The way MLS and Jeff Bradley are gushing about how exciting the MLS "playoff races" (and I do put that in quotation marks), I'm begiinning to fear they really believe it and we're headed for 8 out of 10 making the playoffs AGAIN in 2003. I can't take it any more. This season was, I'm sorry, a joke. 8 out of 10 is a joke. MLS can say things like "5 playoff berths up for grabs this weekend" all they want - it's still ridiculous. This isn't excitement. This is pandering to the bottom-feeding teams. It's as if MLS is afraid as soon as a team is eliminated from the playoffs, not one fan will show up the rest of the season. I'm as fired up for the playoffs as anybody. The PLAYOFFS, that is. As for the season, forget it. As far as I"m concerned MLS has no regular season, just a long, dull summer warm-up exhibition season followed by a tournament. My two cents. If you disagree, that's fine - nobody can dictate what people enjoy - but I'm telling you that if MLS comes back with 8 out of 10 next year I'm not wasting my time looking at regular season games.
I'm of two minds. In one mind I've got caught up in the races for th Supporter Shield and home field advantages and I was openly rooting for the Metros to lose v. Dallas so NE and DC would have a better chance to make it a 3-way race for the 8th spot. Spine-tingling possibilities at every turn. In the other mind, I totally agree with you. It's a joke, and a bad one at that, and my mind goes numb thinking about absolutely nothing.
detroitexpress As far as I"m concerned MLS has no regular season, just a long, dull summer warm-up exhibition season followed by a tournament. I agree with you bro. The best thing would be for the MLS to use single table format so that at the end of the season the team with the most points would be crowned Champion. This way everygame would be important
While I certainly hope that the format is changed next season( I like the suggestion of the grouo/single elimination ala the WC) I can't help but think that the regular season is always just the first stage of the larger tourney. I guess it is a bit much to use 28 games to kill off two teams but what are they gonna do? If they only let four teams in the playoffs there would be others bashing them for looking to much like a small time sport, and they wouldn't make any money on the four first round series. At this point I'm still just hanging in for the day when there are 14-16 teams and MLS will spend at least 5 mil on their rosters, but until then I'll just go to the games and root for my team.
a single table with the firstplaceteam being crowned champion wouldnt work. it works in europe because say in germany, the top 3 teams get into the champions league. the next three get into the uefa cup. the next two get into the intertoto cup. also the bottom three teams are relegated, so even if you club is not going to win the league there is a purpose to the rest of your season. there is no relegation in mls or no uefa cup spots to fight for.
I agree-it's my only really deep complaint w/MLS. There was a "Soccer America" e-mail the other day talking about how they might change it, but it's still 8 teams. I really think they should take a clue from Steve Hirdt's baseball idea. Two divisions, six teams to the playoffs. The winners of the divisions get a bye to semis; teams 3-6 play a one game playoff with the winners playing the division winners. Teams are placed based on overall seeding. It brings relevance back to the divison titles, as no team wants to leave it up to a one game playoff and it makes the regular season legit. They could finish the season on a Sunday, have the one game playoffs on Wed, and start the semis Sat/Sun. I think it would make for some thrilling stuff.
I wouldn't mind a balanced schedule among the entire league (i.e. single table) for the regular season, and then the top 8 teams still make the playoffs. This would be possible with 16 or 18 teams in the league playing 30 or 34 regular season games. - Paul
They arent gunna make any money either ways. They should make it 3 from each division.Top teams get bye. Maybe take the opportunity to play a friendly with a local affiliate(instead of in the middle of the season).
The problem with that is that sometimes you have uneven divisions like this year, where the top Eastern Confrence team has about the same number of points as the team that's fourth or fifth place in the Western Confrence. So you end up giving a bye to a team that would be fourth to sixth in a single table, based solely on the basis that they're geographically closer to the lower-table teams. I don't think you could do a single table league in this country. It's just more financially viable to play an unbalanced shedule with more games against the teams geographically closest to you than a balanced schedule that has you flying across three time zones to play teams on the other side of the country the same number of times as you play against the teams near you. Dividing teams up into geographical divisions is a neccessity, but really should only come into play in terms of scheduling. Maybe in a league with more teams and longer playoff serieses you'd want to do the playoffs divided geographically as well, but with a small league with a relatively short playoffs it's alright to ignore geography in the name of rewarding teams for strong showing in the regular season.
