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MLS playoffs

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toffeestillidie

toffeestillidie

Player Valuation: £35m
I just got back from the MLS playoffs game between DC United and Chicago Fire, where yet another spotlight hogging referee gifted Chicago the game by disallowing a goal that would have sent it into overtime. My question about this, is why does the MLS even have playoffs? The only other national league i can name that has tournament style playoffs to win the league is the Hyundai A-League. DC United had the best record of the season, they should be the winners, end of story.

why does the MLS have to be so americanized, with stupid conferences instead of a straight ladder like every other league in the world. I may just sound like a bitter DC fan, but it's a stupid system, we won the league and that should be it, if they want to have a separate cup competition that's great, but make it a cup competition distinct from the regular league. when will the US catch on and restructure our league so it's less of a joke. At some point it'd be nice if we also had a system for relegation, but i highly doubt that's ever going to happen.
 

I'm not a fan of play-offs. The promotion play-offs we have in England seem to work okay, but it's an unfair way of deciding championships - if you finish top after 20-30-40-whatever games then you're the champions, or you should be.

I assume one of the reasons the MLS has conferences is the distances and logistics involved in operating a national league, though, like the play-offs - the justification for which is usually 'maintaining interest throughout the season' - the real answer to your questions is "money".
 
toffeestillidie said:
I just got back from the MLS playoffs game between DC United and Chicago Fire, where yet another spotlight hogging referee gifted Chicago the game by disallowing a goal that would have sent it into overtime. My question about this, is why does the MLS even have playoffs? The only other national league i can name that has tournament style playoffs to win the league is the Hyundai A-League. DC United had the best record of the season, they should be the winners, end of story.

why does the MLS have to be so americanized, with stupid conferences instead of a straight ladder like every other league in the world. I may just sound like a bitter DC fan, but it's a stupid system, we won the league and that should be it, if they want to have a separate cup competition that's great, but make it a cup competition distinct from the regular league. when will the US catch on and restructure our league so it's less of a joke. At some point it'd be nice if we also had a system for relegation, but i highly doubt that's ever going to happen.
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Watched that match and I'd say two things:

1) It WAS a handball in the box by Gomez so it was the correct call. No goal for DC. TV replays confirmed this.

2) Chicago was denied a CLEAR penalty when Carr was taken down in the box by DC goalkeeper Perkins late in the 2nd half. TV replays were conclusive that the referee missed that one. It was in the box and Perkins DID make contact with Carr without hitting the ball.

The result was fair. I'd actually say that Blanco for Chicago was fouled at least two times where the ref waved play on when it should have been a foul. He let DC get away with a lot more physical play than Chicago. DC had the chance to take care of business at home and didn't do it. Too bad too as RFK was the host site for the MLS Cup championship match.

That said, it won't matter as my Dynamo will take care of business tonight against hated Dallas and roll on.

As for the playoffs and all that good stuff, I too am a fan of the single table format but since this is America, we're gonna have Championship playoffs. I don't think the average joe fan that MLS is trying to attract would go for a single table format ("Is that all? No playoffs? Winner takes all?").

I won't even go into the reasons why relegation and promotion aren't an option over here either.

We do have a separate cup competition, the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, and it's been around since the early 1900's (the Lamar Hunt name being recently added) but most fans look at that as a 2nd tier competition.

MLS has been relatively successful but is still a work in progress. 11 years in and we've just now eased the salary structure to allow the Beckhams, Angels, and Blancos of the world to come over and play on a competitve wage.

Don't give up hope and keep supporting the league. I believe it will only get better.

Better luck next year with D.C. United. (y)
 
loosecranks said:
I'm not a fan of play-offs. The promotion play-offs we have in England seem to work okay, but it's an unfair way of deciding championships - if you finish top after 20-30-40-whatever games then you're the champions, or you should be.

I assume one of the reasons the MLS has conferences is the distances and logistics involved in operating a national league, though, like the play-offs - the justification for which is usually 'maintaining interest throughout the season' - the real answer to your questions is "money".
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Correct on your points.

Playoffs are the "American" way of doing things in sports. Funny that they can't get a playoff structure for NCAA Division 1 College Football where it's really needed (that's another arguement for a different day altogether)

The playoffs are also used as a way to hopefully attract other sports fans to the league. We know that we're not going to "convert" the average gridiron football, baseball, basketball, or hockey fan but if we can get them interested enough to follow the league and attend matches from time to time, then good for MLS.
 
I watched the last ten minutes of that on ESPN.

It was a handball from that cheating little snide for DC. He should be banned.

Chicago could have won it a minute before when that guy was clean through. Fair result.

The mad fella with the grey hair going ballistic in the crowd at the end was my highlight.
 

I couldn't see the handball clearly because i was at the game, but after the ball crossed the line the entire stadium went insane, biggest celebration i've ever seen before we realized it was called back. I mean no disrespect to Chicago (with the exception of that diving **** blanco), i'm just mad because i feel that losing that one playoff shouldn't throw away a whole season of work, because very few other soccer leagues in the world do that.

I'm aware of the US open cup but so few teams take it seriously because the prize money isn't nearly enough. I think that the first priority should be the supporters shield, with the MLS cup and US open cup fulfilling a sort of Carling / FA cup role.

I understand we need conferences for geographical travel reasons, but that still shouldn't stop them from putting more emphasis on the supporters shield, probably by increasing the money for it and referring to the supporters shield winners as the winners of the league (pls understand, i'm not just saying this because i feel DC should have it, i just think every other soccer league in the world has the right idea)

and so begins the waiting for the next MLS season to start, atleast the blues are doin well
 
Houston Dynamo 4 - 1 FC Dallas.

So the hated F*C* Dallas get owned again in our house. They held a 1-0 lead coming into the match and started time wasting from minute 1. Didn't work for 'em however.

Electric atmosphere with an attendance of 30,000+.

Hoping KC beats Chivas USA so we can have one more in our house before the MLS Cup.
 

CanadaToffee said:
Enjoy, Tx Bill - it's the warm-up for everton's cup win :)
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Man we're still buzzing about our win last night.

The whole stadium stood the entire 2nd half and overtime.

What an atmosphere. If there were any first timers there, they'll certainly be back for more.

Come on KC !!!
 
Yes !!!

KC ties Chivas in LA on Saturday night and goes through on aggregate goals.

Great news for us because it means the conference final will be played in Houston.

I expect another 30,000+ in attendance and hopefully, we'll knock a few in early as opposed to our last match.

One of our players who's been playing in MLS for awhile said that he'd never played in an MLS match with that kind of atmosphere last Friday night ever.

We definitely have a homefield advantage.

I'm hoping Chicago beat New England. If we win, I don't want to see NE again, they're due to win one here eventually.
 
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