Columbus just beat New England, so we will need one of the following to happen next week in order to get a top-three spot in the Eastern Conference: (a) SKC wins or draws at DC. (b) Philadelphia loses at New York, and SKC loses at DC by an equal or smaller margin. (c) Philadelphia wins or draws at New York, and Columbus draws at Chicago. (d) Columbus loses at Chicago. (e) Houston draws or loses at home to Los Angeles. Here are the four realistic scenarios that would put SKC in first place: (a) Philadelphia wins and SKC wins by an equal or larger margin. (b) Philadelphia draws or loses and SKC wins. (c) Philadelphia draws or loses, SKC draws, and Columbus draws or loses. (d) Philadelphia loses, SKC loses by an equal or smaller margin, Columbus loses, and Houston draws or loses. All of the above assumes that there will be no high-scoring draws or massive blowouts. Did I miss anything?
Considering: A) we haven't done single table the last two years when we've had a balanced schedule B) there's been talk we won't even have a balanced schedule next year C) the league is going to expand past 20 most likely. I feel very confident that we won't have a single table in MLS.
Today was the day of playoff reckoning. NY, Portland, DC, and Chicago are now fighting for the very last playoff spot. Colorado and Houston survive any combination of ties at 46 points, so they are in. However, the only seeds that have been settled are LA as West #1 (and overall) and Seattle as West #2. If this Dallas lead holds up, they will be tied with Salt Lake for West #3 and Wild Card #1. The top 4 teams in the East are all playing for a seed next week. The last-week drama couldn't be any better if it had been scripted.
I dont think it is cheap at all. Every single team needs to focus on winning their respective match and not worry about what other teams are doing or not doing. If you dont win then it is on you for not taking care of your own business. Chances are the teams that win next week will be in and those that dont will either be out or not get a favorable seed.
We should probably root for a draw between DC and Portland on Wednesday. A DC win keeps their playoff hopes alive and gives them a reason to play hard against SKC (unless New York subsequently beats Philadelphia). A Portland win eliminates Chicago, giving them less incentive to beat Columbus. Thursday is a bit more tricky. The one thing that we definitely do not want is a Philadelphia win by more than one goal. A one-goal Union win means that SKC just needs to beat DC to take first place. A draw or New York win eliminates DC (probably good for us) and Chicago (potentially bad for us, but only if SKC does not win). Since I expect SKC to get at least one point at DC, especially if DC is out of the playoffs before kickoff, I will likely be pulling for a draw in this one also.
This. For the sake of the game's integrity, they need to play the last round simultaneously. PS Seriously, there will never be a single table. The only thing less likely to be in MLS' future is relegation. In order to implement a single table the league would have to say no to the dozens of dollars it makes on the playoffs, and it simply isn't going to do that. Not ever.
What you need is an excuse for playoffs, which an officially sanctioned single table doesn't give you. "Here is the leagues best team pitted against the league's 8th best team, to decide the Championship." See what I mean? What you have right now is a de facto single table with playoffs, but the league does not officially acknowledge the single table. The conferences give the league this fiction of "East vs West". Next year, when the league is no longer able to do a double round robin format, it will look less silly having a playoff.
The problem with American sports is that we fool ourselves into thinking a playoff chooses a champion. In reality all playoffs in our sports is a tournament that is seeded by regular season records, nearly all of the major sports have gone out of their way to create imbalanced schedules and regional rivals to decrease travel cost, give the illusion that playoffs are needed, and create extra revenue generating events. Why would we value holding the MLS Cup over The US Open Cup? Because in American sports when you put "Playoffs" in front of anything it suddenly means some thing more but soccer is different, or it is in other places.
Actually, playoffs do choose the champion what it doesnt determine is who the best team is. People often mistake being a champion for being the best team and they are not necessarily and often not the same thing. I dont think leagues are trying to give the illussion that playoffs are needed. They dont have too. It's not like fans would cry foul if there were playoffs when they werent necessary. Playoffs are part of American sports culture and we have them because they are awesome. I love playoffs. It's intense and some of the most amazing and incredible things in American sports have happened in playoffs because it is do or die. Because playoffs are awesome. I dont see why we have to go with a single table and eliminate playoffs just because that is how must of the world does it. We dont have to do things the same way. Because the U.S. Open Cup just is setup as an amateur tournament. When they finally find a more organized way to determine who host, put more value on winning, and just make the tournament better, maybe we will value it more. But, the way it is set up right now, it just isnt on the level of MLS Cup.
That's it right there. The US has a completely different sporting culture than the rest of the world.
I know we're drifitng off topic, but I honestly like the approach MLS has to determining their champions, at least in theory. I'd love to see the SS winner get the first pick of the draft. I'd love to see a single table with eight teams advancing to a post season tournement. Team #1 plays #8, #2 v #7, etc. and just play each round as a home-and-home series, including the final game. I think the league could easily be structured so that there's a "regular season champion" and a "post season champion", and we could still have a meaningful regular season with exciting post season play. But I get that revenue and stability are important too... and really, given that the top six teams get to skip the "play in round", there's still a lot of incentive to the regular season. I just wish the SS meant more. An even split of 50/50 SS and MLS Cup glory would be ideal.
