Article by Jean Luca Mascaro
With the playoffs set to begin tonight, let’s take a look at the season that just transpired. The season began on March 6th and ended on October 23rd 2016. It was a season that saw New York Red Bulls’ Bradley Wright-Phillips finish as the top scorer in the league with 24 goals but David Villa of New York City FC finished a close second with 23 goals. Sacha Kljestan ended the season as the top assist man as he provided 20 assists during the 2016 MLS season. Without further delay, let us take a closer look at both conferences: the Eastern and the Western Conference.
Eastern Conference:
The Eastern Conference saw the New York Red Bulls led by Wright-Phillips’ 24 goals and by Sacha Kljestan’s 20 assists, finish first in the standings. Not only did the Red Bulls have the top scorer of the league and the top assist man too but they also had the goaltender who kept the most clean sheets. Luis Robles of the New York Red Bulls ended the season with 11 clean sheets which was one more than Chris Seitz of FC Dallas who ended the season with 10.
New York City FC finished second in the standings thanks to David Villa’s 23 goals and Adrea Pirlo’s 11 assists. Pirlo has taken time to adapt himself to the MLS but as the season progressed he seemed more and more comfortable in Patrick Vieira’s system. NYCFC will be hoping that their experienced players (Villa, Pirlo, Lampard, etc. …) can use their experience to put them over the top in the playoffs. With the two top seeds in the Eastern Conference going to New York teams, it was a memorable season for New Yorkers.
Giovinco’s 17 goals and 15 assists allowed Toronto FC to end the season in third place as they proved to be Canada’s top team in the regular season. The other three teams who qualified for the playoffs are: DC United, the Montreal Impact and the Philadelphia Union. Speaking of the Impact, Mauro Biello’s men started off well but regressed as the season went on. Ignacio Nacho Piatti ended up being Montreal’s top scorer with 17 goals on the season. The Impact had a problematic situation with star player Didier Drogba and the team suffered because of it. Drogba had his differences with the coaching staff and did not see much playing time because of it. It is still unknown if he will be playing some starting minutes with the Impact come playoff time.
The four teams that did not qualify for the playoffs are the following: Kaka’s Orlando City, as well as New England, Columbus and Chicago. Speaking of Kaka, he did have a good season and adapted well to the MLS in general. His performances were not enough to see Orlando City make the playoffs.
Here is how the Eastern Conference playoffs will unravel: With both New York clubsgetting a bye week (reserved for the top 2 seeds in each conference), the first playoff round will see third placed Toronto face sixth placed Philadelphia Union. Fourthplaced DC United will square off against fifth placed Montreal Impact.
Western Conference:
The Western Conference saw FC Dallas top the Conference standings with a tally of 60 points. They also finished first in the entire league thus winning the Supporter’s Shield (handed to the team with the best MLS record for the regular season). As previously stated, Dallas’ Chris Seitz had a very strong season ending with a total of 10 clean sheets. Mauro Diaz also had a particularly strong season for Dallas as he provided 13 assists. By winning the Supporter’s Shield, the pressure and expectations for FC Dallas have risen and they have to be perceived as one of the favorites to win the MLS Cup.
The Colorado Rapids finished second in the Conference, in part due to a great team effort. They had an impressive season as they took second place in the overall league standings.
The other four playoff teams were: Gio Dos Santos’ LA Galaxy, the Seattle Sounders, Sporting KC and finally Real Salt Lake. Gio Dos Santos had a very solid season for the Galaxy as he scored 14 goals and added 12 assists. As for Seattle, American football hero Clint Dempsey ended up scoring 8 league goals in 17 appearances for the club.
It was a season to forget for Vancouver who could not find continuity in their game. The same can be said of Portland, San Jose and Houston who all did not make the 2016 playoffs.
This is how the Western Conference playoffs will unfold: FC Dallas and Coloradoare the two top seeds in the Conference and because of it get a bye week. Third seed LA Galaxy will take on sixth seed Real Salt Lake whereas fourth placed Seattle will face fifth placed Sporting KC in the first round of the MLS playoffs.
MLS MVP Candidates:
As the 2016 MLS regular season is now in the books there were many great individual performances: With 24 goals Bradley Wright-Phillips stole the attention but David Villa and his 23 goals cannot be overlooked. Sebastian Giovinco and Nacho Piatti both had very strong seasons in Canadian markets with Toronto and Montreal respectively. The same can be said about Gio Dos Santos with the LA Galaxy and Sacha Kljestan as he racked up an impressive 20 assists on the season for the Red Bulls. Finally, Luis Robles had a good season as he kept 11 clean sheets. All of these players will definitely get some attention when it comes time for the MLS MVP voting.
With the MLS playoffs beginning tonight more fun awaits us as the excitement is starting to build.
Until next time.
Jean-Luca Mascaro (@Calcionews89)
