Poll: Playoffs, Goal Difference or Head to Head?

By: Daryl | December 15th, 2008

The 2008 Argentina Apertura has ended with San Lorenzo, Boca Juniors and Tigres tied at the top of the table. All three teams were hoping to take the title on the final day, but all three won and finished on 39 points. The league doesn’t use goal difference to separate teams, so playoffs it is. And for the first time, it’s a three-way playoff in Argentina.

As with any three-way (get your mind out of the gutter, I was talking about chess, see the picture?) there’s a little confusion over exactly how this is going to work. Here’s all the information Reuters has to offer:

Goal difference is not used to decide the title and a three-way playoff will be held, the first in the tournament’s history, with matches on Dec. 17, 20 and 23.

And that’s why, when you want proper info, you search the blogs.

Hasta el Gol Siempre has the answer:

“The 2008 Torneo Apertura title will be decided by virtue of a three-way ‘mini-league’ (new Spanish word alert: that’s ‘liguilla‘)between San Lorenzo, Boca Juniors and Tigre, who’ve all finished the normal season on 39 points. The fixtures were drawn up on Sunday night at the AFA headquarters. Here they are.

On Wednesday the 17th December, at 18:30 local time, Tigre will play San Lorenzo in the Estadio José Amalfitani, home of Vélez Sársfield. On Saturday 20th, also at 18:30, Boca Juniors will play San Lorenzo in Racing’s Cilindro. And on Tuesday 23rd, Boca will take on Tigre, probably at 21:30, though this has yet to be confirmed. That match will also be in Racing’s ground”.

That’s more like it. So it will basically be like a group stage, but with only three teams. As Jeremy points out on Argentina Offside “All the teams need to do is win both matches and they are champions.” And if they don’t? We’re not sure. But most likely it will be a further playoff between the top two.

It’s a little confusing, mostly because of my unfamiliarity with the Argentinean playoff system. But it will definitely be exciting. A reminder of why some tournaments separate teams using playoffs instead of goal difference or head to head record.

So here’s a simple question for you: which is your preferred way of separating teams on equal points?

Bonus Link: Here’s a fairly comprehensive list of which leagues use which system.

Some Related Stories:

Category: South America

« John Painstil Caught Cheating | Home | IOSS: Jose Teaches Rafa The Game. »

The Offside RSS Feeds

Jeremy

As crazy as it sounds, when the triangular is all said and done, we very well could see it come down to the Apertura standings.

And Ole even hinted that the pairings where fixed, to give Boca a leg up. Six days rest and the possibility of playing a team already out of the running in the last match.
Johnny1987

Man... Playoffs in soccer are whack unless its a proper tourney. i dont even like it in the MLS but thats for a whole 'nother thread. head to head ftw. vamos boca. lets keep it safe.
Sam Kelly

Nelson, it's Boca who get six days' rest. The thought of the AFA favouring anyone over Boca Juniors (and least of all, favouring Tigre over San Lorenzo AND Boca!) is laughable.

To answer one question posted in the original article, if teams are tied on points at the end of the liguilla, goal difference (during the liguilla) will be used, then goals scored, and THEN, if they're still level, results between the teams during the Apertura proper (Boca would beat San Lorenzo on this criteria, whilst Tigre would beat both Boca and San Lorenzo).

And thanks for the link Daryl, glad as ever to be of service!
Daryl

I'm curious about all the people who voted "other". What did you have in mind?
Weston (@wpazzurri)

i was just thinking about this.
normally i would say goal diff and then head2head but playoffs are just an excuse to play some more football so im for it. its out of the ordinary and really exciting.
Albo

Jeremy, according to what I understand, that would be the case only if it were a total tie, including goal percentage stats.
Yet San Lorenzo have +34/-17 goals.
Boca have +33/-21.
Tigre have +31/-19.
The championship should have gone to San Lorenzo.
Jeremy

If they went according to head to head records, Tigre would be the champion because the beat both San Lorenzo and Boca Juniors during the season.
Albo

A triple tiebreaker for the 08 Apertura title of Argentina takes place during this week, between San Lorenzo, Tigre and Boca Jrs.
It really doesn't matter much to me how do they separate teams with the same amount of points.
Aside from the uniqueness of this finale and the logic used to resolve it (San Lorenzo should have been the champion for better goal percentage), there are certain positive connotations I see worth mentioning.

The first is the high degree of competition between clubs of different economic situation. People from all over the world pay some attention to who plays for Boca, because Boca is an exporting machine. Players like Tevez, Gago, Riquelme, etc were always easy to watch on TV because Boca spend a fortune on TV sponsorship every year.
But players like Sand (Lanús), Berggesio (San Lorenzo) or Lázzaro (Tigre) are not that easy to remember, although they are as good as the best.
This Argy league, with all its problems, is so competitive it's scary.
San Lorenzo was originally going to be a super team with Ramón Díaz at the helm.
He brought D'Alessandro and Placente among others, the hoopla was big until Mr Díaz decided to leave the team for more dollars in Mexico.
D'Alessandro, Placente and other players left San Lorenzo in a situation everybody described as terrible. Santiago Solari though, stayed with the team.
But then, along came coach Miguel Angel Russo, and with a lot of hard work and a good amount of Argy football, they started to win games.
Boca, meanwhile had lost their chance to make a run for the Copa Sudamericana.
They were 11 points behind the leader in the Apertura and lost a number of important players to injury. (Palacio, Palermo, Paletta, Cáceres, Morel Rodriguez, etc) and their most important player, Juan Román Riquelme has not taken a break since well before the Olympic Games.
Boca only bought one player, Luciano Figueroa. The rest are kids from La Cantera, like Forlín, Dátolo, Viatri, Noir, Vargas, etc.
Boca won many games by one goal but they fought and earned a spot at the top of the board.
Tigre, on the other side is an amazing story. A club that has nothing, no bench depth, no money, and its history is more related to 2nd category football years.
But they got a very special coach in Diego Cagna, who organized them and showed them that big teams have nothing on them. They lost "the respect" and won game after game, to be today dreaming of greatness for their first time in history.

Now when we take a look a the three coaches involved in this tiebreaker, we notice the level of high quality football they bring to the championship.
Boca's coach, Carlos Ischia has been for years Carlos Bianchi's first assistant.
Diego Cagna (former Boca captain) used to be "Bianchi's man on the pitch".
And Miguel Angel Russo, a superb modern coach a la Pekerman, who fears no one and instills confidence in his players.
These three coaches, in my opinion, are a good example of why argy football is so competitive.
The all bring good old attacking football to their teams, like argy football should always be played.
And more than ever, I notice that aside from the big few European clubs we all know of, Argy teams have nothing to fear. Argy football is alive and well, even when AFA is run by a dictator who won't go away and in his best dictator ways is now preparing his sons to follow his act.

Argy football has something not every league has much of: "FOOTBALL".
Saludos
Nelson

Unfair...Tigre gets 6 days rest while S. Lorenzo and Boca only get 3