Major League Soccer In Seattle

posted by kidpurple September 28, 2007

Next year San Jose will be added to MLS to even out the league at 14 teams.

In 2009 it sounds like the Seattle Sounders are going to become the league’s 15th team. That is the rumor going about right now about MLS expansion. It may be that some big money from Microsoft (or just Paul Allen) is involved as a part owner.

supposedly 2010 will bring one more team into the MLS. Got any predictions on who it will be then? St. Louis? Cleveland? Milwaukee? Philladelphia?  Minneapolis/St. Paul? I would love to see it come to Minnesota but think St. Louis or Philly is more likely.

Posted in MLS Expansion, Seattle Sounders | Comments (3)

Marky Mark Wahlberg Plays For Wizards In Loss To Galaxy?

posted by kidpurple September 27, 2007

The Galaxy looked like a team that Brianna Scurry could have shut out tonite.  Then they got one shot on goal and it happened to go in.

Good thing the Galaxy have Joe Cannon in goal.  He was forced to make a nice save on what would have been an own goal had he not stopped it.  Other than that the Wizards didn’t force too much out of him all game.

That one goal scored by Gavin Glinton in the 80th minute was all the Galaxy needed to move 3 points up on the other teams fighting for the playoffs.  With their game in hand it doesn’t look like an impossible mission for them to come back and sneak into the playoffs this year.  I still wouldn’t bet on it though.

Kansas City finished the game with only 9 players on the field after Davy Arnaud and Jimmy Conrad were both shown red cards for hard tackles on Peter Vagenas.   Vagenas was not very happy about the second one and could have got a yellow for his bit of a retaliation on Arnaud.

I was surprised to learn was that Marky Mark Wahlberg plays for the Wizards.

Lance Watson or Mark Wahlberg

Posted in Davy Arnaud, Gavin Glinton, Jimmy Conrad, Joe Cannon, Kansas City Wizards, Lance Watson, Los Angeles Galaxy, Peter Vagenas | Comments (0)

4 Teams Qualified For Playoffs Already

posted by kidpurple September 24, 2007

DC United, New England Revolution, Chivas USA and defending champions Houston Dynamo have all claimed their playoff spots.

As the table stands right now the wildcards would be FC Dallas, New York Red Bulls, Kansas City Wizards and the Chicago Fire.

The Columbus Crew are only 1 point behind the Chicago Fire for the last spot, and behind them are the Colorado Rapids who are only 3 points back from the Fire.  This is what the remaining schedule look like for these teams that will be battling for that last spot in the playoffs:

Chicago Fire:
@ Chivas USA
New England Revolution
@ DC United
LA Galaxy

Columbus Crew:
LA Galaxy
FC Dallas
@ New England Revolution
@ DC United

Colorado Rapids:
@ New England Revolution
Toronto FC
@ Chivas USA
Real Salt Lake

The Rapids might have the easiest schedule remaining, but the Fire have been the best team lately.  I think this could come down to the last day of the season which has the Fire playing on their home turf with LA Galaxy visiting.  The Crew are playing in DC on that day.  Advantage goes to the Fire here, so they are my pick to make the playoffs out of these 3 teams.  Who knows something crazy could happen and the Wizards could give up their spot to another one of these teams, but I wouldn’t count on that.

Posted in Chivas USA, Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, DC United, Houston Dynamo, New England Revolution | Comments (0)

My First Impressions Of Blanco, Denilson and Wanchope

posted by kidpurple September 21, 2007

Last night was my first chance to see Blanco, Denilson and Wanchope in action as the Chicago Fire traveled to Pizza Hut Park to take on FC Dallas.  This was a big game for both teams as the Fire are fighting for the last playoff spot and FC Dallas would like to get back up to the top of the Western Division.

Chicago has been on a good run recently and FC Dallas has been on a bit of a slide since their wonderful start to the season.  I had predicted a Fire victory in this game and for a lot of the game it looked like I was going to be right.   Chris Rolfe scored a really nice goal in the 56th minute which gave the Fire the lead well into the 90+ minute.  Then finally Carlos Ruiz got behind the defense and tied the game in the 93rd minute.  Both goals were very nice but Rolfe’s could be a goal of the week candidate.

As I said this was my first chance to see some of these big name newcomers to the MLS and none of them impressed me much.  Blanco looked okay but just didn’t impress.  I probably expected the most from him.  Denilson did a couple fancy footwork moves that only ended in one of the Fire taking the ball the other way.  He had one or two decent looking shots that usually got blocked before getting close to the goal.  Wanchope looked like he was ready to play a full 90 minutes, but he was on the field the full 90.  The most disappointing moment for the Fire was Wanchope and Calen Carr passing back and forth on a semi-break away that should have either resulted in a goal or probably more importantly one of them taking the ball to the corner and using valuable time.  That probably would have kept a lead and a full 3 points for the Fire.  Too bad for Chicago.  At least Wanchope should have enough experience to know what to do in that situation.

Posted in Blanco, Calen Carr, Carlos Ruiz, Chicago Fire, Chris Rolfe, Denilson, FC Dallas, Paulo Wanchope | Comments (0)

Dynamo Clinch Playoffs, Chivas Have To Wait

posted by kidpurple September 17, 2007

Houston’s 3-1 win over the Galaxy last night was enough to guarantee them a playoff position for the post season this year.  Chivas USA also had a chance to seal their spot in the playoffs but failed to take it.  Chivas USA played the Colorado Rapids to a draw.  This leaves the Rapids right behind Chicago for the last playoff spot and Chivas waiting another week to get their spot.

