M.L.S. Playoffs: Also-Rans and Title Runs There was probably some hand-wringing and pearl-clutching among soccer purists last week when it became clear that the teams with the eighth- and ninth-best records in Major League Soccer this season were on track to face off in this season's championship game. On Sunday night, that matchup was confirmed: Houston finished off D.C. United in the Eastern Conference finals, and Los Angeles did the same to Seattle in the West. Each team won on aggregate, 4-2, after a convincing victory in the first leg. Highlights from Sunday's games: Dynamo 1, D.C. United 1: A tie was plenty for Houston after its 3-1 win in the first leg. Brad Davis will return to the final, but this time he'll get to play. Sounders 2, Galaxy 1: A 3-0 first-leg win and a Robbie Keane penalty did the trick for Los Angeles, the league's defending champion. The final will be Dec. 1 in Los Angeles (4:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN), which leaves plenty of time for those fans who choose to agonize over the "Why?" and "How?" and "It can't be!" of two teams' making the final after barely slipping into the postseason. They will certainly have plenty of ammunition. "One table!" the purists will yell. What about the regular season? They will ignore the fact that the Galaxy had to knock out the Supporters Shield winner (San Jose) and the one with the toughest home crowd (Seattle), or that the Dynamo beat the top seed in the East (Sporting K.C.) and then the No. 2 (D.C. United) to advance. Instead they will pick their favorite foreign league and point out what they consider laughable comparisons to what the M.L.S. playoff system has wrought. Premier League 2011 champion: Manchester City stuns Manchester United on a thrilling final day. M.L.S.-style alternative: Liverpool hosts ninth-place Fulham at a half-filled Anfield and loses, 4-1, on own goals by Jamie Carragher, Martin Skrtel and Jonjo Shelvey (2). La Liga 2011 champion: Real Madrid edges Barcelona after a season-long duel for the top spot. M.L.S.-style alternative: Mallorca plays Sevilla in a poorly attended final at a neutral site since neither team wants to host the game. After the final whistle, each team hitchhikes home because its bus has been repossessed during the game. Bundesliga 2011 champion: Borussia Dortmund. M.L.S.-style alternative: Eighth-place Wolfsburg beats ninth-place Werder Bremen. Hours later each club is sold to Bayern; the Bavarians keep the four best players and flip the rest to Anzhi and Zenit for twice what they're worth. Bundesliga shrinks to 16 teams. See? they'll say. That would never happen in a real league. What the critics will forget is that everyone in M.L.S. knew the rules going in. That without the threat of relegation (never gonna happen) or the carrot of lucrative continental tournament places, a single-table system would render much of the M.L.S. schedule meaningless. That the system that knocked out the best team in the regular season in its first-round series (San Jose) is arguably similar to the one that will keep Manchester City miles away from the European Cup again this season. That some fans actually like playoff brackets, especially ones that produce popular underdogs. That brackets gave us the 1985 Villanova Wildcats and the 2007 Super Bowl-winning Giants. No, the critics will howl. The M.L.S. system rewards mediocrity with silverware and calls it greatness. What if that attitude spreads, they'll say, and infects other sports? Like baseball? Imagine the hue and cry if the worst team in the American League playoffs knocked out the club that finished with the best record, the one that invested the most money and won more games and earned its way to the top seed. Let's call that lucky-to-be-playing-at-all team, say, the Tigers. Sure, they had a few good players, but what did they do over the grueling season, the true test of a champion? What if a similar thing happened in the National League. Let's call that team -- Oh, I don't know -- the Giants. What if those two also-rans managed to finagle their way into the World Series. One of them would -- egad! -- wind up with the trophy. Oh, wait. That just happened?