Kick-Around: MLS Week ?, Plus a New Mission

Right. The idea of recapping the weekend in Major League Soccer (MLS) is far from a new one. At the same time I want to do it better and more briefly than I have in the past. By the way, ESPN's power rankings serve a similar purpose - i.e. they tell you how the teams look after the latest round of play - and they are, unlike me, reliably brief. Here's this week's edition.

And here is my attempt, starting with the one game I caught (for the games I don't catch, I remain a devoted viewer of the highlight clips MLS posts on its site):

New England Revolution 4 - 0 Los Angeles Galaxy
An instant, ass-pounding classic sure to warm the cockles of anyone who either loves the Revs or hates LA; both teams still have issues, but things look better for the Revs, who lost only one key player (Clint Dempsey as opposed to LA's Landon Donovan - who runs the team - and Chris Albright) for the duration of the World Cup.

Kansas City Wizards 1 - 1 Chicago Fire
I saw nothing about this one apart from the score and can only note my surprise; either Kansas City aren't as good as I thought or Chicago not as bad; still, pity Kansas City who will lose a big chunk of their roster to the World Cup.

Houston Dynamo 4 - 3 FC Dallas
While Houston appears to be a solid team, FC Dallas seems to have adopted my strategy for first-person shooter video games: run straight ahead and shoot at absolutely everything; this does not always work and FC Dallas needs to sort out their back three or four if they want to make the grade.

Real Salt Lake 0 - 1 Columbus Crew
This counts as the "must-miss" game of the weekend; both these teams suck and, on evidence of their current play, are locked in a four-way race for 2006's worst team; the only worthwhile thing is seeing a rookie - Jason Garey - score his first professional goal....enough to make a grown man cry.

Colorado Rapids 2 - 1 DC United
The shock of the week - with bells on; if you watch only one highlight reel, check out this one for Nicolas Hernandez' game winner - it's a peach; still, DC looks formidable this year, which means that I, once again, underestimated them.

OK, that's all for now. If you want to read something more harsh, you should see what ESPN's guy(s) had to say about Red Bull New York....it's gonna be a long season....

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