Due to that and the couple draws this week we ended up not seeing a whole lot of movement in the order here. Just one big jump that may be a bit much for some folks. For me I have no problem moving Colorado to where they are right now. With the amount of games in hand right now that they have and the number of upcoming home games on the menu we should see this club pile on some points.

Team	Rank (Last Week)	Record (W-L-T)	Comments
	1 (1)	8-2-4 28 pts.	Probably should have won at home over RSL but no need to even consider dropping them for it.
	2 (2)	8-4-3 27 pts.	Off in league play to SuperLiga. They lost 2-1 to Tigres due to a red-card and some sloppy play.
	3 (7)	5-2-5 20 pts.	I may be too quick to move the Rapids this high but I believe they are a true dark-horse in this year’s race.
	4 (3)	5-3-8 23 pts.	Not gonna knock them too much for losing on the road in Colorado. That place has been a death trap to them for a decade now. But they showed a lot of grit in the come back in Seattle.
	5 (5)	5-3-6 21 pts.	I think their time in SuperLiga will help bounce this club back into motion here in a good way. The win over San Luis was a quality one at that.
	6 (6)	5-3-7 22 pts.	Their defense is letting them down too much right now. To be honest they should have had six points this past week, not two.
	7 (4)	4-3-7 19 pts.	Dominated for 70 minutes but once Dallas fielded some young players with more energy this club went south quick.
	8 (8)	5-5-4 19 pts.	Amazing turn of events last week to see this club win 6-1 over Montreal to capture their first Cup.
	9 (9)	5-5-4 19 pts.	Looked pretty good in SuperLiga play. And congrats to Davy Arnuad for the Gold Cup preliminary call-up.
	10 (10)	4-4-4 16 pts.	Team breaks for SuperLiga and gets a quality result. Hopefully for their sake they rest Taylor Twellman through this tournament. No need to get him hurt in a meaningless event like this.
	11 (11)	4-6-4 16 pts.	Nice road point in Houston. But little meltdowns in the back are hurting this club in a big way.
	12 (12)	2-3-9 15 pts.	It’s official, this club really needs Landon Donovan.
	13 (13)	3-7-4 13 pts.	Finally we see some of Dallas’ younger players play and what do you know, a quality results comes from it.
	14 (14)	3-8-3 12 pts.	Good win over the Galaxy but not enough to move them up this week. Face it that wasn’t a win to get overly excited about here.
	15 (15)	2-10-4 10 pts.	This weekend just made things more official in the standings. They are officially the worst club in the league. Like you didn’t know that already.

Order of goals: Omar Cummings, Brian Ching, Eric Avila, Fredy Montero, Chirs Pontius, Osvaldo Alonso, Nate Jaqua, Fredy Montero, and Christian Gomez.

I must say it was a busy weekend for me personally. I am a couple days away from becoming a homeowner for the first time so I honestly didn’t see nearly the amount of soccer that I wanted to because of that very reason. So excuse me if some of the recaps here are brief.

From the 3-0 win over Egypt for the US to the surprising results in San Jose and Dallas. This weekend had a lot to look at from every angle for a US soccer fan.

The Turnaround of Some Sorts

I wonder if it was a bit of the heat, or luck, or a possible turn around that we are starting to see out of Real Salt Lake. They went down to Houston and got a quality 1-1 draw out of the trip. Now the reason why I am curious about this result is for the fact that they let in a late goal thanks partly to a late red card. Houston was able to battle back and continue on with their unbeaten run here.

Is it a bit of luck to get a quality result though like that in Houston? I think it could be said that it is but it does show that Jason Kreis’ club has a long way to go before they can be called a contender here this season. Not closing out games like that can come back to haunt you in a big way later on this season and right now they are doing themselves no favors by only getting draws here. The west is just too good this season to not capitalize on three big road points in Houston like that.

Colorado Seems Legit

While in the west we have a strong Houston and Chivas squad along with a fairly decent expansion team in Seattle. One club is going unnoticed in a good way and that is Colorado. While most will look into their 3-0 win over DC over the weekend as just another win over DC at home because United was tired from their draw in Seattle in the midweek and that DC never plays well in Colorado. Excuses or not, Colorado looks more and more like a legit contender here this season. Without Conor Casey we again saw Omar Cummings step up and give DC’s backline a headache all game. I also enjoyed seeing him link up a bit with Pat Noonan who provided a decent spark to his new club in the first half.

Colorado won’t get a lot of love until they win consistently against the bigger clubs of the league like Houston, Chivas and Colorado but they did step up and hammer a quality DC side over the weekend. That’s plenty for me to realize that they are legit enough right now.

Some Luck Changing In Dallas

I guess Schellas Hyndman finally realized that his young bench was pretty good. Adding Brek Shea and Eric Avila late in the second half sparked a big time come back over the defending champs for one of the more surprising results of the weekend.

Avila’s goal was something else too. While it could be seen as a selfish kind of play on his part I had no problem seeing him take that play on his own. Honestly I’d love to see more of the young guns in Dallas on the pitch. The future of that club is there but it is just taking Hyndman too long to figure that out.

As for Columbus, this club needs some sort of boost. While I believe they are still good I just worry about them in the long run here.

Fredy Gets The Best Of New York

The Red Bulls looked pretty good for 20 minutes Saturday but then fell asleep late in the first half and Fredy Montero made them pay for it. I thought Seattle’s road performance wasn’t bad while the home performance of New York was still lacking a big pop. The mental state of that club has to be extremely low at this point. I wonder just how much longer Juan Carlos Osorio will keep his job because his seat has to be burning hot right now.

