Soccer fans outside the U.S. and Canada may look at this weekend’s MLS Cup Final with a curious eye, in fact, most don’t understand why crowning a champion with playoffs is even an option. Most leagues around the world determine their champion by who wins the regular season without any of this playoff non sense. I can see the curiosity slowly changing to a judgmental tone, The New York Red Bulls won the Supporters Shield in October, and so why are there MLS games in November and December? Or how can you claim a game to be a cup final if it doesn’t even have any of the top two teams in the league participating in it?
The answer is simple, because this is America (and Canada) and we like knockout tournament formats to claim our champions. We don’t do single tables or balanced schedules so we have to determine our champions the only way we know how, “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” style, two men enter, one man leave. There is nothing more glorifying, assuring and convincing than allowing teams to knock each other out, one game at a time, or in MLS’ case one first round game, followed by two leg rounds, until two teams are left to duke it out for the right to be hailed champions of the league.
If the regular season is a marathon in which teams must pace themselves, save tired legs, avoid long term injuries, then the playoffs are a problems and injuries aside, all hands on deck, sprint. Of course, don’t forget that in the middle of that sprint, players are disbursed to their home countries to perform national duties, otherwise known as an international break, before returning and picking up their sprints where they left off.
The Red Bulls lasted the grind of a long eight month season to rightfully claim the title of best regular season team in the league. While their supporters shield win is done without a single table or balanced schedule, it does not matter, because they performed and got the points they needed to earn that shield. The league, front offices, coaches, fans, or players families can’t ask for anything more as that is the current matters of the league. The Red Bulls are applauded for their effort, but once the sprint begins, it’s about, who can keep up. Take a look at the 2007 NFL season, The New England Patriots went undefeated in the regular season, 16 wins and no losses, yet lost the Superbowl to the New York Giants. While fans remember the incredible regular season run, the champions that season were the New York Giants, not the Patriots.
The regular season is the meal before the dessert that everyone has had their eyes on. The playoffs are a pure bite of ecstasy in the form of the fastest goal in playoff history by Justin Meram or Erik Freiburg’s game winning goal against defending champions L.A. Galaxy. There is a change in the significance of goals when October and November arrive in that each one could mean the difference between moving on or going home in a way that a single table schedule can’t provide. Bradley Wright-Phillips’ goal was no goal of the year nominee, but the significance that it eliminated a team for good made it a survival goal guaranteed that his team would play another game, while D.C. United would be home watching.
Of course, just because MLS crowns their champion with a knockout tournament, doesn’t always mean that fans will follow the tournament all the way through. Fellow writer Matt Pollard examined the waves that are the MLS Cup ratings and found that fans don’t care if the two teams playing are necessarily the most entertaining or best teams, fans care about star power. This transitions to other North American Sports leagues as well, the NBA has experienced historically low ratings when the San Antonio Spurs are involved in the Finals. Despite having won five NBA titles over the past 16 years, fans would rather watch big market teams like the Lakers or Celtics in the finals.
The 20th MLS Cup Final will be played this coming Sunday and while Columbus Crew and Portland Timbers, the two teams contesting this season’s final, don’t conjure up historic rivalries or household MLS names, fans should expect to be pleasantly entertained. The Columbus Crew is one of the original MLS franchises and already has one MLS Cup win (2008), while the Portland Timbers have only been members of the league since 2012, making it to the championship game in just their fourth season.
The two teams have survived the rigorous road to the cup final and while traditional soccer fans may not care who wins for the reasons mentioned above, the fact remains that the 2015 MLS Cup Champions will be crowned on Sunday, December 6th.
Main Photo: Victor Decolongon, Getty Images