When MLS moves to an unbalanced schedule, or conference centric schedule, I think that Grant Wahl's proposal is great. It starts a lot like this year's playoffs. 10 teams make the postseason. Top three in each conference are in the playoffs. Next four based on points get in the wildcard round. Last four play a round robin to determine the top two that advance. Then the two that advance are put into the Conferences (trying to match affiliation, if possible - else round robin champ is placed in the conference that did not yield the SS winner. Now we are down to eight teams, four in each conference. Again, a round robin "group" is played within each conference to determine the two semifinal teams. The semifinals then are composed of home-home matches between the two teams. The finals? I don't have a strong opinion of the format... winner takes all at a neutral location? Sure. Home and home. Okay. I'm cool with it either way. But here is the real thing I want to see and is taken fully from Wahl's article. Make the three groups/pools (wildcard pool and the two conference pools) a round-robin where the top seed hosts 3 games, the second seed hosts 2 games, the third seed hosts 1 game, and the fourth seed hosts no games. Talk about an incentive to fight for every spot in your conference table. It will skew the pool-play results to be more representative of the labors of the full season. As it stands, I feel that the playoffs become a who's lucky or hot right now contest. This will help correct that a bit. I'd be curious to know if our organization supports this and if they will lobby for it.
Why? Subjective answers are okay. For example, I hate mustard because I do not like the taste. I'm just curious why you hate the idea.
I'm no longer sure which thread to put this stuff in, so I'll just call this the playoff thread and dump it in here. The remains of the day: Code: RSL - 52: POR FCD - 52: @SJE SKC - 48: @DCU PHI - 48: @NYR CBS - 47: @CHI CLR - 46: @VAN HOU - 46: LAG NYR - 43: PHI POR - 40: @DCU, @RSL CHI - 40: CBS DCU - 38: POR, SKC Anyway, Chicago is done. They would need NY to lose to Philly something like 0-2 (very plausible) and beat Columbus themselves something like 3-0 (shall we say less likely). They have one game to close a 5 goal gap, bottom line. Just not really happening. DC, simply put, needs to win both of their games and NY has to lose to Philly. That is the only scenario that puts them in the playoffs. Portland can maybe afford to draw Salt Lake but they must beat DC. That game on Wednesday is life and death for both of them. Again, moot point if NY beats Union; the playoff chase is over if that happens. If NY draws Union, otoh, then the Timbers must run the table. Lastly, if NY and Portland both win all the remaining games and Houston lose to the Galaxy (who have nothing left to play for, remember), there will be a three way tie on 46. In that event, the tiebreaker looks thusly: HOU vs NY and POR: 8 pts NY vs HOU and POR: 6 pts POR vs HOU and NY: 1 pt Portland still out in the cold in that scenario. EDIT: And there are two more scenarios involving what happens if Colorado loses to Vancouver. Please don't make me do those. It's getting late. Maybe in the morning.
After some consideration, I'm pulling for Portland to get the last playoff spot. They are a genuinely mediocre team with genuinely mediocre talent, and will uphold their mediocrity in the playoffs. On the other hand, NY and DC are dysfunctional teams with some very good talent, and I really don't want to hear the "oh, MLS Cup is such a crapshoot" narrative if either manages to be non-dysfunctional for a month.
I think I looked at those, but that spreadsheet is at home. IIRC, Colorado wins all those tiebreakers quite handily. Basically, there is no way Colorado can be either the first or fourth wild card, and while there's a chance they may know if their hosting that game on Saturday, I think it will probably come down to the Houston-LA game next Sunday. Portland is pretty much screwed in most tiebreakers. I think the only one they win is a 3-way tie at 43 with NY and CHI, because CHI is the only team with playoff possibilities they hold the head-to-head tiebreak over.
You are correct! a 3-way tie on 43 looks like this: NY vs POR and CHI: 6 CHI vs NY and POR: 2 POR vs CHI and NY: 7 That must be the only way Portland can beat NY in any sort of tie. Nice.
I have seen this proposed by others on BigSoccer, and it has some intuitive appeal; but the fact of the matter is that the regular season already serves as a giant "group" stage. My solution to make the final standings a bit more significant is to have the first-place team in each conference host its corresponding wildcard winner in a single game, rather than a two-leg round. As a side benefit, this would help with the congested schedule--the 3v2 matches would be simultaneous with the 4v5 (wildcard) matches, and the 2v3 matches would be simultaneous with the 1vW matches. It would also have the higher seeds playing at home on the weekend, rather than midweek like they will this year. The incentive to finish 5th, rather than 6th, is to make the playoffs. The incentive to finish 4th, rather than 5th, is to host the wildcard game. The incentive to finish 3rd, rather than 4th, is to avoid the wildcard game. The incentive to finish 2nd, rather than 3rd, is to host the second leg on the weekend. The incentive to finish 1st, rather than 2nd, is to skip the midweek matches altogether. You say that as if it were a problem that needs to be fixed, when it is precisely what makes postseason playoffs such an indispensible feature of American sports. We love the underdog and the Cinderella story. The season is about making the playoffs and playoff positioning; the playoffs are about winning the championship.
Problem with this scenario, if i'm reading it correctly, is that a team that runs away with the Supporters Shield like LA did this year could conceivably be eliminated one game into the playoffs by a team that finished far behind them in the standings.