East Rutherford, N.J. -- If he had his way, New York Red Bulls goalkeeping coach Des McAleenan would revamp the entire MLS playoff structure.
Using words such as sham, rubbish and absurd to describe the current system, McAleenan felt American soccer fans deserved better than the playoffs, questioned the value of a 32-game season that eliminates only four of 12 teams before the playoffs and wanted a single table instead of two conferences.
"One of the things about this league, I hate the way everybody starts talking about the wind down of this season," he said earlier this week after practice at Giants Stadium. "This whole league has no value. As a coach, I lose interest in this league. I think it’s a sham, the whole thing. I think they have to have a radical look at the way they do this. This whole playoff business and stuff is rubbish."
So, what would McAleenan, who is finishing his sixth year as Red Bulls goalkeeping coach, like to see changed?
"I would like to see a championship called for one table," he said. "And then, if they want to have an MLS Cup, the bottom four teams don't make it and then you call the playoffs -- the MLS Cup. But do a PR campaign that the public clearly knows that the clear emphasis, the prestige, is based on the marathon effort. If you can win both, then it proves you are the team who has an edge and who can win knockout competitions as well. . . . It has to be sold and packaged differently.
"I don't buy into this . . . (B.S.) that Americans don't understand a league table, that they're used to playoffs and stuff. It's nonsense. The people who come to our games . . . will have Fox television, will have Goal TV. They understand what a championship is and they understand that in every country there is a championship, that is more prestige, and there is a knockout competition called the cup. They don't have to be spoon fed like idiots and (have it) explained to them."
McAleenan was not finished.
"And the casual observer, trust me, is not tuning in at the end," he added. "You're not going to catch any casual observers at the end of the year because you've got professional football and you've got amateur football, in the form of college, you've got your baseball playoffs. We're not going to win over casual fans.
"I think we need to fall in step with the way things are done everywhere."
McAleenan would love to see the regular-season champion rewarded.
"There would be more prize money for the MLS championship, which would be the marathon," he said.
He then criticized the fact the league compensates teams that finish out of the playoffs, calling it "stupid stuff. Allocations for the losing team. Where in the world is there a team that fails to succeed and loses miserably gets more money? It's absurd. It’s absurd."
As for Saturday's showdown against the Kansas City Wizards at Giants Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, McAleenan said had the Red Bulls played better earlier this season, they would not have been in a must-win situation. McAleenan obviously was talking about all those draws the Red Bulls accrued in the early going, squandering points.
"I don't see there's any added pressure because we have to win this game," he said. "We should have taken care of business a long time before this. The fact that we've come down and we have to win the game, I don't buy into this or the importance of this game. Obviously it is important. But you can go out and get a result or you can't. End of story. We should have taken care of business long before that."
Michael Lewis can be reached at BigAppleEdit@aol.com.
