Quote:
Originally Posted by accobra_kid
The new format of the tournament is another interesting issue. Most of you are American, so don't get offended, but why is one half of the draw exclusively USA? Is there some sort of historical significance here?
It assures that one, and exactly one team from USA is in the final, and I don't think that's quite right. The two best teams could both be American, or the two best teams could be on the international side of the draw. Yet with this format, we'll never know.
Why don't they produce some sort of pre-tournament random seeding? Wouldn't a large 16-team double-elim work (as opposed to the four seperate double-elims) as this effectively ensures that the cream rises to the top, regardless of what country the top teams are from?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sportsjefe
It's not new. AFAIK there's always been the 'US Championship' and the 'International Championship' and the winners of each play for the 'World Championship'.
Probably makes for better marketing as well. You have no international viewers if 2 US teams make a final, and you have very few US viewers if Curacao plays Taipei in the final.
I've looked into this on Wikipedia. This is has been the format of the finals since 1976: effectively separate tourneys for US and international squads, meeting in a final. In 1975, only US teams were invited. In 1974, and apparently in all the years before that, the tournament was randomly drawn w/r/t country. It looks like the format kinda grew ad hoc as Canadian, then Latin, then overseas teams got added.
As for comparative strength, it seems to run in cycles. The international teams seem to have waffle-stomped all the US teams throughout the 1970s, which may explain the one US-only year. But now the US teams have won five in a row since 2005.
With all that said, I'm sure sportsjefe is right--marketing is the biggest determinant of the format.