WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

I guess something really never change here now do they? In one weekend we’ve seen a conference just utterly dominate the other. Then again, all season the eastern conference has practically owned the western conference like we’ve never seen before. Lucky for the western clubs this season three get an automatic bid into the playoffs, which will definitely hurt some eastern clubs.

Week 22 is in the books and each club has played 21 games now. Right now the east has three very solid clubs, two clubs that are making a case for it and two more that are trying to figure out if they can contend with the rest or just wish they were in another conference. The bottom two clubs in the east (Toronto and KC) would be tied for third in the west right now, that’s how bad things have come for the west this season.

How bad was it in week 22 for the west? Against the eastern conference in five games the western clubs lost four of the games with Dallas bring up the only draw thanks to a last second effort by Kansas City. The western clubs also got outscored 11-1 by the eastern clubs. Ouch.

Need further proof about how bad the west is going against the east this year? On the road they are 11-41-22 collectively and against the east they a mere 5-23-6.

The eastern conference is good, what else can we say. So exactly how good were they this weekend? Let’s see.

Columbus Crew 3 - 0 Real Salt Lake:

• Columbus poured it on early and in the end it was enough. Another stellar effort about of MVP candidate Guillermo Barros Schelotto. His goal and two assists were more than enough for the Crew.
• GBS is making it look down right easy these days. His league leading 14th assist is six more than the next guy.
• Lovely set up by GBS to Chad Marshall for the early goal.
• Furthermore he did all of that in about a hours amount of work.
• So what do we make of RSL? In two weeks they’ve given up 7 goals. I thought this was suppose to be one of the toughest defenses going in the league? They’ve looked like total cupcakes recently.
• I guess it is back to the drawing board for Jason Kreis. The playoffs are still in order here but with five remaining road games things don’t look that certain. They can still be thankful that everyone in the west stumbled as well this weekend.
• RSL wasn’t totally out of this one though, as bad as the defense was early on their offense did give them chances to get back in the game late. Thing is they’ve looked like they forgotten how to score in the box once again.
• Its almost a total 180 between home and away for RSL. They score in bunches at home but they give up goals in bunches on the road. Sitting at 1-8-1 on the road this year I really question whether or not they will be able to secure the top spot in the west like they need to.
• So Columbus is now tied at the top of the league with New England. Basically ahead on goal differential at this point. Very good work out of Sigi Schmids club.

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DC United 3 - 0 Colorado Rapids:

• Can’t say I’m shocked at all by this result. DC has practically owned Colorado at RFK this decade and I am beginning to wonder if we will ever see the Rapids in at RFK or in DC ever again.
• What’s with the Rapids though late in games. They look fine defensively in the first half hour or so but after that they fall apart. They’ve given up so many late goals in the first half this year (nine in total) including Joe Vide’s strike on Saturday.
• At 10-10-1 on the year DC looks like they are a playoff club…when they play at home. I just don’t know if this is a year they will be able to win on the road in the playoffs to reach the MLS Cup.
• Louis Crayton does get his second shutout, pretty much knocking Zach Wells out of the lineup until this club goes into CONCACAF Champions League mode.
• This game was fairly even at times but those two late goals in the second half pretty much put a cap on the Rapids’ season for me. Unless Houston, RSL and Dallas completely fall apart in the final nine games I just don’t see the Rapids in the playoffs this year. No way in hell really.
• Poor Christian Gomez too, I can think of about three or four other places he’d rather be in MLS right now.

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Toronto FC 1 - 1 New England Revolution:

