Memo to myself: STOP making picks based on wishes. Holy shit, did I manage a terrible week: I went 1-for-6 on the action Saturday through Monday and that punch to the gut drags my record for the year to 10-18. It was a wacky week, sure, but not that wacky.
Before turning to the power rankings, let’s look at some interesting talking points from Week 3. In no particular order:
- I’m not buying the Eddie Johnson “rebirth” tale just yet, a point I elaborate on in the Week 4 wrap I sent over to Write On Sports. When Johnson makes the grade against competition tougher than DC and Toronto, I’ll hop on the bandwagon, for both Johnson and KC - but not till then. For what it’s worth, the same piece after the link reviews the week’s action.
- The “feature” concept I almost used for that piece was a concern that the (safe, sometimes stiflingly dull) style of play working so well for the Chicago Fire and Red Bull New York may tilt the rest of the league to imitation; I shied away from doing so because the data are too thin to back that assertion so early in the season. But, call this a trend to watch - and pray it doesn’t happen. We’ll all be fortunate if time doesn’t stop outright when these two teams meet.
- As nearly everyone mentioned, the atmosphere at BMO Field looked pretty swell. Better still, word is the fans applauded their team after the game. Shitting on the home side has its place - though I’m partial to disgusted silence myself - and I understand why it’s done, but I just can’t feature getting mad to the point where I’ll boo the home team. It’s just not that important to me. I go to the game and pay of my own free will and, when the team I’m watching sucks, chances are I know this going in.
- If there’s one bright spot for Toronto, it’s that teams will become increasingly apprehensive about playing them the longer their goals and wins drought continues. Apprehension breeds anxiety, which breeds mistakes, which breeds goals and losses: that’s how I’m seeing the subtle panic that will afflict each successive team that faces TFC: who wants to go down in the books as being the first team on which TFC scored, never mind beat? What happens when that edge evaporates? I don’t know...though I don’t think it will help Toronto (who, incidentally, fascinate me).
Right, moving on now to the power rankings...
Last week’s ranking appears in parentheses immediately after this week’s ranking. So’s as to not misrepresent my judgment as entirely first-hand, the following key shows the distance of my observations: “@” means I watched a given team’s most recent performance in its entirety; “$” means I caught it through Quick Kicks, which provides extended highlights; “&” means I watched only the rump highlights available through MLSnet.com.
On with it now, fer reals - with the caveat that rankings five through ten are essentially one big, mashed toss-up - e.g. the same results, or even totally different ones, could have been achieved by spitting wads of paper at target, with the same approximate validity.
1. (2) Red Bull New York (& + final 10 min. v. FC Dallas)
Let the record show I surmounted the mental block and joined the herd in Week 4: Red Bull looks like the best team in MLS right now. It was their final 10 minutes against FC Dallas last Thursday that tipped the balance - such an assured killing of a game.
2. (1) Chicago Fire (@ - with some regret)
I hate this team right now. It’s not due to rivalry, the arrival of Blanco, etc. It’s that they’re relentlessly dull to watch. But, damn, are they looking strong and seriously hard to break down. Still, can’t wait for Blanco - or anything to spare me from Chad Barrett.
3. (5) New England Revolution (&)
As y’all know, this is more or less my team (more later), which makes placing them so high stink of a jinx. But they’re also getting the job done and, based on what I saw, they came awfully close to not having the one “L” that weighs down their record. Taylor Twellman, in particular, is looking very good, but that same stingy defense is there as well.
4. (4) Colorado Rapids (@ - in big snippets)
What can I say? Colorado is one of this year’s crushes. Their defense - which gave very little to RSL on Monday - makes the case for high placement; but their offense, which looks better than recent years, justifies their place at the top of the West.
5. (11) Los Angeles Galaxy (@)
This week’s big movers and they earned the jump with the precision of their attack against Chivas. Even when they gave up a lot possession, a few stray shots, even a goal, they looked bizarrely safe and confident. I’ll eat anything people feel like mailing me if they miss the post-season this year.
6. (8) Columbus Crew ($)
Last weekend’s defensive performance against DC convinced me that their second-rate breakdowns against the Revs were an aberration. As such, the Crew has half a strong team. By the power of Grabavoy, I think their offense will come on line at some point - and then they’ll justify my crush...not to mention this ranking.
7. (9) Kansas City Wizards ($ and a bit of @)
Records count for something, right? With these guys standing third in the stronger Eastern Conference, they’re likely nothing to sniff at - and their lone loss came against a team I rate pretty highly. Still, I’ll need to see more, and against teams better than Toronto, before moving them up the rankings.
