http://pressbox.mlssoccer.com/content/new-tiebreakers-designed-encourage-attacking-play No doubt designed to help LA and NY, who both score a lot and leak a lot of goals. We're still ahead, but if GD were the first tie breaker, no chance anyone can touch us, except, maybe, maybe, Houston.
I don't necessarily disagree with the tiebreaker, but I would prefer GD to be first with goals scored to be second. Ironically, I don't remember LA scoring a lot of goals last season. They had a very good defense and seemed to win a lot of 1-0 and 2-0 or 2-1 games.
I think it's more of an "omg, LA may wind up in 5th place...how can we rejigger the playoffs to make sure they're in?"
Wow - enough with the conspiracy theories! Even if you don't believe that these rules were set before the season started, to argue that they were designed to benefit LA or NY is silly. San Jose has the most goals scored of any team, and in the West using Goals Scored instead of Goal Differential actually helps San Jose. It puts the lead the Quakes have over Seattle at 14 over Seattle (instead of 8), and keeps the same differential over Vancouver and RSL. Yes, it helps LA but the Quakes have to worry much more about ending up tied with the other top teams in the West and in those cases it helps them (or doesn't make a difference). If you include the East teams (where a tiebreaker would only come into play for hosting MLS Cup), Goals scored as the tiebreaker helps the Quakes quite a bit over Houston and KC (+10 lead over Houston vs a +7 if GD were used, +17 lead over KC vs +10 if GD were used). It also helps them over DC and Chicago as well. So if you want to argue conspiracy theories you have to include the Quakes in the "helped" category with this tiebreaker and say the league was trying to help NY, LA AND SJ. I can see the argument for GD instead of Goals scored, but it's clear that the league wanted to encourage more attacking soccer. The tiebreaker rewards a team for trying to score, by counting a 1-1 draw as better for a team than a 0-0 draw. And it seems that the results have been positive, whether because of the new playoff format (unbalanced schedule, 5 teams per conference, this new tiebreaker rule) or some other reason, the result this year has been very few boring 0-0 games or 1-0 games where the road team was just trying to get a draw. So I thank the league for the changes, as there have been many more exciting games to watch as compared to previous years.
"MLS reveals new set of standings tiebreakers for '12 season" (SJEarthquakes.com - Wednesday, 8/8/12) (John Todd) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
It's old news, but I wasn't aware of it. It's great for the Quakes, because were it head to head we would have already lost it to Houston and KC. GD does make more sense of course.
GD should always be the first tiebreaker, but it doesnt make much difference for us either way, since we are strong in both categories. Actually, I think the conspiracy theories arent unwarranted here. Goal differential is always the first tiebreaker in any system that doesnt rely on head to head, because its the surest measure of team quality. Goals scored is usually a "we have to pick something, so why not encourage open play" type tiebreaker. To put goals scored ahead of goal differential indicates the league is trying to do something.. maybe just encourage open play, but their motives are not simply to have the best teams in the playoffs.
Does getting into the playoffs drive a team's strategy for the entire season? If the first factor were GD, would coaches be saying to their players "no need to score a lot of goals...just score one more than your opponents do." ???
It's funny, or sad, that they even bothered with tie-breakers 6 & 7. 1) Most total goals scored 2) Greatest goal differential 3) Fewest disciplinary points 4) Most road goals scored 5) Greatest road goal differential 6) Most home goals scored 7) Greatest home goal differential 8) Coin toss (for 2 teams) or drawing of lots (3 or more teams) If two teams are tied with most goal scored (#1), as well as most road goals scored (#4), they would have to be tied with most home goals scored. Same logic applies to goal differential with tie breakers 2, 5 and 7.
I dont think any tiebreaker comes into a coach or teams mind to be honest. Points dominate how players and coaches think, and tiebreakers would only come into view if they were needed, and would be soon forgotten.