Are the Portland Timbers really "champions"

Wouldn't that mean that no professional sports league in North America can truly call its playoff winner the champion? I get the point, but that's how it's done in North America, period.

 

Go ******** yourself.

 

Are the Portland Timbers really "champions"? Yes, MLS defines its "champions" as the team that wins MLS Cup.

We can, but we don't.

 

Sure, I see your point. Since we don't have to follow the same methods as everyone else, then I decree myself as the "MLS Champion" because I say so. Who cares if some buch of bearded hipster organic peppermint tea-drinking vintage bicycle repairmen won some postseason tournament, I declare that I am "MLS Champion," so that's all there is to it.

Moderators, now that the issue is settled once and for all, you can now close this thread.

Thank you.

 

Are you suggesting a 46 game regular season in 2018? 54 match season in 2022?

How would that work exactly?

 

What other major sports league in the United States or Canada calls the best regular season team the champion even though they have a playoffs? And who celebrates in the streets here when you have the best regular season record? Portland won fair and square.

 

MLS Cup is the biggest MLS championship, which is unfortunate for me as a Red Bulls fan. Before the Red Bulls, has any club ever won two or three Supporters' Shields in three years without winning any MLS Cups?

 

Oh. Ok.

Guess MLS will change. Just for you.

 

Do the letters F-O mean anything to you?

 

Front Office?

 

Duuuuh, Are duh Portlund Timbuhs reelee "champeens"?

Yes.

Now go play with a rattlesnake.

 

To overanalyze everything (because it's me):

Yes, Virginia, there really is an MLS Cup in Portland. And that's the league's championship award, not the Supporters' Shield, or overall PPG (adjusted for strength of schedule). The method to determine the 2015 MLS Champion was both proposed and agreed to before competition began.

If the question was if Portland was the league's best team this season, then my answer would be maybe not. I'd probably point to the Red Bulls. (But it would be closer than the original poster implied.) I think almost everyone would agree a champion frequently isn't the best team. It wasn't when my team won. But MLS isn't alone. This year, NBA teams other than the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs will compete for a league title, even though it's pretty clear that there is no other legitimate answer to which basketball team is the best. The NFL lets teams which have average or below records which are better than three other teams open the playoffs at home. Playoff hockey is notorious for hot streaks. Even MLB invites teams which clearly don't have a claim to play for its title.

Given that the league is too large to do a single table double round robin--and that external factors interfere even in such a format--it's necessarily imperfect. And that's not to say leagues with double round robins are perfect; travel time, weather, personnel changes, injuries, other competitions, and a host of other factors complicate such schedules. Yes, there are more reliable ways to get the answers to 'best team' and 'league champion' to match up, but the 2015 Portland Timbers earned the championship.

 

NO?!?!?

Could it be?!?!?

Is it true?!?!?

After 20 long years?!?!?

YES???

We are the champions my friends!

And we'll keep on fighting

Till the end!

We are the champions!

We are the champions!!

No time for losers

'Cause we are the champions...of the (MLS) world!!!

 

Q: Are the Portland Timbers really "champions"?

A: Yes.

 

NEVER!!!

 

But I would say to the OP that s/he should continue to consider whoever s/he wants as champion. Go for it. Tell everyone in your circle of friends and acquaintances why. Write letters to sports editors. Tweet. Use Reddit. Fill the comment boxes on MLSsoccer.com with comments. Start a one man crusade and add acolytes as you go.

Also here's the You Be The Don subforum where you can suggest such a change if you were league commissioner.

Then when you've got it for soccer, tell all the Red Wings fans that those Stanley Cup Trophies in 96-97 and 97-98 are crap because they didn't win the President's Trophy in those seasons.

 

Okay, sure, the Timbers aren't the Champs, neither then, are the '96 DCU, '98 Fire, '02 'Quakes, '04 DCU, '05 Galaxy, '09 RSL, '10 Rapids, and '12 Galaxy. So yeah...

 

They missed out on second place because of goal differential (not only that, but a GD of only 3, if I remember correctly,) and were only 7 points out from the SS.

 

[QUOTE="No. Play each conference opponent home and home and each non-conference opponent once. That would be 28 games for 20 teams, 31 games for 22 teams, and 34 games for a 24-team league. Have the REGULAR SEASON Eastern Conference Champion play the REGULAR SEASON Western Conference Champion in the MLS Cup Final. I am ok with a Cup Final. I just don't like the idea of a mediocre 3rd place team getting hot at the end of October, going on a run, and being declared league champion. I no longer accept playoffs as a just determination of the league champion. There needs to be a better way.[/QUOTE]

And when MLS has 28 teams? 32 teams?