Ah, the "Leagues of Change!"
The USL is right, the aggregate system made for some killer A-League playoff soccer! From the amazing comeback of the Thunder versus the 86ers in the Quarters to the nail biting victory of the Rhinos over the Lynx in the Eastern Conference Final, the aggregate system has given American soccer a much-needed facelift. Gone are the days of the best-of-three series and all its hoopla. Gone is the feeling that one win in a best-of-three series was exactly that: one win. You still had to win again, no matter if you shellacked your opponent 7-0 the night before. Nothing was guaranteed, especially if you were a lower seed. You could still lose two 1-0 games in a row on the road.
Oh, the "Leagues of Change!"
The aggregate system is wonderful-in Europe. Here in the US, it's backwards. Why are we awarding and advancing teams that draw 2-2 at home and then go on the road and don't score and tie? Stay with me for a second…I know what you're all thinking: Where is he going with this? Why can't he just leave well enough alone? Well, my friends, the reason is blatantly obvious: the aggregate system, as cool and forward thinking as it is, needs to be rethought.
Visiting teams that score on the road yet do not score at home in consecutive draws should be given the advantage…not be shunned upon! Think of how hard it is for a visiting squad in the first leg to sometimes muster enough goals to pull even with the home team, or win for that matter. Then, this first leg home team is now visiting your joint. You end in (I hate this term) a scoreless tie. What happens? The home team in the second leg should advance, no tiebreaker needed! Why? Because the second leg home team scored on their opponent's turf in the first game!
Uh, the "Leagues of Change?!?"
What ever happened to the FIFA penalty shootout? I've never heard more confused people (roughly over 8,000) than the group at Frontier Field last Sunday night. It was game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final, Toronto and Rochester locked at 0-0 (1-1 on aggregate from Friday night in Toronto). Explanations abound, I tried desperately to educate my section on the USL's system. If still 0-0, then two 15-minute sudden death overtimes (golden goal rule in effect…yee haw!). THEN…total home goals?!? What the hell?!? Why not PKs? Why do we have to continue to be so different? When will it be before FIFA steps in (they probably won't) and American soccer abides by the rules of everyone else? The USL admits that scoring is not much higher through all its rule changes, and that they've pretty much thrown in the towel on pleasing the average, non-soccer watching American fan. So why not conform? Because the commissioner feels that the world cannot be totally right. One man versus 200+ soccer playing, FIFA law-abiding nations-how valiant. How wrong. How…American?
It's just my opinion, but I could be right
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