Under normal circumstances, Indios and Cruz Azul would have had problems drawing people to a game. As it stood, there were few people present for Saturday's game between Indios and Cruz Azul, and it's too bad more people weren't there to witness Indios' dramatic game-winning, season-saving, Primera A-avoiding striker by Javier Saavedra.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
MLS weekend preview
Goal.com's Kyle McCarthy takes a look at Week 7 in MLS and provides picks for all the games. If he's correct, it'll be a happy weekend for all area MLS fans.
The game I think most MLS fans are looking forward to, though, is Seattle-Chicago. At this point, both those teams are legit MLS Cup contenders. Seattle's Kasey Keller hasn't allowed a goal yet while Chicago have the highest-scoring offense in the league and are the last unbeaten team in MLS.
As far as Chivas and the Galaxy...
Chivas' Sacha Kljestan hasn't shown up and at some point the team's going to need him to start producing. Will it be Saturday? Atiba Harris is out for the game and the hard-working but unproductive Justin Braun is back in the lineup. I've stopped counting on the re-emergence of Maykel Galindo so who the hell knows when he'll be back to starting or at least dressing for every game. Alecko Eskandarian is at least available for games but it seems nobody has a starting forward spot locked down... except for Braun. Anyway, some steady contributions from Kljestan could help offset that sort of fluidity in the starting spot up top. But Chivas has their tough-as-nails defense to count on, and San Jose's offense has been hit-and-miss so this is a winnable game.
The Galaxy meanwhile hosts a pretty bad New York team. The Red Bulls coughed up two stoppage-time goals against DC United last week and lost 3-2. I don't know how they can come in without their confidence in the toilet. The Galaxy's only getting healthier with Todd Dunivant and Edson Buddle seemingly ready to go. This team's defense has improved to. Donovan Ricketts might be getting up there in age but he's done a lot in a short amount of time. I think it'll be hard for New York to get more than a goal past Ricketts.
The game I think most MLS fans are looking forward to, though, is Seattle-Chicago. At this point, both those teams are legit MLS Cup contenders. Seattle's Kasey Keller hasn't allowed a goal yet while Chicago have the highest-scoring offense in the league and are the last unbeaten team in MLS.
As far as Chivas and the Galaxy...
Chivas' Sacha Kljestan hasn't shown up and at some point the team's going to need him to start producing. Will it be Saturday? Atiba Harris is out for the game and the hard-working but unproductive Justin Braun is back in the lineup. I've stopped counting on the re-emergence of Maykel Galindo so who the hell knows when he'll be back to starting or at least dressing for every game. Alecko Eskandarian is at least available for games but it seems nobody has a starting forward spot locked down... except for Braun. Anyway, some steady contributions from Kljestan could help offset that sort of fluidity in the starting spot up top. But Chivas has their tough-as-nails defense to count on, and San Jose's offense has been hit-and-miss so this is a winnable game.
The Galaxy meanwhile hosts a pretty bad New York team. The Red Bulls coughed up two stoppage-time goals against DC United last week and lost 3-2. I don't know how they can come in without their confidence in the toilet. The Galaxy's only getting healthier with Todd Dunivant and Edson Buddle seemingly ready to go. This team's defense has improved to. Donovan Ricketts might be getting up there in age but he's done a lot in a short amount of time. I think it'll be hard for New York to get more than a goal past Ricketts.
Yuckiness
The fallout from both Wendesday's Chivas-Everton match and the swine flu in Mexico has been, well, as Mural put it - Fuchila!
* Chivas and San Luis made it through to the second round of Libertadores where they'll play Sao Paulo and Nacional (Uruguay) respectively, but where will they play?
* Because of the swine flu, it seems Mexico is not an option for Chivas and/or San Luis to host South American teams. Colombia was in line to play host to games as the two Mexican teams were all set to play their home legs in Bogota but the Colombian government said no. FMF officials had said Chile might be an option but everything is seemingly up in the air, and when government officials get involved and are emphatic against something like a soccer game, it makes it hard to get around that.
* I was wondering if this might mean we'd have a Libertadores game here in LA but I read somewhere that the idea of playing those games in the US had been kicked around but discarded. Guess it'd be hard for Nacional to get from Montevideo to Los Angeles for a midweek game.
* I really hope that the series isn't reduced to a one-off game for both, with the matches being played at Sao Paulo and Montevideo, but that could be an option. Chivas at Sao Paulo for a winner-take-all series. A neutral site, even if it's in that country, would be preferable, but a two-leg series would still be the most ideal thing. Don't know, just seems there are a lot of people throwing up roadblocks and if Colombia already said no, if Chile was already hostile in their treatment of Chivas, I wonder if any South American country will say yes to Chivas and San Luis at this point.
* Getting back to the spitting incident, Chivas president Pedro Saez had some damage control and said he was surprised a player of Reynoso's caliber would do such an act. Mural ran a great picture of the incident:
The Everton player said afterward: "I hope he doesn't have some sort of disease." Ouch.
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