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.

Midweek kickaround

Some random thoughts and links to fill the morning/afternoon:

- I didn't actually get to write about the attendance figures for my PE column. In case you hadn't noticed, attendance figures around the league are sagging. MLS Daily does an excellent breakdown of this so you can click on this link to check out the figures.

Now, it's a little early in the season to say that the sky is falling or anything but there have been some wretched attendance figures around the league thus far.

* Real Salt Lake drew 11,806 to their season opener against Columbus. Yes, it was on a Thursday night but the game kicked off their home schedule. And it was against the defending champions. They actually drew 13 less fans to a Saturday match against DC United about 10 days later.

* FC Dallas drew 6,524 fans to a Sunday afternoon match against Chivas USA.

* The Galaxy drew 23,317 fans Saturday against Chivas USA. Now, it wasn't the most poorly-attended Clasico they hosted - only 18,260 showed up in June 2006 to watch Chivas-Galaxy, but it was just the second time the Galaxy did not sell out a Clasico.

* The Galaxy also drew just 18,013 to their home opener. It was the first time since the Galaxy moved to Home Depot Center that they have drawn fewer than 20,000 to their home opener.

* Kansas City, Columbus and San Jose (twice) have played home games with fewer than 10,000 in the seats.

Anyway, I'm not going to make any sort of final judgments on this - it's still too early to do so - but this certainly bears watching.

ADD: Thanks to Michoacano, I remembered to add the second part of this attendance thoughts. Not all attendance figures have been negative. Seattle has made a splash in their games, averaging just under 30,000 in three home dates. Chivas USA also has enjoyed a bit of a rise in attendance, which is encouraging.

So while the overall figures look bleak there are some stats to be encouraged by.

- Fredy Montero won't face any sort of criminal charges for an alleged sexual assault. That's good. MLS has nowhere near the media exposure of the major American sports leagues, but it also doesn't have many of the off-the-field problems those leagues deal with either. Last thing we needed was for one of the brighter young imports acting badly. Well now, not sure if he did or didn't act badly but at least there was nothing criminal about his behavior.

- President Obama threw his support behind a US World Cup bid. Here's what he had to say about the matter, according to a US Soccer press release:

Hosting another successful World Cup is important for the continued growth of the sport in the United States. And it is important to me personally. As a child, I played soccer on a dirt road in Jakarta, and the game brought the children of my neighborhood together. As a father, I saw that same spirit of unity alive on the fields and sidelines of my own daughters’ soccer games in Chicago. Soccer is truly the world’s sport, and the World Cup promotes camaraderie and friendly competition across the globe. That is why this bid is about much more than a game. It is about the United States of America inviting the world to gather all across our great country in celebration of our common hopes and dreams.

- San Diego might be one of the venues for some possible World Cup games. Or it might not. The Union-Tribune's Mark Zeigler looks at "America's Finest City" and their prospects of potentially hosting World Cup matches.

- In case you aren't aware, Chivas and America will play on Sunday in the best football rivalry north of Boca-River on this side of the world. I'd put them in the same category and I'm not about to say one is better than the other. Of course, I follow the Mexican superclasico more but that's natural. My family's from Mexico.

Anyway, Chivas didn't look very good against Lanus on Tuesday in Copa Libertadores although they could have won the game had they not had a late goal disallowed.

And for overall coverage of the game and the Mexican league, stop by Goal.com. I'm treating it as a national team game and will have a lot of coverage before the game and on matchday.

Early trends

I'll be working on my Press-Enterprise column this morning, and right now I'm leaning towards writing on the early trends in MLS this season. I'll probably also write about the local teams as well since they've got trends of their own to discuss.

One of the two major early trends this season is the high number of red cards. Two weekends ago there were quite a few red cards handed out; Dema Kovalenko and Andy Iro were sent off on separate days at Home Depot Center alone. But last week, there were even more, seven in all including three during Saturday's Chivas-Galaxy game.

Here's a piece by Greg Lalas for SI.com on the trend.

Now, I know the official for Saturday's Chivas-Galaxy game took a lot of criticism for his performance, and while I agree that there were a lot of cards handed out, I feel that the three ejections were warranted.

* Paulo Nagamura's first yellow may have been a bit soft but he earned it with his constant yapping and aggressive play before that. He nailed Landon Donovan's ankle from behind, however much Donovan embelished the play afterward doesn't matter.

* Carey Talley took a forearm to the chest from Alan Gordon. That's a yellow, and it was his second.

* Gregg Berhalter dragged Alecko Eskandarian from behind and was the last man standing between Esky and the Galaxy goalkeeper. That's a straight red card in any game from high school to the World Cup.

There have been 31 total red cards this season, and it's a bit head-scratching why there have been so many. Not sure what the solution is to stopping such a high number of cards or if there is one really. Hopefully it's just a trend that will pass soon.

