“The scenario to play this game is that with the addition of forward Alan Gordon and a sudden gelling of a team that hasn't gelled all season, Portland will win all six games and end up with 39 points for the season. Thirty-nine points might just be enough to make the playoffs this year in an USL-1 league where the middle-tier teams are all bunched up.”
This provides the backdrop for tomorrow evening’s game against the once-mighty Minnesota Thunder - a team that Kellett now recognizes as even more lowly than your Portland Timbers. While I’m sure he’s aware of it, nowhere in his post does Kellett mention the three games in hand enjoyed by each of the teams now sitting in 5th, 6th, and 7th places; and, for the playoffs, 6th spot is the last seat to the post-season Promised Land. This space covered this “math issue” a ways back and, to be honest, I halfway thought more movement would have occurred by now. As it turns out, though, the three teams in question - the Atlanta Silverbacks, the Puerto Rico Islanders and the Virginia Beach Mariners - have all idled since that post.
That will all change Friday night because all three teams have games that same night - and, it’s also worth noting, none of them play one another. Instead, Virginia Beach plays L’Impact de Montreal (that’s the best team in the league!* Hooray!), Puerto Rico plays Vancouver (4th best*...hmmm), and Atlanta plays Toronto (crap!* They’re worse than Portland). So, barring a slew of ties, we ought to know a bit more about who’s punching those tickets to the Promised Land.
With the present sixth-place team (Puerto Rico) on 28 points* and the Timbers on 21*, Portland need to win no matter how one slices it.
Say, there’s one other thing I noticed: we, that is Portland, has the worst goal-differential* in the league. I did not know that...
*All these factoids may be found in the current standings for the A-League. I should also note that, in spite of sitting 7 points below the Timbers, Minnesota has scored more and surrendered fewer goals. Yikes.
In other news...
- Had the results been more shocking, the U.S. Open Cup would have warranted higher placement. But, apart from the Charleston Battery scaring the crap out of FC Dallas, the results played to expectations (which isn’t to say they played how I expected): Red Bull New York topped Wilmington (barely); the New England Revolution’s offense continued to shoot blanks, but that didn’t stop them from sneaking a win on PKs over the Rochester Raging Rhinos - and they almost fucked that up, too; the Houston Dynamo beat the “Junior Dynamos” of Carolina 4-2; and, heartbreakingly, Real Salt Lake stumbled against the Colorado Rapids. The fifth game, between Chicago and Kansas City, was postponed due to crap weather. Ah well, the amateur, semi- and, um, lesser-pro dream is dead in this year’s Open Cup. At least they all put the fear into MLS.
- I found an interesting rant against Real Salt Lake owner, Dave Checketts, who has really got up the butts of some Utahans (Utahians? Utahaks? Utahonians?). Well, if they don’t like Checketts, he might want to look to Rochester, where an interested party are lingering near the phone, with some even more interesting parties looking over their shoulders.
- Soccertimes.com, a long-forgotten publication in my world, ran an interesting piece today on potential implications of FIFA’s planned 18-team league rule for MLS.
- More interesting than that (at least to me) was Marc Connolly’s post on some kid named Johann Smith, who now plays for Bolton in the EPL. That, along with an earlier effort by Connolly provides an answer of sorts to an essay posted by a guy named Tim Froh regarding how MLS can improve the on-field product. A short answer: the talent is out there and it's improving - or at least a scout for Bolton Wanderers thinks so. Getting them to stay is one thing to do - and Froh's point about raising the league's paltry minimum may do that - but there’s also luring them back to consider (again, see Cooper, Kenny).
Then again, if I had a better answer to Froh’s question, I would have lead with this instead of ending with it.
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