Today's News,Sunday, Feb.15

[denime]

Mornin'

Not so fresh news, but for some of us still the news ;)

Reds end week in Florida
TFC play two games against New York

Toronto FC wrapped up the week in Florida by playing two 50 minute games against the New York Red Bulls on Friday afternoon. The contest was designed to give as many players as possible the chance to have 50 minutes of competitive action.

Read more (http://toronto.fc.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20090213&content_id=217779&vkey=news_t280&fext=.jsp&team=t280)


Vitti scores in his first game
Argentine striker gets goal in 2-1 win

Toronto FC won 2-1 in the first of two 50 minute games against the New York Red Bulls in Bradenton on Friday afternoon. The Reds made an impressive start with two goals in the first 15 minutes, including a strike from Argentine forward Pablo Vitti who was making his first appearance for Toronto. Vitti gave the Reds a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute after a move that included Marvell Wynne and Chad Barrett. Wynne played a through ball for Barrett to run onto and he fed Vitti who finished well past Red Bulls 'keeper Danny Cepero.

Read more (http://toronto.fc.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20090213&content_id=217752&vkey=news_t280&fext=.jsp&team=t280)



SUNSHINE (http://www.torontosun.com/sunshinegirl/)

[London]

old, news yes, but still good news!!

it only took 13 minutes for our strike force to get it going!!

[Blazer]

Pronounced "Vit-teee" ??? Like fity cent?!

[Damien]

An A-Ok idea to improve the MLS Cup playoffs (http://24thminute.blogspot.com/2009/02/a-ok-idea-to-improve-mls-cup-playoffs.html)

At about 3 a.m. Saturday morning I found myself watching the A-League major semi-final on my favourite p2p site (which I won’t be linking to because I don’t want it to disappear). I actually watch quite a bit of Australian soccer, likely because I’ve always sort of thought of the Aussies as Canadians with better accents.

Australia also represents what many in Canada feel this country could be in international football if it ever got it’s stuff together (as is required by the Voyageur’s I will now link to the Crawford Report (http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/2003-Report-of-the-Independent-Soccer-Review-Committee). Sack the CSA!)

The Melbourne Victory won 4-0 to defeat Adelaide United 6-0 on aggregate. The win moved the Victory through to the Grand Final.

However the purpose of this post isn’t to talk about my strange fetish with a foreign league that is likely of a lower standard than MLS. Rather it’s to use it as an opportunity to talk about said league's spectacular playoff system.

Let’s get one thing out of the way off the top. The MLS Cup playoffs aren’t going away (you purists can slink away and reflect on what it is that you are trying to keep pure since there have been playoffs in North American soccer basically forever. Even in Mexico.) So, rather than dreaming of the day when anyone outside of the hardest of the hardcore gives one second's thought to the Supporter’s Shield, a more productive thing to do would be to think about ways to improve the playoffs.

In Australia the top four teams make the playoffs. However, to reward those teams that had a better regular season, the A-League gives an advantage to its top teams Basically if you finish in the top two positions you can win the championship even after you have lost a round.

Let’s look at an example:

This year the top four teams in Australia finished – 1- Melbourne, 2-Adelaide United, 3- Queensland Roar and 4- Central Coast Mariners. But rather than playing off in the 1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3 fashion typical in North America they instead played a major and minor semi –final.

The minor semi-final was between Queensland and Central Coast, the No. 3 and 4 seeds. The loser of that tie, Central Coast, was eliminated.

The winner moved on to play the loser of the Melbourne – Adelaide series, which is called the major semi-final. It’s major because the winner advances straight through the championship game, or Grand Final.

In the Grand Final the winner, in this year’s case Melbourne, will take on the winner of the “preliminary final” between Queensland (winner of minor semi) and Adelaide (loser of major semi).

For the top team in the league not to win the championship it has to be beat twice. That makes it harder for fans of that team to claim that there were screwed by bad luck in a one off game.

