Along with the recent departure of Nick Garcia, the news that Jose Burciaga Jr is going to Colorado for more draft picks reveals signs that the Wizards will be looking to play a new formation. The lineup will feature 1 defender (who needs more than Jimmy Conrad anyway?), 6 in the midfield, and 3 strikers.
Jose Burciaga Jr is headed to the Colorado Rapids. In exchange for Burciaga Jr the Wizards will get a second round draft pick in 2009.
The Wizards may also be losing Eddie Johnson to Fulham. It seems the US National team is just moving to London. Now Fulham, who already has 4 Americans, is after Eddie Johnson and Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan. Who will be the next American to head for Fulham?
The Galaxy tied NYRB 1-1 last nite to keep the playoff race interesting.
Here is a look at the current playoff situation. The Columbus Crew are right there even with the Galaxy but because of head to head tie-breakers do not have a chance of making the post season anymore. Each team has one game left.
[37] Chicago Fire (Sunday - LA Galaxy)
[37] KC Wizards (Saturday - @ FC Dallas)
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[35] Colorado Rapids (Saturday - Real Salt Lake)
[34] LA Galaxy (sunday - @ Chicago Fire)
This is how it works. The Galaxy and Rapids both need a win to have a chance. If they both fail to win Kansas City and Chicago will both be in.
The Galaxy will be cheering on Real Salt Lake to beat or tie the Rapids and FC Dallas to beat the Wizards on Saturday. If neither one of those situations happens, the Galaxy have no chance of playoffs.
The Rapids will be cheering for FC Dallas to beat the Wizards or the Fire beat or tie the Galaxy. Either of those outcomes along with a Rapids victory will put them in the post season.
So it looks like everyone is going to be behind FC Dallas this weekend. The Wizards fan in me is sure that FC Dallas is going to give hope to LA and Colorado. The Wizards managed to wait until the last game of the year last year to drop out of the playoffs, why not do it again this year?
Well the playoff picture is still all up in the air. We know that Kansas City, Chicago and LA all have control of their own destiny. Columbus and Colorado are both hoping to squeeze into the playoffs, but they need some help to get there.
The Colorado Rapids played the west leading Chivas USA. The Rapids needed a victory and the game went into the 90th minute a 1-1 tie. Omar Cummings change that scoreline and kept the Rapids in the playoff race for the time being. So this is the current standings:
Chicago - 37
Kansas City - 37
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Colorado - 35
Columbus - 34
LA - 33
Thursday:
New York Red Bulls @ LA Galaxy
Saturday:
Columbus Crew @ DC United
Kansas City Wizards @ FC Dallas
Real Salt Lake @ Colorado Rapids
Sunday:
LA Galaxy @ Chicago Fire
The Chicago Fire, Kansas City Wizards and LA Galaxy all control their own destiny. Finish the season with wins and they will play in the playoffs. Chicago and Kansas City could both potentially still make the playoffs if they lose their last games as long as they have help from New York on Thursday and DC United and Real Salt Lake on Saturday. The Rapids need to win and need a little bit of help to make the playoffs while the Crew need a win and quite a bit more help to get in.
This is how the current situation looks, we have 5 teams fighting for the last 2 playoff spots:
#. Team - points (games remaining)
7. KC Wizards - 37 (2)
8. Chicago Fire - 36 (2)
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9. Colorado Rapids - 32 (2)
10. Columbus Crew - 31 (2)
11. LA Galaxy - 30 (3)
The following table represents how high the bottom 3 teams could possibly go:
LA Galaxy - 39
Colorado Rapids - 38
Columbus Crew - 37
I don’t think anything is going to change before the end of the year, unless Chicago moves into the #7 spot and KC drops to 8, but they both will be playing this post season.
DC United, New England Revolution, Chivas USA and defending champions Houston Dynamo have all claimed their playoff spots.
As the table stands right now the wildcards would be FC Dallas, New York Red Bulls, Kansas City Wizards and the Chicago Fire.
