Yellow cards in MLS playoffs; the jeopardy rises

So as not to be an over-complainer (the world has enough of those, no?), I’m trying hard to find things I like about Major League Soccer’s new playoff structure.

Well, here’s one:

I haven’t seen a bunch of talk about how an extra playoff game for the wild-card qualifiers would affect discipline matters. See, the old rule of suspension for the next playoff match after two playoff yellow cards remains in effect.

This has never been much of a problem. Teams needed to win just three matches to get into the MLS Cup final, and the slate was wiped clean after conference semifinals. That means players really only needed to avoid getting a card in one of the first two playoff contests. If you were sitting on a card, you could more or less hack away with impunity during a conference final, because rules said players collecting a second caution in the conference final would remain eligible for MLS Cup final participation.

More MLS leniency, more advantage to the brutes … but that’s another matter.

Now, the extra round puts a little more emphasis on members of the wild-cards to behave themselves.

Look at Tim Ream, center back for the Red Bulls. He’s sitting on a yellow card after last night’s win in Dallas. Now, he’s got to defend some of the best attackers in the MLS game while being extra careful not to see yellow. If he errs and collects a card this weekend, Ream will miss the return leg in Los Angeles. Or, if he picks up a card at the Home Depot Center and the Red Bulls manage to survive, he’d miss the conference final.

I’m positive all this it will come into play tonight, too, as a physical Colorado side battles a Columbus side that can dish it out, too.

So, maybe players will think twice before they deliver that blow that some announcers (the bad ones) like to glibly call "sending a message" fouls. (Until one of those "sending a message" fouls breaks an opponent’s ankle, that is. Then the indignity flows.)

As for Ream and the Red Bulls, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. He’s more technician than roughneck. In fact, Ream was 17^th among Red Bulls in fouls, with just 10 whistles all year. He was cautioned only twice in 2011.

I spoke briefly to Hans Backe and to Ream about this last night. They both wondered if perhaps the league should take another look at the rule (two yellows equaling a suspension in the playoffs) in light of the additional round of matches. Then again, both acknowledged that it provides an advantage for teams that are better through the regular season, so neither had a huge problem with it.

Besides, as noted, Ream doesn’t get many yellow cards.

"He should probably get more," Backe said, half joking but surely half serious. "He's a center back."