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The North American Soccer League announced this week that they are changing the format of their postseason play with immediate effect in preparation for the 2014 season. The league introduced a new four-team playoff-type system that will replace the lone Soccer Bowl game following the regular season.
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The split-season format will remain the same, however along with the Spring and Fall Season champions, the next two teams with the best overall records in both seasons combined will join them in what the NASL is calling “The Championship”. The teams will be seeded accordingly and will play in the Championship Semi-Finals a week before the Championship Final, in which the winner will take home the 2014 NASL Soccer Bowl trophy.
Some other aspects of the change to keep in mind (verbatim from the NASL Press Release):
• The NASL Spring Season and Fall Season champions will each host a semi final.
• The number one seed will be awarded to whichever of the Spring or Fall champions posts the better combined regular season record.
• The number three and number four seeds will be awarded to the next two clubs with the best overall records from both seasons combined.
• Clubs will retain their seeding throughout the postseason.
• The top-seeded semi final winner will host The Championship final.
• If the same club wins both seasons, the clubs with the second, third and fourth best overall records from both seasons combined will qualify for The Championship.
This announcement looks to have kick-started a much needed change for the still young league. After opening the re-branded NASL, the league went with a playoff format for its first couple of seasons before strangely changing to the split-season, lone championship game format in advance of the 2013 season. Perhaps it was the newly appointed commissioner at the time, Bill Peterson, trying to make his mark, but the split-season format did not go down well with fans and even some team personnel in the league. Most saw it as an unfair reflection of who actually had a better season in 2013. Atlanta surprised and won the 2013 Spring Championship before coasting in the Fall Season, losing momentum, and ultimately losing to the Fall Season Champion New York Cosmos in the Soccer Bowl. Aside from this, the Carolina RailHawks who were the best and most consistent team from April to November were left in the cold following the end of the regular season.
Its most likely no use trying to figure out why the split-season format was implemented last year (conspiracy theorists will tell you that 2013 was always set up for a Cosmos championship from the beginning), but its worth exploring the positives that came out of the NASL adjusting its season format this past week.
The easiest “plus” to pull from the new playoff format is simply: competition. This format keeps more teams in the chase for longer, creating better storylines and more mouth-watering matchups towards the end of the season. Entering the 2013 NASL Fall Season, teams were basically understood that only one team had a chance to make it to the postseason, which was simply a Super Bowl type championship game. One team. Two could have potentially made it if Atlanta won the Fall Season like they did the Spring, but that remained unlikely. Under the new format, the teams will enter the second half of the season knowing that THREE teams have the opportunity to make “The Championship” and win a trophy. It also entices teams to be more competitive over a longer period of time. Teams can no longer coast during one campaign and go for it all in the other (unless of course they are able to claim a Spring or Fall title). A good level of consistent play will be needed to make the semi-finals, rewarding teams like Carolina last season that, again, saw no recognition for being the best overall club in 2013.
Another positive of the change is that the 2014 Spring Season winner will not host the championship game. The strange split-season that will be around in 2014 (supposedly to accommodate the World Cup) sees only nine games for each team in the Spring Season followed by the rest in the Fall. This would mean whoever finished atop the standings in a short span of games would earn the right to host the championship game, despite proving nothing about their consistency over the course of the season. The new format eliminates this horrible scenario, and now introduces seeding in “The Championship” that will determine who hosts the final matchup between the last two remaining teams.
The change also presents an opportunity to remove the split-season format following the 2014 season. It is strictly speculation, but this first move could signal the first of a couple of steps to re-institute a playoff type format along with one season without a “break” in between two halves. After this season, the league won’t have the World Cup to use as an excuse to break up the campaign, potentially paving the way for the split-season’s removal altogether.
One negative of the change that seems to have been brought up by fans more than once is how the playoff format continues to distance the itself away from traditional European league formats across the Atlantic. Fans of the beautiful game stateside are normally used to watching some of the world’s best soccer in Europe via their television sets and notice that most of those leagues play in a table-style season format with no playoffs, and a champion that finishes atop the standings at the conclusion of the regular season. While this is the traditional way to do things, since when did every soccer league in the world have to strive to follow that format? This is America, and in America fans love their playoffs. The so-called “big sports leagues” in the states have made a killing by pumping and promoting their exciting playoff matchups. So why can’t American soccer join in on the fun? There is a reason why MLS is doing it. Americans tend to lean towards favoring the playoff system, so why be something that you’re not and adopt a European style season format? Americans like to put their own spin on most things any way (I’m looking at you, pizza.)
Overall this move from the NASL looks to be a step in the right direction to creating a sustainable and entertaining season format for the majority of soccer fans that follow the second tier. We will never all be in agreeance on how the format layout should look, but the NASL’s decision to eliminate the lone Soccer Bowl match and add the Championship playoff series should pay more dividends than not in 2014.
(image courtesy of Andrew Snook/NASL)
