The MLS Playoffs Are Broken

As one of the few leagues in the world that decides its champion by way of a Cup tournament, the MLS playoffs were always going to be suspect. To their credit, every year has featured a Final where at least one team was either the #1 or #2 team in their division.

But this year has demonstrated why the present system is broken. The Final between New York Red Bulls and Columbus Crew features a match that should have taken place in the First Round. New York finished the regular season with a record of 10-11-9. Good enough for 8th place in the 14-team league. They grabbed the last playoff spot. They will face #1 seed Columbus Crew.

#1 vs. #8, #2 vs. #7, #3 vs. #6, #4 vs. #5
What is so difficult about this, MLS?

Presently, the top 3 teams in each conference make the playoffs, with the next two teams, regardless of recors qualifying as well. If one conference sends 5 teams, the 5th-seeded team switches over to the other conference. This happened last year when Kansas City made it to the Western Conference Final after finishing with the 5th-best record in the East. While the crossover rule has heresofar had little effect, this year, New York won the Western Conference Final, and a trip to the Champions League by going 2-0-1 in the playoffs. Champions League berths are handed out to both MLS Cup Finalists. Champions League for a team that finished sub-.500 in the regular season, and couldn't even finish in the top half of its own league. Two MLS entries in the region's competition will bear that unfortunate label next year (DC United is the other.)

Add to the fact that Chicago Fire, who finished with the third-best record in the league, as a reward were set to play the 4th-best team in the league, New England Revolution, and the #1 seed Columbus Crew before even GETTING to the Final.

This season, the playoff seedings in the first round SHOULD HAVE BEEN
#1 Columbus vs. #8 New York
#2 Houston vs. #7 Kansas City
#3 Chicago vs. #6 Real Salt Lake
#4 New England vs. #5 Chivas USA

This, on its own would have provided some compelling matchups. New England and Chivas USA would have a SuperLiga rematch, Kansas City would meet the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year. Small-market Columbus would go against Gotham.

The fact is, with MLS shifting closer towards a balanced schedule that could happen as early as next year, the conferences are taking on lesser and lesser meaning, so it's time to get rid of them for good.

EURO 2008 Preview

EURO 2008 gets underway June 7 in Austria and Switzerland. The EURO is like the World Cup, but just for Europe. While seemingly offering little that the World Cup doesn't offer, it can actually be the more thrilling of the two competitions, and heroes and goats are made just as easily. (David Beckham at EURO 2004 comes to mind.)

While at the World Cup, European teams make up roughly half the competition, the EURO gives them their own party, and kicks the Saudi Arabias and the Trinidad and Tobagos out. No 8-0 drubbings here. The competition is elite, and the field is arguably deeper than the World Cup. Quite possibly every one of the 16 teams still alive has the talent to win it this year.

The tournament gets underway June 7, but with my my new job starting next week (which unlike my old job, I may actually have to do work), I gotta get my obligatory EURO 2008 Preview taken care of. With that, here comes as best of a EURO Preview as I can provide as to determine who will be dancing with the Von Trapps in Vienna for the Final.

Group A: Portugal, Turkey, Czech Republic, Switzerland
Portugal has to be considered one of the favorites for the competition. EURO runners-up in 2004 and World Cup semifinalists in 2006, the Portuguese boast one of the most athletic and technically skilled sides in Europe. Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo is already arguably one of the best players in the world, but leading Portugal to their first EURO win and Manchester United to the Champions League title in the same month would likely cement his place in Soccer's all-time pantheon alongside players like Pele, Beckenbauer, Zidane, and Diego Maradona. Portugal lost the fewest games in their group in qualifying (only a 2-1 loss at Poland). With a relatively easy group, and some of Europe's biggest stars, Portugal has to be considered among the favorites not just to advance out of group, but to win the tournament outright.

Turkey is the wild card of this group. I'm picking them to take second in the group perhaps largely as overcompensation for my 2006 World Cup picks, where I perhaps irrationally favored the Czechs, who did not even make it out of the group stage.