I'll be back later with at least one more troubling early-season trend: low attendance.

Sunday highlights

Not a lot of time this morning to blog, though I'll be out at HDC tonight for Crew-Chivas.

Here are some highlights you may have missed or want to re-live to get you going this Sunday.

MLS Week 3

As much as I've enjoyed the national team games, this weekend will revert back to league as MLS and Mexican league action will dominate the landscape, at least around here.

For an MLS debriefing, I'd suggest reading Kyle McCarthy's story on Goal.com. He looks at each game and predicts a winner. I probably would have predicted the Crew to do better on Sunday before Thursday's defeat in Salt Lake but I think I might have to agree with his pick in that game.

The match I'm really looking forward to is Seattle-Toronto. Suddenly, that game is probably the must-watch game of the week. Seattle has been fantastic at home, outscoring their opponents 5-0 in two games but now they must travel to a place that hasn't been easy for visitors to get results. And that was when they were a bad team. Toronto also looks like the real deal, and it's their own home opener. And the internationals will return, so Amado Guevara will join TFC fresh off Honduras' whipping of Mexico.

Morning links

A couple of stories to get you going this Monday morning while I head to the gym. I've got a half-marathon in less than three weeks now, so I've got to get some quality runs here soon. Anyway...

- Goal.com's Kyle McCarthy with a look back at Week 2 in MLS.

- Here's my story for the PE on the Sol-Freedom game and the opening of WPS in general.

- Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote a gamer for his paper.

- Another match report, from Grahame Jones of the LA Times.

- A match report from the Dallas Morning News on Chivas USA's 2-0 win. Chivas, 2-0 for the first time in team history.

Oh yeah... forgot about that

MLS has a full slate of games on tap for this weekend. Nevermind that the US national team has a World Cup qualifier on Saturday. It's okay, don't bother shutting the league down.

To be honest, it's so infuriating and has been for so many years that I'm all but numb to it right now. I'm just happy that there aren't any games out at Home Depot Center so I can stay home and watch Mexico-Costa Rica and US-El Salvador uninterrupted... well, at least uninterrupted by soccer (soccer won't get in the way of soccer after all). I'll probably have to figure something out about my daughters. Hmm... lots of ice cream and cookies! That'll keep 'em quiet.

Anyway, here's a Week 2 preview from Goal.com's Kyle McCarthy.

Media guide madness

You know it's the start of the MLS season when all of the teams' respective media guides come out. I got a delivery on Thursday and inside was this:

Now, that cool little box was broken, probably got crushed by other packages but it's supposed to have a front with the league's logo on it. Still, I don't really mind since I've got what matters in the media guides. I organized them up top by how I predict each conference will finish, first through last from the right to the left, conference by conference, though I forgot how I had my Eastern middle-of-the-pack playing out.

Anyway, here are four Western teams' media guide covers.

I think the 'Quakes wanted to remind us who their sponsors were, in case we'd forgotten. RSL's got their new digs on the cover, and their spiral-bound book is always a favorite because it's easy to read.

The other four Western conference teams:


Some interesting notes: Tony Sanneh has a full bio in the Galaxy's guide although the club just announced yesterday that he'd signed with the club. I didn't even realize he hadn't signed until I saw the release. And Chivas USA's features one Mexican in the guide, but it's not Eduardo Lillingston. Claudio Suarez is part of that, just like any other player. No truth to the rumor that staff will cross out Suarez's info with sharpies during upcoming games.

And onto the East:

At first glance, Kansas City's looks strange. It looks more like a glorified pamphlet than a guide. If you look at the first picture, it's the one hiding towards the left. But it's the only media guide that comes with a CD, so perhaps some funds were diverted towards that. Still, it's lightweight and easy to carry and that's a big plus.


New York's is always the thickest, which I always find strange. I mean, it's not like they have a wealth of postseason games to document. The little MLS thing in the corner is the part that had broken off the package.

Anyway, thought you may find this interesting. Now I have to go read up on the Rapids and DC, since that's who we've got coming into town this weekend.

Sights seen and unseen

What will we see during the 2009 MLS season? What won't we see?

I took a look at five things we'll see and five we won't this upcoming season for SI.com.

More rankings

Not everyone is down on Chivas USA. SI.com colleague Noah Davis ranks his teams 1-15, and he has Chivas USA at No. 2, but he has the Galaxy at No. 14. Yikes! And he agrees with me that Seattle should start out the year at No. 15. I mean, last year has to count for something, right? And where was Seattle last year?

Anyway, we'll see how Seattle does here in a matter of hours but the rankings just seem to be all over the place, whether it's him or mine or anyone else's. There's no consensus. We don't have any dominant teams here, no Man Us or Barcelonas to mop up the rest of the league; hence the wildly varying opinions.

