Playoff Soccer

I would really like to title this post PLAYOFF SOCCER!!! but that would probably scare off my three remaining readers. The fact remains, however, that the time has come for the New England Revolution to return to the MLS playoffs for the first time since 2009. Thanks to the MLS Free Stream of the Week, I got to watch the Revolution’s last game of the regular season against the Columbus Crew. This game not only closed out their regular season, but also determined whether or not they would have a postseason.

Going into the final weekend of regular season play, the Revolution, Houston Dynamo, Montreal Impact, Chicago Fire, and Philadelphia Union were all fighting for three playoff spots. Both the Union and Impact lost on Saturday, putting the Revolution, who were playing on Sunday, in a favorable position to make the playoffs. Right before the Revolution played, the Dynamo won their game, meaning that the Revolution had to win to advance to the postseason.

This was the game I got to watch. It was mildly terrifying, but midway through the first half, the Revolution scored. Somehow, they held on to the lead through the second half. Then the amount of stoppage time went up on the scoreboard. Some background as to why the next part is significant: a couple weeks earlier the Revolution were playing the Red Bulls. They were leading 2-1 when a Red Bulls player pushed a Revolution defender into his own goalkeeper, causing the defender to be sent off the field to receive treatment to stop the bleeding. That’s standard procedure – if a player is bleeding, he can’t be on the field playing. What wasn't standard was that the injury occurred during stoppage time, which then ran on to seven additional minutes of play. Seven. Not the usual three or four. Seven minutes. During which the Red Bulls scored an equalizing goal, leaving the Revolution two points farther from a playoff spot.

After that debacle, we come to the end of the Crew game. Knowing that anything less than a win would leave them out of the playoffs, the Revolution were a few short minutes away from claiming a playoff spot. Or so they thought. Stoppage time comes up on the board: eight minutes. Apparently, there was a great reaction from the Revolution bench, but it wasn't on the broadcast. The amount was completely justified by the number of injuries and substitutions, but the potential for disaster was high. Then, approximately seventeen thousand long balls and no goals later, the final whistle sounded, sending the Revolution into the playoffs for the first time in five years.

Tonight, the Revolution take on Sporting Kansas City. They have not scored against Sporting KC in the last 501 minutes the teams have played. Let’s hope they don’t make that 591.

As for me, I played a little playoff soccer of my own for my house team a couple weeks ago. In Cornell intramural soccer, any team that finishes the regular season winning at least half of their games moves on the playoffs. We finished the season undefeated, so we got to take part in some playoff games. Our first game was on a Sunday, our usual playing day, and we won that game. We figured that our next game would be in a little while, but on Tuesday morning I was checking the weather and my email before leaving for class and there’s an email from one of the players on our house team. Upon opening the email, I discover that our next playoff game is not, in fact, in awhile, but that evening.

The most surprising part of this whole endeavor was that not only did we find enough players for the game, but for the first time, there were also enough girls to make substitutions. Honestly, I think the games are too short to really need subs, but it’s the principle of the thing. So both teams get to the field and have enough males and females to play. As the game progresses, it appears that this will be our hardest match yet, and sure enough, the other team scores near the end of the first half.

Sadly, we could not overcome the one goal deficit and ended up losing the game, which knocked us out of the playoffs. It wasn't the fact that we lost that was disappointing. I didn't really care about that, because it’s intramurals. It was the fact that it meant our season was over and we wouldn't get to play anymore. Anyone up for a snow soccer league?

With that, I just have one more thing to say on the subject of soccer: Let’s Go Revolution.