I would change your Open Cup since , well, it needs to be open to all. Might need to be another summer elimination tournament for lower level teams and lower level MLS teams of that year. then the final 32 team single elimination one in the late winter / very early spring at a warm weather spot.
Yeah, sorry, should've clarified. I just meant the final 16 teams. Would still be an open format for everyone to get to that point.
In the mean time I'd like FC Dallas to start creating a real alternate team to play in Open Cup games. especially if they make CCL again next year the kids and backups should play OC leaving OP free to play the main team against whatever CCL or MLS game that matters more and then a mix between the OC lineup and main lineup for the lesser CCL or MLS game. We've seen now two years in a row a team get totally overwhelmed with minutes and go up in smoke so massive squad rotation should be planned if a team is in three in the future. If the kids want more playing time they better keep winning OC games.
I have to disagree here. We won two trophies in 2016, one of them being the Open Cup where we certainly did not roll out the kids in every game, and won our CCL group with again mostly senior players playing. Our downfall in the MLS Cup playoffs was not down to fatigue, just more or less Diaz's injury which was due to a bad tackle and Castillo's mid-season departure along with OP probably getting the tactics wrong in that first game in Seattle. Nothing fatigue-related. The second half of last year was a disaster but was it really down to overplaying the main lineup? I'm not so sure, especially since we played a lot less games than in 2016 and had far less success. The squad management policy this year isn't too different to last season and we seem to be managing it better so far. I get that we'd all like to see the kids a little more, but I think Pareja knows what he's doing and judging by his results overall here, we can't really criticize him too much on how he's handling the roster.
There are a lot more players involved this year than last. Also, I was using Toronto's season as a comparison to our's last year. Both teams were in long runs in CCL and appeared lifeless with very similar rosters to the year before. With a D3 team next year it may be that the kid will have plenty of opportunities to play but in this case I was just trying to avoid future collapses.
I know we're all focused on doing better in the playoffs but wanted to look into our best regular season points first. Pareja's (& FCD's) best regular season here was 60 pts (back to back, btw). So we're currently on 42 points with 13 games remaining. 19 point gap (6 wins, 1 draw; 5 wins, 4 draws; 4 wins, 7 draws) to make up in order to have his best season. Can we do it? Remaining games... vs San Jose @ Seattle vs Minnesota @ Houston @ San Jose vs Houston vs Columbus @ Vancouver @ Portland vs Orlando @ DC vs KC @ Colorado
I'd bet we beat 60 points. All we have to do is win all 6 of our home games and scrounge up a couple points on the road. Cbus seems like the only tough home game remaining. The away games to SJ, DC, and Crapids should be wins too.
Saturday, August 4th Atlanta United FC vs Toronto FC, 3:00 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Montreal Impact vs DC United, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) Orlando City SC vs New England Revolution, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) FC Dallas vs San Jose Earthquakes, 7:00 pm (KTXA-21) Minnesota United FC vs Seattle Sounders FC, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) New York City FC vs Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) Colorado Rapids vs Los Angeles Galaxy, 8:00 pm (ESPN+) Houston Dynamo vs Sporting Kansas City, 8:00 pm (ESPN+) Real Salt Lake vs Chicago Fire, 9:00 pm (ESPN+) Portland Timbers vs Philadelphia Union, 10:00 pm (ESPN+) Sunday, August 5th New York Red Bulls vs Los Angeles FC, 5:00 pm (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes)
Tuesday, August 14th Los Angeles Galaxy vs Colorado Rapids, 9:30 pm (ESPN+) Wednesday, August 15th DC United vs Portland Timbers, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) Los Angeles FC vs Real Salt Lake, 9:00 pm (ESPN 2, ESPN Deportes) Saturday, August 18th Seattle Sounders FC vs Los Angeles Galaxy, 3:00 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Philadelphia Union vs New York City FC, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs New York Red Bulls, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) Montreal Impact vs Chicago Fire, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) FC Dallas vs Minnesota United FC, 7:00 pm (KTXA-21) Sporting Kansas City vs Portland Timbers, 7:30 pm (ESPN+) Houston Dymano vs Real Salt Lake, 8:00 pm (ESPN+) San Jose Earthquakes vs Toronto FC, 9:00 pm (ESPN+) Sunday, August 19th Atlanta United FC vs Columbus Crew SC, 3:00 pm (ESPN+) DC United vs New England Revolution, 6:30 pm (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes) Los Angeles FC vs Colorado Rapids, 9:00 pm (ESPN+)
