By
Allen Wagner,
Christian Caple,
Maks Goldenshteyn,
Taylor Soper
November 3, 2009
1. Is it ineffective to have a two-game series in the playoffs of a professional sport? Especially one that allows ties?
Christian: It’s incredibly dumb. It’s bad enough to watch a draw in a regular season game, but then you’re allowed to tie in the playoffs, too? And the winner is determined by who scores the most goals in the two matches? I know we rip on the MLS a lot in this space, but this is just straight up ridiculous. Someone gag me with a scarf.
Maks: What’s that? You actually have the nerve to challenge one of the most illogical playoff set-ups there is? You are just a soccer hater. FC.
Allen: This is a serious critique of the MLS. It’s pretty stupid if you ask me because I happen to think that the World Cup has one of the best formats of any competition. Round-robin play, followed by single-elimination match play. Now that is a recipe for excitement. The MLS is not.
Taylor: I love soccer, but important games that end in ties only happen when Bud Selig is the commissioner. Also, penalty-kick shootouts are one of the most exciting aspects of soccer, so why not include them in the playoffs?
2. Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes was suspended for the first half of the Gators’ next game for trying to gouge someone’s eyes. Badass, or out of control?
Christian: He and LeGarrette Blount should fight.
Maks: At least Spikes didn’t try to Reggie Evans him.
Allen: Out of control. Did you see him shove his hand in that dude’s eyes? That’s not cool. What’s not cooler is that Urban Meyer only suspended him for half of the next game.
Taylor: It was a Halloween game, and it looked like Spikes mistook the running back’s helmet for a trick-or-treat candy bag. It was like he was trying to find the king-size candy bar in the bottom of his candy stash. That’s the definition of out of control.
3. Doug Barron, a PGA Tour member, tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Who’s going to be the next athlete in a non-contact sport to test positive?
Christian: Phil Ivey looks pretty roided out to me. He folds a bottom-pair pretty aggressively.
Maks: Mariusz Pudzianowski and everyone one else who competes in World’s Strongest Man.
Allen: I wouldn’t be surprised if professional bowler Pete Weber tested positive. Have you seen the YouTube videos of him looking like a used-car salesman, giving the “crotch chop” to the camera after rolling a strike? Yeah.
Taylor: Michael Phelps, for all the “performance-enhancing” drugs he’s been taking lately.
4. Did you know that Oregon State head basketball coach Craig Robinson is totally related to Michelle Obama?
Christian: You don’t say?
Maks: Wow, you don’t say? And Roeland Schaftenaar is totally related to Doogie Howser, yes?
Allen: I had heard that. But the main difference between Michelle Obama and her husband, and the Beavers, is that Oregon State won’t be winning much this year.
Taylor: I’d pay a lot of money to see Robinson — a two-time Ivy League Player of the Year while at Princeton — go one-on-one with Barack. Watch the “Barack Obama Basketball Mixtape” on Youtube. He actually has game.
Reach all Daily sports reporters at sports@dailyuw.com.
4 Comments
#1 WendellGee
on November 3, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.(Darmstadt, Germany | Unverified Name)
"You actually have the nerve to challenge one of the most illogical playoff set-ups there is?"
Whoever scores the most goals after 180 minutes wins. Most goals = winer. Fewest goals = loser.
If you cannot see the logic in that you should be thankful an institue of higher education has actually let you through their doors.
#2 Jason
on November 3, 2009 at 12:28 p.m.(Box Elder, SD | Unverified Name)
"Also, penalty-kick shootouts are one of the most exciting aspects of soccer, so why not include them in the playoffs?"
a) They're not that exciting. They're basically a lottery, but we haven't found anything better.
b) They are in the playoffs, and used if the teams are still equal on total goals after the second leg, or extra time in the conference final or league final (both of which are single-game knockouts). Which you would know if you'd bothered to look at the MLS website (look under "Playoff Format"): http://web.mlsnet.com/about/league.js...
#3 Rob
on November 4, 2009 at 8:55 a.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name | UW Community)
People like to knock soccer and MLS. That's fine. I get it. Soccer isn't as cool as football. But I think its a little unfair to say that the two leg playoff series is an MLS only thing. While MLS does a lot of things out of line from the rest of the world's domestic leagues - single entity structure, playoffs, cap on number of foreign players, summer schedule - the two leg playoff is not the different. Arguably the most popular club competition, the Champions League, uses it in its knockout stages and even World Cup qualifying has a bit of it - France and Ireland play a two game series on Nov 14 and 18 for a bid to the World Cup.
MLS is different from other domestic soccer leagues in that it doesn't only crown a regular season champion. That sort of thing doesn't sit right with Americans. So they instituted playoffs to be more American. I understand that the current format leads to away teams playing for ties, but this is not the worst thing in the world. An inferior team will have to be better over the course of two games rather than being world beaters on one day. Upsets are great, but playoffs are set up to have 1v2 in the final, so why not make underdogs earn it.
As for PK's - after 120 minutes a tie breaker of some sort is needed. But to say they are the end all of great ideas, think about deciding a bball game by shooting foul shots. Or a college football game by giving the ball to each team from 25 yards out and seeing who scores the most. Oh wait...
#4 ref
on November 4, 2009 at 1:19 p.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
There are two games in the first round so each team is guaranteed to host one playoff game, most leagues don't use a play off schedule at the end of the calendar, they usually end...so the MLS is a weird Hybrid of American & World soccer tournament styles.
-from then on it is single elimination
-90 minutes normal- if still tied
-2-15 minute halves (30 minutes extra)- if still tied
-then pks, anoraking, they're called spot kicks
(pks are only during normal time)
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