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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Day in Previews: Hat-Tip to MLS Zone

Sure, you can turn to your MSM outlets and read all about reasons to be optimistic about the Columbus Crew's chances this year (short answer: like a good salsa, they've finally melded). Or you could continue to perpetuate ESPN's strangle-hold on the soccer market by reading their previews for the Houston Dynamo (issues w/ depth, intensity), the Colorado Rapids (yeah, they've made some decent-looking additions, but what about chemistry?), and DC United (assholes are going to win the league unless Facundo Erpen throws away too much).

Or you could turn to the guy who runs MLS Zone and read his previews of the entire Western Conference. Assuming I'm not a sucker and he's not the soccer equivalent of an "astroturf" blog, he's just some other guy like me with too much time on his hands, but who sacrificed eating and hygiene to crank out these previews. Knowing how tiring that can be (shit...I gave up didn't I?), I feel obliged to acknowledge his labors. Here they are:

Los Angeles Galaxy
Real Salt Lake
Colorado Rapids
Chivas USA
Houston Dynamo
FC Dallas

My God! I feel so righteous just posting those. Guess I'll, um, read them now.

In all seriousness, I do know how hard it can be to maintain focus on this, so good work TJ (that's the dude who posted all them previews). And I did read them.

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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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