Super Start For MLS in SuperLiga

A 2-1-1 start to SuperLiga isn’t bad at all. The only loss was a 10-man Chivas squad who just looked old if you ask me on Saturday. I think the one club that has a real shot to win it all is Chicago. And to be honest the tournament needs a club like Chicago to win it due to a guy like Blanco being there. That’s the only way the tournament will even have any value because right now it seems very weak.

Kansas City showed up nicely in their SuperLiga debut out in St. Louis. New England showed a lot of grit at home in their opener in the 4-2 win. I don’t know what it is about playing in New England for Mexican clubs but it sure does bring out the worst in them.

Butts-in-Seats Look

A typical weekend that saw decent numbers. Only Dallas was sub-10k as usual here. Even New York saw a decent figure of 14k for their match against Seattle. I would have like to have seen a better number in Colorado. Maybe now that the Rapids are playing more home games here their numbers will go up.

Yes it was unfortunate but there was some good out of it. SoccerAmeria just posted a great article on the 80 seconds of silence that Glenn Davis and Kyle Martino did at the start of the broadcast when the game was finally shown on ESPN2. Looking back on the tape of that game I saw and heard those 80 seconds. Boy it was pretty neat to say the least.

Aside from the ESPN fail on Wednesday this week and weekend are pretty big. We’ve already seen Toronto FC blow away Montreal last night in the final game of the Canadian Cup to advance to this year’s edition of the CONCACAF Champions League tournament. MLS will now field five teams with Toronto now to take on Puerto Rico in the preliminary rounds with a chance to be grouped in with the Columbus Crew.

We also have another competition starting up for a few clubs this weekend as well. The 2009 edition of SuperLiga comes at a good time for teams like Chivas USA and Chicago Fire. Both clubs play on Saturday in their opening matches of the tournament. Kansas City and New England will see their first games on Sunday. All SuperLiga matches can be seen live on the SuperLiga website.

But let’s get down to business as far as the MLS weekend slate goes. Plenty of decent games on the menu for us including one that I am very interested in out in Colorado between the Rapids and DC United.

As always feel free to leave your score predictions below.

Saturday:

LA Galaxy – at – San Jose Earthquakes:

Oddly enough we get another game on ESPN2 this weekend with the Galaxy and Quakes. While it won’t be nearly as good as it could be it should still be a decent western conference showdown between these two old California rivals. LA looked listless last week against RSL at home and now without a key leader in the midfield in Eddie Lewis (suspension). Not to mention the loss of Landon Donovan to the Confederation Cup with the US national team.

I think LA can shut down San Jose a little bit but with Darren Huckerby back and healthy right now I just don’t see LA shutting him out for the entire match. Huckerby has looked very good since his return and I think he will help lead the Quakes out of the cellar here with a win over their rivals.

WVH Prediction: San Jose 2, LA 1

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Seattle Sounders FC – at – New York Red Bulls:

I won’t lie, after Wednesday’s performance against DC and now having to travel across the country to face New York I do worry about this Sounder side. Thing is they are facing the league’s worst club in New York who haven’t look good all season. Danny Cepero did look good in goal last week in Toronto but I just have low hopes of him going back-to-back in quality games here. I think this one will be close but Sigi Schmid did take out his key offensive players early on Wednesday (Nate Jaqua, Fredy Montero, Freddie Ljungberg), possibly saving them for this trip. That should pay off in a win for Seattle as long as they figure out a way to close out a game on the road. This is a big time road game for Seattle and their confidence moving forward.

WVH Prediction: Seattle 2, NY 1

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Real Salt Lake – at – Houston Dynamo:

Congrats to RSL, you got your first road win of the year last week. Your reward is to go back on the road again and play the league’s best club, the Houston Dynamo at Robertson Stadium. Hooray Beer!

Big thing to RSL’s success last week was their midfield. Javier Morales finally returned to quality form and that will go a long way with this club and their playoff hopes this season. Also the play of guys like Will Johnson and Yura Movsisyan looked much better a week ago. Thing is I just don’t see RSL’s midfield stacking up well against the hot group from Houston in Houston. Brad Davis, Stuart Holden and company have been more than impressive and when they are at home they are even tougher to beat. Houston should roll here in this one.

WVH Prediction: Houston 2, RSL 0

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Columbus Crew – at- FC Dallas:

Another national TV game in Dallas. Sigh. The two HSG owned clubs square off Saturday night, probably in front of a crowd of 6-7,000. Unlike last week against Houston there probably won’t be that many Crew supporters there in Dallas for this one. Dallas hasn’t been able to shutdown quality attackers all season or even sub-par attackers all season. I just don’t see a way they contend with Guillermo Barros Schelotto. In a game that comes down to a lot of midfield play, Columbus still own one of the best midfields in the league while Dallas continues to own one of the worst. The Crew should leave with three points.

WVH Prediction: Columbus 2, Dallas 0

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DC United -  at – Colorado Rapids:

Probably the game of the week for me here. DC has always struggled at Colorado or anywhere west of Texas for that matter but the draw on Wednesday in Seattle should have given this side a big lift going on the road. I’m curious to see how Pat Noonan works out with the Rapids. He should be filling in for Conor Casey here this weekend. This game will come down to who can hold a lead better than the other. In a way I kind of think it will be a lot like the Wednesday night clash in Seattle for DC. They go down early to only come back late. Colorado is good but the lack of Casey does worry me up top for them in this one. DC should also get Ben Olsen back, which is good given the fact that the midfield is a bit spent after Wednesday’s game. I think a draw is the best way to go here in this one. As mentioned before DC typically struggles in Colorado but I think they will do enough to get a point out of this game.

WVH Prediction: Colorado 1, DC 1