Post-season's goofy all around 80% of the teams making the playoffs is too many. But lets face it, among MLS's problems is having only ten teams in the league. If the season is going to end with a tournament, the eventual champion should have to win more than two games to get the trophy. The real problem I have with the playoffs is the pathetic first to five points thing. I'm also sick of seeing that in quotes. If there's to be more than one game in a round of the playoffs it should be home and away applying the away goals rule, with the possibility of OT and PKs at a tie breaker after game two--hence the higher seeded team manifests its advantage by hosting the second game. But anyway... Pro-rel would be a good reason to follow a team like DC United at this point in the season. Another is what they did to SJ last week. So what MLS has to say about an exciting end to the season actually is true, whether DC is still going for a playoff spot or just fighting to save face or be a spoiler. As long as we're all posting our ideas for a post season tournament, here's mine. There will be a group phase with two three team groups. Hights seed plays two home games, lowest two away games, middle splits. Group A has teams 1, 4, and the winner of a single playoff between 5 and 8 played at 5. Group B has teams 2, 3 and the winner of 7 at 6. Semifinals then are 1st A vs. 2nd B and 1st B vs. 2nd A. Then a final. So there's a play-in for the right to play two away games in the final tournament. Each team that makes the playoffs gets at least two games (as it is now), and the eventual champion plays a total of four games--less than the current nonsense, but enough to really count as winning a tournament. Crap teams don't automatically get any home games in the postseason, which makes being in the bottom of the league suck. But still, the Supporters' Shield needs to be more valuable--maybe it will seem so if some team wins the treble in the near future. GO LA? (Just so long as the Fire gets a chance to beat them this weekend...)
Re: detroitexpress Yeah, with a single table format, this week's DC-Revs game would be important. Oh wait, no it wouldn't. It would be totally meaningless.
Given the stadium leases and the ave. attendances, I don't think they profit from the playoffs anyway.
I can resolve your dilemma. In order to truly attack something, you have to acknolwedge its good points (and then demonstrate they're not worth the bad ones). At some point we have to acknowledge that the good of 8 teams making the playoffs is that it does add something to the end of the reguar season to see no teams eliminated until the very end. And frankly, what it takes away from the middle of the season in the form of 'meaningless games' (which are in reality every bit as meaningful as those last ones) is more than made up for by what's gained. However, the principal bad of it is that the weak teams add nothing to the playoffs (even on the rare occsions when they win, the win often feels somehow 'less deserved'). And in most leagues, the playoffs are the 'big prize' the league's reward, as well as the teams', for a sometimes slogging midseason. But MLS, even worse than the NBA and NHL, dilutes this reward by putting medicore teams into the big dance (the NFL and MLB really don't. You have to be at least 'good' to mke their playoffs). And furthermore, giving them almost the same chance as the teams that came to play every week. They end up with a pretty wek period between the regular season finale and the MLS Cup Final. If you wanted to have a guarantee that teams would not be eliminated until the end, you could put them all in the playoffs, but give the low seeds ridiculously difficult roads to the championship, and you'd still be better off than this. (Just as an example, you could do single elimination starting with the 10th seed at the 9th, then plays at the 8th with only one day off in between, then at the 7th, and so on. If the 10th seed could win all the way up the ladder with that little rest on the road every game, then they've earned it).
AMEN! I went to one game this year, I did not want support a league that allows 80% of its team to the playoffs.
