THE STARTING 11: MLS Playoff surprises

While we are no big fan of the playoff structure in MLS, it seems to be a necessary evil in a North American league for now. The 2009 MLS Playoffs have actually been quite good though with 3 out of the 4 teams who remain being deserving. Sometimes however, there are off the field occurrences which can be just as interesting...

11. Houston advance to Semi-Finals - Texan high school football gets better TV ratings

10. Rohan Ricketts is on trial to be a ball boy at the MLS Cup Final

9. Chivas USA claim they were thrown off by Beckham's homoerotic lumberjack beard

8. Dwayne De Rosario failed in attempt to dye his jersey from red back to orange

7. RSL called in religious "favours" from the Mormon Church - squad now has to convert

6. Steve Nicol blames loss on his uncontrollable laughter over rumours of him taking the Toronto FC job

5. Red Bulls still somehow lost despite not playing

4. Chad Barrett got a hat-trick... playing FIFA on X-BOX

3. Guillermo Schelotto is still laying on the ground

2. After Seattle's loss, Drew Carey found sad and drunk by the Plinko board

1. MLSE still claims that TFC has a "good shot" at the 2009 Playoffs