Adam Taylor at Black, Red & United has a great post breaking down DC United's performance so far this year. He comments that United is just on the wrong side of tie-breakers if the playoffs were to be decided today, which inspired me to look back at who makes the list right now.
With 2011 expansion teams, the league is now at 18 teams (including three in California and two in Texas). It's a very (true) West-heavy team, leading to the bizarre current split where the Texas teams are split (FC Dallas (96deg 48'W is West; Houston Dynamo (95deg 21'W is East), with Sporting Kansas City called East right up the longitude (94deg 37'W). The Western Conference also continues to be the better Conference this season. 2011 marks the first year of Wildcard playoffs, and an increase from top 2 per Conference to top 3. The seedings today would look like this (with Overall Ranking and Points in parentheses):
WEST
1. LA Galaxy (1)(39)
2. Seattle Sounders (2)(35)
3. FC Dallas (3)(34)
EAST
1. NY Red Bulls (5)(28)
2. Philadelphia Union (6)(28)
3. Columbus Crew (7)(27)
WILDCARD
7. Real Salt Lake (4)(30)(West)
8. Colorado Rapids (8)(27)(West)
9. Houston Dynamo (9)(23)(East)
10. Chivas USA (10)(22-wins hth tiebreaker w/Sporting KC, DCU, and SJ)(West)
Supporter's Shield winner, being the team with the most points at the end of the season, the overall #1 seed (right now, defending Supporter's Shield winner Galaxy) plays the lowest ranking team out of the two Wildcard matchups (7 v 10, 8 v 9). The higher ranking team out of the Wildcard would play the other Conference's #1.
Last year, if you remember, Colorado was the Eastern Conference Champions, due to the fact that the bottom four are picked for regular season performance regardless of conference. If the second half of the season looks like the first (and last season, for that matter), expect another Western-dominated playoffs, with Real Salt Lake and the Rapids forcing the East to defend their existence, yet again.
Showing posts with label FC Dallas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FC Dallas. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
Saturday, November 13, 2010
MLS Playoffs: Then there were 4, and they were All West
So, flipping between Walking Dead episode 2 and the MLS playoffs last week wasn't too difficult, since Galaxy dominated on both sides of the pitch from start to finish (3-1 on aggregate). The bigger question is, when everyone was trying in vain to try to escape Atlanta during the Zombie Apocalypse, why didn't anyone think to drive on the incoming lanes of the highway, where there was no one, much as Glen did in his brand new muscle car at the end of the episode? Come on, people, you gotta try harder if you want to survive!
And people said that World Cup fever wouldn't spill over into increased America interest in soccer. Hah.... no one is watching these playoffs besides me, are you?
Galaxy, top seeded coming into the playoffs, is the only team that was not upset during the first round! Over last weekend, #3W FC Dallas knocked off #2W Real Salt Lake on aggregate (3-2), #5W Colorado Rapids upset #2E Columbus Crew in PKs (pens. 5-4), and #6W San Jose Earthquakes shocked #1E NY Red Bulls at Red Bulls Arena with a come from behind win on aggregate (3-2). Also, there are NO Eastern teams at all left in the finals; the Eastern Championship will be played in Colorado.
Yep. The East is super weak. It's like watching the NBA playoffs and wondering who is going to have the privilege of losing to the Lakers this year.
If you asked me who the biggest threats to the Supporter's Shield (best regular season record) winning Galaxy were going to be during these playoffs, I would have said 1) The Red Bulls, who have become the most dangerous team in the MLS since picking up Rafael Marquez and Thierry Henry, 2) Seattle in the first leg, who is often unbeatable at home (they play to the largest crowd in all of MLS, a usually sold-out ~35,000 in the Seattle Seahawk's Qwest Field), and 3) RSL, the reigning champs who upset the Galaxy in last year's MLS Cup finals at Seattle. And all three are now gone. San Jose may be a dark horse, and LA have a NorCal/SoCal rivalry, and Landon Donovan started his MLS career at the old Earthquakes (who, in a 2005 Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens-esque move, are now the Houston Dynamo, with the new Earthquakes an expansion team circa 2008), but they have to get past the Rapids at Colorado for the privilege.
So we have, in the West, overall #1 Galaxy facing off against overall #5 FC Dallas at the Los Angeles Home Depot Center (actually Carson City, annoyingly), and #8 overall San Jose looking for another huge upset at #7 overall Colorado Rapids.
"Eastern" conference finals are Saturday 9:30p EDT, on FSC/FSE (haha, it's on FSE but not FSW, even thought it's two Western teams!).
Western conference finals are Sunday 9:00p EDT, ESPN2/Deportes (I might watch it on Deportes, just for fun. And also because Alexi Lalas is freaking annoying). I imagine it's going to be slightly harder for me to flip betwee Walking Dead and the Galaxy game this coming Sunday.
And people said that World Cup fever wouldn't spill over into increased America interest in soccer. Hah.... no one is watching these playoffs besides me, are you?
Galaxy, top seeded coming into the playoffs, is the only team that was not upset during the first round! Over last weekend, #3W FC Dallas knocked off #2W Real Salt Lake on aggregate (3-2), #5W Colorado Rapids upset #2E Columbus Crew in PKs (pens. 5-4), and #6W San Jose Earthquakes shocked #1E NY Red Bulls at Red Bulls Arena with a come from behind win on aggregate (3-2). Also, there are NO Eastern teams at all left in the finals; the Eastern Championship will be played in Colorado.
Yep. The East is super weak. It's like watching the NBA playoffs and wondering who is going to have the privilege of losing to the Lakers this year.
If you asked me who the biggest threats to the Supporter's Shield (best regular season record) winning Galaxy were going to be during these playoffs, I would have said 1) The Red Bulls, who have become the most dangerous team in the MLS since picking up Rafael Marquez and Thierry Henry, 2) Seattle in the first leg, who is often unbeatable at home (they play to the largest crowd in all of MLS, a usually sold-out ~35,000 in the Seattle Seahawk's Qwest Field), and 3) RSL, the reigning champs who upset the Galaxy in last year's MLS Cup finals at Seattle. And all three are now gone. San Jose may be a dark horse, and LA have a NorCal/SoCal rivalry, and Landon Donovan started his MLS career at the old Earthquakes (who, in a 2005 Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens-esque move, are now the Houston Dynamo, with the new Earthquakes an expansion team circa 2008), but they have to get past the Rapids at Colorado for the privilege.
So we have, in the West, overall #1 Galaxy facing off against overall #5 FC Dallas at the Los Angeles Home Depot Center (actually Carson City, annoyingly), and #8 overall San Jose looking for another huge upset at #7 overall Colorado Rapids.
"Eastern" conference finals are Saturday 9:30p EDT, on FSC/FSE (haha, it's on FSE but not FSW, even thought it's two Western teams!).
Western conference finals are Sunday 9:00p EDT, ESPN2/Deportes (I might watch it on Deportes, just for fun. And also because Alexi Lalas is freaking annoying). I imagine it's going to be slightly harder for me to flip betwee Walking Dead and the Galaxy game this coming Sunday.
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