Incredibly OT: FC Dallas

by SwiperNoSwiping on Nov 4, 2007 8:29 PM CST Comment 6 comments

Can someone please explain to me why FC Dallas lost their playoff series? In the paper today, it said the series was a 2 game aggregate series. Well, both teams won a game and the combined score of the 2 games was 3-3. And if this series was part of the MLS Championship then what in the heck was that game a few weeks ago against the Revolution or the game that LA sans Beckham played here back in July?

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Wow...

a Dora the Explorer userid. That's strange.

by benmor78 on Nov 4, 2007 8:43 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

FCD

Here's how the playoff series works:

2 game aggregate series; if both teams are tied at the end of the second game, they play a 30-minute OT, then if they're still tied, they go to penalties.

Since FCD and Houston were tied, they played the 30-minute OT, and Houston scored twice, so they won 4-2 on aggregate.

The game against the Revolution a few weeks back was the U.S. Open Cup final. It's similar to the FA Cup in England- a tournament that's open to all soccer clubs in the U.S. who are registered with the U.S. Soccer Federation, whether professional or amateur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamar_Hunt_Open_Cup

The game against L.A. was part of the SuperLiga, which is a new tournament. Four teams from the Mexican League and four teams from Major League Soccer are invited.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_SuperLiga

"Then I met some friends for a beer, went to a BoDeans's concert, and son of a vondruke, if I didn't leave him at the concert hall."

by RCCook on Nov 4, 2007 8:43 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Thanks

So the paper did a poor job of reporting it today or I just missed it. What you said makes sense. The other 2 games seem pretty silly to me but if that's what they want to then more power to them.

Oh Man!!!!

by SwiperNoSwiping on Nov 4, 2007 8:47 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Not pointless...

just another way to win a trophy.

Think of it this way in terms of European comparisons...

MLS Championship is comparable to winning the English Premiership. Winning over the long grind of the season. Here depth is key as you'll need depth to play well all season.

US Open Cup (FC Dallas' game against the Revolution) is comparable to the FA Cup. This is a single elimination tournament. You don't really need a deep roster to do well here. Thus, you can have surprise upsets, especially in a single elimination format. Thus, not always the most complete team wins. This is a tournament more suited for a middle of the table MLS team to win. I think this one has like a $500k prize purse. It's also the oldest cup competition in the US.

SuperLiga (FC Dallas' game against the Galaxy, among others) was a tournament where 4 teams from each of the MLS and Mexican First Division play in a group stage, then single elimination format. This would be comparable to the UEFA Champions League on a smaller scale. You have 2 groups of 4 teams play a round robin schedule. Then top 2 of each group advance to a knockout format. This is kind of a mixture of the 2 where depth can help, but also a good team is needed. Starting next season, the top 4 teams based on points in MLS qualify for SuperLiga, Mexico I don't think they've decided how qualification will work exactly yet. This tournament has a $1 million prize purse for the winning team.

Overall, it kind of depends on how your team is made up and what the goals are. If you don't have the depth, you might go for winning the US Open Cup. However, going all out in that would also hurt the MLS performance since it puts more wear and tear on your first team players. If you're going for the MLS though, then you might use the Cup games as a way to break in some of your younger players without hurting your league performance. This way you can see them in game situations incase of injury.

Stars in a Texas Night Sky, a Dallas Stars blog from a fan's perspective.

by rangers85 on Nov 5, 2007 11:43 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

dang...

beat me to it...

by ksf42001 on Nov 4, 2007 8:53 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Well...

I don't know where you're getting the 3-3 aggregate score from, since FC Dallas's website says it was 4-2.

http://fc.dallas.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20071102&content_id=127447&vkey=news_fcd& amp;fext=.jsp&team=t104

The other two games have to do with tournaments that have nothing to do with the MLS season.

The game with the Revolution was the finals of the US Open Cup, which is a tournament for all US Pro/Semi-Pro teams. Of course, most of the lower level teams don't make it far. Tournaments like this are common in other countries, and started here by Lamar Hunt years ago.

http://www.usopencup.com/2005bracket/index_E.html

The game with the Galaxy was part of the Superliga Tournament that was for 4 MLS and 4 Mexican League teams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_SuperLiga

Tournaments like Superliga are a nice way for teams to make extra money, but also means they have to decide whether when they want to rest their best player(s), since you could be playing multiple games in a week.

by ksf42001 on Nov 4, 2007 8:52 PM CST reply actions 0 recs