Changing the playoff structure

[AreliusIII]

Lovers of the single table philosophy and those who think regular season results should mean everything will probably use the Galaxy's improbable title run as Exhibit A for why MLS needs to adopt the format used in Europe. MLS will not and should not consider such a drastic change.

Why? Because in this country, what matters most is the postseason. What stays in the memories are clutch performances when a championship is on the line. Get it done in the playoffs and immortality can be yours. Dominate in the regular season and fold in the postseason and you become merely a footnote, if you are remembered at all.

For all its faults in the regular season, the Galaxy delivered its best soccer at the most crucial time of the year. Rather than criticize the Galaxy for even being in MLS Cup X, Los Angeles can be looked at in the same way as some of the other American sports teams that emerged from regular season struggles to lift the championship trophy at the end of the year. The 1985 Villanova men's basketball team, the 2003 Florida Marlins and even the 1980 Oakland Raiders, who won Super Bowl XV despite reaching the playoffs as a Wild Card team.

It isn't as if the Galaxy was lucky to hoist the cup. There were no fluke goals or poor performances rewarded with unjust results, which can happen in soccer. The Galaxy went out and beat the best team in the regular season (San Jose) in the first round of the West playoffs, then disposed of the second-best team (New England) in the final. Earthquakes coach Dominic Kinnear can complain about Los Angeles counter-attacking instead of playing soccer, and Revs supporters can point to all the injuries that limited their team in the final, but none of that will be remembered.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=349272&root=mls&cc=5901

Needless to say, I disagree with him. To compare the playoffs to basketball, football and baseball is fallacious. This is the world's sport.

Teams should be rewarded for having the best record after trudging through 32 grueling games, not simply a team's record after 4 post-season playoff matches.

It's ironic that he says, "Whatever the change is, MLS needs to do something to make the long regular season more meaningful." Why not use the most obvious solution and crown the team with the best record instead of trying to mold US soccer into every other US sporting format?

In my humble opinion, the team with the best record should be crowned champion and the top three places would qualify to participate in a western hemisphere champions league tourney.