8. (6) Houston Dynamo (@)
Here, reputation counts for something. Frankly, Houston looks like crap. They know it and their fans should as well; how else can one characterize one goal in four games? They’ve got good players who look like they’re misfiring. Another team that needs to show something before they stop heading south.
9. (3) Chivas USA (@)
The week’s biggest drop comes courtesy of two factors: the way they seemed to come unglued against LA and the “Amado” issue. It will take less for them to convince, but there’s a look of insecurity about this bunch.
10. (7) FC Dallas (& + &)
The harshest call this week and it grows from one thing: I don’t trust their defense. Yeah, they performed well enough against both Red Bull and New England and, according to what I’ve read, faced a lot of pressure thanks problems with Dallas’ possession. The point is, this defense appears unable to hold up when the offense misfires, so that’s a problem.
11. (10) DC United ($)
These guys reek of uncertainty. Yeah, they’ve got the horses, but they’re clearly spooked. But till these guys find some kind of confidence, they’re doomed.
12. (12) Toronto FC ($ and a bit of @)
I resisted the temptation to bump these guys above DC on the strength of their unflappable and vocal home support; it goes back to that thing about the horses. They’re combative at the least and, from what I saw, came pretty close to scoring their first. They look to be headed in the right direction, but have a hell of long walk ahead.
13. (12) Real Salt Lake (@ in big snippets)
It’s not that they looked all that awful, but - JESUS! - these guys could write a book on how to lose a game.
Finally, the standings...here's the official version if you want to check me.
Eastern Conference:
1. Red Bull New York: 10 pts. (3-0-1: 5 GF, 0 GA, +5; home, 2-0-0; away, 1-0-1)
2. Chicago Fire: 10 pts. (3-0-1: 5 GF, 2 GA, +3; home, 2-0-0; away, 1-0-1)
3. Kansas City Wiz: 9 pts. (3-1-0: 9 GF, 4 GA, +5; home, 1-0-0; away, 2-1-0)
4. New England Revs: 7 pts. (2-1-1: 7 GF, 3 GA, +4; home, 1-0-0; away, 1-1-1)
5. Columbus Crew: 6 pts. (1-0-3: 3 GF, 2 GA, +1; home, 1-0-2; away, 0-0-1)
6. DC United: 0 pts. (0-3-0: 3 GF, 7 GA, -4; home, 0-1-0; away, 0-2-0)
7. Toronto FC: 0 pts. (0-4-0: 0 GF, 10 GA, -10; home, 0-1-0; away, 0-3-0)
Western Conference
1. Colorado Rapids: 7 pts. (2-1-1: 6 GF, 5 GA, +1; home 1-0-1; away, 1-1-0)
2. FC Dallas: 7 pts. (2-3-1: 7 GF, 9 GA, -2; home, 1-2-0; away, 1-1-1)
3. Chivas USA: 6 pts. (2-2-0: 7 GF, 4 GA; +3; home, 2-0-0; away, 0-2-0)
4. Los Angeles Galaxy: 4 pts. (1-1-1: 4 GF, 3 GA, +1; home, 1-1-0; away, 0-0-1)
5. Houston Dynamo: 4 pts. (1-2-1: 1 GF, 1 GA, -1; home, 1-1-1; away, 0-1-0)
6. Real Salt Lake: 2 pts. (0-2-2: 2 GF, 8 GA, -6; home, 0-1-2; away, 0-1-0)
Showing posts with label Week 4. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Week 4. Show all posts
Week 4: Big Wrap Before the End
Since I’m waiting on tonight’s game before knocking out the usual power rankings and things of that sort, I built on that break with tradition by reading as widely as possible on the past weekend’s action. I’ll pass on links for further reading and what commentary as occurs to me on Saturday’s and Sunday’s games below and will try to make the big picture coherent come tomorrow. And, as I like doing, I’ll mark the games I watched in their entirety with an asterisk.
Needless to say, it was kind of a wacky weekend - a notion captured in a series of more general wraps from MSM outlets and a few blogs. Before going to the individual games, here are some general wraps of Week 4 in Major League Soccer:
- Dan Loney looks at how the "champs of April" of seasons past ended up.
- Ives Galarcep sees an early trend of a "deeper, stronger" East.
- A general wrap of the week's action appeared on USA Soccer Spot.
- Ditto on Who Ate All the Cupcakes, who took some time after Saturday's game to catch his breath and take stock.
