After Week 23: The State of Things
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by user The Manly Ferry
I did something this past Labor Day weekend that I haven’t done in a while: I didn’t watch a single soccer game from start to finish. To be honest, it was kind of refreshing. It’s not just the players who need a break from the parade of half-meaningless games that comprise Major League Soccer’s (MLS) long regular season.
But as the league heads into the stretch run (crap...got to get back to that project...), the games grow in meaning. And, nice as the break was for me, the players didn’t get one. They still played and produced results and highlights. At the same time, the ten games that went into the books after Week 23 (scoreboard, where one can access match reports for all the week's games) didn’t change the standings all that much; such is the blessing and curse of parity. Sure, DC United punched their ticket to the post-season, but that had as much to do with the, well, incompetence of the teams behind them as it did their stellar early season run.
Whatever happened, let’s take some time to put some kind of frame on Week 23’s action. Even if I didn’t watch the games, I did manage to catch all the available highlights - well, at least the highlights that didn’t play as a series of still photos as of last night around 10 p.m. For the second time, I’ll use an “up, down, hold” formula - and this last word is short for “holding steady for good or ill” - to frame the picture as MLS heads into Week 24. (In case the order doesn’t make sense, I’m listing the teams alphabetically within their respective conferences - i.e. essentially at random).
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Chivas USA (8-7-10, 34 points, 4th in West) HOLD: Sure, they lost. But they lost to the league’s best team. Unfortunately, this was one game for which the highlights failed to play smoothly, but the “official” match report gives the impression of a weak-ish performance from Chivas. The “shots” stats, in particular, paint an unfavorable picture. But Chivas holds steady, though, on the assumption that everyone can have an off week.
Colorado Rapids (10-10-5, 35 points, 3rd in West) HOLD...barely: It was a weird week for MLS’s “forgotten” team. The Rapids preceded Saturday’s rare road win over Real Salt Lake with a fairly wayward home collapse against an FC Dallas team that had, to that point, performed poorly on the road. As bad as the Wednesday loss looked in highlight form, the sight of a shirtless Pablo Mastroeni whooping it up after his team took the Rocky Mountain Cup on Real Salt Lake’s turf, speaks to pride enough to make it into the (bloated, ridiculous) post-season. The word “barely” qualifies the “hold” call because it’s hard to count Colorado’s up-down season as progress.
FC Dallas (14-8-3, 45 points, 1st in West) UP: It’s difficult to argue against two games and two wins - especially when those come against conference rivals. The win over the Houston Dynamo must have been especially sweet (not that we could see anything...no highlights). After some sputters, Dallas reclaims their spot as the class of the Western Conference. And Richard Mulrooney’s goal against Colorado? That was a pretty sight.
Houston Dynamo (9-8-9, 36 points, 2nd in West) DOWN: Week 23 just kind of sucked for these guys. One point from six hardly puts a team on the path to success and there’s little question that the current slump puts Houston’s 2nd place status in danger. My advice to Dynamo fans: Squeeze all the happy thoughts you can from Dwayne DeRosario’s nifty goal from the midfield stripe against Chicago. After that, there ain’t much to cheer in Houston these days.
Los Angeles Galaxy (9-12-5, 32 points, 5th in West) UP...barely: Sure, their week was no different than Colorado’s in terms of collecting points, but, in spite of the lowly position, the overall picture looks sunnier in LA. Take away the incredible blunder by LA ‘keeper Kevin Hartman - we’re talking elementary body positioning - and there wouldn’t be any cause to follow the word “up” with “barely” above. Overall, though, things are falling into place for these guys. With only two points keeping them out of the playoffs, they’re looking pretty solid for the post-season.
Real Salt Lake (9-12-5, 32 points, 6th in West) DOWN...barely: It pains me to call it this way, but the giddy days of four-game winning streaks seem at an end in Salt Lake. As nice as last Wednesday’s win against the Los Angeles Galaxy surely felt, there’s no denying it was fluky (see Hartman, Kevin), even if the match report suggests they were good for the win. In reality, it’s the road ahead - specifically, the quality of upcoming opposition - that paint the clouds on Salt Lake’s horizon. On the upside, a result or two in those tough games will force doubters (including this one) to look at Real Salt Lake in a different light - again.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Chicago Fire (9-8-8, 35 points, 2nd in East) UP: One could view last Wednesday’s draw against the Houston Dynamo one of two ways: Chicago was either lucky to get the late penalty call (for what it’s worth, it looked like a PK to me) or they were unlucky that one of Houston’s two goals came on DeRosario’s midfield lob. Whatever happened that day, Chicago continues to solidify their hold on second place in the East.
Columbus Crew (6-12-8, 26 points, 6th in East) UP: Given that their last league win came on June 3rd, the two wins Columbus picked up over the past three weeks must count as progress, even if they’re surrounded by ugly “L’s.” It helps that they kicked the crap out of (my) New England Revolution. Will it be enough for a trip to the post-season? Doubtful. But ending the season on a high note would be a good ending to an undeniably wretched 2006. If, by some miracle, they reach the playoffs, this season goes down in Crew history.
DC United (14-3-8, 50 points, 1st in East) UP: For any other team, Saturday’s win, when placed against the larger context - e.g. this is DC’s first league win in seven games - would only bump these guys to “hold” status. But this is the best team in the league, after all, who waited only on the end of a slump to be the first team to qualify for post-season play. At the same time, this is one fragile “up”; a loss to Real Salt Lake this Saturday and the questions as to just what ails ‘em goes live again.
Kansas City Wizards (8-13-6, 30 points, 4th in East) DOWN: It seems fair to count Kansas City as part of the Eastern Conference’s four-team race to miss out on the playoffs - seriously, that seems to be the aim. Along with the other participants (the New England Revolution, Red Bull New York, and Columbus), the Wizards seem incapable of producing more than one win at a time; indeed, they appear more than game to surround those lone wins with ample draws and losses. Kansas City pulled together a great demonstration of that with this week’s results: one draw on Wednesday, followed by a loss on Saturday. Ugly, ugly stuff.
New England Revolution (7-8-10, 31 points, 3rd in East) DOWN: Just when that incredibly dour run of draws (late July/early August) seems like the low point of the season, the Revs go and shit all over what little silver lining remained by losing three of their past four. This team has officially started digging in the basement. On Saturday, their back three got shredded by Columbus, the feeblest offense in the league, and Taylor Twellman continued his aggravating tradition of pinging the ball straight at the ‘keeper. The lone (and, here, I mean the only thing that came remotely close to a) highlight came with Clint Dempsey’s penalty-box pirouette; he damn near pulled that off, but hit the crossbar instead. Oh, and for Greg Lalas, who called the match: yeah, maybe Clint should have finished that move, but half the players in the league wouldn’t, or couldn’t, have pulled off the first half of it, never mind scoring the goal. Yeah, they’ll make the post-season barring disaster, but, speaking as a fan, I won’t be all that thrilled to see them there.
Red Bull New York (6-8-11, 29 points, 5th in East) DOWN: With Columbus standing as the only team in the four-way race for the East’s basement showing any signs of life, one really has to wonder whether Red Bull won’t end the season as the league’s worst team. A draw to crappy Kansas City followed by a loss to Chicago certainly points them in the right direction. Anyway....anyway....
Ugh. I’m done. The East is too damned depressing. It’s like writing four obituaries and telling another team (Chicago) that they’ve got early-stage cancer. So, that’s where things stand, at least as I see it. The West continues to look stronger. Only DC United and maybe Chicago - maybe - look capable of taking MLS Cup to the East coast.
Date
Tue 09/05/06, 12:53 pm EST
