It’s very difficult to actually do legit home/away round robin in most American pro sports given the number of games you can play, the vast plains and mountain range many of the franchise cities from each other, and the number of franchises. Playoffs are the natural consequence.
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It’s impossible in the NFL, but can be done in the other sports - in fact, the NBA and NHL do have every team play at least a home-and-home. They’ve just decided to play more games on top of that and make things unbalanced.
Playoffs weren’t really introduced originally for logistical reasons. The NHL had a playoff when it had six teams! Same with the NBA when it was small in the beginning. People in North America just like playoffs.
I think it has to do with the fact that our pro teams have always been run as business ventures. If you’re a businessman, playoffs make a lot of sense - your most important games are guaranteed to happen at the end of the season, keeping interest alive to the end. In a season-only format, that’s not a certainty.
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It was a good title race. Arsenal are only getting better and City are coming to the end of a cycle, or at least a transition, so the future is bright for Arsenal.
What a stupid way to end the season.
what happened?
United upset City in the FA Cup with a lame duck manager.
Gifted them the first and couldn’t quite claw back. Now Manchester United, Brighton and Chelsea all get to fight over the Ipswich Town manager.
Congrats on the cup victory Erik, have your desk cleaned out by Monday.
Thankfully it means we don’t have to play in the community shield and Sportswashing FC isn’t in Europe
Isn’t every ManU manager perpetually a lame duck at this stage
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McKenna is sticking with Ipswich. Unless they have someone not on the market in line, I’d bet Ten Hag gets another year.
Prepping for the Big Game today, should be a joyful event, will be happy w either winner.
Also yikes, quite a story on Vitesse published yesterday. TLDR: point deductions, crowdfunding, Russian $, it’s complicated. Not a great look for Eredivisie.
I think in America the playoff tradition/culture was born out of different leagues competing. You had the AL and NL as separate entities who then started having their winners play for the World Series. The NHL was originally just one of several leagues that competed for the Stanley Cup. The leagues just kept the tradition of having the playoffs as the leagues consolidated into one entity because it was popular. The NFL originally just used the regular season standings to determine the champion, but it makes sense both they and the NBA would follow the established format of MLB.
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Brutal way to lose schwarzgelben
Don’t really believe in mystique/aura whatever in sports
But Madrid is really testing that
They’re like the villain in a slasher movie
Dead on the ground, you breath a sigh of relief, then suddenly you see rue body’s gone and they’re right behind you
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We still have a ways to go to properly understand the psychology behind sports performance … but Real seems to be a step ahead of everyone else in this. They just know they’re going to win.
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Friendly reminder that Mbappe will be added onto this roster next season. Good luck, La Liga. Yikes…
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The crazy thing is 15 years ago Real Madrid was stuck on 9 and couldn’t get over the hump, even when they had huge stars and massive payrolls.
Like it felt like a mental block in Champions League.
Now, of course, psychology is an undeniable advantage. Of course it helps to draw a team you outspend by double, but others in the same position lost to this Dortmund team, which was weirdly great in Champions League.
Anyway, great team great win, still don’t like Carvajal.
Hearing in November and to last six weeks.
Means the City Championship season won’t be til 2025-26 presumably!