- WVHooligan weighed in with a pair: one a Saturday wrap, the other a mirror-image look to Galarcep's at the seemingly weaker West.
Turning now, to the games:
Toronto FC 0 - 1 Kansas City Wizards
As nearly everyone pointed out, BMO Field rocked for Toronto’s first-ever game; damn shame they rocked to a stale, painful tune - e.g. no goals, another loss, and so on. Still, giving up one goals instead of three or four must feel something like progress. The big news out of this one was Eddie Johnson’s (EJ) ongoing rehabilitation - even if that one needs a big asterisk given the teams against which he’s scored. Another concern is word of a hamstring “tweak” to Carlos Marinelli, who has been dang impressive so far. For all I see Kansas City near the top of the East, what applies to EJ applies to KC: it’s hard to put much stock in that 3-1-0- record when two wins came against Toronto and the other against a decidedly wobbly DC United.
Further reading:
-MLSnet.com match report
- Kansas City Star - report, which notes Marinelli's hamstring
- The Toronto Star's main report has it all, from talk of stumbles in singing the U.S. anthem, to holding up the game, to an overall ebullient opening day. That's seconded by another atmosphere piece.
- Down the Byline turned in a tidy match report on behalf of the blogoverse.
Columbus Crew 1 - 0 DC United
Dude - and I mean that on two levels. One “dude” goes to DC - as in, “Dude, what the hell is up with your team?” The second is more of a happy surprise - as in, “Dude, those three ties suddenly look pretty killer, seeing as you’re undefeated and all.” Put another way, three ties look a hell of a lot better rounded out with a win - which says “hard to beat, yet just dangerous enough,” as opposed, “can’t fucking score with a blind, randy octogenarian on ecstasy,” which is a possible message sent by three draws and a loss. Three loses on three games sends a message, too, and it’s something like the one sent by a person with two advanced degrees in engineering answering a question about what she does for a living by answering, “I work graveyard at 7-11.” In all seriousness, DC fans must feel about as low as possible after this one - and not because they lost to the Crew, who has really shown some positive signs this year; it’s more to do with things going wrong on both ends of the field, as opposed to only the defense.
Further reading:
- I plugged a lot of links into the summary/(blind) analysis I did for the Crew Offside, so you'll find several good bits over there.
- DCenters weighed in with a worried pair of offerings: one a debriefing, the other a considered explanation of why firing DC head coach Tom Soehn isn't justified. For the record, he is/they are right; it's only three games!
- Quarter Volley says plenty by writing less.
- Steve Goff over at the Soccer Insider turned in a pair of post-match pieces, one extended quotes from Tom Soehn, the other a series of quotes from DC personnel; on the second one, the points of interest come in the comments.
LA Galaxy 3 - 1 Chivas USA*
I found a great, one-paragraph on this game on USA Soccer Spot (link above). Here’s that:
The reads, roughly, like the game I watched. Apart from a rickety opening ten minutes, Chivas commanded two-thirds of the field for two-thirds of the game; if you sat down an uninterested party to watch ten randomly selected minutes and didn’t show them the score, I’m guessing they’d tell you Chivas looked like the better team. But better possession and passing aside, LA played the sharper soccer when and where it counted and Galaxy ‘keeper Joe Cannon made it stand. My take-away from this: LA isn’t as bad as many have assumed, while Chivas isn’t as good; with the latter, especially, think of the games they’ve won (Toronto, Real Salt Lake) and think again.
Further reading:
- MLSnet.com match report
- LA Soccer News match report
- LA Times, match report, in which I learned of Guevara's meltdown, which I only just registered when watching the game.
- There's a great glimpse into the fevered mind of a Chivas fan posted on the Chivas Offside.
- Whereas on the LA Galaxy Offside, things look pretty sunny - especially where Donovan and Cannon are concerned.
FC Dallas 0 - 1 New England Revolution
This one proves very hard to sort out from the Quick Kick highlights and match reports, the latter of which, especially, speak of the game in contrary terms. The one thing everyone agrees on is that Dallas was visibly tired when they needed energy most - e.g. toward the game’s end, when they needed to press for an equalizer. That suggests this may not tell us as much about Dallas as one might think; there’s also much being made of Carlos Ruiz’s scoring rut, but his apparent hamstring issues leaves that one on the table as well - at least as I see it. On the other side of the field, I can’t shake the feeling New England is worse than their record. They didn’t sound all that impressive here, which matches games I’ve seen from Columbus to their opener against Chicago. But one who really is impressing? Taylor Twellman. That guy is playing his skin off. Fantastic stuff - well, for the right kind of people anyway.
