[R] The 2009 Playoff Race – Magic Numbers, Tragic Numbers & Other Assorted Obfuscation [R]

Huh? Columbus-RSL seems like an incredibly interesting playoff matchup. The defending MLS Cup champion and 2 time defending SS winner coming into the playoffs on the back of 2 straight losses and over a month of mediocre play, facing off against the team with the best home record in the league and 3rd worst road record coming into the playoffs on after a convincing 3-0 win against their biggest rival. Seems like a tough one to predict, but then they all seem to be. These playoffs are going to be fun.

For a while, I thought we would have an RSL-Chicago matchup which would have been unusual. Best home record vs. best road record . . . 3rd worst road record vs. 3rd worst home record.

 

Uhm, sure looks like Seattle is a high end market and KC, Columbus, and Salt Lake are small town. That doesn't mean that their teams aren't watching though.

 

Define "small town"

 

Oak Harbor, WA

 

I agree! We need to let the intelligent people of the forum deal with complex topics and label ALL fans of a club based on the comments of one person!




You have an amazing talent of being THE moronic DIPSHIT of Bigsoccer. I'm impressed.

 

Ah yeah, my wife and I have this discussion all the time. I tell her that Colorado Springs is little and she thinks its big. Anyway, it was hyperbole meaning that compared to the other MLS markets there is a large drop off there.

KC though is a dying town (negative population growth) and Columbus is a college town and Salt Lake is a place I just don't know enough about. Now we aren't saying these places are small compared to some population 150 town in the middle of nowhere with 1 gas station and 1 intersection, but as far as sports towns go...

Tiny

Salt Lake metro area is 1.1 million

Small

Columbus metro area is 1.7 million
Kansas City metro area is 1.9 million


Midling

Seattle 3.3 million
Denver 3.0 million

Large

Houston 5.7 million
Dallas 6.3 million


Huge

New York 22.2 million
Los Angeles 12.9 million

 

This thread is the only place I've ever seen Kansas City called a "small town". "Small city", sure. "Small town", never.

 

Thank you.

To everybody else, way to miss the friggin' point. I'll admit that maybe I downplayed the intrigue of a Columbus-FSL series vis-a-vis the other playoff match-ups a little too much, and maybe mentioning that they're the two smallest markets in the league was a cheap shot. But honestly, is anybody not in Columbus or Salt Lake looking at this matchup and thinking "wow, it was really fortuitous that these two teams got matched up" or "if there's one series that I absolutely cannot miss, it's this one"?

I'm willing to concede that for the neutral fan, the Seattle-Houston series probably would rank behind the SuperClassico and Fire-Revs in terms of intrigue.

 

Actually, you kind of make my point for me. The real intrigue of the Columbus-FSL matchup is the fact that involves Columbus, who, like you said, are the defending champs and current SS holders. FSL, on the other hand, is a relatively humdrum team who despite having the best home record squeezed into the playoffs on a tiebreaker. They don't even have the intrigue of being playoff debutantes, since they made it in last year.

Then you look at the other match-ups. Seattle-Houston, admittedly the weakest of the remaining three (in terms of how intriguing it would be to a neutral's perspective), features one of the best teams of the last five years in Houston and in Seattle, the first expansion team to make the playoffs in its first year since Chicago. Chicago-New England are on what, their fifth straight year of meeting in the playoffs, and their playoff matchups in recent years have been mostly thrillers. Then you have the LA darby, which ESPN decided to broadcast IN ADDITION to their Thursday nighters.

 

^^

I personally think Seattle-Houston is the most attractive matchup as a neutral. They both play very good soccer (when playing well). Houston's won 2 of the last 3 titles, has 3 USMNT regulars in their starting 11, and Seattle has the rabid fanbase.

 

Trying to discount my homerism, I'm interested in the matchups in this order:

1) Superclassico: Both legs should be action-packed and physical. Fun games to watch. Crowd involvement will make it twice as exciting.
2) RSL-COL: I really have liked watching both of these teams play this year. I expect goalfests in both legs of the match-up. Small market should have no effect on whether a game is exciting or not.
3) SEA-HOU: Should be a fast game. Both teams are willing to run at you. Houston will try to work the wings, Seattle down the middle; should be fun.
4) NE-CHI: Blanco v. Joseph should be fun to watch, but really not a lot beyond that interests me.

 

Seattle tends to go down the wings, not the middle, so both teams will be going down the wings and the CMs for both teams will pick plastic daisies.