The Czechs certainly have a great keeper in Petr Cech, but beyond that and Thomas Rosicky, the Czechs don't exactly have the kind of lineup that strikes fear. Switzerland could get a host nation bump to get a result against the dangerous Turks or the star-laden Portuguese, but ultimately, I don't think they have the talent to get out of the group.

Group B: Germany, Croatia, Poland, Austria
Germany is clearly the favorite here. A 3rd-place finish at the 2006 World Cup, and runners-up at the 2002 World Cup, the Germans boast a roster featuring Chelsea's Michael Ballack and 2006 World Cup leading scorer Miroslav Klose. Arsenal's Jens Lehmann takes over the goalkeeper reins from longtime German keeper Olivier Kahn, but will need to be on his best form if he wants to lead die Mannschaft to their fourth EURO trophy.

Croatia appears the favorite to advance along with Germany. A young team, only 7 players on the 23-man roster are over the age of 30. Croatia racked up some impressive victories in qualifying, including a win over England at Wembley on the last day of qualifying to send the Croats through and the English to an unplanned summer off.

Poland SHOULD HAVE BEEN the other team to go through. They certainly have the talent, but I do not have a lot of confidence in them. Make no mistake. Lightbulb jokes aside, the Poles are a very capable team, and may very well be able to knock off Croatia for the second spot out of the group (or maybe even give Germany a scare!). However, inexperience and a run of poor form at the worst possible time may doom them. Poland is making their first-ever appearance at the EURO, and the run up to the tournament does not really inspire fear in anyone. The Poles were victim to a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of the United States in front of a sold out crowd in Krakow. This same US team just got outclassed 2-0 by an England side that didn't even qualify for the EURO. Other recent contests included a 1-1 draw with tiny Macedonia and a 1-0 win over even tinier Albania. I've listed Poland to finish third, but would not be surprised to see them finish last.

Austria, like co-hosts Switzerland, may benefit from a host nation bump to get a result, but I'd actually put the Swiss as more likely to advance to the quarterfinals given their past history in major competitions. The Swiss were Final-16 contenders at the last World Cup. On the other side, Austria is making their first appearance in the EURO, and has not escaped from the group stage at the World Cup since 1982.

Group C: Netherlands, France, Italy, Romania

Every tournament has a group of death, and for EURO 2008, this is it. Group C includes the two 2006 World Cup finalists in France and Italy, alongside the Netherlands, a team led by Real Madrid's Ruud Van Nistelroy and Manchester United's Edwin Van der Sar that is as capable of winning this tournament as any.

France is a side in transition. Zidane's retirement after the 2006 World Cup, France must rely on a new generation of stars. Barcelona's Thierry Henry is the new face of the team, with experience to boot. Henry has already played in two World Cup Finals with France (1998 and 2006), and led France to a World Cup title (1998) and a EURO championship (2000), and he's still only and Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich will likewise be needed to contribute. The key players for Les Bleus I think may well be Nicholas Anelka (Chelsea) and Florent Malouda.

The World Champion Azzuri may very well be the odd team out for the quarterfinals, and their roster, despite boasting a wealth of world class players whose names roll off the tongue like linguini. The only problem facing this Italian side is that Fabio Cannavaro, Buffon, Ambrosini, Del Piero, and Materazzi, is that they are old and only getting older. While younger stars like Daniele de Rossi might impress, 14 out of the 23 players on the roster are over the age of 30 (Compared to 7 for France). Italy may benefit from a "win now" mentality, but at this stage of the game, every team has that. Italy and France met twice in qualifying, with both matches ending in draws.

Romania put together a decent qualifying campaign I think the French and Dutch are the class of this group. Romania could steal points and determine who moves on, but they themselves will probably not be advancing given the depth of talent in this group.

