MLS Playoffs 2011: Conference Semis, First Legs [Multiple R]

I have no option except to root for a meteor strike.

 

come on dude it's real football. 3 pm start, on a sunday, in a great stadium, and cool weather.

 

A real bummer if you're attending games on Sunday (as I am), because it is just impossible to watch all the games live. Philly fans getting the worst of it i guess.

At least im going to the early game, so i can race home and start getting caught up on the Philly-Houston game.

 

The meteors are contractually obligated to land after the match.

 

So glad we are moving on to real playoff games. The Wild Card games were AWFUL. I really hope they arent brought back next year.

 

Meteor Bowl!!!

 

I like this.

METEOR BOWL

It has been named!

Thus it is!

... anyway ...

So, one lower seeded wildcard and one higher seeded wildcard went through.

Does that meant the wildcard system was a success?

 

less than 8k for that colorado stinker

 

Since the Red Bulls benefited, i'm OK with them right now.

And i think it was especially silly to add them *this* year, when the calendar aligned how it did. We are racing through the first few rounds of the playoffs (teams could play 4 games in 12 days), and then there is two weeks between the conference championships and MLS cup.

The playoff format(s) continue to be my pet peeve with the league. Above all though, any of them would be more tolerable if they just stuck with one.

 

Such a loaded question. New York in the West, Colorado in the East, #2 vs #3, while #5 plays #6 (or 7) and #7 (or 6) plays #8, etc ...

 

I am sure it is pure coincidence but reports are starting to come in from observatories around the planet that the asteroid belt has mysteriously ceased to exist and no stray rocks can be found anywhere in the cosmos.

Good going Knave....

 

The core 'problem' with the playoff system right now is tied to the balanced the schedule. Because we had a balanced schedule the last two years, it's plain as day who is ranked 1-8 (or 1-10) in the league. It's not even debatable.

Since we can legitimately rank teams 1-10 based on results against each other, it bothers us that the playoffs are all over the place.

We have 1,2,3,10 in the West now and 5,6,7,8 in the East. And #6 in the East is actually the 'lowest' seed in the East. Not to mention we have two teams swapping conferences.

For people to stop whining one of two things need to happen:

A) Forget the concept of conferences and go single table and seed playoffs accordingly

B) Embrace conferences and unbalance the schedule, preferably to a significant degree, something along the lines of teams have maybe 75-80% of their schedule in common with teams from the other conference

--

You never heard outrage because Peyton Manning's Colts and Tom Brady's Patriots couldn't meet in the Super Bowl. Or the Yankees and Red Sox. Everyone accepts those divisions of the leagues, and the playoffs are made necessary (or at least their existence is justified) because of unbalanced regular season schedules.

--

 

yeah, I'm hoping the league reconsiders the wildcard round after the ugly games with small crowds.

 

More than anything, it seems like the league is trying to please everyone with the format. They want the American conferences approach, but then they basically admit the flaws with that approach by making the playoffs quasi-single table (in terms of admitting teams).

 

And now Colorado have to turn around and sell tickets in 3 days, again.

 

Very well said.

 

What??? People complain about playoffs in other leagues all the time. NFC West last year was horrible and yet a undeserved team made the playoffs. In the NBA they don't reseed, so when the Warriors beat the Mavs, the higher seeded teams got screwed. In the NHL division winners get the 3 highest seeds no matter what....even if they have lower points then other teams in the playoffs....(NFL to). Don't even get me started on BCS.

 

And we're bringing a bus full of folks plus others like myself who are driving in.

Went to Colorado earlier this year, what a snoozer of a game. Of all people, Ryan Smith scored his only goal of the year before taking off. We were really bad back then, starting Mike Jones in the backline? Wow, wonders that we've came back this far.

 

Man i really wish the NY-Galaxy game was on saturday

Look at the weather forecast for that day
http://www.weather.com/weather/5-day/Newark+NJ+USNJ0355

 

If you consider a sample size of two games to be sufficient, then sure - by all means.

I have facebook posts from friends from as late as the 7th inning last night saying that the WS game was "setting baseball back by 20 years".

I find it hard to get too worked up over two games. And, frankly, the main point wasn't those too games, but the last two months of the regular season - have you seen Knave's tragic number thread?

 

I have the sense that this is what MLS is aiming for in the long run. Keeping the conferences in the current set up makes no sense unless MLS is aiming for continuity (which they're screwing up by adding more rounds, but that's a different issue) and hoping to have meaningful conferences in the years to come.

On the one hand, they should do better since it's a Sunday. On the other hand, kickoff is at 5 PM MDT, the Denver Tebows kickoff at 4 PM, and the Avs have a home game at 8 PM.

 

A pretty thoughtful and well stated article on the Playoffs...from the Guardian in London.
Breaks down the match-ups, looks at the key players from the various teams and mentions a few things to watch out (besides Beckham v. Henry).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/oct/28/david-beckham-thierry-henry-seattle-sounders

If only the American press could do this.

 

Folks, isn't this the pbp thread?

 

From that one comment, it seems that the Guardian can't even do this for the Championship level and below!