Talk to a MLS blogger about the MLS Playoffs and most of them will tell you two things: The current system makes almost no sense and here’s how to fix it.
The Major League Soccer Playoffs Are Broken: Lots Of Ways To Fix Them
This is mainly based on the hard-to-understand current format in which eight teams make the playoffs with two spots being guaranteed from each conference along with four wildcards. The the thing that makes this a bit wacky is the way the playoffs are seeded: If more teams come out of one conference than the other, the conference with fewer qualifying teams gets the lower finishing sides from the other conference. This leads to potentially backward game management in which teams are given a negative incentive to succeed.
The other part of the equation is our own incessant need to offer up solutions that seem so much better.
I’ve previously thrown out the idea of a six-team playoff with conference winners receiving first-round byes, the next four being wildcards seeded on a pure-points basis and the first two rounds being played as two-leg aggregates.
There are those that want to scrap the playoffs altogether and go single-table.
Then there are the sensible ones like Denz over at RSL Soapbox who suggest rather simple and less structurally upsetting solutions.
The top two teams in each conference are ranked 1-4 based on their points total, then 1vs8, 2 vs7, 3 vs6, and 4vs5. That seems logical, so it would be LA vs. Colorado, RSL vs. San Jose, New York vs Dallas, and Columbus vs Seattle.
OK, I have resisted the whole single table thing because far too many soccer fans in the US think that getting it will lead to the whole of promotion/relegation which I don't think will ever take in the US. That being said with the expansion of MLS to 18 teams next year and at least 19 in 2012, a single table for standings makes sense until you have so many teams that playing a balanced schedule (play every team home and away) no longer is possible. So if this system were in place right now we would have the following playoff series:
#1 Los Angeles Galaxy vs. #8 Colorado Rapids
vs.
#4 New York Red Bulls vs. #5 Columbus Crew
#2 Real Salt Lake vs. #7 San Jose Earthquakes
vs.
#3 FC Dallas vs #6 Seattle Sounders
I’ll give him this: It makes a lot more sense than the current system. It may not be perfect -- MLS would have less chance of pitting an East Coast team against a West Coast team in the MLS Cup, which I’m sure is why the system is the way it is now -- but it certainly beats the system we have now where the top three teams in the regular season will have to beat one another just to get to the final.
I’m sure there are lots of other solutions, feel free to share yours here.
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