You can’t script it. The Mariners are willed to victory by Humpy the fish finally winning his first race in the middle of the 15th inning. The crowd chants “Humpy Humpy” as the trident crosses off the ALDS win.
You have to hope that Reyna or Tillman becomes a consistent player by the World Cup so that McKennie can play deeper. None of Adams, Musah, Johnny, LdlT, Berhalter, Roldan, Aidan, Tessmann can cut it in terms of progression and speed of play, you need Wes back there
Weah looked pretty good at RWB, and Freeman had his best RB game I’ve seen him play. Definitely competition at that spot if Dest is available, neither can match what he brings in progression. CB and CM are the biggest worries. Richards is kinda mid and the other options are all worse
Tessmann was better than Morris, but he could have done more. Roldan looked solid off the bench but you can see why he doesn’t start. Balogun is great, we would likely have won had Poch not subbed him for Wright, who is much less coordinated physically
The Arfsten hate is so forced. He shouldn’t be playing LB but at LWB he clearly belongs at the level, certainly moreso than someone like Aidan Morris or Miles Robinson
The whole Alex Freeman thing has to make you question G+ because that dude is not one of the best fullbacks in league history nor is he better than Obed Vargas.
I’m not saying “drop Yeimar immediately“ but his current backup is even older, there needs to be a succession plan, and I‘m going to be annoyed if this team underperforms preseason expectations by 10 points again
From Doyle’s brain to Craig Waibel’s to-do list please. Starting RCB on one of the league’s best defenses, doesn’t require an international spot, solid with his feet, can back up Roldan as a 6. Our starting RCB is 34 next season and has had multiple injuries this year and has already lost a step
The other thing this exercise demonstrates is that the best of 3 R1 playoff format allows extra playoff inventory for Apple and gets everybody a home playoff match with minimal impacts to the actual odds of advancement for favored sides under most values of the homefield advantage factor
So Minnesota is the team you have the best chance of beating in the first round. But they are also the only team you don’t get an advantage from playing in R1 as opposed to a later round. However, those advantages are quite small. Best to play the weakest team and hope for upsets elsewhere
So Minnesota is the team you have the best chance of beating in the first round. But they are also the only team you don’t get an advantage from playing in R1 as opposed to a later round. However, those advantages are quite small. Best to play the weakest team and hope for upsets elsewhere
Would we rather play LAFC in round 1, or later? It’s an interesting question because on one hand, if you think they are much better than us, you’d rather play them in a single elimination than a best of 3. But in the best of 3, you only have to win 67% of the games instead of 100%…
I still think our best bet is to end up on the opposite side of the bracket and have someone else beat them. Best outcome is LAFC finishes 3rd and has to travel to Vancouver or SD in the conference semifinal. They probably lose either >50% of the time
So counterintuitively, you’d rather play them in the longer series than a one-off. But not by much. In changes depending on how you set the single match odds.
