May
24
MLS Hot and Not: Two Months In
We’re nearly a third of the way there. Some clubs have played ten games while several others are close. Only a couple teams have played either seven or eight games…you can thank the schedule for that one. I figured another month down meant it was a good time to do my new Hot and Not series.
Over the last month plenty of things have happened. A couple teams are breaking apart from the rest while others continue to fall further behind. My list below is not just players but coaches, GMs, stadiums, fans…pretty much anything I felt was relevant here. I even threw in a World Cup item too. Again, like I said last time I’m a list guy so I enjoy doing these sorts of things.
| HOT | NOT |
| World Cup bids for Russia and Portugal/Spain and the US - Starting to look a whole lot better for 2018. May be the three front runners right now. | England’s World Cup bids - I know the put the fires out rather quickly but it had to do some serious damage to their hopes. |
| Chris Wondolowski – Five goals in six starts isn’t bad for a guy that most didn’t figure would be a big contributor this season. | D.C. strikers - Four goals in nine games isn’t doing much for this bunch. Wasn’t Danny Allsopp brought in to help bring in the goals (he does have two of the four)? |
| Frank Yallop – From hotseat to just having his club be hot. Four straight shutouts means its time to start paying respect to Yallop and the Quakes. | Sigi Schmid – His team may very well be in a sophomore slump. But if there is any manager out there in MLS that can turn things around it’s Sigi. |
| Quality Friendlies- In a World Cup year I expected some less-than-stellar games this summer to be played over here. Not exactly the case when you have a Manchester United tour, Inter Milan coming to play, and more. | Overhyped International Friendlies – A win over a foreign club at home is always a nice thing but don’t read too much into games like the 3-1 win for New York over Italian side Juventus. Think they cared about playing the Red Bulls in May? |
| Preki – He was in the doghouse last time but somehow his club has slowly turned a corner here, despite not playing great soccer. Still a Canadian Cup win should be his soon. | Schellas Hyndman- I’m starting to think its about to be a long summer in Dallas for Hyndman and FCD. Their last outing was terrible against the Galaxy. |
| Real Salt Lake- Winners of their last four look to keep the momentum going with a few more home games and a trip to D.C. | D.C. United – Not to kick a team when they’re down but nine games in and this side looks even wose than that Red Bulls team from a season ago. Ouch. |
| All-Star Game – This one will pick up some steam in the coming weeks. Playing a team like ManU (even without some of the big stars) really brings some intrigue to the game. | All-Star Game Voting – Little confused by where some of the players are listed here. Landon Donovan as a striker, not a midfielder? Patrick Nyarko not listed as a striker? Sean Franklin as a midfielder? Wasn’t Guillermo Barros Schelotto listed as a striker last year? Things like this make it even harder to vote as a fan. |
| Montreal – Finally got their expansion bid for 2012. Honestly it can’t come soon enough. | St. Louis - The on-going issues with their USSF Division II and WPS teams make MLS look that much smarter for passing on what we thought was a sure thing. |
| Philly – No matter what you say Philly is a quality town and one that isn’t ugly. Plus have you seen PPL Park lately? So nice. | Robert Pires – Only see him coming to one of two cities now, Seattle or Toronto. Though I’d honestly be shocked if he came at all now. |
| CCL For RSL – Even with one potential Mexican side I really like the chances for RSL in Group A. They’ll dominate at home and probably find ways to break into the next stage. | CCL For Seattle – First they have to get by an unnamed Central American side to get into Group C, after that it will be a murder’s row of Saprissa, Monterrey, and Tauro or Marathon. Group of Death, you betcha. |
| Thierry Henry – Some reports say he’s signed a pre-contract deal with the league and NY, others say a little different. Still he’ll be in NY later this year and that may be enough to turn NY into a contender. | Raul – Unlike the Henry rumors that have been around for years, so have the Raul ones. Thing is I’ve never bought those rumors for a second. A lot would have to happen for LA or NY to get him. |
