WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Just how much do marketers in New York (or wherever SUM is located) hate this SuperLiga final match-up between New England and Houston? Before the tournament they saw plenty of dollar signs with the Mexican teams coming over to play in a bragging-rights kind of tournament, plus not to mention solid ratings with those teams on TV.

Now, they get two American teams that have played each other in the MLS Cup final each of the last two years. I’m not saying this won’t be a great game but clearly this isn’t what SUM and the directors of this tournament wanted in the beginning.

Having one Mexican team and one MLS team would have worked fine and been great, so would have two Mexican teams. But two MLS clubs just won’t sell, especailly for a tournament that has lost it’s luster since the first kick a couple weeks ago.

But in all honesty, the two clubs that are left deserve to be where they are…in the final.

Right now MLS fans couldn’t have asked for a better matchup. New England has clearly been the league’s best club for a while not and Houston is starting to really hit their strides here (thanks to SuperLiga). To say this match won’t be at least half way decent is an understatement.

So the game will be in New England, a place where the Revs have dominated the Dynamo in recent years (another annoyance of this tournament is that the final isn’t on a neutral site). The last meeting in Foxborough was a 3-0 slamming on the Dynamo on the first day of the MLS season. Sure that game was ages ago but the sting is still there for the Dynamo and the sting of two straight losses in MLS Cup by the Revs is still there.

Tonight’s game will be good, probably a bit sloppy at times as both clubs will want to win but will not want to risk too much for the rest of their season. I see New England coming out on top though. As good as Houston has played recently, a trip up north just doesn’t sound good for them right now. Plus I really like how New England has played in this tournament.

As usual, Steve Ralston and Shalrie Joseph are the difference makers for the Revs.

WVH Prediction: New England 2, Houston 1