Further reading:
- MLSnet.com match report, which notes the horrid attendance and Twellman's 14 goals from 12 games haul against FCD.
- Dallas Soccer News match report, hits on Dallas' fatigue.
- Dallas Morning News match report
- Boston Globe match report, plus a bonus feature on Twellman and general player notes.
- Boston Herald match report
- FC Dallas Updates features informative bullets for the discerning FCD fan.
Houston Dynamo 0 - 1 Chicago Fire*
Holy shit, this one was hard to watch. I spent half the time chasing my three-year-old all over the apartment and it still felt like an eternal midfield scrum. Credit Chris Rolfe for a well-taken goal - likely as not, it will be a goal of the week contender based on this week’s somewhat thin offerings - and credit Chicago with what looks like a formidably solid defensive shape. I mean, holy hell, these guys are hard to score on. When they face Red Bull later this season, the intensity of the boredom might be such that it stops time. Making it worse, with both teams doing so well, we’ll all feel compelled to watch the thing. As for Houston, what can I say? They’re off. I followed a link to my site from a BigSoccer message board, the author of which seemed to be jabbing me for calling Houston a paper tiger. The more I weigh that judgment, the more I feel I may have overstated the case. But they’re not doing much right now, either. So, Houston’s somewhere between paper tiger and good team; I can’t say where, but they need to win at some point or their quality on paper becomes academic.
Further reading:
- MLSnet.com match report
- Chicagoland Soccer match report
- Windy City Soccer match report - for my money, the best I've read
- Chicago Tribune match report, the first to remind me that Houston has scored only once in 2007.
- Houston Chronicle match report
- Chicago Offside, who admits his team won ugly
- WVHooligan, after watching the game, wondered briefly if Houston sucks.
And, again, I'm spent.
Needless to say, it was kind of a wacky weekend - a notion captured in a series of more general wraps from MSM outlets and a few blogs. Before going to the individual games, here are some general wraps of Week 4 in Major League Soccer:
- Dan Loney looks at how the "champs of April" of seasons past ended up.
- Ives Galarcep sees an early trend of a "deeper, stronger" East.
- A general wrap of the week's action appeared on USA Soccer Spot.
- Ditto on Who Ate All the Cupcakes, who took some time after Saturday's game to catch his breath and take stock.
- WVHooligan weighed in with a pair: one a Saturday wrap, the other a mirror-image look to Galarcep's at the seemingly weaker West.
Turning now, to the games:
Toronto FC 0 - 1 Kansas City Wizards
As nearly everyone pointed out, BMO Field rocked for Toronto’s first-ever game; damn shame they rocked to a stale, painful tune - e.g. no goals, another loss, and so on. Still, giving up one goals instead of three or four must feel something like progress. The big news out of this one was Eddie Johnson’s (EJ) ongoing rehabilitation - even if that one needs a big asterisk given the teams against which he’s scored. Another concern is word of a hamstring “tweak” to Carlos Marinelli, who has been dang impressive so far. For all I see Kansas City near the top of the East, what applies to EJ applies to KC: it’s hard to put much stock in that 3-1-0- record when two wins came against Toronto and the other against a decidedly wobbly DC United.
Further reading:
-MLSnet.com match report
- Kansas City Star - report, which notes Marinelli's hamstring
- The Toronto Star's main report has it all, from talk of stumbles in singing the U.S. anthem, to holding up the game, to an overall ebullient opening day. That's seconded by another atmosphere piece.
- Down the Byline turned in a tidy match report on behalf of the blogoverse.
Columbus Crew 1 - 0 DC United
Dude - and I mean that on two levels. One “dude” goes to DC - as in, “Dude, what the hell is up with your team?” The second is more of a happy surprise - as in, “Dude, those three ties suddenly look pretty killer, seeing as you’re undefeated and all.” Put another way, three ties look a hell of a lot better rounded out with a win - which says “hard to beat, yet just dangerous enough,” as opposed, “can’t fucking score with a blind, randy octogenarian on ecstasy,” which is a possible message sent by three draws and a loss. Three loses on three games sends a message, too, and it’s something like the one sent by a person with two advanced degrees in engineering answering a question about what she does for a living by answering, “I work graveyard at 7-11.” In all seriousness, DC fans must feel about as low as possible after this one - and not because they lost to the Crew, who has really shown some positive signs this year; it’s more to do with things going wrong on both ends of the field, as opposed to only the defense.
