MLS Relations

Among my other talents, I can name the first thirty-six elements of the periodic table in order, am able to play all twelve major scales on the clarinet, and know all nineteen Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. In case you weren't wondering, skip the rest of this paragraph. In case you were, they are the Vancouver Whitecaps, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, San Jose Earthquakes, Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA, Real Salt Lake, Colorado Rapids, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Sporting Kansas City, Chicago Fire, Columbus Crew, Philadelphia Union, DC United, New York Red Bulls, Toronto FC, Montreal Impact, and New England Revolution. And no, I did not need to go look that up.

With less than ten games and a third of the season to go, the playoffs are starting to become a much discussed topic in MLS circles. Not only is the playoff race closer than it has been for years, but it also changes fans’ relationships with other teams.

[For non-MLS fans – note that I will refer to teams either by their location or by the team name: hence the New England Revolution can be called either New England or the Revolution. This is less applicable to teams whose name essentially is their location, like Toronto FC. This is not applicable for Chivas USA, who are just confusing. Someone tell me what a chivas is. For more MLS/soccer information, read the note at the bottom of the post.]

For a completely hypothetical example: Say a fan’s favorite team, the Colorado Rapids, trade a favorite player to the Whitecaps. This fan starts to follow the Whitecaps to cheer for his favorite player. And then the final leg of the playoff race begins. The Whitecaps hold the fifth and final playoff spot in the conference that the two teams play in, ahead of the Rapids by a mere two points.

That weekend, the Rapids play FC Dallas while the Whitecaps play the Earthquakes. The Rapids fan naturally wants Colorado to win, not only for the three points, but also to keep FC Dallas, who also happen to be in the playoff hunt, from moving any closer toward a playoff spot. However, the Rapids fan temporarily stops cheering for the Whitecaps. Instead, he fervently hopes that the Earthquakes, who are at the bottom of the conference in this imagined situation, upset the Whitecaps. Since the Earthquakes have no chance of making the playoffs, any points they get are points taken from other potential playoff rivals.

The next weekend, the Rapids play the Timbers while the Whitecaps play the Crew, who are from the opposite conference. This has the potential to be even better for the Rapids: if the Crew win, the points they get don’t add to the point total of any team in Colorado’s conference, leaving the Rapids to move up more easily in the standings while also not having any teams below them catch up.

If two teams close in the standings to Colorado play, the Rapids fan hopes they tie. This minimizes the number of points going to same-conference teams. And all of this is indeed playing out live on the MLS website by team fans across the country. All in good fun, right? The Revolution, my favorite team, are still in the playoff hunt at this point, though it’s going to be a close one. If they end up short of points, I’d settle for them finishing over 0.500. This hasn't happened since 2009, before I started following the team, so this would at least be a less depressing end to the season that usual.

Note: MLS teams are divided into two conferences, Eastern and Western. They play a complicated schedule that I won’t get into, but it comes down to all the teams playing each other at least once. When a team wins a game, they get three points. Tying a game gets each team a point, and losing is worth no points. At the end of the season, the five teams in each conference with the most points make the playoffs. At that point, they start the equally complicated system of deciding which teams play each other in the playoffs, all culminating in the MLS cup.