CASE 020: THE GAME THAT MEANT NOTHING BY JOHN BANEY
CASE 020: THE GAME THAT MEANT NOTHING BY JOHN BANEY
CASE 020: THE GAME THAT MEANT NOTHING BY JOHN BANEY
For the last 10 matches of regular-season play in Major League Soccer, Pascal Jansen asked his players to treat each game just the same: as if it were a final.
Coming out of Leagues Cup, NYCFC’s primary concern was still playoff qualification. Sitting in 8th place, precariously on the playoff’s edge of a deep Eastern Conference, foes like New York Red Bulls, Chicago Fire, and Charlotte FC stood to challenge NYCFC for a wild card place. Catching teams like Columbus Crew, Nashville SC, and Orlando City, who sat higher up table, remained the stated goal - albeit a lofty one.
But, after an impressive run down the stretch that saw NYCFC climb to 5th place, a Decision Day win could’ve moved The Blues as high as 4th place, securing all-important home-field advantage in round one of the playoffs. Simultaneously, a loss could’ve seen them dip as low as 6th, giving City tougher seeding. Of all the 10 “finals” Pascal Jansen wanted his men to play, the 10th was gearing up to be the most vital of them all.
But, 90 minutes later, both teams likely left Citi Field wishing they’d just skipped this match altogether.
Decision Day remains one of MLS’s great traditions. On the final match of the regular season, every team in the Eastern Conference plays on the same day, at the same time. Then, you stretch, hit the bathroom, get some food, grab another beer, and watch every team in the West do the same. It’s the day that determines who’s in the playoffs, who’s not, and just how all that important playoff seeding shakes out. If you’re lucky, there’s still a Supporters’ Shield up for grabs, too.
But on this decision day, there was decidedly less at stake than usual - especially for NYCFC and the visiting Sounders. While NYCFC knew they’d land somewhere between 6th and 4th, Seattle’s fate was set in stone already, destined for a 5th-place finish in the West no matter how their match, or the others around them, unfolded.
As for NYCFC, their fate wasn’t exactly in their own hands. In fact, any movement in the table at all would require results elsewhere to go in certain directions. To finish 4th, NYCFC would need to produce a better result in their match against Seattle than Charlotte could muster in their clash with Philadelphia Union (got that?). To finish 6th, NYCFC would need to lose and see Nashville beat the mighty Inter Miami. As such, the NYCFC faithful needed to keep their eyes on three matches at once to properly triangulate their final playoff standing in real time.
But, there was one permutation that would render the NYCFC vs Seattle game as completely meaningless: a Charlotte win and a Nashville loss. In this case, an NYCFC win would not be enough to catch Charlotte in 4th, and a Nashville loss would ensure they’d gain no ground on NYCFC, keeping the Pigeons safe from 6th, and cemented in their incumbent 5th place standing.
This, of course, was the exact parallel universe in which we all lived on Saturday. By the 67th minute, the wheels of fate were firmly in motion, with Miami reclaiming the lead in Nashville, and with Charlotte sitting on a comfortable 2-goal home lead to a visiting Philadelphia Union side that also had nothing to play for.
The players weren’t to know it, but at this stage, the final standing of both clubs was settled. Messi and friends would go on to eviscerate Nashville 5-2. Philly, still hungover from last week’s Supporters’ Shield celebrations, never threatened Charlotte. And Seattle, who were all-along destined for 5th, served only as “the team playing NYCFC” that day, and suffered the truly unfortunate, and seemingly serious injury to budding star Pedro De La Vega - the worst case scenario in such a contest.
By that point of no return, Seattle led NYCFC by a goal to nil. NYCFC came back to equalize in the 82nd, only to concede from a corner 5 minutes later, and see Seattle lift the invisible trophy, and be crowned champions of the game that meant nothing.
Decision Day is meant to create all the drama soccer could conceivably produce. But on this day, for these teams, it just created a goofy, unique circumstance: truly meaningless football. Just like the pickup games we play at Pier 40, the EAFC games we played in college dorm rooms, or the shots we rifled at empty nets in hometown parks, pretending they were a sold-out Wembley.
Perhaps it's fitting then that a group of professional footballers laced it up in front of 24,000+ to put on an ultimately meaningless show, where everyone pretended it was a “final”.
The pros are just like us, forreal.
