MLS Cup Playoffs 2016

[sbrylski]

Another Twellman playoff suggestion I agree with: get to 4 teams however you want, then its a group stage with top seed at home all 3, bottom on road all three. Winner goes to cup final.

I'm totally claiming credit for that one - I've been pushing the benefits of a group stage for a while now.

Except advancing one team out of the group will necessarily create dead rubber games.

I would play the knockouts (3 hosts 6, 4 hosts 5) then go to group stage, with the higher seed hosting each game. Advance two from the groups, but have the East #1 play the West #2, and vice versa. Single game. Then the winners advance to the single game final.

Eventually, I would have four conferences of 8, and one team from each conference are drawn into four groups of four. (Or maybe top three from each conference plus four wildcards as Pot 4.) Advance two from each group, reseed them, and put the eight teams in a single-elimination bracket.

 

[Christopher Jee]

The problem with the two game aggregate is the final game can too easily become a time waster. In 3 of the five so far this year the team that won Game 1 scored first in Game 2 and the result was never in doubt enough to be interesting. In another the score was 3-0 before the second game started and again the result was never in doubt.
I would maybe prefer one game playoffs. The ironic thing is that one big reason to have playoffs is to avoid final games that are anti-climactic, yet the playoff format generates exactly that. The final is one and done for exactly that reason. I know it would mean that teams give up playoff home games, but if the single game format is good enough for the final it's good enough for the quarterfinals.

Edit - redundant

 

[LionNYC]

MLS CUP FINAL

SEATTLE AT TORONTO

DECEMBER 10, 8 PM

FOX

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Worth reposting here:
Insufferable prick fans vs. insufferable prick players. We all lose this MLS Cup final.

 

[adam]

Kind of cool we actually have a rooting interest in this match.

Should we do MLS Cup boxes for this?

 

[BossNYC]

I'm not a Montreal fan but I feel sorry for them.

They must be suicidal.

 

[BxLio91]

They blew a 3-0 lead.

 

[Gotham Gator]

Worth reposting here:
Insufferable prick fans vs. insufferable prick players. We all lose this MLS Cup final.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

 

[jerseyhotspur]

 

[Gotham Gator]

Ha! I asked you first. Not even sure which is which in your analysis.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Ha! I asked you first. Not even sure which is which in your analysis.

Prick fans: Seattle.

 

[bgt5002]

Anyone else going?

 

[Gotham Gator]

Prick fans: Seattle.

Really? The ones around me were great in Yankee Stadium in season one.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Really? The ones around me were great in Yankee Stadium in season one.

It's a pretty widely held perception that they act as though they invented everything soccer.

 

[EganSoccerWords]

Prick fans: Seattle.

http://soccer.clickon.co/2016/08/24/seattle-sounders-mls-football-chant/

 

[21Architect]

I'm going to miss Drogba.

 

[SoupInNYC]

http://soccer.clickon.co/2016/08/24/seattle-sounders-mls-football-chant/

Yeah that guy looks like a complete doofus, but that chant turns out great in their stadium and really reverberates around.

I know there are some Seattle fans that feel quite a bit "holier than thou", but that crowd really gets things going. I've experienced this myself attending a game in the ECS 4 years ago (and then seeing it in the AO section there against Ecuador for Copa America)

 

[FootyLovin]

I know there are some Seattle fans that feel quite a bit "holier than thou"

Can be said about every club the world over.

Not going for moral equivalency. Seattle fans show up for real. If they want to carry a chip on their shoulder, they at least deserve it. As compared with, I don't know, supporters with a chip on their shoulder who only ever fill their stadium when their new rivals come to visit.

SoupInNYC pulled quote from you, but comment more directed to my bff Midas Mulligan.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Can be said about every club the world over.

Not going for moral equivalency. Seattle fans show up for real. If they want to carry a chip on their shoulder, they at least deserve it. As compared with, I don't know, supporters with a chip on their shoulder who only ever fill their stadium when their new rivals come to visit.

SoupInNYC pulled quote from you, but comment more directed to my bff Midas Mulligan.

Sure. But Seattle did it first. Just ask them.