Supporter's Shield. Does anyone care?

With everyone making the playoffs this year, the most meaningful thing that happens during the season is the elimination of the two worst teams. Everything else is just for seeding and/or home field advantage.

Maybe the two worst teams could be presented with a trophy that looks like back half of a horse mounted on a plaque. Or perhaps the very worst team could receive the Caboose award.

I jest. But the playoff structure really sucks the life out of the Supporter's Shield.

 

It may suck the life out of it...but MLS should still have it.

 

Well said, it is one more thing for the fans to get excited about, and that can't be bad.

 

Then why not four trophies? By your reasoning, we could award the worst team with a "Better Luck Next Year" trophy. Or a trophy for the team with the prettiest kits? Or the one who finished sixth in the standings? As long as we say it means something, right?

Why not just one trophy -- the Rothenberg Cup? Otherwise, we might as well give one to everybody, just like the Special Olympics. (I was going to insert a DC United quip here, but after last night's game, I'll be quiet...)

 

Just because you got a trophy from the special olympics doesn't mean you should belittle them...

...or the Supporters Shield...

How about the Dougin SJ trophy for dimwitted comments!!!

Thought you might like that one

I

 

Does the league present the trophy to the winner? No. Does the league have a company design the award and pay or it? No. Does the league in any way shape or form reward the winner of the Support's Shield? No. If they did, do you think it would still be called the Supporter's Shield? I doubt it. The league acknowledges it because of some hard work put in by the founders of the award but it is not officially awarded by the league and it has no value to the teams in either a place in a competition or with a monetary value to the winners.

 

Maybe you should refrain from any DC quips until you're holders of 3 MLS Cups...and in place of it, try something more tasteful than a special olympics comment.

 

It was presented to the team at a team home match or at the MLS Awards gala each year up till last. No Miami made it difficult for them to award the trophy to, I'd imagine.

What does this have to do with anything? Doues the league design the US Open Cup or the Champions' Cup? The trophy was commissioned and it just is.

If you mean monetarily, well the MLS Cup winner doesn't get a ton of prize money I'm reasonably sure. If you mean competitively, the US Open Cup doesn't grant its winner a place in international competition. Even in that case, there was a team (KC? LA? DC?) recently who had their participation in international competition directly cited to the winning of the Shield.

Kinda like the US Open Cup, then?

 

And this could be the oldest thread specifically discussed about the Supporters' Shield... RETRO TIME!!

 

But the real question is, does Bruce Arena care?

 

Of course he does care, as a coach who have won it 3x ('97, '10, '11), here's the pic to prove it:













































Ops, wrong trophy, another try:












































One more try:










































Well, at least Landon do care...

 

By the way, is he the coach with the most number of SS and/or MLS Cups?

 

And, has anyone seen any pics of Bruce & David with the SS?

 

I care.......................... about The Comb and The Tire

 

HA! Meh, I have no beef with Knave. He's BigSoccer a demigod!

 

The unbalanced schedule argument did not enter into the picture this year. The East has not turned out to be the punching bag everyone feared it would be. Instead we have San Jose #1 in the West leading the SS race as of today and Sporting KC the #1 in the East making a strong challenge at #2 in the SS standings. In addition the #2 teams in each conference are hot on the heels of both San Jose and Sporting KC at #3 and #4 in the SS table. It's going to be an exciting race to the finish of the regular season.

 

SS needs to be replaced by the two conference champions from the regular season.

 

It de facto has already. The only thing giving the SS any thread of meaning is the CCL spot. If that goes away, I am sure some people will want to keep track of the SS but it holds the same meaning as "number 1 seed," but the title won't hold much relevance any longer.

 

Kind of the same relevance and tracking it had before a CCL spot was attached to it then?

 

yep

 

Wow - talk about reviving a dead thread - more than 10 years dead! I was like "why are they discussing a 28-game schedule??" And Miami?? Took awhile to clue in to the dates.
I'm amazed though how relevant the topic still is. Interesting that the top clubs indeed talk about not only winning the MLS Cup, but the Supporters' Shield as well - part of how far the game has come the last few years that Americans are accepting the concept of multiple cups and titles.

 

That's got to be the ugliest shirt I've seen in a long time.

 

The Stanley Cup is huge... Any idea how heavy it is?

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/10/03/galaxy-notebook-stanley-cup-stops-home-depot-center