Quote:
Originally Posted by ditty
I also feel like Cavalry should have been recognized as the 2019 spring and fall season champions (these were not cup competitions, though). But I don't think the league went back on a promise there. It was clear that the only championship and trophy was going to be for the two-legged final. Theoretically, I did't have a problem with the league format in 2019. I get why the league wanted a playoff final. However, the worst case scenario for the league happened when Cavalry won both the spring and fall seasons. Now the league had to revert to Cavalry playing the team with the next best overall record over the season (Forge). There was nothing sinister about the format; it was announced long in advance of the season. But, it did kind of diminish the final a bit for me. But I don't put an asterisk on Forge's 2019 championship for that reason. Smyrniotis was clear that once it was clear that it was going to be Cavalry vs Forge in the final, he could care less about winning the fall season. This year, Forge finished first in a 28 game league season and they have nothing to show for that. That's just how the cookie crumbles in a league with playoffs. Borges' rescinded red card in the 2019 final was much more of an issue for the credibility of the league, IMO.
One issue I do have from the 2019 season is the way the CONCACAF League spot was awarded. That was totally mickey mouse. But I don't see any evidence of Forge benefiting from special treatment from the league in the 2020 or 2021 seasons. Hate him or not, I think Smyrniotis has built the deepest roster in the league. But his team isn't head and shoulders above everyone else. I don't think there was much of a difference between Forge, Cavalry and Pacific when it comes to each team's best 11. It's gonna be real interesting to me to see how many players each of club is able to bring back next season. With the loss of Farsi and Yao, we might have a little more work to do than the others.
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That's probably all sensible, but a couple things. First and foremost, my sheer dislike of Forge makes me automatically impervious to this train of thought!
Second though, and more serious, is that we all knew what was coming in 2019. I'm sure that if you look back to that thread everyone knew that the league was going to find a way to make sure that Forge got an advantageous shot at the glory. Sure, we were clearly the best team in the league, we won the two season titles, we beat the Whitecaps and made history doing so, but Hamilton was the golden child. The bias has been there since day one, and I still think that was a deciding factor.