10/26/04: Wine Glass

The Jordan Stone story is a different kind of success story. Good to see him going back to school after making a go of the P-40 thing. It's paid for under P-40, right?

 

yes

 

Plenty of Jorge Vergara coverage in today's Spanish-language press, some of it mutually inconsistent. One thing is increasingly clear, though: Rongen will bring in some anglos.

Also, Monterrey's team president said that MLS is not in their short- or medium-term plans, but wouldn't rule it out in the long term.

 

So then how about some links?

 

news.google.es

 

I'm sure MLS has considered a littany of possibilities to include this one. I've always thought that MLS should trump up the Supporter's Shiled more. I also think they the Fed and MLS should trump up the USOC a lot more.

There have been a gazillion threads about how to make the reg season count so I'm not going to start in on it.

 

You do understand the point of this thread is to provide links for the rest of the readers, right?

You made the claims on the existence of these articles, so now prove they're for real, compay.

 

Ok this dudes idea about the two season thing, how is that different from the way it is now?

 

Not much. Except that all teams make the post-season tournament under his system.

 

Actually, I made them up

 

Eddie Pope up for defender of the year??? You've got to be kidding me.

 

Too bad you just don't get it.

 

Don't if this has been posted before.

http://bugmenot.com/

for those that don't want to register to the newspapers that require it.

 

I laughed when i saw that too. The metros defense was a leaky faucet all year. I think Eddie Pope is on the downside of his career.

 

Actually, I contribute links and translations here regularly, but if you think you can boss me around, then you're the one who doesn't get it.

 

Bob Matthews Column - Rochester D&C (about half way down)

I personally think that MLS should just relax in the fact that even the "low thinking" NASCAR fans could grasp a season points total crowning the overall champion. If that happened, then just have the Western Conference champions play the Eastern Conference champions in a home and home series. For all the "regional league" proponents out there we could just call the Western Conference the Pacific League and the Eastern Conference the Atlantic League. Allow for cross over play during the season, but have the majority of games come inside the team's "league".

 

I haven't looked up the Spanish articles yet, but even in the L.A. Times one, Vergara is again sounding like a punk - telling the media that the Galaxy are "worried" and "concerned" about Chivas USA, and that they should feel that way.

Puhleeze, the competitive posturing by Vergara is just tacky. The teams are the ones who are going to compete, not his rhetoric.

 

And that, because the winner during the regular season is crowned "season champion", the 30 or so games played during the regular season would be a lot more meaningful than they are in the current setup. It's the same concept as what goes on in much of Europe with the Championship and the Cup, only at a smaller scale. Personally, I prefer it to what MLS does today (and to what MLS has done thus far). You could even have regional competitions with other countries within CONCACAF, such as a Champion's Cup and a Cup-Winner's Cup.

 

You have to actually read McDill regularly to appreciate him.

You get gems like this:

No, Kent, I don't remember that. The first-to-five deal was two years ago. Did you cover the playoffs last year? You know, when the Fire played DC United twice, and won both games and advanced, but it was because they outscored United 4-0 on aggregate?

And guess what happened last season? In four of the four series, the higher seed advanced. The lower seeded team went 2-1-1 in the four first-leg games last year. Amazing. Check back with me next week.

So this would be vastly different from what we have now in that:

• The other two teams that didn't make the playoffs would make the playoffs (rejoice!); and
• You'd recognize the winner of the regular season as the "true" champion, which is nice and all, but Americans are still conditioned to think that if you don't win the playoffs, you haven't "really" won ("Hi, we're the 2001 Seattle Mariners, remember us?").

Yeah, that's a solution. That'll help. Thanks.

So, basically, it would be the current tournament. Just with two more teams.

We had a dynasty. It didn't take a treble to do it. And while what we have now (parity or mediocrity, depending on your take) is frustrating at times, the system is what it is and it probably precludes a dynasty forming anytime soon. Regardless of how you change the playoff format.

Especially if it's virtually no change at all.

 

C'mon Kenn-
American's love teams that win their conference Championships but can't win the NCAA tourny! It's just as important if not more to fans all across the country!

I talk to Kansas fans everyday who just flat out tell me, "Who cares that Roy Williams never won an NCAA Championsip, what's really important is the numerous Big12 banners we have on the wall!"

 

If it brings more fans and $$$, without the violence (just saying...having not read the article-login?- i assume the contents are NOT inflamatory) i myself do not mind at all...

 

Kenn, it really is all about the nomenclature.

Call them "Champions" who win the regular season (their prize can still be known as the Supporters' Shield) and call a "Tournament" what is now known as the "playoffs." And treat them as separate.

The "conditioned" fans will get it quickly enough.

 

My feeling is that if anything, Vergara's constant chatter helps diffuse the real hostility (which may become a valid concern, imo) ... he's just so obviously having fun with the rivalry. I tend to enjoy his comments, but could see how other people find them tiresome.

 

Yeah. Those 4 banners is quite the big number.

Beating out 64 other teams for the national championship is a lot more impressive than beating out 11 other teams.

Winning a conference championship is a big deal because the chances of winning the NCAA tourney is slim, even if you are one of the top 5 teams in the country. And even then, you have a Big 12 regular season champ then the tournament champ and the tourney champ is the one with the automatic bid. (Though I think the regular season champ is the one the goes in the books, but I'm not positive about that.)

Comparing winning a conference championship in NCAA basketball to what it would be like winning the MLS regular season is apples and oranges. Even winning the penant in baseball doesn't seem to be as big as it used to be.