Day -598 WorldCup2018
I am aware that many of my posts do not have any direct connection with the next World Cup, or any World Cup. And I will not even try to make some spurious link. It's a daily football post, mixed in with politics and any significant international events, to mark every day leading up to Russia 2018.
I felt the need to make the justification as I write about the climax of the MLS season, or for Europeans the Beckham/Gerrard/Pirlo league. My local team, Toronto FC, had their best regular season ever and start in the play-offs on Wednesday.
They play one match against Philadelphia, in Toronto, before hopefully progressing to the next round where they play two games, counting the aggregate score. That would be the Eastern Conference semifinal, followed by another two match Conference final. The winners then play the Western Conference winners for the MLS Cup. The final is one match and this year it is hosted by the higher seeded team of the two.
With this long play-off format the final will be on December 10th. At that time of the year it could be pretty cold in Toronto, or New York. And, excuse the pun, that’s putting it mildy. It could be very cold and snowy. Toronto have used their indoor stadium option in the past but I wonder if it will be available, if necessary, on December 10th. I doubt other teams have that possibility.
The MLS are determined, quite rightly, to not only grow the stature of football in North America but also to keep it in sports fans' consciousness for longer. The season runs from the end of March to December. It's not only the lengthy play-off system that prolongs the season. It is what happens to get to that point. There are 20 teams in each conference. They each play 34 games and after all that only 4 teams in each conference are eliminated. Thirty four matches over almost 7 months to determine that more than half the teams in the league move on to what should be the best of the best. Instead, another 6 week season starts.
Hypothetically, and this would be wonderful for Toronto fans, on a a below freezing night in December, after the stadium crew have cleared the snow off the pitch, the local fans who can wave their arms through their 10 layers of clothing will cheer on Toronto in one of the coldest football matches ever played.
The format and the long season is one of the quirks of the MLS. Another one is one I have tried to get my head around before: kick-off times. Yesterday, the final day of the regular season billed as Decision Day, all the teams played and all the matches had to start at exactly the same time. It was advertised for 4pm but I was not surprised when at 4pm I was still watching the studio pre-game show. At around 4.15 they seemed ready to play, and after another few commercials the TFC players were all ready to kick off. There was a bit more standing around as, we were told, the referee was waiting for the signal that all the other matches were ready. At 4.22 the whistle blew. And I wondered: 4.22pm, did somebody in the MLS office in New York really have that in mind as the start time?
TFC's match on Wednesday is listed as starting at 7.30pm but I really don't know what that means anymore. I'm expecting play to start around 7.43 after what TFC officials are promising is going to be a spectacular pre-match ceremony. You see, TFC are celebrating their first ever home play-off match. This whole thing just feels increasingly bizarre the more I write about it.
The forecast high temperature for Wednesday is 6 degrees Celsius. Once the sun goes down and with any breeze coming off Lake Ontario I shudder to think how cold it will be for the fans.
I may shudder at the thought but again, despite my good natured coming-from-a-European fun poking at the MLS I wouldn't mind being there and actually shivering with the 26,000 other fans.
I may still follow European football on TV more than I do the MLS. However, this is the league for me to watch if I want live football. It's what I've got and I'll take it with all its quirkiness. You do have to admire what the MLS has done. When the USA hosted the World Cup in 1994 there was no league. And when USA Soccer promised Fifa they would start a league there were many sceptics. Just over 20 years later it is still growing.
I am aware that many of my posts do not have any direct connection with the next World Cup, or any World Cup. And I will not even try to make some spurious link. It's a daily football post, mixed in with politics and any significant international events, to mark every day leading up to Russia 2018.
I felt the need to make the justification as I write about the climax of the MLS season, or for Europeans the Beckham/Gerrard/Pirlo league. My local team, Toronto FC, had their best regular season ever and start in the play-offs on Wednesday.
They play one match against Philadelphia, in Toronto, before hopefully progressing to the next round where they play two games, counting the aggregate score. That would be the Eastern Conference semifinal, followed by another two match Conference final. The winners then play the Western Conference winners for the MLS Cup. The final is one match and this year it is hosted by the higher seeded team of the two.
With this long play-off format the final will be on December 10th. At that time of the year it could be pretty cold in Toronto, or New York. And, excuse the pun, that’s putting it mildy. It could be very cold and snowy. Toronto have used their indoor stadium option in the past but I wonder if it will be available, if necessary, on December 10th. I doubt other teams have that possibility.
The MLS are determined, quite rightly, to not only grow the stature of football in North America but also to keep it in sports fans' consciousness for longer. The season runs from the end of March to December. It's not only the lengthy play-off system that prolongs the season. It is what happens to get to that point. There are 20 teams in each conference. They each play 34 games and after all that only 4 teams in each conference are eliminated. Thirty four matches over almost 7 months to determine that more than half the teams in the league move on to what should be the best of the best. Instead, another 6 week season starts.
Hypothetically, and this would be wonderful for Toronto fans, on a a below freezing night in December, after the stadium crew have cleared the snow off the pitch, the local fans who can wave their arms through their 10 layers of clothing will cheer on Toronto in one of the coldest football matches ever played.
The format and the long season is one of the quirks of the MLS. Another one is one I have tried to get my head around before: kick-off times. Yesterday, the final day of the regular season billed as Decision Day, all the teams played and all the matches had to start at exactly the same time. It was advertised for 4pm but I was not surprised when at 4pm I was still watching the studio pre-game show. At around 4.15 they seemed ready to play, and after another few commercials the TFC players were all ready to kick off. There was a bit more standing around as, we were told, the referee was waiting for the signal that all the other matches were ready. At 4.22 the whistle blew. And I wondered: 4.22pm, did somebody in the MLS office in New York really have that in mind as the start time?
TFC's match on Wednesday is listed as starting at 7.30pm but I really don't know what that means anymore. I'm expecting play to start around 7.43 after what TFC officials are promising is going to be a spectacular pre-match ceremony. You see, TFC are celebrating their first ever home play-off match. This whole thing just feels increasingly bizarre the more I write about it.
The forecast high temperature for Wednesday is 6 degrees Celsius. Once the sun goes down and with any breeze coming off Lake Ontario I shudder to think how cold it will be for the fans.
I may shudder at the thought but again, despite my good natured coming-from-a-European fun poking at the MLS I wouldn't mind being there and actually shivering with the 26,000 other fans.
I may still follow European football on TV more than I do the MLS. However, this is the league for me to watch if I want live football. It's what I've got and I'll take it with all its quirkiness. You do have to admire what the MLS has done. When the USA hosted the World Cup in 1994 there was no league. And when USA Soccer promised Fifa they would start a league there were many sceptics. Just over 20 years later it is still growing.
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