Bracket Set, The Second Season Begins

We had 31 long weeks this season but now the league heads into an American past-time, the playoffs. The Major League Soccer version of the playoffs is still being worked on by the league but this year’s edition is set to be one of the best after how this season went.

It all came down to the final week for a couple clubs to get in. That’s how it should be and it’s how the league wanted it to be. More interesting from week one through 31. It worked and now we should be getting a decent product on the field for the post season.

So after week 31, Kansas City finally got in thanks to a New York loss on Thursday, RSL got in thanks to a late game-tying goal against Colorado, and New York ended up getting in thanks to a DC loss at Columbus.

Here is how the bracket is laid out:

Eastern Conference

(1) Columbus Crew vs. (4) Kansas City Wizards
(2) Chicago Fire vs. (3) New England Revolution

Western Conference

(1) Houston Dynamo vs. (4) New York Red Bulls
(2) Chivas USA vs. (3) Real Salt Lake

Off the bat the Columbus-Kansas City matchup looks to be one of the best. Columbus wrapped up the Supporter’s Shield in style and then in the final couple weeks of the season Sigi Schmid made sure his club stayed healthy and competitive. Kansas City on the other hand for once didn’t stumble into the post season, they made believers out of many by winning some impressive games down the stretch. Sure it may have helped that they got a struggling New England twice in the final couple weeks but wins are wins.

Honestly, I wouldn’t want to play the Wizards right now. But I love this series between them and the Crew, it should be a great one.

The New England-Chicago matchup would have been better had New England not stumbled into the playoffs. They clinched a bit too early and got banged up in the process. Chicago didn’t look much better until they dominated the Red Bulls this past week. For the first time in a while the Fire looked like the MLS Cup contenders that we expect them to be.

Out west is another story. Houston shouldn’t have a lot of trouble with New York as they’ve dominated the Red Bulls over the last couple years. Plus New York didn’t exactly win over a lot of people down the stretch with their play. You could say they got lucky to get in the playoffs.

Real Salt Lake and Chivas should be an interesting series. RSL got into their first post season and you can bet they will do whatever they can to build a big lead at home to start the series.

I won’t give out who I think will win it all from here. I’d like to say I am staying with my preseason pick of New England and Chivas but right now that doesn’t look all that good. But we will see.

What do you all think of this year’s playoffs? What’s a series that will be the most entertaining or one that your looking forward to?