image stolen straight from mlssoccer.com
Chicago Fire vs Houston Dynamo Eastern Conference Knock-Out Round
Winners go on to face Sporting Kansas City
streams: espn3, rojadirecta, atdhe, firstrowsports
This is up early because I'll be at the game, but also because I'd like to use this post as a general discussion post for this past season/the up-coming play-offs/any questions people have about the MLS.
So _fb! Who do you think's going to hoist the MLS Cup? Who do you want to win? Who's your league MVP? At what point will the Seattle Sounders crash out, thus dooming their fans to another year of consoling themselves with their three US Open Cups? How does that chant about NYRB not having any silverware go again? Is the potential joy of having another snapshot of Becks with his ass hanging out diminished by his ubiquitous H&M ads?
For those of you just joining us in the merry land of MLS:
San Jose Earthquakes won the Supporters Shield (or what you non-play-off having Europeans would call "the league") after Goonies'ing their way to 66 points. The Quakes' star striker Chris Wondolowski of never-quite-made-it USMNT almost-fame also won his second Golden Boot and tied the MLS record for most goals scored in a season (27).
Since San Jose placed first in the west, they'll play the winners of tomorrow's Western Conference knock out round between the LA Galaxy and the Vancouver Whitecaps. So they'll be playing LA.
And I am already bored explaining the play-off format. So here it is from Wikipedia:
"For 2012, the league's previous system of "wild card" qualification—which had the potential for "crossover" series in which one team could play in the other conference's bracket—was scrapped. Instead, the top five teams in each conference will qualify for the playoffs and the two conference brackets are entirely separate. The First Round of each conference is a one-off match between the 4th and 5th place teams, similar to the previous wild card system, with the 4th-place team hosting. The First Round winner advances to play the conference's top seed in the Conference Semifinals.
Conference Semifinals and Conference Championship series are conducted in a home-and-away aggregate-goal format. The lower-seeded team in the Conference Semifinal hosts the first game, and the higher seed hosts the second. If the teams are tied after two games, a 30-minute extra time period (divided into two 15-minute periods) will be played followed by penalty kicks, if necessary. The away goals rule or golden goal is not used.
In the case of ties in the First Round and MLS Cup, extra time and penalty kicks are used in the same manner as above."
And here is the bracket! Who you got?
Disney Prince and current Chicago Fire player Arne Friedrich thanks you for your time. ♥