There has been some tinkering with the Major League Soccer playoffs, which start with six matches this weekend, and the changes could have a big effect on who lifts the M.L.S. Cup in early November.
The most significant change, as part of an accelerated postseason schedule, is the elimination of the two-legged series for the conference semifinals and finals. Every round will now be single elimination. That means that a dominant regular-season team like Los Angeles F.C., which set a season points record this year, or New York City F.C., which claimed the East’s first-round bye, could have one bad game and find its season over in just 90 minutes.
L.A.F.C. was the league’s dominant team all year. In addition to setting the record for points in the regular season, it tied another league mark, for total goals, with 85. L.A.F.C.’s Mexican star, Carlos Vela, also broke the league’s one-year-old goals record, with 34 in 31 appearances.
And while the team let up a bit late, finishing 2-1-5 after it became clear it would have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, it still wound up with a whopping plus-48 goal difference, the league’s best ever. “The most points in history is really important because we showed how good we are,” Vela told reporters after the final day of the regular season. “But we want more.
“If we don’t win the M.L.S. Cup, then the record is nothing.”
L.A.F.C. lost only four of its 34 games this year, but two of those defeats were to the two teams it could face in the conference semifinals: Minnesota United and the Los Angeles Galaxy. Minnesota, in fact, was the only team to beat L.A.F.C. by more than one goal this season, winning by 2-0 in Los Angeles in September.
Still, the matchup most are hoping to see is a Los Angeles derby. The Galaxy looked likely to earn a higher seed before dropping their last two games against nonplayoff teams, thus losing a home playoff game and shifting to L.A.F.C.’s side of the bracket.
On the other side of the Western bracket, Seattle will host Dallas and Real Salt Lake City will host Portland.
In the East, New York City F.C. earned the top seed and a bye, but it won’t get to play its playoff opener at Yankee Stadium. Because of logistical issues related to the Yankees’ playoff run, the game, scheduled for Wednesday against the winner of Saturday’s Toronto-D.C. United game, has been moved to Citi Field in Queens.
Atlanta United is the defending M.L.S. Cup champion, and it already has picked up two trophies this season by winning the U.S. Open Cup and the Campeones Cup, a midseason challenge cup against last season’s Mexican league champion, Club América. Its quest for a third — and M.L.S.’s first repeat championship since the Galaxy in 2011 and 2012 — begins Saturday against visiting New England, the early season laughingstock that has been revived under the veteran coach Bruce Arena.
“I had no idea what I was getting into, to be honest with you,” Arena joked at one point. But now, in the new single-elimination format, he and everyone else in the postseason has at least a puncher’s chance.
The final opening-round game in the East is on Sunday, when Philadelphia hosts the Red Bulls.
If you counted all those teams carefully, you may have noticed the other significant postseason change: the playoff field has expanded to 14 teams from 12, out of a league of 24.
While no team with a losing record reached the postseason, that larger field — combined with the new format — means a four-game hot streak by the Red Bulls or the Revolution could give the championship to a team that lost as many as it won during the regular season.
Source : NYtimes
