Where's the round-robin groups of 4 for the play-in to the first round? What about teams with the highest average attendance during the first week of February?
i'd still see excitement if it was only six teams. the way it looks now: Playoff Table (all teams have played 26 games) sj 45 met 35 la 45 dal 40 col 39 clb 35 ----- kc 35 chi 34 ne 32 dc 26 each game remaining has teams fighting for a playoff SPOT, not seed. for me, thats more exciting.
yeah, 8 teams is too many and undermines the credibility of the playoffs to a large extent. 28 games spread over 6 months to eliminate 2 teams? Anyway I also like the idea of a 12 team playoff even though there are only 10 teams. I have said before that Garber should ask the Yankees and Diamondbacks to play if the baseball strike would have happened.
Now this is odd... I'm a Fire fan, and I was looking over the table to see what needs to happen to secure the Fire's qualification for the playoffs. The Colorado-KC series is absolutely key to Chicago's playoff bid if NE is going to make it, and I'm sorta pulling for NE since Twellman's hat trick. There would be no way in hell that I could possibly care about those Rapid-Wizards results if we didn't have 8 playoff spots. This past weekend was remarkable. Anyone who says NE have no claim on a postseason is failing to notice that they've scored more goals than anyone else, and they might have the golden boot winner--if MLS even has one. This season is ending extremely well. For everyone who wants to be in Europe, notice that we actully have a home and home series for the Supporters Shield. Enjoy that, and pretend that league championship is more important than the MLS Cup, if you like. And for everyone who wants a single elimination tournament, go watch the Open Cup, and let that be the big one for you. And eight teams is a minumum for a tournament. The real problem behind the 80% figure isn't the numerator, it's the denominator. To really solve this problem we need to establish a non-profit organization called Habitat For Soccer, where we can all go and help build SSS to get the league to grow.
Re: Which side are you on? Sorry charlie, but you're way off base. It has nothing to do with following a team that wins 98% of the time. It has to do with a new league trying BS gimmicks to get the american fans to support, and then being hypocritcal by trying to lure big name foreigners to get the foreign market to take notice. The foreign market in this country WILL NOT get behind a league that changes the rules and formats. Like it or not, those people who follow leagues around the world have probably been doing so since before 1995 and are accustomed to a few things: A simple game with a simple format, which is why soccer is THE global game. From place to place the rules are relatively the same and formats are as well. So why in the f/// would you create a league in complete contrast to this idea? I don't know, can't figure that one out. And it's not about following a team that wins every game. But it's also about having a champion who truly deserves the title, not some team that practically lost as many games as they won. Somewhere in the ideal of making every team attractive enough to it's local fans (ie: the anti-cosmos theory) the league has stolen the opportunity for teams to grow naturally, gain a coherant identity and associate themselves to a sport played across the ENTIRE globe. MLS needs to start ditching is isolationist policies, it's time.
There's nothing hypocritical in MLS trying to market itself both to the traditional US sports market while still trying to cater to the traditional soccer market. Not a thing is wrong with that. Now, sure, you can go on and on about how the traditional soccer fan in the US doesn't want playoffs and wants leagues that are pure and simple etc, but given that the majority of traditional soccer fans in the US are Mexican/Mexican-American, that argument can't hold too much weight. And let's not even talk about Brazil's leagues.
I'm just throwing this out there; it's not a right or wrong thing... When I started watching English and Italian soccer, one of the things that attracted me to the single table format aside from promotion/relegation is there is no argument as to who was the best team over the entire season. You have the most points, you are the best. With the US playoff format, there is more importance on late season form as this is what carries over to the playoffs. In a way, you could argue that the MLS Cup (or Super Bowl/ NBA Championship/ World Series) is awarded to the best team in the past month or two. The regular season acts as a pre-qualifier for the playoffs. You play all these games so that only the best (or at least, the better) teams have a chance of entering the tournmanent. However, the greater the disparity of quality amongst the playoff teams, the more chance you have for sports drama, such as the Sharks upsetting the Red Wings or Nuggets knocking off the Sonics in the mid 90s. These "story lines" are more compelling to fans whose teams are not involved in the playoffs. Assuming equal fan support (which is not always true) this is from 20% of the league in MLS to 75% or so in NFL.
I think most people love single table and promotion and relegation as it works in Europe (at least as long as you don't start talking about how the pro/rel yo-yo is bankrupting mid-level teams). But single season, single table champions are mostly a European affair. Why? Because European and league cups are established and relatively respected and relegation exists-- there is hope and fear for the last placed team and there is a real fight to be the sixth best team if that means entrance to even the UEFA Cup. We don't have that anywhere in the new world. Even libertadores, a world-class tournament with great teams, doesn't enjoy the same sort of support (no need to mention the other tounaments). So what do we do? We split the season into two halves (the fewer games you play, obviously, the more important each becomes) with two champions. Brazil runs state tournaments that feed into a national one. Mexico has a league/playoff structure more convoluted than MLS. So yeah, as you can see from the rest of the new world, until you have more to play for than 1st place, countries won't use single season, single table formats.
Re: detroitexpress Except all those matches after mid season for the teams that aren't in the top three. Single table means that everyone except for LA, San Jose and maybe Dallas and NY have been playing exhibitions since about June except to see who can spoil for the party for them. 8 of 10 may be bad but it's WAY better than the snoozer of a single table. Guinho