Having just completed a 4-1 evisceration of the Seattle Sounders, the Chicago Fire – yes, that Chicago Fire – luxuriated in a little historical revisionism. Bastian Schweinsteiger’s midweek grousing about technical levels in MLS was recast as a suggestion that “forced [the Fire] to work on details.” This work, he claimed, had shown up in the match. Dax McCarty’s preseason criticism of a “culture of losing” had been a diagnosis that the incoming midfielder had promptly addressed.

Wins exist to be over-interpreted. In any league — especially one that fetishizes parity like Major League Soccer — upsets will happen. To wit, Seattle, the reigning MLS Cup champion, were indeed carved up like a stale roast at a banquet hall by one of the league’s perennial also-rans. But does it signal a shifting of power? The occasional win in league play cannot distract from the reality that only two of the last 10 MLS Cups have gone to an Eastern Conference team (one of those teams, Sporting Kansas City, now play in the West).

This, of course, is a remarkably arbitrary streak even by the punishingly low standards of sports punditry. Toronto FC were a fingertip and/or a penalty kick from reversing the trend last year. East and West, as Gauloise-smoking pseudointellectuals are wont to point out, are just arbitrary constructs. That is particularly the case in MLS. In that decade-long span, Houston have won the Cup while representing the Western Conference, finished as runner-up in the East twice, and currently leads the Western Conference. Sports fandom, however, requires that such facts be explained, so here goes nothing.

One may as well start with the LA Galaxy, who have won three MLS Cup finals since an Eastern Conference team last took the trophy. The West’s MLS Cup dominance largely coincides with the Galaxy’s most productive period. The Galaxy brought in a series of big names during that period and generally appeared to be a step ahead of the league when it came to squad building. Los Angeles, to be fair, had the advantage of league rules adapting to facilitate their signings. But insofar as the Western Conference harboured some disastrous teams in that time, the Galaxy’s success patched over those cracks. Indeed, the West’s Cup streak says little about the conference’s overall quality so much as the success of its best teams. Fans of other teams or simply lovers of schadenfreude will note that this year’s Los Angeles Galaxy will not be the team to extend the West’s dominance.

The Galaxy’s success in that period, however, left teams in the West with as much room to catch up as in the East. In terms of squad building, the likes of Seattle and Portland have closed the gap as much as the New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC. MLS’s reversion to something approaching parity — at least among its more ambitious teams — therefore did not really constitute a realignment of power between conferences. Rather, the only thing to have changed is the extent of one team’s hegemony in the West.

The disparity between MLS’s conferences also appears stronger if one focuses exclusively on the MLS Cup as opposed to the Supporters’ Shield or even the US Open Cup. The New York Red Bulls, for instance, have won two of the last four shields. The US Open Cup has generally favoured Western Conference teams in recent years, but not to the same extent as the MLS Cup title. Each of these tournaments favour different approaches to squad construction. The Shield rewards routine victories over the league’s lesser lights whereas the Cup prioritizes the ability to hold on in any given match. That, incidentally, is the difference between the continued and confounding success of Bradley Wright-Phillips and Toronto or New York City FC’s top-heavy squads.

That, however, leaves plenty of room for randomness or the appearance thereof. All things being equal, one would have expected an Eastern Conference team to win the MLS Cup final more often. But the East, one can safely assume, will eventually win another MLS Cup Final. That is not a radical notion, but after so many years of close calls it can almost feel like one. The perception of a huge East-West disparity in MLS is as much cultural as it is empirical.

The cultural concerns around the Eastern Conference’s ongoing MLS Cup futility speak to MLS’s unique nature. With its ever-shifting rules and views on parity, MLS tends to feel like a riddle waiting to be solved. Successes therefore take on greater meaning because they represent ideas about how the league can and should function. A preponderance of MLS Cups going to the Western Conference therefore suggest some disparity in the league’s functioning. That disparity is likely meaningless, but in a league obsessed with such small differences it is the kind of thing that we are fated to endlessly discuss.

Chicago’s win over Seattle does not mean they will win the MLS Cup. That much should be obvious, but the glow has yet to wear off so it needs to be said. It stands out as a reminder that Seattle — the latest team to possibly crack the MLS code — are very much fallible. It’s also an excuse to reframe Schweinsteiger and McCarty’s complaints about Chicago, but the team would rather you not think about it in those terms. All of this will likely mean nothing come the fall, but stranger things have happened.

Assorted notes

-- Montreal are putrid this season, but their 3-2 home loss to Columbus on Saturday was at least of some humanitarian value. After a week of intense flooding in Quebec, the team announced they would donate $1 per ticket to the Red Cross. 17,508 showed up to Saputo Stadium and, for their troubles, were treated to a Justin Meram hat-trick.

-- Hard as it may be to believe, DC United are one of the Eastern Conference’s most recent MLS Cup champions. Watching the team play, however, 2004 sure feels like a long time ago — another lifetime, really. On this season’s evidence, Ben Olsen’s team will not restore pride to the East. Nor will the Philadelphia Union, even though they routed DC 4-0. A flurry of late goals could not mask a dire affair that made the neutral wish for a world in which both teams could be relegated at season’s end.