• So New England jumps ahead early but gives up one late for the draw. No biggie really if I am a Revs fan. Sure you’d hate to see the three points get away like that on the road but this shouldn’t be a game that will come back and haunt them down the road.
• Now for Toronto, they had the chances to put this game away but they didn’t, this one may be one of those games that they will look back on and go “man if we had only scored there”.
• Only seven fouls in this one? Interesting.
• New England was holding back a bit in this one though I think with their CONCACAF Champions League games on the horizon this week. Can’t blame them for not throwing all their eggs in this game’s basket.
• Taylor Twellman scored his 95th career goal. I don’t think his 100th is out of the question this season at all with the way he is starting to score here.
• What can you say about Chad Barrett? Has this deal worked out for him or what? Two goals in a Reds uniform, both wonderful strikes. Loved this one especially, perfect turn and shoot here.
• Anyone realize in all competitions Toronto is on a six game winless run at BMO FIeld (0-2-4)? Yeah, hard to believe though I’m sure some fans up there don’t want to think about it.
• Marvell Wynne looked so dangerous at times in this one. I’m starting to think he may be a year or so away from a transfer overseas.
• Amado Guevara also looked good in this one. I think he needed a couple games to cool off a bit and get out of a funk that he was in.
• No Carlos Ruiz? Not even on the bench? Yup, the Fish is back to his old ways after a World Cup qualifier.

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Kansas City Wizards 1 - 1 FC Dallas:

• Beautiful early strike by Andre Rocha. A screamer from 40 yards out.
• Nice come from behind draw though by the Wizards, they really pushed throughout for the equalizer. They had to wait some time but end in the end it was much needed.
• Jimmy Conrad scores the game-tying goal. His fifth of the year. I hate saying this but its pretty pathetic that KC’s leading scorer is their center back. That should say something about their offense here. Not good…not good.
• Hated to see Pablo Ricchetti get the red card because it completely changed how Dallas had to play in this one. Had it been 11v11 for the full 90 I would have to think Dallas would have held on to the 1-0 lead. Just that extra bit of space did the trick for KC.
• Damn was this game chippy though. I felt the ref was decent at times but then really let some things get out of hand at other times. Nine cards total in this one and 32 fouls between the clubs. Probably could have easily been 45 or 50 fouls had everything been called.
• I will give KC a lot of credit in this one though. Dallas didn’t deserve to hold the lead and really bunkered a bit after the Rocha goal. Not a good sign for a club that needs points to stay in the playoff chase.
• Funny result though when you think about it. Back on the forth Dallas did the EXACT same thing to KC with the late goal to steal the points. KC kindly returned the favor.
• Think KC wishes they were back in the west? They’d be tied with Dallas for the last spot.

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Chivas USA 0 - 0 San Jose Earthquakes:

• I will be right up front with you all, I didn’t see a damn bit of this one other than highlights (I fell asleep before it started).
• A zero-zero draw usually means both offenses couldn’t get lucky and both defenses were either really tough or getting all the luck themselves.
• Zach Thornton probably had the save of the weekend on Ronnie O’Brien.
• Nice to see Ante Razov out there again for Chivas. They really need him to be healthy down the stretch if they want to catch Dallas for that final spot, because let’s face it no western club is going to be a wildcard this year.
• Chivas looked better with Sasha Kljestan and Jonathan Borestein back in the line up but its just a matter of time before one of them gets called up for national team duty and throws the monkey wrench into this club’s season once more.
• San Jose probably really needed this result more so to keep their momentum going here. But not losing didn’t hurt all that much either. An unbeaten streak looks just as good as an undefeated streak.
• Both trades some good chances late in the game for a game-winner but neither was lucky. Probably deservingly so though.

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New York Red Bulls 3 - 0 Houston Dynamo:

• Good lord, who is this New York club? Unbeaten mark is at five now and I must say they look like a true contender these days.
• Give a load of credit to Juan Pablo Angel being healthy enough to produce here. Nice goal by Angel in this one as well.
• Just as I was thinking Houston was playing the best they drop a game like this. Maybe it was fatigue or maybe it was just a bad day. Either way it wasn’t good.
• I meant to say it last week but welcome back to the field…those pesky NFL lines and logos. Yaaay. I love football but I really can’t wait to see MLS clubs get away form NFL venues (I’m talking to you too New England…and sadly you too Seattle).
• To me it looked more like an off day for Houston and their attack. They may have gotten all their goalscoring done in the midweek win over Chivas this past week. Too bad they forgot to bring it with them to New York.
• I will say this about the Red Bulls, they wanted that result and took it from the start. Houston may have had their chances but New York imposed their will on this game. They want a playoff birth and really look to be in line for it.
• Houston will bounce back, I’m sure of it but results like this won’t come in favor down the road. They haven’t looked all that great against the eastern conference this year on the road.