The Tottenham game was an ugly one. They got the win, but so did West Ham. Unfortunately they don’t play each other over the next 4 games.
On a side note I hope you all made it out to your local yarn store on Local Yarn Store Day today. I made it to four of them. Magical day for sure. Speaking of Tottenham and relegation, it could be dark days ahead for our household. My wife is a Tottenham fan who, as we know are 2 points below the relegation line. On the flip side, Crawley Town has drawn the last two games when 3 points would have been life changing for them. As it sits they are currently out of the relegation zone on goal differential. The last game of the season is going to be tough. Crawley plays Salford who are looking to get the last automatic promotion spot. Harrogate plays Barnet who are 3 points off the last playoff spot. Newport and Barrow play each other. Tranmere plays Grimsby Town and they are trying to keep one of the last playoff spots. Pretty epic final day in League 2 on the bottom. On the top MKDons are promoted as well as Bromley. The final automatic spot will come down to Cambridge United, Salford City, and Notts County. If both Tottenham and Crawley find their way down it will be devastating for both. More so for Crawley but we shall see.
Today was Local Yarn Store Day? Man, I should’ve made it out to get some more cross-stitch supplies. It’s going to be a wild relegation battle over the next couple of weeks. Best of luck to you and your wife!
One down and one to go. Err, one NOT down and one NOT down to go. The mighty reds of Crawley Town picked up a point at home against a Salford City. A team that was fighting for the last promotion spot that a win at Crawley would have given them. As it stands they get a spot i the playoffs for a chance to head up to League 1. It was quite the celebration at the Broadfield Stadium for Crawley Town. For finishing 22nd out of 24 team the fans rushed the field. Even my daughter, son in law, and two grandkids who got tickets for their birthdays to attend the decision day season finale. They had a better time at the game than they did in January when Crawley lost 3-0 at Cheltenham where my daughter lives. We will now see if Tottenham can pull of the great escape and avoid the biggest relegation in EPL history.
Tottenham got the win this morning off of two first half goals. Luck was also on their side as West Ham lost yesterday and Tottenham now sit one point out of relegation zone. I don’t even like Tottenham but I’m enjoying the drama of their relegation battle. The architect on one of my projects is a die-hard Tottenham fan. My superintendent and I started our weekly meeting with him this week with a mental health awareness safety minute and asked him how he is handling the possibility of Tottenham being relegated.
The kids had a great time at the @crawleytown game Saturday and enjoyed a little time celebrating on the pitch with the Reds staying up in the @EFL A great day for the club even if the last place is the best you can do. Doesn’t matter now. League 2 it is next season! #COYR pic.twitter.com/mzQ8bwXWGm— Random Fan Brandt (@BrandtGoble) May 4, 2026 Probably never happen in my lifetime but if the US ever gets to a point where Pro/Rel is actually feasible it would be fun watching RSL try not to end up playing against teams with 5,000 seat stadiums. not going to happen so I will just have to enjoy the stress from afar. Lol
Celebrating sucking just slightly less than a few other teams is dumb I get why folks want it to maintain competitiveness, but those arguments seem to consistently ignore how the middle -15 clubs rarely have anything to play for the last few months - especially in second or third tier leagues
I love the Pro/Rel process in the UK, which I follow, and everywhere else that it works. You are correct though that the teams between the top 6 or 7 that make promotion or the playoff and the bottom 2-4 that end up dropping there is a lot of nothing at times near the end of the season. For League 2 there were 8 teams that had a chance at the top 7 promotion and playoff spots. It was a competitive season Bromley won the league with 87 points and 7th, the last playoff spot finished with 78 points. 3 teams are automatic and 4, 5, 6 & 7, playoff for the 4th promotion spot. Swindon Town finished in 9th with 75 points 3 off of 7th place. A win on the final day would have tied them for 7th with 78 points with Grimsby, that got a point on the final day but Grimsby would have advanced with a 10-12 lead on goal differential. Uphill for Swindon on the last day without help. Which they did not get. On the other end there were 5 teams for the 7-8 plus games that were fighting their own incompetence to see which two would had back to the National League. Fortunately for me Crawley sucked just a little less than Barrow and Harrogate Town. For Barrow and Harrogate they had the worst run in to the season end. Barrow picked up 7 points in the last 8 games. 2 wins 5 loses and 1 draw. Harrogate found 3 wins but lost the other 5. Crawley town found safety with a new coach for the last 7 games. He won the first 2, picked up 3 draws and 3 valuable points and they lost only 3 of the last 8 games for the 1 point cushion. Tranmere pulled themselves into the relegation battle by only getting 1 win in the final 8 games. 5 losses with 2 draws that were enough to see them 2 points above the drop. Newport did the best with 4 wins and 12 big points to lift them 4 points from danger. Between those 5 and the the playoff spots there was not much to play for other than important things like you job and pride. No small feat to reach the point in the season where you are safe from relegation and then play some football to move up and battle for at least a playoff spot. In the EFL, especially League 2, safety is paramount. Once that is accomplished then fans, teams, look up the table. Some clubs, I hate to say it, just are not built to be Premiere League or even Championship level clubs. Not without some serious, Wrexham like, investment. My Crawley being one of them. Crawley played over 100 years before making the EFL. They play in a 5,000 seat stadium. A glorious one at that, but not a Championship level stadium at the moment. Also, they club doesn't own the Broadfield Stadium. It's in the works. It took a rather heavy investment to break into League 2. Falling back to the National League would be devastating in many ways. Thus the celebration for not last place. The one thing that Pro/Rel snobs in the US never bring up is the lack of real competition. At least on the title winning side. In Scotland, Rangers or Celtic have one the league 40 years in a row. Hearts may change that this season. EPL has only had 7 winners since 1992 Bundesliga 5 winners since 1992 La Liga 5 winners since 1992 Ligue 1 9 winners Serie a 9 winners MLS Winners since 1996 16 Pro/Rel is fun unless you want your team to win the title and then your odds get much, much, longer. The contiguous US is 40 times larger than the UK and the UK dwarfs the US in soccer infrastructure. There are 428 teams in the top 8 levels of UK soccer plus another 1432 teams in the leagues that make up levels 9, 10, and 11. None of that really matters as MLS could split into two divisions with 20 teams each and call it good for Pro/Rel at some point and have MLS 1 and MLS 2 but even then it won't suffice for many. Once you install Pro/Rel the nay sayers will move on to how you are doing that wrong and your version of Pro/Rel is just plastic and not authentic. blah, blah, blah. But yes, once you achieve safety in any Pro/Rel league there can be little to play for at times.
