The Los Angeles Galaxy clinched their second consecutive Supporters' Shield trophy on Saturday night when the Seattle Sounders dropped a 2-0 result to the Philadelphia Union.
Los Angeles has 64 points with two games remaining and with their regular season championship, the Galaxy will have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, including the 2011 MLS Cup Final, which is scheduled to be played at Home Depot Center.
The Galaxy will play the lowest seeded wild card team when they begin the Western Conference Semi-finals. The Supporters Shield is the Galaxy' fourth, tying them with D.C. United for the most in MLS history.
Since the start of the season, the Galaxy have stated that retaining the Shield was one of their three big objectives, which include winning MLS Cup and qualifying for the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions League. Los Angeles will look to accomplish that third objective with a win on October 20th against Club Motagua in Honduras.
Los Angeles is the third straight team to win consecutive Supporters Shields, joining D.C. United (2006-2007) and the Columbus Crew (2008-2009). The Supporters Shield is the third of Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena's storied career, a new league record.
The Galaxy return to action after a near two week long break on October 16th when they face Chivas USA in the SuperClasico.
The idea is to:
1. Get away from this conference nonsense
2. Incentivise the players to make each game as competive as possible
To do this MLS would:
1. Use a single table and balanced schedule.
2. MLS creates and sells an official ‘Supporters Shield Competition’ sponsorship. The price tag for the rights to be the ‘Supporters Shield Competition’ sponsor would be, let’s say $1M. For example, the U.S. Army (the Army is all about competition).
3. As the teams win points through the traditional win/tie point system, they accrue ACCRUE a % of the bonus money based on the total points won during the regular season.
4. At the end of the season, two things happen:
a) the team with most points wins the Supporters Shield and naturally has accrued the largest % of the bonus fund.
b) more importantly,…the bottom three teams in the league FORFEIT their accrued bonus money and it is paid to the Supporters Shield winner.
This does two things.
Firstly, it makes the Supporters Shield VERY meaningful to the winner of regualr season. Second, it is a significant disincentive to finishing in the bottom three of the league. What do you think it would be like in the locker rooms before matches when the Supporters Shield is still up for grabs and or the loss of $10-15K for some kid making $40K per season who is sitting near the bottom of the table?
What do you think?
Look at it as a strategic advantage. Canadian teams will be used to the bitter cold while Mexican and Central American teams will literally be fighting hypothermia.
Same here. Fortunately we have the depth to shut down the Cabras.
Actually I kept reading after LeBron James. I stopped reading at “ideological and entertainment merits.”
ps: who is this LeBron James of whom you speak?
Winning the shield requires a consistently good performance from march to october, and about 18 wins are necessary.
Winning mls cup requires a year long mediocre performance, a good november, and can be done with 14 wins.
To BrianK: We’re listening.
Yes having CCL matches in Canada and the Northeast during Jan/Feb is so much fun for the fans
How is stacking the deck in MLS’ favor a reasonable solution?
“lets just move the CCL schedule to Jan/feb because it will be more beneficial to MLS”. As if coordinating a multinational tournament isnt isn’t hard enough, lets altar the match dates so MLS teams don’t have to interrupt their busy schedules in order to play.
As for the USOC, while its been awhile since a non MLS team won you do realize that 85% of the teams that take part in the USOC aren’t MLS teams right?
tl;dr
Really, the only reason Playoffs even exist is because of a lack of promotion/regulation, otherwise there is no incentive for lower and mid table teams to compete.
The MLS CUP/Playoffs should really be it’s own competition apart from seeing who is best in the league. What’s funny is that the US Open is just that- a single game elimination playoff. So are we to say that the Sounders are the best team (having all games at home) since they not only beat out MLS teams in that competition by other teams from other leagues?
You did bring up a good point about a series being exciting. But another thing is that it is also more fair (not based on one game). Home and away games should be played by all other teams ranked 2 and below.
I bemoan a league with more than 20 teams. I believe the number of markets that can sustain teams is about that number.
That said, a 40-game schedule is totally doable – if one or a combo of the following is done to facilitate it:
1) Move CCL group stages to pre-season (Jan/Feb in current MLS calendar.)
2) Move USOC to pre-/post-season.
3) Eliminate MLS Cup Playoffs. (USOC could be substitute.)
4) Lengthen the season duration.
Personally, I’m in favor of 1-3, together. CCL and USOC should serve to whet fans’ appetites outside of the regular season. This will see those matches better attended as a result, since they will not compete for fans’ money during the season or be slotted in as midweek fixtures when many fans cannot make the journey to attend anyway.
Eliminating the MLS Cup playoffs isnt for hate of the playoff structure, but just a recognition of the toll an additional 5 games will take on the eventual champions. If you do suggestions 1 and 2, you will have to open up space for an offseason around the adjusted USOC and CCL schedules… And cutting out the four weeks of playoffs is a reasonable solution.
Sorry, but LeBron and Co. have a Best-of 5/7 playoff structure. EVERY team worthy of being called ‘Champion” should win the majority of those matchups. If they don’t, they are not deserving of the title.
The MLS Cup winner gets a single home/away set, followed by TWO single-game elimination matches. Any Champion side can have a bad day or simply come up unlucky. Minnows can defeat giants once, but rarely can they do it consistently in the short term.
Your comparison is grossly off the mark.
Expanding past 20 team’s will be the beginning of the end of MLS. Apparently no one learned anything from the NASL folly.
