The New England Revolution did what D.C. United, Toronto FC and FC Dallas could not. The Revs won to clinch a playoff berth.
New England beat the Columbus Crew, 1-0, on a Jeff Larentowicz free kick on Sunday to secure the final MLS playoff berth and eliminate the Colorado Rapids from playoff contention.
Houston Dynamo also helped clear up the playoff picture by virtue of its 3-2 win vs. Chivas USA on Sunday. The victory gave the Dynamo the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, setting up a pair of very intriguing match-ups. The Dynamo will now take on the Seattle Sounders while Chivas USA will face arch-rival Los Angeles Galaxy in the first playoff meeting between the LA clubs.
Here is a rundown of the MLS playoff pairings:
EAST
(1) Columbus Crew vs. (4) Real Salt Lake
(2) Chicago Fire vs. (3) New England Revolution
WEST
(1) Los Angeles Galaxy vs. (4) Chivas USA
(2) Houston Dynamo vs. (3) Seattle Sounders
What did you think of Sunday's matches? Now that the playoff field is set, which first-round match-up is the most intriguing? Which is the biggest mis-match? Think Real Salt Lake can go on a run like the 2008 New York Red Bulls did?
Share your thoughts below.
Stupid MLS goes up against the NFL and the World Series on Sundays. When will they learn?
The more cards in the Super clasico seies the better for Seattle
This playoff system bites. If we look at the full table, here’s how it breaks down…
1st place overall versus 8th overall. (This is the only matchup that makes sense.)
Then we have 2nd place overall LA playing sixth place overall Chivas. (They should be playing the 7th seed)
Followed by 3rd place overall playing 5th place overall (Should be 3 v 6)
… and lastly 4th playing 7th. (Why the hell does Chicago get a walk-in-the-park seed? Big market? Hmmm.)
The bottom line is the playoff system is skewed in favor of the east, while the west is forced to play tougher opponents. FOUL!
Ives, love your coverage and hope you can answer a question. Why do we still have to compete in conferences at this stage of the playoffs. It should be a straight formula, 1 v 8, 2 v 7, etc. to make it a more fair way of determining who will be in the cup. Any insight? Thanks and keep up the good reporting!
IF YOUR A FIRE FAN THIS WEBSITE IS FOR YOU
FIRE CONFIDENTIAL!
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-fire-confidential/
if they’ve already sold out, why not open up even more of the upper deck?
Dynamo did not go back to Houston after the Chivas game, so hopefully they will be rested for Seattle. But yeah, I think Kinnear has already filed a complaint with MLS about being scheduled for Thursday, not that it will do any good. Should be great atmosphere out West at Qwest and at the HDC.
Houston looks tired from so many recent games, and travel. The early game against Seattle did them no favors. If Seattle press high as they did against Dallas they should get a result.
WHY NEW ENGLAND… AGAIN!? Seriously the Fire have been way to inconsistent for me to feel good about this. Plus with my exstreme hatred for the revs side, I am even more so worried for this home – away games. But in the end i Think they prevail.
Playoff Results
Fire over Revs
RSL over Crew
LA over Chivas
Seattle over Houston
Fire over RSL
LA over Seattle
My Brain: LA Victory
My Heart: Fire MLS Champions!
Also I think this will be our year if the role players step up (Buddle,Magee,Kovalenko,Klein,Franklin)
The west looks great. We could see a combined attendance of 70-80k in the Houston/Seattle matchup
so if the galxy and chivas game ends 1-1, then the second game ends 2-2, do the galaxy go through on away goals or does it go to extra time??
This is a much tougher first round matchup for the Crew than KC was last year…However, I think they will draw at RSL and win at home, and the Fire will take their series with the Revs, maybe even beating NE away….Crew-Fire in C-Bus for the East….the West is far less predictable, and if both Chivas and Seattle pull upsets, Seattle could host a game in the semis, conf. final, and MLS Cup should they beat Chivas…I’ll take the Galaxy and Seattle, with Seattle winning to host the Cup Final against the Crew…Crew 2-1 and Defending Champs
The West is the best
I would love to see a Dynamo v Crew Final
Time to break out the “I hate NE scarf”. I guess I’m looking forward to this one again. It would be nice if the Fire could play someone else in the playoffs.
What is this “baseball” you speak of?
“a quarter filled dick’s still looks a lot better on tv than the razor”
LOL !!!
The Twins played with Vikings football logos on the field for 20+ years including two world series and 5 division series. I love the MLS, but if the Minnesota Twins couldn’t get rid of the lines, there is no excuse for the MLS not having them. 161 Days, 4 hours, 15 minutes, and 45 seconds till no lines in Minnesota. (Forgive my baseball on a soccer site)
There would be no excuse for there to football lines on the pitch this year anyway. The Patriots have a bye week this week and were on the road (big-time) this past week.
Mike
Also- The winners of the first round games, go on to play in the same conference right? i.e.- LA wins, they play Seattle or Houston right?
LOL, i thought the same… history might not be on our side, but we might continue to gain ground this season… hopefully we get our lead and hold it…
The MLS is so wild. Whether your team is in or not WOW! look at the wild weekend we all had as fans! My personnal predictions are RSL (surprises on big goal lead Saturday) so RSL, Seattle, LA, Chicago. Also a quick question for Ives, or anyone- LA and Chivas have a little unfair advantage because they both home field location for both games? I say they make them play a neutral location for one game to balance it out.
The way I heard it Sommerville wants a stadium but the Revs aren’t particularly interested, which makes sense because Kraft IS a cheapo. There’s an article about how he wants to buy Liverpool, but only if the Premier League institutes a salary cap, in the New York Times today.
I really wish he’d just sell the Revs…
Thanks, STX81
That’s encouraging.
Crew have back 2 back supporter’s shields and they are well on their way to back 2 back MLS Cups. One thing though.. who do you start? I think the backups have been playing better than the starters. My prediction… Crew VS. Galexy in the MLS Cup final.
I presume it is to reward the teams that got the best regular season record. Not much practical sense in winning the Supporter’s Shield if it doesn’t get you anything. Good bragging rights, though.
The biggest thing is the salary cap, but I’m not really sure how different that is to the beginnings of the league. I have heard that when MLS started they let some teams fudge the rules on salaries a little; hence the accusation that LA gets whatever it wants.
Regardless, since every team has a hard cap on non-DP spending, it is pretty much impossible to make a team that’s just miles better than anyone else out there. I’m mostly ok with this, and I’d really like it a lot if in the next five or six years the quality of play improved and we’ be able to see 18 teams all playing at fairly high level. Sure, teams would periodically pull a stinker of a season like RBNY’s this year, but even when they were losing they (generally) weren’t getting run out of the stadium.
The biggest thing is the salary cap, but I’m not really sure how different that is to the beginnings of the league. I have heard that when MLS started they let some teams fudge the rules on salaries a little; hence the accusation that LA gets whatever it wants.
Regardless, since every team has a hard cap on non-DP spending, it is pretty much impossible to make a team that’s just miles better than anyone else out there. I’m mostly ok with this, and I’d really like it a lot if in the next five or six years the quality of play improved and we’ be able to see 18 teams all playing at fairly high level. Sure, teams would periodically pull a stinker of a season like RBNY’s this year, but even when they were losing they (generally) weren’t getting run out of the stadium.
Tony, I’m with you….one of the more entertaining comments I’ve ever read here….I’m still trying to figure out what a quarter-filled dick’s would look like… The possibilities abound.
I can’t see any team beating Landon, Becks and that defense over two games. It’s the Galaxy’s to lose.
But a single game MLSCup? Well if NYRB can make a run…