Soothsayer

My predictions for this season. Half of them will be wrong, I guarantee it. Also, don't compare my Week 1 rankings to how I think they'll finish, because I based Week 1 on how strong I feel they are entering the season, not how I think the season will unfold.

MLS Cup: Chicago over San Jose

Supporters Shield: Chicago

MVP: Darren Huckerby, San Jose

Rookie of the Year: Omar Gonzalez, Galaxy

Coach of the Year: Sigi Schmid, Seattle

Western Conference:
1. San Jose
2. Houston
3. Seattle
4. Real Salt Lake
5. Colorado
6. Chivas USA
7. Galaxy
8. FC Dallas

Eastern Conference
1. Chicago
2. Columbus
3. Kansas City
4. New England
5. Toronto
6. New York
7. DC United

Morning ramblings

I've got some links for you this morning. Strangely, my PE column was not linked. It happens sometimes. When I have time later, I'll get to the meat of the column as I wrote about how the Galaxy and Chivas USA will struggle to compete in the Western Conference.

Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune takes a look at the MLS season. Zeigler is always worth a read.

Nick Green wrote in his Tuesday column about the local teams' struggles with injuries. Galaxy could be hurting for players on Sunday. Not good. At least they're hosting DC, which is expected to finish towards the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

Vancouver may indeed get an MLS team. Vancouver is set to be announced as the league's 17th team - and second Canadian entry - in MLS. I know some think that Canada should get its own league and why should MLS bother with Canadian teams but I'm all for bringing in Vancouver. It's a city that seems poised to support an MLS team, and while Toronto isn't exactly nearby there could be a rivalry there. Of course, there likely will be a rivalry with Seattle and if Portland gets a team that would add to that as well. Exciting times for Vancouver.

In case you're wondering - because I was too - it's about 140 miles or so from Seattle to Vancouver.

Many on the Goal.com staff, including yours truly, made their predictions for the upcoming season. While not all of my picks are on there, I do chime in on the Rookie and MVP honors.

Don't forget to check out Goal.com's Mexico page for news on Mexico en ingles.

My man Bruce McGuire, formerly of DuNord, has been contributing to the new Bunky County blog. It's not the same wealth of info but some updates nonetheless. Good to see Bruce up and running.

Preseason camp

My latest effort for SI.com.

Cowering league, club

Here's my latest PE column on the David Beckham mess.

Where's the love?

The CONCACAF Champions League picks up again today as Atlante host Houston for a spot in the semifinals.

I wrote this column for SI.com on Friday to sort of wrap up the week and look ahead to this week's games.

Now, in the column I partly wrote about what I've felt all along, that Mexican teams have long held an advantage and they'll take care of business at home. Until I see otherwise, I don't think teams can go into Mexico and expect a win.

Of course, some people took exception to my column, and they let me know about it:

* "You are an idiot. MLS is still in pre-season, as opposed to the Mexican leagues. But of course you won't admit that in your article because it would be factually accurate. The Mexican league, just like the national team, aren't that good."

* "That means what in terms of global futbol? Nothing. This is a terrible column that only serves to heighten Mexican nationalism. All you ever write is about Mexico, Mexico Mexico. They are a second rate team at best and the league is a third rate league. Please stop the madness!"

* "With all due respect (none), anything you write that has "class" and "Mexican soccer" in the same sentence is completely unbelievable. Those two phrases should never be together given the complete lack of sportsmanship displayed in recent USA/Mexico games as well as the earlier played group games in the CONCACAF Champ. Cup. Combine the spotty referreeing, altitude and vast differences in the team salary budgets between the two leagues and its very understandable how the Mexico played games are a bit skewed."

Ahem.

Okay, I'm an idiot. Yes, that's an original comment. But two things jump out at me and I can't figure out why people can't differentiate between them.

First, I get that a lot, the "you only write about Mexican soccer" line. Yeah, nimrod, because I am paid to write about Mexican soccer. Occasionally I write about MLS or something but my beat for SI.com is the Mexican soccer beat. That's like going to a butcher shop and complaining that all they sell is meat.

Secondly, I want to post this somewhere with lights glaring: LEAGUE AND NATIONAL TEAM ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. Any arguments you use for or against the Mexican national team hold little or no relevance when it comes to league, and vice versa. So what if the Mexican national team is playing like shit? That doesn't mean the league's teams are. Mexico is struggling against regional competition, but the league's teams are not. It's still the best league in the region and its teams are still strong. I'm not saying that Mexico is La Liga or anything but it's still the... wait for it... ahem... cough... CLASS of the region. That much I stand by.

