The MLS has one week remaining in the regular season with seven teams chasing three playoff spots. Seattle booked their spot this weekend with a 3-2 win at home over KC that also eliminated the Wizards. They joined the Crew, Chivas, Houston and LA in the postseason. And, also this weekend, Montreal won the USL-1’s final championship, an all-Canadian affair that saw the Impact down Vancouver.
   The MLS games I tuned in to see were, in what may come as a shock our normally Euro-centric audience, well-played and action packed.
  They were also wretchedly refereed.
   One example: In the TFC-RSL match, Terry Vaughn, who has a reputation for abject horridness, blew a clear penalty call that might given a shot to tie the game, when TFC’s Adrian Serioux tackled Pablo Campos, NFL-style. In the game of soccer as it is normally played, that’s a red card (for last man) and a pk. Apparently not in MLS.
    This kind of crass and blatant disregard for the rules of the game is one reason so many folks tune MLS out. MLS refs have been awful for years. And yet, the league does nothing about it, and seems blithely ignorant to hits their credibility takes week in and week out. The recent FIFA Youth World Cup had no USA officiating presence. That's not a coincedence.
   Contrast that to the Premier League, a league about which folks kvetch, because it seems like the same four teams are always hogging the top slots. And yet, every game matters in that league, not least because of relegation and promotion. The other funny thing about the EPL is that when someone in the middle makes a howling error — as Mike Jones did with the “beach ball” goal this weekend at the Stadium of Light — they pay for it. Mr. Jones was swiftly demoted, and while Liverpool is going to have to lump the loss, it’s clear they got hosed.
   Now, another factor is that the MLS players — many of whom are being paid chump change — figure out pretty quickly that the heart of the season’s games end up as meaningless due to theplayoff structure. While it makes for nice marketing to have seven teams chasing three slots into the final week, this also means that the well-played, passionate games are staged in March and April, and September and October. That’s four other months of hum-drum soccer, for those of you keeping track at home.
    These problems could be fixed, but MLS doesn’t seem to want to. They could import refs from abroad, and give some of our more rustic MLSers a sense of what real international play allows. They could also deep-six the playoffs, and make the post-season a qualification-only “league cup.” That would make the mid-season games meaningful, albeit at the expense of a handful of games late in the season.
   I think that’s a fair trade. And I think soccer fans will agree.

DAILY READS

Draw for the UEFA WCQ playoffs:

Rev’s Paul Mariner returns to Plymouth Argyle

Martin Tyler on board for 2010 World Cup coverage

More on the possible USL breakaway

MLS’ “Uncle Phil” under the spotlight

Interesting: How giveaways affect baseball’s attendance


TV
MONDAY
Fulham vs Hull City, 1455, ESPN2
Santos vs Chivas, 2000, TeleFutura (moved from Sunday)

Tuesday
UEFA CL (ALL at 1430)
Liverpool vs Lyon - FSRSns
AZ vs Arsenal - Setanta Sports USA  (SDD 1700 FOX Soccer Channel)
Inter Milan vs Dynamo Kyiv - FOX Soccer Channel
Barcelona vs Rubin Kazan - DirecTV and FOX Sports en Espanol
Debrecen vs Fiorentina - DirecTV
Rangers vs Unirea - DirecTV
Stuttgart vs Sevilla - DirecTV
Olympiacos vs Standard de Liege – DirecTV

WEDNESDAY
UEFA CL (1430 except CSKA Moscow vs Man Utd at 1225)

CSKA Moscow vs Manchester United - 1225 – FSC/FSE/Setanta
Real Madrid vs AC Milan - FSC/FSE
Chelsea vs Atletico de Madrid - Setanta Sports USA  (SDD 1700 FOX Soccer
Channel)
Bordeaux vs Bayern Munich - DirecTV
Juventus vs Maccabi Haifa - DirecTV
Zurich vs Marseille - DirecTV
Porto vs APOEL - DirecTV
Wolfsburg vs Besiktas - DirecTV

THURSDAY
UEFA Europa League
9 televised matches at 1255

Benfica vs Everton - GolTV
Lazio vs Villarreal - DirecTV (SDD 2000 GolTV)
Athletic Bilbao vs Nacional - DirecTV
Austria Vienna vs Werder Bremen - DirecTV
Shakhtar Donetsk vs Toulouse - DirecTV
Steaua Bucharest vs Fenerbahce - DirecTV
PSV vs Copenhagen - DirecTV
BATE Borisov vs AEK Athens - DirecTV
FC Salzburg vs Levski Sofia  - DirecTV

9 televised matches at 1500
Fulham vs Roma - GolTV
Valencia vs Slavia Praha - DirecTV
Celtic vs Hamburg - DirecTV
Lille vs Genoa  - DirecTV
Galatasaray vs Dinamo Bucharest  - DirecTV
AFC Ajax vs Dinamo Zagreb  - DirecTV
Ventspils vs Sporting  - DirecTV
Panathinaikos vs Sturm Graz   - DirecTV
Hertha Berlin vs Heerenveen   - DirecTV

(w/thanks to Oliver Tse)