For me, there aren't that many exciting/captivating Pro/Rel situations each season to make it the linchpin of an argument on what makes a good league. Typically you have the same handful of teams that are moving up and down each season. The top 8-10 teams remain pretty much the same each season, the next 5 fluctuate, and the bottom 5 are the constant battle. The teams moving up get the boost of cash, but typically they can't make the roster moves necessary to jump into the pack and they drop back down within a season or two. Leicester City is an anomaly that won the EPL, but a decade later they are looking at being relegated to League 1. I've enjoyed the drama associated with Wrexham, but that was more driven by seeing how a club operates thanks to the TV series, and not from watching their actual games. The drama associated with Tottenham has sucked me in because they are a perennial top 6-8 team, and there are some real financial issues associated with them being relegated, but man their games are not enjoyable to watch. Personally, I enjoy MLS After Dark and the madness of Decision Day more than the end of season relegation battle. Maybe that's due to the number of teams still fighting for a spot, and the number of ways a team can make it or be on the outside looking in. The parity of MLS makes every season different, which I find enjoyable.
I agree with you. The only thing that has made Pro/Rel so interesting for me is that the last 4 seasons with Crawley have gone as follows: 22/23 struggle with new inexperienced American owners and fight off relegation the last two games of the season and finish 22nd 3 points off the drop 23/24 League 2 late season surge into the 7th place playoff spot and finish with a dominating performances and wining promotion at Wembley. 24/25 League 1 Sell off all but 1 starter from the promotion side and get immediately relegated back to League 2 finishing in 21st 1 point from safety. 25/26 stay up in League 2 by 1 point on the final day of the season. I would take a couple mid to top safe seasons in either League 2 or 1 at the moment.
I can see the appeal for people that follow teams in the lower leagues. Promotion can mean the world to teams battling it out in the lower leagues, and likewise relegation means budget cuts and roster upheaval. But most of the guys arguing for pro/rel haven't had a situation like you where you have an actual tie to a club in the lower leagues. They're following teams in the EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, and the other top flight leagues. They're following teams that don't get close to the relegation zone. Heck, I'm one of those posers. I'm a Manchester United fan and have been since the early 2000's. But I knew nothing about them when I chose them. Hadn't seen a single game or anything. I was playing FIFA on Playstation and chose them because they were the Red Devils and I liked the logo. Later I discovered Giggs, Van Nilsteroy, Scholes, Beckham, etc. My first Man U jersey was an away jersey in '07'ish that had AIG as the sponsor, and I got a lot of flack for wearing a shirt responsible for people losing their retirement during the recession. So maybe I don't have the best view when it comes to pro/rel...
I do believe that the vast majority of people that cry Pro/Rel ad nauseum have never felt the burn of relegation. It's just something that other fans get to go through. Like you they all start at the top and pick a one of the big teams. Not saying that is right or wrong. It just is. My oldest son is ManU, My other son is Arsenal, and my wife picked Tottenham because she like the way Rebcca Lowe said their name. I know Crawley Town fans that live in Crawley that are also fans of the bigger clubs. No problem. Anyway, I do think that a lot of the experts that think Pro/Rel is the answer for everything in US soccer have never actually been through the process of being relegated. Heck, never been through the promotion process. Some have for sure but probably not the real vocal euro snobish ones I bet. If you want to have some fun pick a lower league club and become a fan. Always open to having more fans join the Crawley Town band wagon but there are definitely plenty of fun clubs to find and engage with. The Wrexham train has left the building so don't be a poser. lol
I can’t see relegation involving MLS in the foreseeable future. Too many owners have paid a boatload of money to obtain their franchise. They aren’t going to risk their profits in a relegation environment.
When they surveyed the lower division owners, the vast majority had no way to pay for increased infrastructure, player salary, travel expenses, or other costs associated with the higher division. They can't afford promotion.
That is another great point. It's also a challenge in the EFL with teams needing to improve infrastructure to qualify when getting promoted. It would be really interesting to see how Luton Town fared when getting promoted to the Premiere League in their 10,000 seat stadium. I'm sure they made a boatload of money but it didn't keep them from dropping twice back to League 1. I love the idea of Pro/Rel in the US but there is probably a better chance of it ending, at least in the Premiere League, sooner than it happening in the US.
I didn’t see a World Cup thread, so feel free to move this if there is one. BYU announced they are hosting two friendlies for the Korea Republic (South Korea) team… at South Field. I don’t understand that decision. They could’ve easily sold out the majority of Lavell Edwards Stadium. Tickets sold out the same day and are going for quite a bit, with some over $500. Unless of Korea wanted a small crowd, it just seems like a weird decision.