Group D: Spain, Greece, Russia, Sweden

Spain are back once again, and once again will advance out of group, but once again will not be lifting trophies at the end of the tournament. It's a familiar story as old as time. La Furia has not won the EURO since 1964. Spain is certainly a talented side featuring the likes of Real Madrid's goalkeeper Iker Casillas and Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas. Spain has also notched some victories over high profile opponents in France and Italy so far this year in their run-up preparations. An imminent meeting with the United States in Santander, Spain will tell a lot about how far this team has come, and how ready they are for the EURO.

Greece are the defending Champions, having won EURO 2004 in Portugal, but color me not impressed. Greece ran away with what was a really weak qualifying group (Turkey, Bosnia, Hungary, Norway, Moldova, and Malta) I'm picking them to advance practically solely on their success in the last tournament, and their relative success in qualifying compared to Russia.

Spain and Sweden met twice in qualifying, with both sides claiming shutout victories at home. Sweden made it to the last 16 of the 2006 World Cup, and I feel like I have to label them as my dark horse in this group.

Russia is in this tournament finals more because England couldn't take care of business than for anything the Ruskies did. Against the three other teams in Russia's group that I gave at least a shot to reach the finals (England, Croatia, and Israel), Russia managed to run up an awe-inspiring 1-2-3 record.

So sit back, drink a Stiegl or chomp on a Toblerone and enjoy this year's EURO. Then laugh at how astonishingly off my predictions were, just like my World Cup picks two years ago.

New Soccer Fan Primer: My Favorite Goals

"And if! You know! The history! It's enough to make your heart go Whoa-oh-OH-OHH!"
Part of being new to the game is learning the history. And it's an amazing history, even just in the last few years.

In no particular order....

Argentina's Diego Maradona against England in the 1986 World Cup.


Real Madrid's Zinedine Zidane in the 2002 Champions League Final against Bayer Leverkusen


Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo against Roma in the 2007-08 Champions League Quarterfinals


Chelsea's Michael Essien against Arsenal in the 2006-07 Premier League


Celtic's Shunsuke Nakamura against Rangers in the 2007-08 Scottish Premier League


Argentina's Maxi Rodriguez against Mexico in the 2006 World Cup


Liverpool's Steven Gerrard against Olympiakos in the 2004-05 Champions League Group Stage


Manchester United's Eric Cantona against Sunderland in 1996


Manchester United's Ryan Giggs against Arsenal in the 1999 FA Cup Semifinal


David Beckham for England against Greece in the 2002 World Cup Qualifiers


Henrik Larsson for Celtic against Rangers in the 2000-01 Scottish Premier League


Benny Feilhaber for the United States against Mexico in the 2007 Gold Cup Final

My Take: No Libertadores for MLS untill success in CONCACAF

Far too much talk recently has been dwelling on the possibility of MLS teams playing in the Copa Libertadores, South America's version of the UEFA Champions League. The Libertadores is largely viewed to be the second-most prestigious club competition in the world, after the UEFA Champions League. Many fans in the Western Hemisphere seem to love this idea, quaking at the idea of a packed stadium for a final clash between DC United and Boca Juniors or watching Beckham and the Galaxy take on River Plate, but I'm not convinced. Major League Soccer should not be admitted to the Libertadores, at least not yet, and here's why.

Success in CONCACAF

Major League Soccer teams should not be guests in a prestigious competition unless they have earned their way there. And they have not. Admittedly, some CONCACAF teams participate in the Libertadores, but these are Mexican teams. They have risen to the top in CONCACAF. Mexican Clubs joined the Libertadores in 1998. By that time, Mexican clubs had won 7 of the prior 11 CONCACAF Champions Cups. There was nothing left to prove, so they moved on to the bigger fish. The first few years in the Libertadores, Mexican teams routinely got destroyed by South American sides. This is because the best of North America are not on par with the best of South America. It's not even close.

