Real Salt Lake vs LA Galaxy The Home Depot Center, Carson Sun, Nov 6, 9 pm ET/6 pm PT
Real Salt Lake survive a close one in Seattle after thumping the Sounders 3-0 in Salt Lake. The Galaxy took care of NY 3-1 and their fans developed a special place in their hearts for NY forward Luke Rodgers for this:
Houston Dynamo vs Sporting KC Livestrong Sporting Park, Kansas City Sun, Nov 6, 5:30 pm ET/4:30 pm CT
Meanwhile in the much weaker Eastern conference, Sporting KC cruised to a 4-0 victory over the reserve squad of the defending champion Colorado Rapids (they had a lot of injuries). Houston Dynamo played against an un-inspiring Philadelphia Union team that seemed just fine to be down by 2 goals at the end of their second leg. These teams finished 9th and 12th in the league last year, neither of which was good enough to make the playoffs.
Predictions
Sporting KC look too damn good to be stopped by the Dynamo, especially at home.
Real Salt Lake are up and down. They were horrible at the end of the regular season but then put a thumping on Seattle before going to get dominated in Seattle. The Galaxy should be consistently really good, but probably not great. If RSL play a great game, they can beat LA. I think Donovan and company will do exactly what they need to do to get back to the MLS Cup.
Three teams have booked their spots in the 2009 Major League Soccer playoffs. The defending champions Columbus Crew are in and currently leading the whole league with 46 points and even a game in hand over several of the teams chasing them. At 44 points the champions of 2006 and 2007 Houston Dynamo are in. The LA Galaxy are also in the playoffs with 44 points as well. The Galaxy also happen to be 2005 MLS Cup champions. Although they haven’t done much since then Bruce Arena has them moving in the right direction now.
If we keep going like this the 2004 champions should be the next team to qualify. That would have to take quite an amazing run from DC United as they are currently 5 points behind 4th place Seattle Sounders FC.
Here is the current situation:
46 Columbus
44 Los Angeles
44 Houston
41 Seattle [@KC, FC Dallas]
41 Chivas USA [KC, San Jose, @Chicago, Houston]
41 Chicago [@New England, Chivas USA]
40 Colorado [@FC Dallas, @RSL]
38 New England [Columbus, Chicago, @Columbus]
—-
36 D.C. United [Columbus, @KC]
35 Toronto FC [San Jose, RSL, @NY]
34 Real Salt Lake [NY, @Toronto FC, Colorado]
33 FC Dallas [@San Jose, Colorado, @Seattle]
32 Kansas City [@Chivas USA, Seattle, DC United]
28 San Jose
18 New York
Seattle Sounders FC, Chivas USA, and Chicago Fire should all be okay to get into the playoffs. Colorado has 2 games against slightly weaker opponents than others, but they are both on the road. New England has 3 games left, but they have to face league leading Crew twice and Chicago once. I think Toronto FC has a good chance of jumping over DC United and New England to get that last playoff stop. That is my prediction today at least.
Here is the Major League Soccer single table at the all star break. It isn’t uncommon to see Houston on the top along with FC Dallas and San Jose near the bottom.
This table doesn’t take into effect any of the games that will be taking place today. Ten teams will be seeing action later today while there is only one game tomorrow. Of course the LA Galaxy are taking on FC Barcelona tonight in a friendly at the Rose Bowl.
32 Houston 30 Columbus 29 Seattle 29 Chicago 28 D.C. United 28 Los Angeles 27 Chivas USA
27 Colorado 26 Toronto FC
23 New England
23 Real Salt Lake
21 Kansas City
17 FC Dallas
14 San Jose
10 New York
Teams in bold would be in the playoffs if they started today.
I used to try to keep the MLS single table up to date here, but quit doing that after last year. I was too often several games behind and sometime would forget to update it for a whole week. It was not very reliable so I quit doing it. Today I started to miss the single table so I put together a very simple one. Here is the current standing after the Galaxy upset league leaders Houston Dynamo.
28 Houston Dynamo
27 Chivas USA
25 Seattle Sounders FC
23 DC United
22 Columbus Crew
22 Toronto FC
21 Chicago Fire
21 Colorado Rapids
19 Kansas City Wizards
19 Real Salt Lake
18 Los Angeles Galaxy
16 New England Revolution
14 FC Dallas
12 San Jose Earthquakes
10 New York Red Bulls
vs 
