how much to put my show in your studio? How about a piece of the back end instead?
Allen: Huh?
Roth: It’s like royalties on software or pay-per-click on the interwebs.
Allen: Ahhhh. Well, it’s just soccer, so it won’t amount to much, but what the hell. Exeunt Roth, leaving a big chunk of his bootie behind him.
Uh, Fitzgerald, not Fitzferald. Duh
This post has become the wreck of the Robert Fitzgerald.
Page playoff system.
Page playoff system.
Page playoff system.
Simple solution:
Favorites should play at home first, not on the second leg. It gives them an advantage, not a disadvantage.
This is why all (I believe) of the favorites lost their series with the exception of DC United, who incidentally got to play at home in the first match due to the hurricane damage in NJ.
This is also why, historically, favorites have won slightly over 50% of the 2 leg series. That’s not the way it should be, unless you support giving the advantage to the lesser teams.
…but Houston-Kansas City excepted, all the first round matches were decided by the home teams botching the second game. So we’d have had the same results in one-game series. I know we’d like to reward favorites for a good regular season, but if you can’t win in your house, you lose, you get nothing, good day sir.
Can I say “series” if it’s one game?
Can I say “series” if it’s one game?
No.
And please, stop denying the teams that DESERVE to be there. I swear to God. It’s not that I don’t understand that MLS rewards the lesser teams, its that people who write about soccer ignore the obvious fact that lesser teams are rewarded in the playoffs.
You suck. Where is the analysis? Almost 50% of the better teams advance due to this f-d up format.
Dan, can you please write a blog on this (or are you too obscured with your ridiculous and ever growing DP rule that allows you to bring in any player, at any cost regardless of cap space?
Why u mad at me, bro? THIS round, it’s the lower seeds that are advancing unjustly. Maybe. DC United needs a very very good afternoon, and Seattle needs a miracle. And that’s thanks to the format.
In the FIRST round, the teams had that same advantage, and advanced – but NOT because of the format. The home teams, for want of a better word, choked. (Possible exception of Kansas City, although who told them to only score one at home?) San Jose, New York and Salt Lake had the same (or more) advantage than they would have had under a one-off. They blew it. Weep for the Sounders and United (assuming they do end up losing), but waste no tears on the Quakes, Royals or Red Bulls.
Especially the Red Bulls. “Roy Miller free kick” needs to be a proverb.
Seattle invented losing in the playoffs.
AEG wins – everybody loses. For those of you who doubted Gen Z… Now you know HE was right and YOU were wrong. I have always been one of the few who knew all along Gen Z’s theory on why AEG kept 50% of the Dynamo. To prevent a lawsuit over the theft of a certain player. & in return AEG keeps Dynamo at the feast stuffing their faces while other MLS teams fans are outside cold & starving. Those people said YOU cannot say those things the MLS is fixed because its j-j-j-u-u-u-s-s-s-t-t-t-t not allowed.
Make the two game series a total points not total goals and problem solved.
We have three major competitions in US Soccer:
1. The US Open Cup
2. The Supporters’ Shield
3. The MLS Cup
They change the rules in the last two about every other year, so there’s little or no continuity. Funny thing is… the really good teams seem to consistently win one or more of these competitions (regardless of all of the rule changes). Maybe that’s because certain coaches (and groups of players) are good at figuring out what they have to do to win a competition, and then executing that plan. Coaches like Kinnear, Arena, and Sigi. They all complain about the unfairness when they lose… but they figure out a way around it to win plenty of the time.
So let’s quit whining and complaining and enjoy the competitions (although I suspect that most folks on big soccer enjoy the whining and complaining more than the competitions).
The problem is “your” competitions are not competitive. They are rigged from day 1. Aeg gets to appoint their refs & spends 4 times the amount of money of other teams. I don’t call that competitive. Its rigging. Its easy to play if you know you got 12 men. Galaxy looked like going down last night & the ref stepped in and took control just at the point Seattle was ready to tie it. & handed the game to L.A. I don’t call that a competition. Its a straight out blatant fix. So quit trying to advise others on how to enjoy the fixes. Its ugly & saying so isn’t whining – its stating a fact.
Yumping yimminey joy rider. Fixed leagues? Whatsamattau, watching too much Serie A these days?
You get the second leg at home, you should know what to do there. Try not to lose by too much or at all in the first leg and then take care of business. It’s a simple formula. But all this whinging and you know what MLS is going to do, don;t you? They’ll change the format again. Oh well, fish gotta fly, birds gotta swim….
Could be worse. We could be deciding these things on away goals. Not that that would have helped anyone this year.
Ghosting has it right. Smart coaches managing things smartly. Players executing a plan. And for that, you’re gonna blame a format? What’s wrong? No one piss in your cereal this morning. Go get something real to complain about.
What is this “scoring?”
Right … having a soccer league means fixing who wins. Its a way of life. There is no need to have playoffs – just give AEG the cup already. They spent the most money therefore it belongs to them. There are always going to be situations when referees can take over games & in those situations the referees should NOT do so. By taking over a game a referee is tarnishing the image of MLS. Image: You know that concept where AEG gets the cup for spending money? That is the image everybody has of MLS. Wonder how they got it?
Los Angeles … One of the greatest ports on the face of the earth. But here also is the nerve center of an organization that controls crime throughout the country. An organization whose insidious fingers dip not only into vice, but whose tentacles reach into and corrupt the world of sport namely MLS & NHL. Here in a city of millions of decent industrious people is a handful of men who form the top echelon of organized crime. Hoodlums? Yes. But now clothed in respectability to form a cartel known as AEG.
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