Wednesday, August 22nd New York City FC vs New York Red Bulls, 6:00 pm (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes) Thursday, August 23rd Chicago Fire vs Columbus Crew, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) Houston Dynamo vs FC Dallas, 8:00 pm (KSTR-49 UniMas, Twitter) Friday, August 24th Orlando City SC vs Atlanta United FC, 7:00 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Los Angeles Galaxy vs Los Angeles FC, 9:30 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Saturday, August 25th Philadelphia Union vs New England Revolution, 6:00 pm (ESPN+) Toronto FC vs Montreal Impact, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) Sporting Kansas City vs Minnesota United FC, 7:30 pm (ESPN+) Colorado Rapids vs Real Salt Lake, 8:00 pm (ESPN+) San Jose Earthquakes vs Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 9:00 pm (ESPN+) Sunday, August 26th New York Red Bulls vs DC United, 6:00 pm (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes) Portland Timbers vs Seattle Sounders FC, 8:30 pm (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes)
Wednesday, August 29th New York Red Bulls vs Houston Dynamo, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) DC United vs Philadelphia Union, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) San Jose Earthquakes vs FC Dallas, 9:30 pm (KTXA-21) Portland Timbers vs Toronto FC, 9:30 pm (ESPN+) Saturday, September 1st Seattle Sounders FC vs Sporting Kansas City, 3:00 pm (KSTR-49 UniMas) Montreal Impact vs New York Red Bulls, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) New England Revolution vs Portland Timbers, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) Orlando City SC vs Philadelphia Union, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) Columbus Crew SC vs New York City FC, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) FC Dallas vs Houston Dynamo, 7:00 pm (KTXA-21) Toronto FC vs Los Angeles FC, 7:00 pm (ESPN+) Real Salt Lake vs Los Angeles Galaxy, 9:00 pm (ESPN+) Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs San Jose Earthquakes, 9:00 pm (ESPN+) Sunday, September 2nd DC United vs Atlanta United FC, 6:30 pm (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes)
Wednesday, September 12th DC United vs Minnesota United FC, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) Saturday, September 15th Colorado Rapids vs Atlanta United FC, 2:30 pm (KSTR-49 UniMas) Philadelphia Union vs Montreal Impact, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) Toronto FC vs Los Angeles Galaxy, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) FC Dallas vs Columbus Crew SC, 7:00 pm (KTXA-21) Houston Dynamo vs Portland Timbers, 7:30 pm (ESPN+) Real Salt Lake vs Minnesota United FC, 8:30 pm (ESPN+) Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs Seattle Sounders FC, 9:00 pm (ESPN+) Los Angeles FC vs New England Revolution, 9:30 pm (ESPN+) San Jose Earthquakes vs Sporting Kansas City, 9:30 pm (ESPN+) Sunday, September 16th DC United vs New York Red Bulls, 12:00 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Chicago Fire vs Orlando City SC, 4:00 pm (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes)
We're 10 points adrift of Atlanta (even though we have a game in hand) for the SS. I just can't see a scenario where anyone (but maybe RBNY) catches them. So let's focus on winning the West... Remaining Schedule of Relevant Teams FCD: @ Portland, vs Orlando, @ DC, vs KC, @ Colorado [Max pts: 68] KC: vs RSL, vs LAG, @ Vancouver, @ FCD, vs LAFC [Max pts: 66] LAFC: @ Chicago, @ Colorado, vs Houston, vs Vancouver, @ KC [Max pts: 65] Portland: vs FCD, @ RSL, vs RSL, @ Vancouver [Max pts: 59] RSL: @ KC, vs Portland, vs NE, @ Portland [Max pts: 57] Seattle: vs Colorado, vs Houston, @ Orlando, @ Houston, vs San Jose [Max pts: 59] Based on current form, I see it finishing... FCD [62] KC [59] LAFC [58] Seattle [56] RSL [52] Portland [49] Of course, this is MLS, so who knows?
Saturday, October 6th Montreal Impact vs Columbus Crew SC, 2:00 pm (ESPN+) Atlanta United FC vs New England Revolution, 2:30 pm (KUNV-23 Univision) Toronto FC vs Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 4:00 pm (ESPN+) Philadelphia Union vs Minnesota United FC, 6:30 pm (ESPN+) FC Dallas vs Orlando City SC, 7:00 pm (KTXA-21) Sporting Kansas City vs Los Angeles Galaxy, 7:30 pm (ESPN+) Colorado Rapids vs Los Angeles FC, 8:00 pm (ESPN+) Real Salt Lake vs Portland Timbers, 8:30 pm (ESPN+) San Jose Earthquakes vs New York Red Bulls, 9:30 pm (ESPN+) Sunday, October 7th DC United vs Chicago Fire, 12:00 pm (ESPN, ESPN Deportes) Monday, October 8th Seattle Sounders FC vs Houston Dynamo, 9:30 pm (ESPN+)