Ok. Let's say the top four teams regardless of division were let into the playoffs. The season would have been over last weekend. These last 3 weeks of games would mean nothing. Now THAT's excitement. I view MLS as I always have: with a regular season championship (with divisional/conference champions) and a postseason League Cup that is based on regular season performance. It's just here, the League Cup is the more important of the two. No big deal.
anyone in this thread who has a problem with how this is turning up is whining just to whine we have a championship decided in the regular season... the supporter's shield the games continue to have merit outside of that because there is an additional competition that takes place after the end of the season, however the two teams with the lowest point total are not allowed to enter the playoffs to vie for the mls cup so continue to whine like a little school girl, complaining about anything and everything because it isn't 100% to your liking... or grow up and realize that we got some great stuff going on right now you decide, i already have
superdave Yeah, with a single table format, this week's DC-Revs game would be important. Oh wait, no it wouldn't. It would be totally meaningless. Thats only because you dont have Relegation Given how the league is only ten teams strong and is very even, right now you would actually have an interesting Championship race from the wetern conference teams.There is only a three point diffrence between those teams, some of the Eastern conference teams would also have a chance.
8 out 10 weakens the regular season by preventing the possibility of any BIG games. And I (sorry) don't consider games between the bottom-feeders to see who gets in BIG games. I'd rather see the teams at the bottom play some meaningless games if it meant the teams on top would be fighting for their lives in August/September. Now THOSE would be BIG games. That's what we're missing - good teams playing with everything on the line down the stretch of the regular season. With 8 out 10, nobody wins - the only thing that happens is two teams lose.
By my calculations, no MLS team has clinched a top 4 spot yet. For instance, if San Jose lost all 3 of its remaining games they'd finish up the season with 42 pts. Since LA, Dallas, Colorado, Columbus, Chicago, and NY/NJ all could end the season with 43 pts or better, it's still possible, though, of course, unlikely, for the Quakes to finish as the 6th seed.
While I agree with your conclusion, let's not forget that European leagues had this format many, many decades before the European Cup. So did baseball. Ridiculous playoff formats are a modern concept, one that I find repulsive. I'd be very happy with no playoffs, but I agree it wouldn't work. 8/10 doesn't work either, in my opinion.
I'm a big fan of the Supporters Shield concept, but it is mostly lacking in credibility. If the season champion was on a box of Frosted Flakes, then I could take your attitude. The way things are now, it is still more our fantasy than anything substantial.
Wade into an MLS crowd and ask how excited they are fighting for the Supporters Shield-if they even know what it is? And trying to spin this as having a regular season championship and a "League Cup"...(groan)-we're wandering into what the definition of "is," is territory. Eight teams IMO is simply too many. And for a league that is struggling for an identity, it hinders its ability to highlight and promote its best teams-especially to newer American fans who don't understand the alphabet soup/concepts of Euro-style cups and formats. And I certainly don't want to be like much of South America. How about some good ol' Yankee simplicity here? And yes, I know what other US leagues do, but does that make it right or good? Is Bradley right about the drama vis-a-vis the Revs and DC? Yeah, but (ironic considering the title of his column) it's too "insider" stuff. The league can't "cut in front of the line," by buying great talent and making a splash. But with its playoff system (as well as tinkering a bit with its roster restrictions) it can create a landscape where great teams can roll and help give the league an identity and a larger place at the US sport table. An MLS version of the Russell-Cousy Celtics wouldn't be a bad thing IMO, and a simpler championship format makes that much more possible-not to mention the more basic points re: merit in letting 8/10 into the playoff. RE: the point about this year's East winner getting a bye. Yeah that's a fair point. But I don't think it's a problem if the East or West goes through cycles of dominance. I still think you have to reward the team that wins the divsion if you are going to have the league structured that way. I think it resonates more with the US sensibilty-the Twins are in no matter that their division is weak. It's true, you are giving geography an importance it shouldn't have, but I can live with that more than 8/10. And we can turn this year's scenario around: the Revs and DC fighting for that last spot in a 8/10 format, or Crew, Fire, and Metro not only fighting for the divison title, but what may be the only spot to come out of the East? The last two home/away Crew vs the Fire...that would be some tasty stuff.
Re: AMEN! Why don't you pretend that the two teams that don't get into the playoffs are RELEGATED. Then pretend that you are watching the League Cup compressed into a few weeks. This way, you can have a real, authentic experience of watching soccer. Sorry. Football.