Time Has Come to Table the MLS Playoff Format
In the world as it should be, but isn’t, the Columbus Crew is the champion of Major League Soccer for 2004.
With an MLS-record 18-game unbeaten streak, stretching from late June to the end of its regular season Saturday, Coach Greg Andrulis’ team barely edged Coach Bob Gansler’s Kansas City Wizards for the mythical league title.
The Crew and the Wizards finished tied on points at 49, and on goal difference at plus-8. Columbus got the nod because it scored two more goals than the Wizards, 40-38.
But that’s not the way MLS works. The league -- read Lamar Hunt -- likes two conferences, not one division. The league -- read Lamar Hunt -- likes playoffs, not a real champion determined over the course of an entire season.
The league -- read Lamar Hunt -- is the loser this time around.
Had Hunt not insisted on the format now in use, he would have swept the board in 2004, with the Hunt-owned Wizards winning the U.S. Open Cup and the Hunt-owned Crew taking the MLS title.
Instead, all that was achieved in the last 6 1/2 months and 150 games was determining which two teams were not going to the playoffs.
Small wonder that U.S. Coach Bruce Arena recently observed: “Most of the regular-season games mean nothing. The players are not motivated ... and players only get better when they play real games all the time.”
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The players’ desire for “real games all the time” this season cost the Chicago Fire its record of never having missed the playoffs.
Goalkeeper Zach Thornton went to Benfica in Portugal, defender Carlos Bocanegra went to Fulham in England and winger DaMarcus Beasley went to PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
Those moves, plus a slew of injuries, scuttled Coach Dave Sarachan’s team. If MLS is to be a feeder league for Europe, the league and its coaches need to do a better job of bringing in new talent to make up for the losses.
Otherwise, the league will continue to show parity, which is simply a word used to cover up inconsistency or, worse, disguise mediocrity.
The Fire, the runner-up to San Jose only a year ago, proved a perfect example.
“We played 30 league games and lost 13, and that means we pretty much lost every other game,” Chris Armas, the Fire’s captain, said after Chicago’s season-ending loss at New England. “That’s how we played this year -- up and down.
“It’s disappointing, because over the course of eight months you’re working toward one goal, and not knowing which team is going to come out and play on a given day, it’s pretty frustrating.”
As Soccer America columnist Paul Gardner wrote earlier this month, while bemoaning the all-too-often “banal,” “lackluster” and “uninspiring” play: “It’s time for the MLS bosses to take a close look at the level and the style of play in their league.”
Perhaps new stadiums take priority for now, but those stadiums will not be filled unless the teams are worth watching.
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Commissioner Don Garber and company are a long way from the level of the English Premier League. Still, they could take a leaf from the EPL’s playbook and realize the common denominators that make Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United as popular and successful as they are.
All four teams have foreign coaches, and all four are free to sign the best talent they can afford, regardless of the players’ origin.
The result is four teams of broad interest.
In MLS, foreign coaches aren’t going to make a difference, but a few more foreign players would help, especially creative midfielders in the mold of Mauricio Cienfuegos and exciting finishers in the mold of Ariel Graziani.
The notion exists, sadly, that the league is here simply to help the U.S. national team improve.
The truth is, the league is a business, and as long as it allows others to impose restrictions on the number of foreign players teams can employ -- other than the understandable financial restrictions -- MLS will continue to be hamstrung.
American fans have enjoyed and American players have benefited from such players as Marco Etcheverry, Peter Nowak, Carlos Valderrama, Jorge Campos, Eduardo Hurtado and many more.
But the flair they brought in 1996 often has been missing in 2004.
Meanwhile, the playoffs begin on Friday, with Columbus having to win its title all over again, an unlikely prospect.
As San Jose defender Jeff Agoos put it: “There are two seasons in this league.”
That’s too bad. One would have been plenty.
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
MLS Playoffs
Two-leg aggregate score series;
All times Pacific
EASTERN CONFERENCE
COLUMBUS VS. NEW ENGLAND
* Saturday at New England...4:30 p.m.
* Oct. 31 at Columbus...2 p.m.
D.C. UNITED VS. METROSTARS
* Saturday at MetroStars...4:30 p.m.
* Oct. 30 at D.C. United...4 p.m.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
KANSAS CITY VS. SAN JOSE
* Sunday at San Jose...2 p.m.
* Oct. 30 at Kansas City...5:30 p.m.
GALAXY VS. COLORADO
* Friday at Colorado...6:30 p.m.
* Oct. 30 at GALAXY...7 p.m.
MLS STANDINGS
Final standings regardless of conference:
*--* Team W L T GF GA Pts Columbus 12 5 13 40 32 49 Kansas City 14 9 7 38 30 49 Galaxy 11 9 10 42 40 43 D.C. United 11 10 9 43 42 42 Colorado 10 9 11 29 32 41 MetroStars 11 12 7 47 49 40 San Jose 9 10 11 41 35 38 Dallas 10 14 6 34 45 36 New England 8 13 9 42 43 33 Chicago 8 13 9 36 44 33
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