Major League Soccer’s official podcast, ExtraTime Radio, recently dished on the wild Decision Day results. During the 75-minute show, hosts David Gass and Andrew Wiebe, along with guest Matt Doyle, touched on how San Jose going for the win in each and every game paid dividends at the end of the season.
Matt Doyle: “What San Jose did is interesting. That -21 goal differential is not indicative of how good or bad this team is. A couple years ago, the league changed the rules where it was wins, total wins, not goal differential, that was the first tiebreaker to get into the playoffs. So Chris Leitch went out there and played like it. Whether it was on the road or at home, this team went out there and played to win and that meant they took it on the chin in a big way on the road, repeatedly losing three nil, four nil, because you play an open game, you run that risk.”
Andrew Wiebe: “And once you go down one or two, you’re throwing numbers forward because you’ve got to get the goals back.”
MD: “But in the end, that didn’t matter. What mattered was they have the spot because they have more wins than FC Dallas. So the structure incentivized playing for the win and the team that went out the entire second half of the season and played for the win is the one that advances. Now you could argue whether that’s fair or not, but it’s the rules.”
Listen to the full podcast below.
LISTEN: You better catch your breath quickly. Just as we've all recovered from arguably the most dramatic Decision Day of all time, the 2017 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs begin with Knockout Round games full of story lines. The guys break it all down and revisit their terrible preseason predictions. Subscribe so you never miss a show! Download this episode!
