One Table, One Winner

After watching tonight's horrific 0-3 loss at RSL, it donned on me why the English game is so perfect.  The promotion/relegation for starters is genius, but on top of that, the one league table is absolute perfection.  A lot of purists have been calling for the one league table for quite some time here in America.  I know, I am a little biased after the beat down my team recieved tonight, but honestly, the Sounders went deeper than any other MLS team in tournament play this year.  Those are added minutes on tired and injured legs.  And yes I know that L.A. would've still won the cup this year in that format, but it makes the regular season matches that much more important.  Take the top four in the premier league.  They have their mandatory 38 games, plus the Carling cup, the FA, and their European matches.  That could be an extra 20 games this year.  Sure, they have a lot more depth than any MLS squad, but when the games count, their star players are in.  This year the Sounders won their 3rd straigh US Open Cup.  That right there is added games to an already expanded schedule, plus they had their CONCACAF Champions league matches, plus CCL group stage too.  And then, after it is all said and done, they have playoff games.  Let's just assume the Sounders win 4-0 this week, and make it all the way to the cup final.  They would end up playing their 34 regular season games, plus the 14 they played in the US Open Cup, plus the 6 CCL group matches, plus the CCL qualifying matches, plus the 5 MLS playoff mactches.  That's 63 matches in one year.  That's a lot of football, for any team in any league!  Now let's assume once again that the playoffs were abolished, leaving the team with the most points at the end of the regular season the champion.  This would cut down considerably the fatigue, aggression, and possible injuries on the players.  We all know that the MLS isn't the NFL, so the league won't be missing out on too much tv revenue from the playoffs anyway, and it could also be a chance to get some credibility from the rest of the world at the same time.  I mean seriously, we don't even do the aggregate goal thing correctly!  It's supposed to be away goals, but here, it's just accumulated goals.  I love watching the game of football.  I enjoy the English game the most, simply because of the passion the fans have for the game over there.  There is beginning to be that same feel here, especially in Seattle and Portland, but watching a FC Dallas game is just depressing to me.  They have this beautiful stadium, and I swear they only get 600 people to come watch them.  This year the Sounders would have been top 10 in attendance in England.  Where is the love America?  This is why we should adopt the promotion/relagation format once Montreal and the Cosmos enter the MLS.  There are plenty of teams over here for at least 3 divisions.  Then we could also use the one league table format as well.  There will always be cup compititions, and they make the game more fun, but playoffs do not belong in this game.  We do not have to Americanize everything over here to try to make it better.  Some things are just better off how they were.  They don't call it the beautiful game for nothing.