Posted in Chivas USA, Houston Dynamo, Los Angeles Galaxy | Comments (0)

Chivas Take Top Spot In West

posted by kidpurple September 13, 2007

Chivas take a 3-0 victory over the LA Galaxy tonite to move into first place in the west.

At times the Galaxy made it look like a game.  They had chances but just couldn’t finish them.

Ante Razov moved one goal closer to Jamie Moreno and his MLS career goal tally as he notched the game winning goal in the first half. That was enough to get him the man of the match award.

I wondered why the announcers thought David Beckham was really dedicated to the team.  Was it really because he came to the game, just like the rest of the injured Galaxy players do?  They almost didn’t have room to get all the injured Galaxy players into the stadium.

I was so close to my Chivas 2-0 prediction.  Oh well, I still got the result right, and wasn’t far off on the score.

How far can Chivas USA go this year?  Who is going to stop them?

Posted in Ante Razov, Chivas USA, David Beckham, Los Angeles Galaxy | Comments (0)

Late Super Classico Predictions

posted by kidpurple September 13, 2007

LA Galaxy and Chivas USA are supposed to be on ESPN2 in just under a half an hour from now so I’ll keep this short and sweet.  Well sweet for half of the fans that will be at the game tonite.

The Galaxy just came off a big 3-1 win over the Colorado Rapids, but Chivas have been hot for a while and will be looking at claiming the top spot in the west tonite.  Just like their last game, I predict a 2-0 win for Chivas USA.  Sorry Galaxy fans, I just don’t think the Galaxy can win 2 in a row.

Posted in Chivas USA, Los Angeles Galaxy, Prediction Thursday | Comments (0)

Surprise Suprise, DC United Beat Real Salt Lake

posted by kidpurple September 13, 2007

Goals from Christian Gomez and would you believe Luciano Emilio lifted DC United to a 2-1 victory over Real Salt Lake.  DC United has no one in the league table above them while Real Salt Lake has only the Los Angeles Galaxy below them.  Even the mighty Toronto FC with all their stars injured are above Real Salt Lake in points on the season.

The only thing that surprises me about this game is that the score wasn’t something closer to 7-0 for DC United.

Posted in DC United, Real Salt Lake | Comments (0)

Good Games Coming Up This Weekend

posted by kidpurple September 11, 2007

Before the weekend we get some not so exciting matchups.

Wednesday red hot DC United host 2nd to the bottom Real Salt Lake.  Weird things can happen, but not in this game, DC should win eassily.

Thursday nite ESPN2 brings us another Galaxy game, another SuperClasico.  Chivas are pretty hot right now and the Galaxy are in dead last place.  With the Galaxy still missing so many players due to injury, Chivas will probably clean up.

Saturday things start to get a little more interesting.

First pitiful Real Salt Lake and injury ravaged Toronto FC will face off in a battle of the cellar dwellers.  Lose this game and you might be the unlucky team to get passed by LA if they ever get going.

Next up is FC Dallas and New England Revolution.  FC Dallas has fallen out of the 2nd seed in the west position and would surely love to pass up Chivas USA to move up in the table.  The Revolution have lost their top spot in the East because nobody (Revolution included) can stop DC United.  An FC Dallas win could bring them into a 3 way tie for 2nd overall and potentially a tie for top seed in the west with defending champs Houston Dynamo.

The we get the Columbus Crew and the Kansas City Wizards.  The Wizards were once on top of the league, but now they is only one team between them and another year of watching the playoffs on TV or whatever the teams that don’t make the playoffs do.  The Crew are that team that is right below the last playoff spot trying to get back up into it.  A Crew win would put them only 2 points below the Wizards and potentially into a playoff position depending on what Chicago does.  A Wizards win could move them up even with the New York Red Bulls, depending on what they do against Chicago Fire.

Chicago Fire and New York Red Bulls currently hold 2 of the bottom 3 remaining playoff spots, so this game is huge.  Chicago could easily drop out of that last playoff spot, or the Red Bulls could move a little further away from that cutoff line.  This game along with the Columbus/Kansas City game could really shake things up.

Sunday Chivas play the Colorado Rapids.  The Rapids are right there with the Columbus Crew trying to take over that last playoff spot that Chicago Fire are currently occupying.  The Rapids have not been doing to well and Chivas are hot, so I suppose the Rapids will somehow leave this game with points.

The last game is West leading Houston Dynamo and West’s Worst LA Galaxy.  I bet Nate Jaqua wishes he could have saved his hat trick for this game.  Dynamo will win in LA.

It is starting to get interesting around here!

Posted in MLS General | Comments (1)

Francesco Coco Coming To MLS?

posted by kidpurple September 8, 2007

Well that title might be a little mis-leading.  Coco was dropped from Inter Milan and there is some interest in bringing him to MLS by a couple of teams.

Coco was a former Italy national defender who played in the 2002 world cup, but his international career didn’t go much further than that.

Now it sounds like New York Red Bulls and the New England Revolution are interested in bringing the Italian to Major League Soccer.  Is it likely that he does end up with one of these teams or any MLS team?  I’m not too sure, but it will be interesting to see.

Posted in Francesco Coco, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls | Comments (0)