Further reading:
- I plugged a lot of links into the summary/(blind) analysis I did for the Crew Offside, so you'll find several good bits over there.
- DCenters weighed in with a worried pair of offerings: one a debriefing, the other a considered explanation of why firing DC head coach Tom Soehn isn't justified. For the record, he is/they are right; it's only three games!
- Quarter Volley says plenty by writing less.
- Steve Goff over at the Soccer Insider turned in a pair of post-match pieces, one extended quotes from Tom Soehn, the other a series of quotes from DC personnel; on the second one, the points of interest come in the comments.
LA Galaxy 3 - 1 Chivas USA*
I found a great, one-paragraph on this game on USA Soccer Spot (link above). Here’s that:
"The Galaxy made the most of their chances and deserved their win. Chivas looked the better team much of the match but were missing something in the final third. Besides, Goalkeeping played a part with Joe Cannon saving several shots destined to reach the back of the net while Brad Guzan's mistake gave LA an easy first goal and his continued lack of confidence showed with tentative movement the rest of the match."
The reads, roughly, like the game I watched. Apart from a rickety opening ten minutes, Chivas commanded two-thirds of the field for two-thirds of the game; if you sat down an uninterested party to watch ten randomly selected minutes and didn’t show them the score, I’m guessing they’d tell you Chivas looked like the better team. But better possession and passing aside, LA played the sharper soccer when and where it counted and Galaxy ‘keeper Joe Cannon made it stand. My take-away from this: LA isn’t as bad as many have assumed, while Chivas isn’t as good; with the latter, especially, think of the games they’ve won (Toronto, Real Salt Lake) and think again.
Further reading:
- MLSnet.com match report
- LA Soccer News match report
- LA Times, match report, in which I learned of Guevara's meltdown, which I only just registered when watching the game.
- There's a great glimpse into the fevered mind of a Chivas fan posted on the Chivas Offside.
- Whereas on the LA Galaxy Offside, things look pretty sunny - especially where Donovan and Cannon are concerned.
FC Dallas 0 - 1 New England Revolution
This one proves very hard to sort out from the Quick Kick highlights and match reports, the latter of which, especially, speak of the game in contrary terms. The one thing everyone agrees on is that Dallas was visibly tired when they needed energy most - e.g. toward the game’s end, when they needed to press for an equalizer. That suggests this may not tell us as much about Dallas as one might think; there’s also much being made of Carlos Ruiz’s scoring rut, but his apparent hamstring issues leaves that one on the table as well - at least as I see it. On the other side of the field, I can’t shake the feeling New England is worse than their record. They didn’t sound all that impressive here, which matches games I’ve seen from Columbus to their opener against Chicago. But one who really is impressing? Taylor Twellman. That guy is playing his skin off. Fantastic stuff - well, for the right kind of people anyway.
Further reading:
- MLSnet.com match report, which notes the horrid attendance and Twellman's 14 goals from 12 games haul against FCD.
- Dallas Soccer News match report, hits on Dallas' fatigue.
- Dallas Morning News match report
- Boston Globe match report, plus a bonus feature on Twellman and general player notes.
- Boston Herald match report
- FC Dallas Updates features informative bullets for the discerning FCD fan.
Houston Dynamo 0 - 1 Chicago Fire*
Holy shit, this one was hard to watch. I spent half the time chasing my three-year-old all over the apartment and it still felt like an eternal midfield scrum. Credit Chris Rolfe for a well-taken goal - likely as not, it will be a goal of the week contender based on this week’s somewhat thin offerings - and credit Chicago with what looks like a formidably solid defensive shape. I mean, holy hell, these guys are hard to score on. When they face Red Bull later this season, the intensity of the boredom might be such that it stops time. Making it worse, with both teams doing so well, we’ll all feel compelled to watch the thing. As for Houston, what can I say? They’re off. I followed a link to my site from a BigSoccer message board, the author of which seemed to be jabbing me for calling Houston a paper tiger. The more I weigh that judgment, the more I feel I may have overstated the case. But they’re not doing much right now, either. So, Houston’s somewhere between paper tiger and good team; I can’t say where, but they need to win at some point or their quality on paper becomes academic.
Further reading:
- MLSnet.com match report
- Chicagoland Soccer match report
- Windy City Soccer match report - for my money, the best I've read
- Chicago Tribune match report, the first to remind me that Houston has scored only once in 2007.
- Houston Chronicle match report
- Chicago Offside, who admits his team won ugly
- WVHooligan, after watching the game, wondered briefly if Houston sucks.
And, again, I'm spent.
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