Despite the unbalanced nature of the 2012 Cascadia Cup, the three biggest supporters groups of the Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps elected to have each game count equally toward the trophy.

Various options had been discussed, such as counting just one home game for each team or weighting road results differently, but there was apparently near universal support to make the competition's rules as straight forward as possible. In a poll of ECS members, 88 percent supported having every game count equally toward the Cascadia Cup.

That said, the joint release did note frustration that the six games were not scheduled in as equitable a way as possible.

"It’s unfortunate that the league didn’t work out a balanced schedule for the Cascadia teams," says Garrett Dittfurth of the Timbers Army. "We think the league should fix this for next season so that no team has an unfair advantage in Cup matches."

In the event that there is a tie in total points earned, goal-difference in games between the tied teams would be the first tiebreaker, followed by total goals scored. If the teams are still tied, the same criteria would be applied to all Cup games. It is worth noting that at no point does road performance come into the tiebreaker scenario.

"Cascadia is home to the oldest and strongest rivalry in North American soccer, and the value that the supporters put on the Cascadia Cup reflects that," says Greg Mockos of the Emerald City Supporters. "The league should pay attention."

Full schedule after the jump

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For the last two MLS seasons 'strength of schedule' wasn't really a meaningful concept. With a perfectly balanced schedule, the only differences in schedule strength came from the fact that teams didn't have to play themselves (good for Seattle, bad for Vancouver). But now that the new era of unbalanced scheduling has arrived, it's worth looking to see who's facing tougher competition and who's getting off light.

To calculate strength of schedule, I started by taking the split home and away Point Per Game totals for each team. Note that it's very important to look at home and away PPGs separately. It'd be hard to overstate how big the gap is between home and road performance. Last season the LA Galaxy ran away with the Supporters Shield with a 1.97 PPG, but their away PPG was only 1.53. That was second in the league to the Seattle Sounders absurd 1.88 away PPG, but it would have only been tied for 13th as a home PPG. LA's away results were the same as the home results of the Chicago Fire, who didn't even make the playoffs. That makes a big difference when comparing facing the Galaxy twice in Seattle versus facing them twice in Carson. Also note that we don't have any data for the Montreal Impact. I set their PPG as the average of the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps results to get a reasonable 'average expansion team' value. Once I had the PPGs I just applied them to each game on the schedule for home and away and averaged the results.

In the process I also calculated the distance theoretically traveled by the away team in each game. This is a very rough estimate that just calculated the great-circle distance (i.e. as the crow flies) from stadium to stadium. It doesn't take into account actual flight routes, potential road trips that would move from one away venue directly to another, etc. (Note: mileage is for one-way travel.)

The results and some thoughts are below the cut:

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It's almost that time again, folks. Another team is going to enter the hallowed land of MLS and in doing so they're going to take some of our stuff. And don't kid yourselves. Unless the Seattle Sounders and the incoming Montreal Impact work out some sort of deal, we're going to lose a player. Seattle's a tremendously successful and deep franchise and the list of players that have played significant minutes in big games this season is much more than 11 deep, which is all we get to protect.

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Sigi Schmid put out what looks to be his First XI in a game that didn't matter for the Seattle Sounders. As preparation for the MLS Cup Playoffs the match against Chivas USA was solid preparation, except for the possible injury to Mauro Rosales. On goal one Mike Fucito played the target role drawing three defenders before bouncing the ball out to James Riley who popped it up and over to Fredy Montero in a one-on-one. Montero's threat was quickly recognized so Andrew Boyens closed in quickly. Fredy's attempt to shoot at the far post went off of poor Boyens' heel and the scoring was opened. Once that happened Seattle got to play the open free game at which they excel. The Alvaro Fernandez goal off the great vision of Brad Evans was a prime example of just the type of counterattacking play at which Seattle can shift into and thrub a team. By the way, for all the talk about MVP candidates like Montero, Rosales and Osvaldo Alonso there's a certain left mid with 11 goals and 5 assists in all competitions as well. In what seems a recurring theme Montero's passing vision was again displayed and he earned his 11th all competitions assist matching last year's total with at least two games to play. Sammy Ochoa dove about three feet about the ground and scored a Pemco (header to a nutmeg to a goal).

For a scoreline that seemed quite dominant the statistics give insight into how possession changes on the road, particularly when the road team goes up a goal and is willing to counter-attack to confirm the win. Chivas controlled possession, was the better passer and in somewhat shocking news won more duels. Also tucked in the stats is the little fact that Seattle not only had only one block, but they blocked 7 shots. The defense is wants that shutout badly and refused to make the errors that have popped up recently, while also providing Kasey Keller a little extra help.

Sigi's number one concern, as demonstrated in post-game quotes is team health, particularly Rosales. At some point today his health will be evaluated and the need for an MRI will be discovered. Schmid mentions that it may have been more fear and caution than actual injury. Sammy Ochoa shares his pure joy in playing with players willing to share the ball, especially on a day when he played in front of dozens of friends and family. Keller though reminds us all that the only thing that matters now that the Sounders have been one of the best regular season teams in history is a 4 game tournament, a trip or two to LA and making this good season great.

