Quote:
Originally Posted by Fletch
Ok, help me out with this question - why are the early rounds a round robin, the knock out rounds a home and home/total goals, and the finale a single game? That would be like the first round of the NBA playoffs being 7 games, the second 5, the third 3, and the Finals a single game.
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I think the round robin structure mimics the World Cup and is designed to help the cream of each pool rise to the top. Unless a great team goes completely cold, it's harder to get upset in RR play. Thus, they give "minnows" (champions from smaller leagues) a chance, but not
too much of a chance in order to ensure the most exciting teams, players, and the biggest fanbases advance to knockout play.
The knockout round home-and-home and aggregate goals system is designed in the interest of fairness to make sure each team gets a shot at home while keeping the number of games to a minimum. I like how this structure can take a team from winning a round to losing it with a single goal, like the incredibly dramatic second half and extra-time in the Chelsea/Liverpool tie a few weeks back.
Lastly, the finals are played at a neutral site, which ends the need for a home-and-home. Also, I assume they switch to a single match for climactic purposes.
That's why I've gathered in the roughly four years that I've really followed European football--others could have better explanations. Also, to address the comment made above about all of this being too confusing... that's what I've come to appreciate more than anything else about club football. It's just totally different than the US paradigm for professional sports. While domestic sports were starting to get a little stale to me as I have grown older, taking an interest in a new sport with new parameters has given me a nostalgic experience. Sometimes it's almost as though I'm ten years old again learning the obscure rules and traditions, the history of a sport.
Anyway, that's my two cents. Here's to a great match this afternoon. Come on you reds!