Well a weekend full of season ending games and a couple more end of the year awards have been finalized. How are my predictions going?
I correctly predicted that the 4th seed Chicago Fire took out overall league leaders DC United.
I also predicted that the 5th place (East) Kansas City Wizards would defeat 1st place (West) Chivas USA. That happened after a 1-0 KC win in KC and a scoreless draw back in LA this weekend.
Both of the #2 seeds advanced like I predicted, but Houston had to come back and use overtime to dispose of FC Dallas. The Revolution just got a single goal from Taylor Twellman to drop the Red Bulls.
I correctly picked the goalkeeper of the year and the fair play award. The newest awards were given to Eddie Johnson for comeback player of the year, and then the first one I got wrong was defender of the year. Eddie Robinson was my prediction but Michael Parkhurst won the award. So much for a perfect round of post season predictions…
So the next round looks like this:
Chicago Fire @ New England Revolution
Kansas City Wizards @ Houston Dynamo
It looks like we are set up for a repeat of last years MLS Cup, but I’m not making my predictions yet. I imagine KC and Houston both are hoping for a Revolution win on Thursday because no one can lose the big game quite like the Revolution can.
ps - I kinda thought the LA Galaxy might beat Hollywood United yesterday, which they apparently did, 12 - 4.
Well the Galaxy run came to an end and the Wizards didn’t drop out of the playoffs on their last game day like expected. Here is a look at the upcoming playoff schedule. I’m glad to see they are still going to have Thursday nite games on ESPN2! All times CST.
Thurday, October 25
D.C. United @ Chicago Fire - 7:30 p.m. [ESPN2]
Saturday, October 27
New England Revolution @ New York Red Bulls - 6:30 p.m. [FSC, FSE]
Houston Dynamo @FC Dallas @ 7:00 p.m. [DK, HDNet, MLSLIVE.tv]
Chivas USA @ Kansas City Wizards - 7:00 p.m. [DK, MLSLIVE.tv]
Thursday, November 1
Chicago Fire @ D.C. United - 6:30 p.m. [ESPN2]
FC Dallas @ Houston Dynamo - 7:30 p.m. [DK, MLSLIVE.tv]
Saturday, November 3
New York Red Bulls @ New England Revolution - 6:30 p.m. [FSC, FSE]
Kansas City Wizards @ Chivas USA - 9:30 p.m. [DK, HDNet, MLSLIVE.tv]
And below are my predictions for the semi-finals:
Chicago Fire vs. New England Revolution
and
Houston Dynamo vs. Kansas City Wizards
You might thing my picks of Chicago and Kansas City are crazy, let me explain. 1. Preki. 2. Blanco. Thats it, I just have a feeling.
Well we’ve heard it before, but when Ives Galarcep writes about something, people take notice. Now he is talking about the possibility of Thierry Henry coming to MLS and playing for the New York Red Bulls.
There was a ton of doubt that Beckham would make the move to MLS but those turned out to be a little more than just rumors. Will Henry really end up in New York or anywhere in MLS? What do you think? When will it happen?
Tonight the New York Red Bulls come to the Home Depot Center with a chance to spoil the playoff run being made by the red hot LA Galaxy. The Red Bulls already are in the playoffs and just have a chance to play the part of the spoilers tonight. So what do the Galaxy need to do? (from soccer365.com)
If LA defeats NY on Thursday, the Galaxy will clinch a playoff spot IF:
LA defeats Chicago on Sunday OR
LA ties Chicago on Sunday AND either of the following occur:
Colorado fails to win against Real Salt Lake on Saturday
Kansas City loses to FC Dallas on Saturday
If LA ties NY on Thursday, the Galaxy will clinch a playoff spot IF:
LA defeats Chicago on Sunday AND either of the following occur:
Colorado fails to win against RSL on Saturday
Kansas City loses to FC Dallas on Saturday
Will be eliminated from playoff contention IF:
LA loses to New York on Thursday OR IF:
LA ties New York on Thursday AND
LA ties or loses to Chicago next Sunday
The Kansas City Wizards were one of the hottest teams early in this 2007 MLS season. Now they are one of the teams still looking for a playoff spot with only 2 weeks remaining in the regular season.
