So LA/NY is now the game to watch

The first legs of the round of 8 are over. RSL was very impressive in getting a 3-0 win over SSFC.  The result may have been a surprise to a good number of people, but the score was a surprise to most all non-RSL fans.  It will be very hard to Seattle to overcome 3 goals.  I expect RSL to advance. Sporting KC won 2-0 on the road over Colorado.  Due to the crazy number of injuries the Rapids have taken, their reserve squad will have to travel to KC on Thursday.  Sporting KC should advance pretty easily. Houston got a 2-1 victory on the road, so this serious could go anywhere now.  Philly has the potential to get a road win and end Houston’s season.  I don’t expect it to happen though.  Houston advances after a draw in Houston. LA went to NY and got a 1-0 win.  I didn’t see this whole game but from the looks of it the most exciting part of the game was right after the final whistle.  Rafa Marquez decides to throw the ball at Landon Donovan after the game which ends in a red card for himself and one for Juninho.

“Marquez fell down, maybe a fly went into his eye”

So the Red Bulls weren’t able to win the first leg. The next best thing must be to start shit and then fake an injury in hopes of getting a Galaxy player ejected. That is some stupid shit that shouldn’t be in MLS. It should make for a spirited game when these teams return to LA on Thursday night. I expect LA to win that one as well and advance to the semi-finals.

Wildcard Weekend!

Now that the Dynamo have finished off the season we finally know what the playoffs are going to look like.  Next weekend the wildcard teams will play.

NY Red Bulls (4) @ FC Dallas (1)

Columbus Crew (3) @ Colorado Rapids (2)

The the rest of the team join in on the fun.  The winners of those 2 games will be placed based on which is the higher seed of the winners.  The rest of the schedule will look like this:

WEST:

1. LA Galaxy
Lower seeded wild card winner (NY Red Bulls, Columbus Crew, or Colorado Rapids)

3. Real Salt Lake
2. Seattle Sounders

EAST:

1. Sporting KC
Higher seeded wild card winner (FC Dallas, Colorado Rapids, or Columbus Crew)

3. Philadelphia Union
2. Houston Dynamo

So it is time for some predictions.  I’m think both of the higher seeded wild card teams will overcome their weaker Eastern Conference opponents.  Both of the West team will be at home.  That would send the Rapids to play the Galaxy and FC Dallas to Sporting KC.

What do you think will happen on Wild Card Weekend?

Playoffs are set!

Well not really, but at least we know who is in and who is out.

The in teams:

WEST: LA Galaxy, Seattle Sounders, Real Salt Lake

EAST: Sporting KC, Philadelphia Union, Columbus Crew

WILD CARDS: FC Dallas, Colorado Rapids, New York Red Bulls, Houston Dynamo

There is still a whole lot to be decided in the last couple days of the season.  FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo could move into a top 3 spot and out of the wildcard group.  Real Salt Lake, Columbus Crew, and Philadelphia Union could all drop down into a wildcard position.  That might not be all bad for Real Salt Lake actually.

The first round of the playoffs will be two game involving all the wild card teams.  the top seed will play the bottom seed and the middle two will play each other.  Of those winners, the team with the lower seed will play the LA Galaxy.  The winner with the higher seed will play the winner in the East.

Right now FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake are tied for 3rd place in the West/1st wild card seed.  Assuming they are able to win their wild-card round game, that means one of those teams will enter the East side of the playoffs against some combination of Sporting KC, Philadelphia Union, Columbus Crew, and Houston Dynamo.  That sounds much easier than having the Galaxy and Sounders to get through.

The downside to FC Dallas or RSL for finishing 4th would be that one extra game they’d need to play just to get to the round of 8.  That extra game will be against one of Colorado Rapids, New York Red Bulls, or Houston Dynamo.  So you’ve got the defending champions, and the Red Bulls who a lot of people thought were going to be the top team in the league this year.  Maybe it wouldn’t be beneficial to finish 4th over there?

On Saturday Real Salt Lake is at home to play Portland Timbers.  FC Dallas goes to the San Jose Earthquakes.  I’m sure both teams will be going for a win, but are you sure you’d want to win if you were in their situation?

Who is where in the playoffs?

The Galaxy have had the top spot wrapped up for a while.  The Sounders and Real Salt Lake have also had their playoffs spot for a few weeks.  Now there is one position remaining that 4 teams have a shot at with New York in the best position to take it.

The East side is kinda crazy right now.  Sporting KC and Philadelphia Union are tied on points with Columbus Crew and Houston Dynamo 1 and 2 points back.  Any of those teams could take 1st and any one could fall to the 3rd wildcard position.  There are a ton of scenarios for those teams in the East.  An article on Down The Byline makes it clear as mud what Sporting KC have to do.

I do hope Sporting KC end up on top, because when everyone else was saying NY was going to win the east, I was probably the only guy that was even thinking about KC as a playoff contender.  It could be that KC finish only 2 points up on NY, so that isn’t such a big win, and you can’t blame anyone for thinking NY should have been up there, they have the team do it.

No matter what happens, it will be an exciting weekend for a bunch of teams starting with Portland Timbers and DC United.  Likely one team will be eliminated and one team will still have hope after that game.  Then Thursday night New York and Philadelphia will have big impact on several teams.  Then the season is ended on Sunday with the LA Galaxy visiting the Houston Dynamo.

I see KC winning the East, with New York holding on to that last playoff spot.  How do you see it all ending?  Who gets in and who wins the East?

A new year, a new playoff format

As another MLS season is upon us, so is a brand new playoff format.  With the addition of Vancouver and Portland the playoffs have expanded to 10 teams in order to keep with the stupid tradition of sending at least half the league into the playoffs.

The playoff system does get one thing right at least - they reward the winners of the Supporters’s Shield, but just barely.  More on that later.

This year the top 3 teams from conference will get seeded into their half of the tournament.  Then the next 4 teams reguardless of conference will be seeded #7-10.  The first round of playoffs will see #7 vs #10 and #8 vs #9.  Of those two winners the one with the lower position will go to play the Supporters’s Shied winners and the other team will play the #1 seed in the other conference.  From there everything else is pretty much like before, win and move on to play the other winners.

I would still like to see the conferences go away all together.  Why not have a single table and make the playoffs 1v8, 4v5, 3v6, 2v7?  This is an easy system to understand and it rewards the teams that do good in the regular season.  We shouldn’t need a flow chat to figure out who will play who in the MLS playoffs.

What do you think about the new playoff format?