With the hope of winning the league title all but gone, it is time to look forward to the playoffs. A playoff birth is far from guaranteed, but with the ridiculous MLS format we are still in the running. Here's how it works...
The top two teams from both the East and West qualify automatically. After that, the next best six teams go through, no matter what conference they are in. Last year Red Bull New York played in the West, playing in the final against a second Eastern team, Columbus.
To increase the confusion, many teams have not played the same amount of games. Sounders are currently in 5th, but once everyone has played an equal 23 games we could fall as far as 8th. Here is a link to the table:
Current MLS Standings
If the playoffs started today, here is what it would look like..
1. Columbus
2. Chicago
1. Houston
2. LA Galaxy
5. Sounders
6. Chivas USA
7. Colorado
8. New England
So how many more points do we need to secure a playoff birth? Was a good result in Houston the beginning of a strong push for the post season?
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I thought it was the top 2 in each conference, then the remaining top 4 teams, for a total of 8? I'm pretty sure nobody gets a first round bye.
ReplyDeleteAs for how many points we'll need... everybody plays 30 games, so we have 7 games left. Chicago is currently on pace to finish with the most points - 53 points at year's end (they are averaging 1.8 points per match). I don't want to do the math right now, but my guess is that 47 or 48 points puts you in the playoffs comfortably. So SSFC needs to get 14 points from their remaining games. That requires a lot of wins over the next 7 games. I'm hoping that the parity in the league means that 45 points will get us in. That's a much more realistic number for us. It might even be a more realistic number if I were to look closely at the schedules, since I'm sure several of the top teams play each other as the season comes to a close, making it impossible for ALL the teams in the playoff race to be making positive strides.
As for the Houston game, I am hoping it was a sign of things to come. We saw Ljungberg's importance to this team once again. Here's to hoping his hypoglycemia will now be properly cared for and he'll be healthy going forward. A win this weekend, and I think we might be able to start a little bit of a streak.
Touch it Luis, math was never my strong suit. I meant the top two from each conference +4.
ReplyDeleteLjungberg! When he plays he always gives the most effort on the team, which made his absence from so many games surprising. I believe his excuse, and now that he can plan around it we will get the most out of him. How embarassing is it that he missed games because the team didn't feed him properly?
45 points would ensure yhat we make the playoffs. I took a look back over previous seasons and the magic number appears to be 40. If we meet in the middle at 43, then we need 3 wins and a draw in our last seven.