On this point, Major League Soccer teams are not even the tops in their own region. The last time an MLS team played in the final of the CONCACAF Champions Cup was 2000. LA Galaxy managed to take home the title without having to play a single game outside of Southern California. The entire tournament took place on US soil, since then, MLS teams have struggled on the road. DC United lost their away semifinal leg to Pachuca 2-0 this year. Houston Dynamo lost their away semifinal 3-0 to Saprissa. The competition has been dominated by Mexican and Costa Rican teams. If MLS teams were to participate in the Libertadores, they would be routinely massacred, as Mexican teams were, but at least the Mexican sides were the biggest fish in the small pond.

Fixture Congestion

One of the main reasons MLS teams would falter is lack of depth. Players 1-12 on an MLS roster can hang with almost any team in the world, however, in continental competition, your depth is strenuously tested. Recently, DC United had a league game Saturday, a CONCACAF game midweek, a league game Saturday and a CONCACAF game midweek the following week, followed by another league game on Saturday. For deeper rosters, this is not a problem, but due to a restrictive salary cap in MLS, after the first 1-12 players, depth is very limited, even on the best teams who presumably would be competing in the Libertadores.

Now, in this recent stretch, DC went 2-2-1. And their continental trip was only to Mexico. In the Libertadores it could be to Argentina. The Libertadores runs from early spring to mid-summer. This would cause fixture pileups with CONCACAF Champions League knockout stages, the MLS league campaign, and possibly SuperLiga. Because of MLS's limited salary cap (about $2.2 million per team, plus a Beckham Rule player outside the cap), the depth just simply is not there to compete with the South American giants.

Travel

While a New England vs. Boca Juniors match-up may be very exciting, a two-legged tie between them would chart huge distances and long travel times. It is approximately 5370 miles between Boston and Buenos Aires. At that point, travelwise, it would actually be a shorter flight to have MLS teams compete in the UEFA Champions League, as it is only 3800 miles from Boston to Milan. This kind of travel is just unreasonable. The world is too big and the technology is just not fast enough to hold a meaningful hemisphere-wide competition from Canada to Chile.

Fan Interest

When MLS in the Libertadores comes up, passionate scenes and great games are always brought up. There is this general consensus that MLS sides would regularly be butting heads against star-studded Latin American sides in front of packed houses. But this ignores a critical fact. Not all Libertadores sides have significant followings, or even knowledge of their existence in the United States. Without "name" opponents like Boca Juniors, River Plate, Sao Paolo and maybe a handful of other Brazilian or Argentinian clubs, would anyone care?

Would New York be able to attract a decent crowd midweek to see the Revolution play Bolivian Champs Real Potosi? Could Chicago bring in a decent crowd in March to watch the Fire play Uruguayan champs Danubio? Not likely, and these are what could be the more "diverse" cities with a larger South American population. What about MLS's more "vanilla" towns. Could Kansas City? Could Salt Lake?

Outside of that small handful of clubs who could draw a crowd based on a name, the only teams that could guarantee a gate draw are the Mexican clubs, and MLS already has involvement with them through the CONCACAF Champions League and SuperLiga. It would be redundant and superfluous to go through the Libertadores.

I'm not saying that MLS can't play in the Libertadores eventually. They just shouldn't be there now.

In Defense of the Cup-tying Rule

In many competitions across Europe, players are "Cup-tied" each season, meaning that if you play for one team at one stage in the competition, you cannot play for another team later in the same competition. The focus of the rule is to keep the rich from getting richer by poaching players from teams already knocked out of the competition.

Mike Collet writes that it is time for the rule to go. While it would be unfair to presume, it would not suprise me if Collet is a Portsmouth FC fan. Pompey's Jermain Defoe is unable to play for Portsmouth in England's FA Cup Final against Cardiff City at Wembley in May because he played for Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the competition before coming to Pompey during the Winter Transfer Window. However, Defoe is able to play for Pompey in their English Premier League campaign, where PFC currently sit sixth in the table and are chasing a UEFA Cup slot.

