Filed under: FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Kansas City Wizards, Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Major League Soccer's love of conferences will be tested in 2011 by a balanced 34-game schedule, which makes the separate standings pointless, and the addition of two clubs in the Pacific Northwest.It addressed the second problem on Friday, announcing that the Houston Dynamo will shift to the Eastern Conference after five years in the West.
Each conference will have nine clubs, thanks to the arrival of the Portland Timbers and the Vancouver Whitecaps.
The league's reasoning? Houston was the eastern-most club in the Western Conference. Done and dusted.
The move splits the Dynamo with in-state rival FC Dallas (mostly to the north, but slightly to the west), but it won't affect the number of times they'll play each other this season.
Houston's Eastern sojourn may be short. With Montreal entering the league in 2012, MLS will be forced to have one conference with 10 teams and another with nine. Houston easily could return next year, or wait until the 20th club (MLS is targeting New York City), joins the league. At that point, conferences will matter because the schedule will be unbalanced.
Either way, the Dynamo likely won't be spending too much time in the East, and they may not mind. Although the new conference offers shorter flights, it hasn't been as kind on the field. Houston has earned just 1.357 points per game against Eastern foes over the course of its five regular seasons, compared to 1.646 points per game vs. Western teams.
The most recent existing team to switch conferences was Sporting Kansas City, which moved east in 2005.
The problem created by the balanced schedule, unfortunately, remains one that fans will have to live with in 2011. MLS has committed to determining its playoff participants based on conference standings, in part to avoid the embarrassment of seeing a Western team win the Eastern title for a third straight year.
That means the sixth place team in one conference might stay home this fall while the fifth place club in the other moves on, even if it boasts a better record playing the exact same schedule.
It's unfortunate, but it should be temporary. Unless MLS finds a way to add a 13th month to the calendar, it will return to an unbalanced schedule in 2012. At that point, conference standings will be meaningful once again.
Here's the new MLS alignment:
| Eastern Conference | Western Conference |
|---|---|
| Chicago Fire | Chivas USA |
| Columbus Crew | Colorado Rapids |
| D.C. United | FC Dallas |
| Houston Dynamo | Los Angeles Galaxy |
| Sporting Kansas City | Portland Timbers |
| New England Revolution | Real Salt Lake |
| New York Red Bulls | San Jose Earthquakes |
| Philadelphia Union | Seattle Sounders |
| Toronto FC | Vancouver Whitecaps |
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