Day in Previews

With only - what? - three days to go till "First Kick" the previews truly are coming quick-and-heavy, from all over the place, and in all kinds of formats.

In one of the most noted items of the day, The New York Times, a.k.a. The Paper of Record, deigned to notice our little league. Moreover, they managed a concise, yet birds-eye summary of the league's status, which they dubbed somewhere between healthy and poised to take off.

The, um, Denver Post did something similar, albeit with different emphases - and that's the paper of record in some parts, ain't it?

Turning to other MSM outlets, Utah's Deseret News knocked out a pair of season previews for each conference. I'll let you click-through for the details, but here's their big picture take: East: 1. DC United; 2. Chicago Fire; 3. New England Revolution; 4. Red Bull New York; 5. Columbus Crew; 6. Kansas City Wizards; 7. Toronto FC. West: 1. Houston Dynamo; 2. Los Angeles Galaxy; 3. Real Salt Lake (homers); 4. Colorado Rapids; 5. FC Dallas; 6. Chivas USA.

My comrades-in-blog are keeping busy as well. Climbing the Ladder turned in a tidy Eastern Conference preview; I mean no disrespect by not typing out his rankings, but I'd have to do that two more times, so will pass for now. The biggest shock on this one is how highly scaryice rates Chicago. A preview for the West should appear in that space tomorrow. I came across another pair of conference previews (East and West) through the Rapids blog on The Offside, which linked to a new-to-me site titled, USA Soccer Spot. He makes some bold-n-spicy calls in there (FC Dallas, a legitimate contender! gasp!!), but that will only make this call sweeter if he nails it.

And, for those of you wondering why I'm doing all these previews, that's kind of the answer: someone will get these calls correct. If I read enough of them, I can find out who and make him (or her) give up their secrets.

Last, but by no means least, the Kin of Fish posted his predictions and, in a move I rather admire, he does so very, very briefly. Maybe Mr. Fishkin and I can arrange some kind of verbiage swap, like they're talking about doing with carbon-emissions....'cause, Lord, do I like to jabber. In any case, Fishkin makes up in boldness what he lacks in blabbing: he declares a repeat for Houston and says they'll top DC in the final.

All for today.

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Pair of Conference Previews: Who Finishes Where?

If anyone was wondering what happened to the rest of the team-by-team season previews, the answer is that they took a back seat to the pair of Conference previews I spent much of the weekend compiling - that is, when I wasn't swinging two birthday parties for my kids.

They're posted over on Write On Sports, one for the Eastern Conference and one for the Western Conference. For what it's worth, I'm proud of some of the calls I made. But here, as a teaser, I'll list the rankings for each conference:

Eastern Conference
1. DC United
2. Columbus Crew
3. Red Bull New York
4. Kansas City Wizards
5. New England Revolution
6. Toronto FC
7. Chicago Fire

Western Conference
1. Colorado Rapids
2. Houston Dynamo
3. Los Angeles Galaxy
4. Real Salt Lake
5. FC Dallas
6. Chivas USA

If that's enough to make you curious about my reasoning (the calls for Columbus and Colorado should do the trick), follow the link and dump on or praise them as you feel moved to do.

Or just drop a comment here.

And, yes, I'm positively giddy about the season started. A normal person would be embarrassed at being so giddy about a sports season.

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The Day in Previews

As we get closer to the kick-off, I know I won't be the only one churning out previews for the 2007 season. On a personal level, I get such a geeky little thrill out of reading previews; I view this as the wholesome side of my gambling impulses - e.g. being "hep" to what will happen before it does, which is the essence of gambling, right? (And I'm lousy at it). So...I'll be passing on previews of the season as they roll in and, assuming not too many get made per week, I'll try to do the same thing with the week's action during the season.

And, don't worry, I won't bore you with preambles in future installments.

Because we're still a ways off, there's not a whole hell of a lot out there. But the presence of Jeff Carlisle's preview for the Los Angeles Galaxy hints that ESPN appears ready to start churning them out. For the record, he sees good things happening in LA this year - and, damn my eyes, I do too. Carlisle dubs a return to the playoffs as "certain" and he expects the club expects a championship; I'm on board with the former for sure, though not the latter.

Elsewhere - and, to be honest - yesterday, a site called Vasco USA previewed the Eastern Conference. I'll give you the author's rankings, but you'll have to visit his place to see his reasoning. Assuming, he's listing them in order (and I think he is), here's what he's seeing:

1. DC United
2. Toronto FC
3. Columbus Crew
4. New England Revolution
5. Kansas City Wizards
6. Red Bull New York
7. Chicago Fire

In case you're wondering, I'm on board with DC at #1 (though I'm not happy about it), Columbus in the playoffs, and Chicago out of them; I'm working on the rest.

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