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The Seattle Sounders had two main goals when they paid Chivas USA a visit on Saturday with nothing to play for standings-wise: work Mauro Rosales back into the lineup and get out healthy. Somewhere else in the list of priorities was finally beating Chivas USA at Home Depot Center and heading into the playoffs on a roll.

Despite the Sounders winning 3-1 and generally looking good doing it, the game was far from a ringing success. Rosales was stretchered off the field following a hard tackle by Ben Zemanski, and although postgame comments made it sound like it might not be serious, we still don't know for sure. Even if he's perfectly fine, the Sounders will still go into the playoffs with Rosales having played just 32 minutes since Sept. 17. Clearly this was not the best-case scenario they were hoping for.

What we do know now is that the Sounders will face Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference semifinals. The series will open at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m. with a likely return leg on Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 8 p.m.

The Sounders and RSL split a pair of games this year, with each team winning 2-1 on the road. This is probably not a great matchup for either team, but the Sounders are undeniably in a better run of form.

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Facing a team that fell well short of their goals for the season the Seattle Sounders have the opportunity to have essentially an intense scrimmage to prepare themselves for the coming MLS Cup Playoffs. It isn't that Chivas USA has been bad per se, just not mediocre enough to sneak in the playoffs. Their goal differential on the year is an even zero and plus four at home. Their relatively solid defense grants the Sounders an opportunity to finalize playing time decisions for the upcoming Western Conference Semi-Finals.

The Seattle defense though does have specific issues to work on in this game. Mistaken passes in the backline, attempts at offside traps and set-play lapses that have occurred recently must be stopped prior to the Playoffs. The Goats are good at crossing the ball and scoring (11 goals, +6 GD) which should help refine those points of need. They aren't a good set-piece team (9 goals for, +1 GD) but real practice is already better.

In the end this game is good for three things - permanent records of greatness, refining the few weak areas the Sounders have and staying healthy and fit. There's no lineup card, because so many different angles could occur for both teams. The projections would be less than guesses. There are small battles at two starting roles. Mike Fucito and Sammy Ochoa can use this match to show who gets the 60+ minutes starting (though that may still be a tactical choice), while Leo Gonzalez' and Tyson Wahl's 50/50 battle for starts has to be settled prior to the short Playoff run. At the end of the evening Seattle will know it's first round opponent.  Real Salt Lake v the Portland Timbers and FC Dallas at the San Jose Earthquakes will determine when and where Seattle plays next weekend.

The game is on KONG 6/16 and 97.3FM with Arlo White on the call at 7:30 PM

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Amid all the hoopla surrounding the Seattle Sounders' best-in-the-league offense, there has been another somewhat underreported story: their defense has been pretty darn good, too. Just four teams have allowed fewer than the Sounders' 36 goals and they are on pace to have a slightly better defense than the one they had a year ago.

Across all competitions, the Sounders have allowed 45 goals in 45 matches. Only the Los Angeles Galaxy with 33 goals allowed in 40 all-competition matches have allowed fewer per match. 

If you look closely, though, the Sounders defense has shown some recent signs of decline. While the 10 goals they've allowed in their past eight matches are not, in themselves, cause for concern, the way they have been allowing them is a bit disconcerting.

"I think the last few goals we’ve given up, they’re what I called the other night ‘soft goals,’" Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said after practice on Thursday. "We want to eliminate that. We want to eliminate those kinds of errors and those kinds of decisions."

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The Seattle Sounders travel down to the Home Depot Center to face Chivas USA. Each team could really just consider this a 'super reserves' game. For the Sounders it will be preparation for the MLS Cup Playoffs and the ultimate goal of the 2011 team, the MLS Cup. For Robin Fraser with Chivas it will be another chance to make decisions about next year's talents. Oddly, the two teams actual reserves face off on Sunday. By the end of the weekend both teams will have seen as much as they can towards making decisions about their protected lists, pick up options, work on extensions and any off-season moves. Seattle of course will still be going to the Playoffs, but one of the advantages of the split between GM and Coach is that one can focus on the now while the other focuses on the future. Alicia from The Goat Parade answers three questions as the Rave Green head down to Chivatown USA.

SaH: What has the impact of Robin Fraser been on the team and community?

tGP: Fraser has been a good coach this season. While the conclusion to the season was disappointing without a berth in the postseason, I think there were signs of improvement over the course of the season and compared to last year. The problems this season were not because of Fraser, but because this team needs more talented players in a number of positions. In fact, I think a good case could be made that the team overachieved for much of the season, in large part due to Fraser and his ability to bring the team together and play as a unit.

While Chivas don't get a great deal of publicity from the wider sports media in Southern California, my sense is that the fans are behind Fraser as the coach and are pleased to have him. In fact, frustrations that some fans have voiced this season as the team passed on player after player in the allocation order seemed to worry that the bizarre decisions made by the front office would alienate Fraser and cause him to walk. There's no indication that he's fed up, but he keeps his emotions in check so I suppose it would be difficult to know how he felt on personnel decisions. But the support of the fans has been unwavering towards Fraser, and as one of the most important members of the organization we couldn't ask for much more from him.

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