Likewise in Europe, players who played for one team at one stage of the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Cup cannot play for another team in later stages of the same tournament, yet are allowed to play for their new clubs in their national league.

Collet says this is stupid to have one standard for cups and one standard for leagues. But in Collet's criticism lies its folly. Cups and leagues are entirely different competitions. If one team loses in a cup tie, they are out of the competition. No worries. It would have been nice to advance obviously, but it's not the end of the world. League play on the other hand carries with it the very real chance of relegation.

Teams in poor positions in league play have much less incentive to sell their players to the teams that advance (which more often than not, the teams that advance are higher in league play) due to the risk of relegation. In addition, to deny a player to participate in League play after joining a new team in the winter transfer window could mean him missing close to 20 games. Missing the Cup games means denying a footballer his trade only 3-5 times.

For these main distinguishing reasons, the cup-tying rule is good, and will affect only a handful of footballers each year, but in exchange, will allow the mid-level teams (and high-mid-level teams like Celtic, Porto, Benfica, PSV, and Olimpiacos) to keep their best players and grow as a team, rather than being glorified farm teams for a handful of conquering finalists.

Save the Wales

To say this season's FA Cup has been topsy-turvey would be an understatement. In English football's version of March Madness, Barnsley has done their best George Mason impression and have reached the last four by knocking off traditional powers Liverpool and Chelsea. With only one Premier League side left in the tournament (Portsmouth), the possibility that a European spot will go to a lower-division team is very real.

The winners of the FA Cup are granted a spot in the UEFA Cup.

Except....maybe they won't.

Another one of the last four to compete in the world's oldest knockout competition is Cardiff City. Yes, Cardiff is not in England, but rather in Wales. Wales (like Scotland and Northern Ireland) has their own league, but Cardiff plays in the English football pyramid because the Welsh league was not formed untill 1992. With no league to serve the club upon its founding in 1899, Cardiff City simply hopped the border and began play and developed rivalries with English sides.

Therein lies the dilemma for Cardiff. Financially strapped, the side could use an influx of cash that European competition would bring. But the FA of England will not grant them a spot because they are not an English team, and the Welsh FA will not grant them a spot because they are forbidden from competing in the League of Wales or the Welsh Cup (a sort of "back door" to Europe in the past for Cardiff).

This is not right. If Cardiff win the FA Cup, they should be given the right to test their mettle in Europe. Cardiff is the 9th-largest UK city competing in the English league system (Glasgow and Edinburgh furnish teams in the Scottish Premier League). If the FA wants to reap the television revenue and gate revenue from a team in a city like Cardiff, then they should be open to letting them take a spot in Europe should they play their way in, which Cardiff has certainly done. If they want the FA Cup to be an English-only cup, then kick Cardiff out. What is so difficult about this?

The US Open Cup is a competition that is only open to US teams, and since Toronto FC, Montreal Impact, and Vancouver Whitecaps are all based in Canada, they don't get to play. So they hold their own tournament (their version of the Welsh Cup, I guess) and use that as a route for qualifying to continental competitions.

Even AS Monaco FC, which is based in Monaco, gets to participate in the French league and cup, and have qualified for Europe, despite being from another country.

Let Cardiff in!!!!

Suggested Philadelphia MLS names

With today's announcement of the worst-kept secret in MLS, Philadelphia finally has a team. They'll begin play in 2010 at a brand-new soccer stadium in nearby Chester, PA. The team remains unnamed (The early favorite is Philadelphia Independence FC), but I've got some ideas.
Philadelphia Rockies
-Sure, Colorado's nine already have it, but it would make it a little less trite and cliched when they take the field to "Gonna Fly Now."



Following a Rocky theme, a name that was briefly bandied about for the name of the Houston club when they started up (now the Dynamo). The Philadelphia Apollos.

Philadelphia battery-chuckers
Philadelphia Santa-haters
Chester Molesters