Last year the Wizards’ post season schedule was not decided until the last day of the regular season. That day the Wizards and the New York Red Bulls played in New York. A Wizards win or a draw would have sent the Wizards into the playoffs and left the Red Bulls out. The Red Bulls did get the victory and the last playoff spot.
This year the Red Bulls are in and the Wizards can clinch a spot with a victory when they face each other tomorrow in NY. The other difference is that if the Red Bulls beat the Wizards again, they still have a chance next weekend when they go into FC Dallas.
Even 2 losses for the wizards could see them on to the playoffs if 2 other teams are not able to pass them in the standings. Currently Chicago, Colorado, Columbus and LA all have a possibility of moving up.
Toronto FC kept the New York Red Bulls from claiming their playoff spot last night, but the Red Bulls only need 1 victory to make it in still. A 2-1 TFC victory is pretty impressive for the last place team that has several of their stars out for the rest of the year. They are not just the last place team, but a last place team with no hopes of getting to the playoffs.
The most impressive part of this game for me was the crowd at BMO Field. It looked like it was full and the crowd was loud and into the game. Of course they aren’t used to their team winning, but most last place teams with no hopes of playoffs at the end of the year would not have crowds half that size or loud.
Well done TFC fans. I think I want to see a TFC home game myself!
Well that title might be a little mis-leading. Coco was dropped from Inter Milan and there is some interest in bringing him to MLS by a couple of teams.
Coco was a former Italy national defender who played in the 2002 world cup, but his international career didn’t go much further than that.
Now it sounds like New York Red Bulls and the New England Revolution are interested in bringing the Italian to Major League Soccer. Is it likely that he does end up with one of these teams or any MLS team? I’m not too sure, but it will be interesting to see.
I had the DVR set to record all MLS games it finds. Saturday my dad was in town for a poker tournament. We were out at the tournament all nite. I find out later that the DVR for some reason did not record the Galaxy/Red Bulls game for me. Now I hear this was the game of the season so far.
I understand that a lot of New Yorkers care more about Beckham than they do about their own Red Bulls, but it is unfortunate. So this game had everything, a lot of Beckham fans, and a lot of scoring, you know to satisfy those American Football fans who always whine about there not being enough scoring in soccer.
It is too bad that will probably be the last game in New York that has either a crowd like that or a score like that. Regular fans will go back to being regular fans and someday home game ticket sales will not spike for any one team coming to town.
It is too bad that I did not get to see this game. Fu&#$%! DVR… Gotta look forward to the SuperClasico this Thursday nite on ESPN2!
You understand that you should not expect great things from your team if I predict a victory for them here. I’ve only got one thursday prediction correct all year so far, so just assume the opposite.
My pick is going to go with the home team tonite, the New York Red Bulls. Sorry Red Bull fans.
Here is a commercial for the Red Bulls that I found on google video.
It is kinda a cool video but I don’t see that this would make anyone thing they gotta get out and go to a Red Bulls game. Wouldn’t some actual footage of some exciting moments from a game, or shots of an excited crowd be better? Maybe they would steal some video of a Toronto crowd. They guys juggling in the dark garage is neat, but not going to spark ticket sales I wouldn’t think.
The Kansas City Wizards with their 90th+ minute moved to the lone position at the top of the table. New York really didn’t want to keep that scoreless streak going by giving 3 to Real Salt Lake in a 3-3 tie. Mathis got a couple of goals to help out my fantasy team quite a bit.
I guess what I meant was not that Houston and Colorado would end in a tie, but that New York and Real Salt Lake would be the tie game. At least I was right about Kansas City.
DC United finally get a win, will they continue in their winning ways?