I have a great solution to this,…an incentive comp forfeiture (‘relegation’) program. Let me know if you are interested in hearing the idea. I would like some feedback.
But I’d hate to lose our unbeaten home record against freaking CHIVAS.
I don’t mind terribly the system as it is now. But we all change ourr minds, now and again.
I like to think of the regular season as getting dialed in. The playoffs is where you prove it.
The galaxy have shown they are dialed in. Hats offf to them and they have the hardware to show for their heart, determination and consistency.
I’ve always liked the underdog however and a playoff system is like running the gaunntlet: just bring it.
I don’t think a balanced schedule is sustainable-in the near short term it is, but in the long run as MLS continues to grow, it will become logistically impossible to have teams play a home and away with everybody. While listening to the Soccer Today podcast which is pretty good http://espn.go.com/espnradio/dallas/play?id=7077657
one of the commentators brought up how if MLS expands past 20 teams, having a balanced schedule results in a 40+ game schedule. Assuming relegation won’t happen(I know this is a hot-button issue), it seems like there has to be a unbalanced schedule.
Also, in response to everybody’s playoff comments above, what about this for the playoffs?
Same structure, but instead of two legged ties, we have a ‘best out of three’ series, with the higher seed getting to host 1 and 3. It gives the higher seeds a more material advantage than they have now in a home and away series. The winner would be whoever has the most points, so if two matches end in draws and one is a W, the team who won would advance. In the event of 1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss, they could either do it by goal differential or like the sqo MLS playoffs have extra time be played in game 3, another advantage for the higher seeded team. Same if there are three draws. Thoughts?
I think this is an excellent comment.
While I really don’t like the MLS playoffs, one problem with getting rid of them is that without promotion or relegation, the games of a lot of teams would start being meaningless fairly early in the second half of the season — by then it will be clear that they won’t be winning the SS, so what would they be fighting for? They could try hard to be among the top 3 teams to ensure a CCL spot (I’m assuming the USOC winner would get the fourth) but it will again be clear relatively early on that you won’t be among the top 3.
I’m glad the Galaxy won the shield this year. With the balanced schedule it has more meaning than it’s ever had; and probably ever will again. (Since the league doesn’t seem to want to keep a balanced schedule.)
For a league with a lot of parity, like the MLS, I think the playoffs are a crap shoot. Any team that goes into it playing well and doesn’t have too many injures has a chance to take it all – they’re not really the best team, just the best team over a four week period. A team doesn’t have to win very many games to take the cup. It works much better for the NBA because they play so many games in their playoffs. But the downside is the regular season of the NBA is pretty boring and you can pretty much ignore it until their playoffs start.
If you think of the regular season as a really long playoff it should be obvious that it’s a much more difficult challenge and a better indicator of the best team in the league.
Given that the MLS has been doing the playoff system since their start and their TV ratings aren’t that impressive nor is their mainstream appeal I’d have to say it’s failed and/or not a significant factor.
hey, if directed at me, please excuse me, seriously. I did stop reading at the same point, and I laughed when I read the other post. that’s all I was saying.
funny you claim to read the whole post but post nothing about it, just some simple response
I didn’t stop reading, nor did I cut and paste to leave a simple response.
Bam! cheers
lmao man, me too
Congrats to the Galaxy for earning a spot in the 2012 CCL.
“To all the people who will inevitably come here and declare that the SS is more important than the MLS cup-
Do you think that is true in all sports? I.e, do you think Lebron James in reality is a 2 time champion?”
Sorry, friend.
I stopped reading after that.
we cant always americanize everything we touch… our league will not get the same recognition the way it is now
To all the people who will inevitably come here and declare that the SS is more important than the MLS cup-
Do you think that is true in all sports? I.e, do you think Lebron James in reality is a 2 time champion?
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater-the ideological and entertainment merits of a post-season playoff are sound, just because the MLS playoff system is not perfect(too many teams, not enough protection for higher seeds, etc.) does not mean the concept of playoffs in general are bankrupt. Look, if two teams have almost identical records, the determining factor between who is the champion should not be who was better at winning away at the minnows every game as opposed to drawing two of those games, it should be a head-to-head, everything on the line playoff system. In the NBA, because of 7 game series, you see the drama and aformentioned ‘best determinent of whose better’ without the perceived randomness that accompanies MLS.
Two other thoughts-
1) Australia-they have a very interesting system for the playoffs, the #1 seed gets an automatic bye to the finals and hosts it, while #3 plays #6 and 4 plays 5. The winners of those two matches plays each other, then plays the two seed. The winner of all that plays the 1 seed. A middle ground between protecting higher seeded teams but still having playoffs?
2) Seems like a ‘supporter’s shield’=champion system would not be a great way to bring greater mainstream appeal to MLS…
Good for the Dynamo! Time to whoop up on the Galaxy’s C-team at home and secure a playoff spot.
Look for the Galaxy to rest all the DP’s and a host of other players against Chivas. Robbie Keane is injured and may not play in a Must-win game for Ireland against Armenia. Donovan is resting his injured quad and not playing in the USMNT against Ecuador and “ol man Becks” has re-occurring back spasms. They will all need the rest for the Oct 20 game against the Honudran team CD Motagua, a must win game if the Galaxy are to advance in the CCL. Clinching it now means that the Galaxy can give the young reserved and subs some much needed MLS game experience before the playoffs begin.
Way to go Galaxy!!
LA! Champions!! WOOHOO!!!