Seattle Fans / MLS Fans: Would you rather win 4 US OPEN Trophies or 1 MLS CUP?

Is this the place in hypothetical land whereby making a deal with the Devil I can guarantee either 4 USOC championships or an MLS Cup? Or am I holding the 4 USOCs over a cliff in one hand and the MLS Cup in the other and I can only save one????

Shit this is real son.

Real stupid.

 

I'd rather have 4 Open Cups than 1 MLS Cup, but that's just me. I'd rather have 2 MLS Cups than 4 Open Cups. I'd rather have 5 Open Cups than 2 MLS Cups. I could go on like this...

 

Do continue! Both in narrative and chart form, though, if you please.

 

Code:

int us_open_cups;
int mls_cups;
 
cin >> us_open_cups;
cin >> mls_cups;
 
if (us_open_cups  > 2*mls_cups)
    cout << "I want the open cups!";
else if (us_open_cups <= 2*mls_cups)
    cout << "I want the MLS cups!";

 

No, I wouldn't trade them, even if that weren't a clown question, bro. If Seattle had won an MLS Cup in its first year but crapped out of the USOC every season, there wouldn't be the constant narrative, that little bit of tension keeping everyone hooked throughout each year. Plus there's still something else to reach for.

The match in San Francisco was epic from a supporter's point of view - and as hotly contested on the field as any MLS match. The games at Starfire are crammed to the rafters with people screaming themselves hoarse. The two home finals gave me chills - the fans kick it up a notch over any MLS match, and that includes playoff matches. The first final in DC was crazy and the bars here were packed.

The final in KC will see as many away supporters as can afford to break into their piggy banks to go. With USSF's magic coin that only seems to come up heads (for those tracking, the odds of losing 5 in a row are 1/32, or only 3 out of 100), "regional" matchups that would have had us flying to Atlanta, and KC's "generous" pledge of 100 away seats (most of which were sold by midnight last night) there's a bigger hunger than any prior year, a sense of "us against the world."

Finally, to address the clowniness of the question, it's not like you have to pick one over the other. The MLS Cup will come in time. The SS will come in time. The point (not just in soccer, but in life) is enjoying THIS time, embracing THIS day. In most US sports the regular season is nothing but a series of games with roughly equal meaning. In soccer we're lucky to have the added excitement of a season-long tournament, the stakes increasing with each round. Seattle has embraced that excitement (as have KC and RSL, and to some extent Portland and Philly).

 

1 out of 5? That's what you're complaining about? Please. Try 1 out of 12. And this is the first time in your MLS history you've played more than one USOC game outside the Pac NW?

 

I note that you had to stretch to get to "more than one USOC game outside the Pac NW," as if the "PacNW" in general is a friendly environment. Perhaps you could have stretched that further, to say "you've never had to play more than two games outside the West Coast" or "only had to play one game ever east of the Mississippi."

And I'm so sorry you have won only one coin toss out of 12. You might want to check that coin - the 4096:1 odds are roughly the same as you being struck by lightning.

 

What? Nooooo... the odds of being struck by lightning are about 576000 to 1, though I get that youre using hyperbole. edit - Ah. I guess the first number I saw was wrong if were talking lifetime and not annual. 1:10,000 seems to be the internet consensus. That's actually a lot higher than I thought... my bad on that.

Also, figure there's 16 teams competing for the USOC. Each team flips a coin five times. The odds that no team ever loses 5 flips in a row is 60.2%. The odds that one team loses five times in a row is 31%. The odds that two teams lose 5 flips in a row is 7.5%. The odds that three teams lose 5 flips in a row is 1.1%. So while the most likely outcome is that no MLS team would lose 5 coin flips in a row, there's a one in three chance that some MLS team would lose 5 flips in a row.
Double edit - why is this even in this discussion?

I get that you think that a 1 in 32 chance is a freakish thing, but when you consider the fact that this isn't happening in a vaccuum it's not that weird. Again, I get that not every team in the USOC process has had five coin flips, but nothing about that strikes me as weird.

I dunno. There's really no point in going over this any more. Everyone is going to have their own opinions on just how broken the Cup is and how poor USSF soccer is and no amount of discussion seems to make any one budge on any of their positions. For what it's worth I appreciate Seattle's fervor for the Cup and can't wait to play them in August.

Double edit - why are we even having this discussion in this thread?

 

I note that you're stretching to assume the only benefit to staying in the Pac NW is a friendly environment. When the Sounders could get on the bus for a 3 hour trip (I know they probably flew though) down I-5 for all but 1 of their USOC games int he last 3 years while the closest road trip a team like the Rapids or Salt Lake could take involves an 8.5 hour bus ride its a lot easier for that Sounders team and fans to travel, get rest, and be able to balance the USOC versus the league.

So you'll excuse me if I find a Sounders fan whining about losing 5 straight coin flips like its somehow unfair or harsh on their fans eye-roll worthy.

 

heads: Sporting hosts
tails: Seattle goes to Livestrong Park

 

Now that's unfair.

Heads: Sporting hosts
Tails: Seattle is the home team at a neutral site final in St. Louis, like they do for MLS Cup.

 

i just want to see merritt paulson cry

 

Jasonma You know damn well Colorado didn't lose those coin flips, they had no interest in spending any money hosting the games, which gave the other team heads and tails.
fuzzy Here is what you want, lots of pity in the rose city!

 

I think they actually lost this year's flips. And they recorded one of the flips in 2010 and the Rapids lost. But for many of them, yes, you're right. But that doesn't change the eye-rolling at the idea that the USSF was working against the Sounders because they lost 5 flips.

 

It's pathological the way American soccer fans keep finding ways to dismiss the MLS Cup. It's not legitimate because it's based on playoffs. It's not as important as the Open Cup, which was established in 1913. It's not as important as the Concacaf Champions League, which was established in 2008 by a crooked Trinidadian, but "is just like the UEFA Champions League". And the excuses keep on coming.

You all have some weird self-criticism thing going on.

 

Im not a conspiracy theorist so I would agree, but really is there anyone who doesn't want to see the process open?!? Why would anyone be against this?

 

I'm not trying to cause trouble here, but has any one "really" said the MLS Cup is not as important as the Open Cup. Thats really hard to believe.

 

I'm not against it, quite the opposite.

 

Because I'm apparently too stupid to be above the usual Sounder-baiting here. Sorry.

 

Iffin' your team, city, came from the lower leagues, USL, the Lamar Hunt USOC was your only way to take on MLS competition back in the 90's and 0'ts sabes OP.
It has a merit that to us is perhaps difficult to describe to some of y'all.
If modern MLS coaches sniff at it so be it, that's on them. It carries a special place with many of us soccer junkies.

 

4 US open cups rather than 1 MLS cup for sure. Then again we have plenty of both so don't need to choose

 

Let's ask a Metro/Bulls fan about which trophy they like better...oh wait...nevermind

 

They need to go another step and stop with the buying of home games. I understand they aren't there yet, that it takes money to make the world go around and what not...... But neither is the cedibiliy of the Buyer$ Cup until then... I would love for it to hold a special place, but as long as the advantage is for sale its a door stop.