Advent of drawn matches requires postseason changes
To those who may think early May is far too soon to ponder the playoffs, the rejoinder would be: What other major league leaves its postseason format in question with the regular season underway?
Ties have been sewn into the fabric of MLS more or less seamlessly, despite the fears of certain operator-investors who felt deadlocks would tear the league asunder. (Fears that had them shroud their product in a postgame gimmick until last winter.)
Still left unresolved is what happens next fall, when ties will be stitched into the playoffs. What if a three-game series ends tied, either by the teams drawing all three games – not likely, but possible – or by teams each winning a game and tying the other?
“If you go to penalty kicks and all that, you’re almost going back to the shootout,” said Rapids defender Marcelo Balboa. “I think it should be two games instead of three. Two games, home and away, if it’s tied, goal differential, and if it’s tied after that, go straight to PKs.
“I’m not a big fan of a third game. Two games and you decide it right there. I’m a simple person and like the simple things. You can go to the golden goal. That’s all over the world now. Play 15 and 15 and then PKs.”
THE THIRD GAME VALUE. Balboa’s views are not shared by the MLS Competition Committee. Mesmerized by last year’s postseason, in which three of six playoff series – including both semifinals – went to a third game, league honchos feel whatever demons arise from ties are overridden by the do-or-die, no-tomorrow, balls-to-the-walls scenario of a Game 3.
“The bottom line is that we’re kind of leaning toward doing things the way they’re done internationally,” said Dallas coach Dave Dir, who offered his views to the league earlier this year. “When we had those meetings, that was the way most coaches leaned. I don’t think [the Board of Governors] were willing to do aggregate.
“If you don’t do aggregate and away goals, you go overtime and penalties. I don’t think there’s any other way to do it, unless you play another game.”
Of the 42 MLS games played as of April 29, eight had ended in ties and three others had been decided in sudden death.
Slightly more than one-quarter (11 of 42, 26.7 percent) of the games were tied after 90 minutes. Three of 11 games ended in sudden death isn’t spectacular, but few OTs have been barren, benign bores.
Discussions began anew May 2, shortly after CONCACAF announced its semifinal qualifying schedule for the 2002 World Cup.
MINI-GAME, LONG NIGHT? MLS officials met with U.S. coach Bruce Arena to discuss the release of players. Commissioner Don Garber said possible playoff formats are still being evaluated, and a decision should be announced by the end of May.
In the best-of-three format, a team winning one game and tying the other two will amass the necessary five points to eliminate the other. If a team can clinch by tying the third game, that’s less dramatic than the ideal scenario of the teams splitting the first two games with all on the line in the third.
“The two home gates are a pretty big issue for teams that have done all that work during the regular season,” said Dir.
A mini-game, along the lines of the 30 minutes of extra time used internationally if a two-match playoff is tied, is being pondered as an MLS tiebreaker. Penalties would follow.
There is also discussion of extending overtime for playoff games beyond the 10-minute period adopted this season to lessen the possibilities of tied playoff matches. TV considerations may scuttle that proposal.
“The only thing that’s undecided is what happens at the end of regulation time at the end of the third game of a three-game series if everything is tied,” said MLS executive vice president Ivan Gazidis. “We haven’t had time to work through the scheduling issues, and they are very complicated on issues such as stadium availability.”
Aggregate goals as a tiebreaker won’t work in the three-ties situation, and using away goals – a nuance far too exotic for most MLS money men, not to mention newspaper columnists and broadcast pundits – is impractical in a three-game format, since the lower-seeded team plays two of three on the road and thus would have twice as much opportunity to score them.
Aggregate could be used if the teams split two games and tie the third, but mini-games and/or penalty kicks are far more likely. It might make for a long night if a tied third game remains knotted after overtime, and then a mini-game and penalties follow.
Awarding the series to the team with the better regular-season record, as is done in the Mexican League, would never fly in America and is less relevant in MLS.
Teams in Mexico, although they are broken up into four divisions, play each opponent once in a balanced schedule, so a comparison of records is a fair one. This is not the case in MLS. There is no proviso that playoffs must be fair, but if the league wants ridicule, it couldn’t do worse than a breathless Jack Edwards intoning, “And Chicago has reached the final on the basis of regular-season record, having compiled 10 more points than San Jose!”
With the league hoping to avoid playing on a World Cup date the weekend before MLS Cup 2000, it has just three open weekends between the Sept. 10 end of the season and the grand finale at RFK Oct. 15.
A two-game playoff, as is used internationally, would fit snugly into the tighter time frame and would lessen dependence on midweek matches, which most teams have proved they cannot sell either in the regular season or the playoffs. It is eminently fair, fraught with drama, and teems with intrigue.
THE AMERICAN WAY. And, it doesn’t have a chance. Competition committee member Clark Hunt said it was discussed, and rejected.
Wizards defender Peter Vermes scored the winning goal in a shootout when the Metros beat D.C. United in the first MLS playoff game (Sept. 24, 1996). The Metros lost in three games. He has also played in Europe.
“In some regards, I do like the home-and-away situation they play over in Europe,” said Vermes. “You have aggregate and things like that. But in some regards, in the American way, we do have series.
“Best-of-three that year was a really neat thing, although it favored us more so, since we won the first game [at home], and had two chances to come back. Now, the format is better: The team with the better record has the home-field advantage.
“I don’t mind three games. It works out well, and at the end of the day, it shows who realistically is the team that’s more prepared and ready to play.”
by Soccer America senior editor Ridge Mahoney