So SI.com columnist Steve Davis says MLS' choice of Toronto as host city for the MLS Cup final was a good, but safe choice. He'd rather see the title game be held at the higher seed's home field. How about this Steve? How about MLS get on the same page with the rest of the frikkin world and have a single table and crown the first-place team at the end of the season as champion?
Why does MLS have carte-blanche to skirt FIFA's rules, if not tradition, of making the regular season mean something. Do we need to see essentially the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th-place teams have the same shot at the title as the best team in the league after 38 games? Hell no, Steve.
Our need to Americanize sports is revolting.
I'm no fan of MLS, but I respect the players and the clubs' followings. Red Bull Arena looks amazing and the atmosphere in Toronto and Seattle is on par or better than most European clubs. The problem is that we think being bold is something like Davis' proposal to host a final at the higher seed versus at a neutral site.
How about defining bold as scrapping the meaningless playoffs and playing it out over 38 games like the rest of the world does. Football isn't America's game like baseball where America can define the rules and set the stage. America is a late-comer to the game of football and should acquiece to the same format the majority of the rest of the world follows.
The arrogance of Americanizing football is grotesque. What's next? Shootouts from 35 yards to decide tie games, err, oops, been there done that.
2 comments:
to be fair FMF also uses conferences (or groups) and a playoff system. Not as broad as MLS' but the idea isn't new. Plus many other teams use playoffs for Champions League, promotion, relegation, etc. Hell Argentina's relegation is an average of the past 3 seasons!
the salary cap is probably the most American thing there - and that's only wrt Footy!
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