Going into the decisive second legs of the Conference Semifinals this weekend, it's the perfect time to look back at playoff games past and see what might be in store for the upcoming round the 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs, presented by AT&T.
In studying past matchups, it's worth noting that MLS introduced the two-legged version of the Conference Semifinals back in 2003, after using three legs from 1996-2002. The rule was then adopted for the Conference Championship games, beginning in the 2012 season.
Also keep in mind that all of these previous playoff series were before the advent of the away-goals rule, which was put into effect for this season. This rule is another variable to consider when comparing this year's matchups to those in the past.
Starting off with the New England Revolution-Columbus Crew matchup on Sunday (5 pm ET, ESPN2; get tickets here), many would think that the Crew have little chance of advancing after losing 4-2 at home, and they'd be forgiven for doing so. In four previous instances of teams losing by two goals at home in the first leg, not one of the four has advanced.
In fact, there have been just two times out of 10 when a team has advanced after going down two goals in the first leg. The first came in 2003 when the San Jose Earthquakes lost 2-0 at the LA Galaxy. They returned home and promptly gave up two more goals to their rivals before scoring the next five and advancing in extra time, as you can see in the video above. The other occurrence came in 2004 when the then-Kansas City Wizards defeated the Quakes 3-0 at home after losing 2-0 in San Jose.
Also of note, New England scored four goals in the opening leg at Columbus. This made them only the second team to score at least four goals in an opening leg, the other being Real Salt Lake's 4-2 win over the Portland Timbers in last year’s Western Conference Championship. RSL went on to finish off the series with a 1-0 win in Portland to advance 5-2 on aggregate.
In the other Eastern Conference matchup, D.C. United face a similar uphill climb, though they will look to overturn the deficit in their own home against the New York Red Bulls on Saturday (2:30 pm ET, NBC; get tickets here). Outside of the '03 Quakes and '04 Wizards, the other five teams to win first leg 2-0 have advanced.
Out West, both the LA Galaxy-Real Salt Lake (Sun,. 7:30 pm ET, ESPN2, TSN2; get tickets here) and Seattle Sounders-FC Dallas (Mon., 10:30 pm ET, NBCSN, TSN2) matchups are tied after the first leg. A total of 13 series have been tied after the first leg and the team that hosted the first leg has advance on just five of those occasions.
FC Dallas may be in a slightly better of a position as two of the four times a team drew their first game 1-1 at home they advanced. In contrast in the seven instances that the first leg has resulted in a 0-0 draw, the team that hosted the first leg won just two times. This is where away goals may come into play, though, as Seattle now hold a slight advantage having scored in the first leg in Dallas, while RSL were able to keep the clean sheet at home.