Now, I don't have a rooting interest in tonight's Atlante-Houston game, but I think that Houston will get their asses handed to them. It might not be a 4-0 blowout but I don't think Houston will get out of their with anything but a lopsided loss, even if it's not reflected by the score. And I also think Santos will turn around their own series and come away with a victory over Montreal on Thursday.

The cream will rise to the top, and until I'm proven otherwise that's what I feel. If that makes me an idiot, so be it.

What a joke

I thought MLS learned from the past, that the league had grown to the point where clubs and the league itself didn't rely on one player.

I was so wrong.

Now, Becks gets to stay away with Milan for the duration of the season and, as an added bonus to Galaxy fans, he won't be able to play until mid-July.

By the way, this will be the theme of my Wednesday PE column so I will gather my thoughts on the matter and let everyone know how childish and absurd this whole deal is. It's too bad I won't be able to call it what it really is: complete bullshit.

League vs national team

How did MLS do when trying to schedule around the US national team and the CONCACAF Hexagonal? Let's compare matchdays:

CONCACAF Hex: March 28 three games - MLS has six games scheduled for March 28, another for March 29.

Hex: April 1 - MLS has no games scheduled for April 1 but one game on April 2 (Columbus-RSL)

Hex: June 3 US-Costa Rica, June 6 three games - MLS has a game on June 4 and 5, four on 6 and two on 7.

Hex: June 10 two games - MLS has one game on June 10: Chivas USA-Houston

Hex: Aug. 12 three games - MLS has no games on Aug. 12, full weekend of games before and after

Hex: Sept. 5 three games - MLS has three games scheduled for Sept. 5

Hex: Sept. 9 three games - MLS has no games scheduled for Sept. 9

Hex: Oct. 10 three games - MLS has three games scheduled for Oct. 10

Hex: Oct. 14 three games - MLS has one game scheduled (New York-RSL)

So how did MLS do? Horrendously. MLS will have games on five of the United States' 10 Hexagonal dates. They will compete head-to-head against the US national team yet again, in what is probably the United States' most important year since 2006. World Cup qualifying will be at stake, the Confederations and Gold cups will be raging on and we'll have MLS games clogging the schedule and making it difficult for fans to follow both their club and country.

Preposterous. You'd think after 13 years MLS would have been able to figure this out. Insetad, it's more of the same garbage.

Schedule's out

I don't have much time to post but I wanted to get this out here.

The MLS schedule has been released and while I'll try and dissect it later, here are some games of note.

April 11, Chivas USA at LA Galaxy
May 28, Chicago at Chivas USA
July 11, LA Galaxy at Chivas USA
Aug. 29, Chivas USA at LA Galaxy
Oct. 2, Chicago at LA Galaxy

Alright, those were the games I was most anticipating, the Super Clasicos and Cuauhtemoc's Fire team coming to town, games which are certain to draw a packed house... if he plays.

MLS schedule out Wednesday

For many MLS fans, the day the schedule is released is a bit like Christmas. It's a day that is long anticipated and pretty exciting once it hits. Fans plan out their games, circle specific matches on their respective calendars and begin the countdown towards opening day.

Fans don't need to wait much longer. The schedule will be released on Wednesday.

Of course, we already know the home openers for both Chivas USA and the Galaxy. Chivas USA opens Saturday, March 21 at 7:30 p.m. against Colorado while the Galaxy hosts DC United at noon on Sunday, March 22. We'll find out the rest of the schedule, including dates for the Super Clasicos, when Chicago comes to HDC (two games which I'm looking forward to) and the respective midweek games, on Wednesday.

I also hope we'll see some weekends that won't have any games, that MLS complied with their promise of not conflicting with the US national team's World Cup qualifiers. It's absurd that we even have to think about that but 2009 is an important year for the US national team, and the last thing MLS fans who support the US should have to worry about is choosing between their team and their club.

Canceled

MLS has been canceled on Thursday nights at least.

Thursday night soccer will no longer be part of the weekly soccer landscape, which I think is a good thing. I'm probably in the minority but I never liked Thursday night soccer. It just didn't work. The ratings were a disaster and games were moved to Thursdays to accommodate a non-existent television viewership instead of being played Saturday when teams could better prepare for their respective encounters.

I understand the need to have MLS out there, to be on a major sports network. But when it bombs out, that makes it even more painful to endure.

LA Times' Grahame Jones wrote about the possibility of ESPN bidding for the rights to English Premier League games, and how that would seemingly trouble MLS suits more than the outright cancellation of their Thursday night TV slot. He also described MLS as the "always hypersensitive" league, and how they went on to issue their own release to counterbalance the effects of the word "cancel."

But canceled MLS was. Cancel, cancel, cancel. The ratings were awful, and that MLS Primetime Thursdays lasted as long as it did is sort of remarkable.