The Columbus Crew are only 1 point behind the Chicago Fire for the last spot, and behind them are the Colorado Rapids who are only 3 points back from the Fire. This is what the remaining schedule look like for these teams that will be battling for that last spot in the playoffs:
Chicago Fire:
@ Chivas USA
New England Revolution
@ DC United
LA Galaxy
Columbus Crew:
LA Galaxy
FC Dallas
@ New England Revolution
@ DC United
Colorado Rapids:
@ New England Revolution
Toronto FC
@ Chivas USA
Real Salt Lake
The Rapids might have the easiest schedule remaining, but the Fire have been the best team lately. I think this could come down to the last day of the season which has the Fire playing on their home turf with LA Galaxy visiting. The Crew are playing in DC on that day. Advantage goes to the Fire here, so they are my pick to make the playoffs out of these 3 teams. Who knows something crazy could happen and the Wizards could give up their spot to another one of these teams, but I wouldn’t count on that.
I couldn’t have been more wrong on my Thursday Prediction just hours ago.
First of all as Mr. Fish pointed out, tonite’s game was actually not on ESPN2 for some reason, so I didn’t see the game. Thanks for the correction Mr. Fish.
Secondly, the Rapids put a whooping on the Revolution. Who (besides Rapids fans) would have ever guessed that?
Jovan Kirovski scored a pair of goals in the first half and Omar Cummings via Colin Clark dropped in a 3rd closer to the end of the game. 3-0 was the final score.
Prediction Thursday has been missing for quite a while. Frequent blogging has been kinda something of the past as well. I hope to pick up the pace on both of them in the future.
2 - 0
There you have it. New England is the class of the league, Colorado is in the slums. Even playing at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park I think the Revolution have a big advantage. Of course something strange could happen, like Taylor Twellman scoring an own goal and the only goal of the game for a Rapids 1-0 victory, but DeRosario already took care of that once this year.
My MFLS team is back into first place so I’ve got some more motivation than I have in the past few weeks!
I missed out on quite a bit of action recently by going camping, then a long work trip and finally getting really sick. A lot has happened in the US Open Cup.
The New England Revolution will play the Harrisburg City Islanders tonite in the last quarterfinal to be settled. One of the top MLS teams against the last USL-2 team alive.
The winner of that game will play the Carolina RailHawks who defeated the Richmond Kickers in their quarterfinal 1-0.
FC Dallas took the Charleston Battery to extra time before coming away with a 2-1 victory to advance to the semi-finals.
FC Dallas will play the Seattle Sounders who gave the Colorado Rapids a real beating in their quarter-final. The Rapids were beat down by a final score of 5-0. Whoaaa Colorado, whats up with that? I’ve only notice one beating that was worse than that one, but that was a USL-1 team beating an USASA (3 tiers below USL-1) by the score of 10-0. The Atlanta Silverbacks beat Azzuri by that score if anyone was wondering.
So at most 2 MLS teams will make it to the semi-finals, and at least 1. Does this look bad for MLS or good for USL?
Two more lower league teams dropped two more MLS teams out of the US Open Cup. The Seattle Sounders beat Chivas USA 3-1 to advance to the quarterfinals and will eventually face the Colorado Rapids. The Carolina RailHawks beat Chicago Fire 1-0 and will go on to face the Richmond Kickers in the quarterfinals.
Major League Soccer teams have not fared too well in this years US Open Cup. Only 3 MLS teams have advanced to the quarterfinals while 3 USL-1 and 2 USL-2 teams are in the quarterfinals. The Next round of games takes place on August 10th.
Here are the quarterfinal matchups:
Harrisburg City Islanders
New England Revolution
Richmond Kickers
Carolina RailHawks
FC Dallas
Charleston Battery
Colorado Rapids
Seattle Sounders
Four MLS team were in action tonite, only half of those teams advanced to the quarterfinals. The Galaxy and Dynamo fell to the Richmond Kickers and Charleston Battery respectively. The Colorado Rapids and New England Revolution each won their games by a two goal margin over thier USL opponents.
3 - 1
0 - 1
4 - 2
0 - 1
