The MLS Playoffs Need to Change

Recently the Seattle Sounders defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy 2-1 at CenuryLink Field. Normally this would be cause for celebration . The hometown team defeated a big rival, in a playoff game. But there was one little twist to this particular game , it was the second leg of the MLS Western Conference Finals. This meant, thanks to the stupidity of the MLS playoff format, the Sounders victory was actually a defeat and resulted in them being ousted from the playoffs.

The MLS playoffs are based on the aggregate goals scored by each team over the course of a two game series. One game is played at each teams home site. If the total goals scored by each team end up even after the two games, the victor is decided by whoever scored the most goals on the road. This often results in a team winning the second game at home, but losing the series, exactly like what happened in the Sounders-Galaxy series.

In no other major North American sport's championship playoffs can a team win the final game of a series but still lose. Could you even imagine the Yankees losing to the Red Sox in game seven, but still heading to the World Series? Probably not because it is just plain un-American. Winning playoff games should result in winning playoff series. The MLS playoff format is just dumb. They need to change.

A better format would be to play best two out of three, with no ties allowed. If the game is tied after 90 minutes you simply take one player off each team every five minutes until someone wins. As an example the Sounders and Galaxy are tied after 90 minutes so each drops to 10 men and play 10v10 for five minutes. If there is still no score another man is removed from each team and the play conitinues 9v9. At some point in the 7v7 area we are basically guaranteed to have a winner. This method would ensure a winner in each game. First team to win two games wins the series.

The best of three games series would also allow the league to eliminate the confusing and powerful, but stupid, away goals tie breaker. It would return the a goal equals a goal equals a goal sensibility that is currently missing from the system. Why should a goal scored in front of fans of the opposition be worth extra? It is simple really, it shouldn't.

The three game series would also allow for the team with the better record to have a true home field advantage. Whoever had the most regular season points would get two home games. It would probably make since to award them the first and third, but you could also give them the second and third. It doesn't really matter. It would be a home field advantage and a reason to fight for that top seed. The current system awards the second leg to the series to the team with the better season, which just results in disgruntled fans.

One downfall of the first to two series format is it could drag the already long soccer season into January and basically eliminate the offseason. But this has an easy fix. MLS would just need to schedule more than one game a week. This is nit that horrendous. Players wouldn't all suddenly drop dead with exhaustion. Baseball, basketball, and hockey all play multiple game in a week. Sure a single baseball game is much less physically demanding than soccer, but basketball is at the least equivalent and hockey is clearly much more demanding. MLS wouldn't even have to go all the way to two games a week. They could do some kind of hybrid like  Friday, Tuesday, Saturday schedule for each series. This would give players three days off between each game in a series and five games off between series. This should be plenty of time to recover.

It is time for the MLS to join all the other major sports leagues and implement a respectable playoff system. They need to eliminate the aggregate goal system.  No more loser moves on. No more confused fans. No more un-American playoff systems. No more stupid (who am I kidding this is soccer there is always going to be some stupid, but I am ok with that).