Canadian fans might actually be familiar with the system because it’s the same used in world and national curling events. Those that admit to watching curling anyway.

Is it a bit outside the box of typical North American systems? Yep. If it better? I think so. Do you?

[Super Cereal]

I always thought it was more Vee-tee, as in "tree fitty".

[AL-MO]

I think I'll head to woodbine today. . . .

[SoccMan]

I like the Australian playoff format, because it does reward the teams that had a good regular season. Someone should let the MLS know about this playoff system so that they can at the very least consider it.

[rocker]

sunshine girl is pretty good.

[Beach_Red]

Is it a bit outside the box of typical North American systems? Yep. If it better? I think so. Do you?


What I like about the North American playoff system is it is an elimination tournament - win you move on, lose you go home. For sports like hockey and basketball a playoff series will often build ito the best games played all year - and you have to defeat an opponent head-to-head - all those points you wracked up against last place teams during the season don't mean anything anymore.

For the NFL the playoffs "Any given Sunday," can be the most exciting games possible. I know people like the idea of the team that has best managed its year-long schedule to be the champion, I prefer the team that wins when the best two face off.

For soccer I'm okay with the first rounds being home and away aggregate (though in North America it seems a little pee wee), but I like a championship game that you have to win, with all the pressure it brings. Sure, sometimes you can get "lucky," but like all things in life, you have to be good to be lucky.

Right now I think the MLS playoffs are set up the best they can possibly be to increase North American interest in the league.

[Redcoe15]

sunshine girl is pretty good.
Especially when she shows a little camel toe on photo #11 :yum: :drool5: :D

[GBV]

and the dude on the front of the sun -- photo inside too -- appears to be sporting a toronto fc hoodie.

[GBV]

sunshine girl is pretty good.

for some reason my sun doesn't have her as the girl, got some blonde promoting some car thing.

[Stouffville_RPB]

SSG is real nice! Pretty good weekend I'd say.

Let's see if they can win the long weekend triple and give us another good one tomorrow.

Come on Sun!

[JonO]

For soccer I'm okay with the first rounds being home and away aggregate (though in North America it seems a little pee wee), but I like a championship game that you have to win, with all the pressure it brings. Sure, sometimes you can get "lucky," but like all things in life, you have to be good to be lucky.

Right now I think the MLS playoffs are set up the best they can possibly be to increase North American interest in the league.
That doesn't necessarily change with the Australian system (as I understand it). The championship game can still be single game elimination (which I also like). However, it does reduce the likelihood of a better team being knocked out in an earlier round - which rewards regular season play...

[gardooney]

for some reason my sun doesn't have her as the girl, got some blonde promoting some car thing.



I noticed that too.

[Beach_Red]

That doesn't necessarily change with the Australian system (as I understand it). The championship game can still be single game elimination (which I also like). However, it does reduce the likelihood of a better team being knocked out in an earlier round - which rewards regular season play...

It seems like right now there's not a good enough reason to mess with the playoff system in MLS.

If the current system was in place and the salary cap was way higher and the bigger name players and coaches were here the excitement level in this league as the playoffs approached would be amazing. A few more stadiums like the new Red Bull Arena and big media will be jumping on board in a big way and the playoffs will be treated as "an event."

It's hard to imagaine the entire season treated as an event in North America, it doesn't work that way in any other sport, they're all about increasing interest for the playoffs because there's so much overlap during the season. But during their playoffs, whatever league it is, it gets top priority for those weeks - that's the best we can hope for. It might be better if there was some distance from the World Series, but there's not much we can do about that.


I guess it could be the same with this Australian system, but why change now?

[rocker]

Dichio reports on those games versus the Shite Bulls... he says one of those penalties was dubious.

http://www.dichio24.com/blog/?p=149

[Toronto Ruffrider]

So the A-League uses a modified double-elimination format for its playoff games. This seems like a simple enough way of balancing the excitement of playoff sports with the need to reward strong teams for having a good season.