By bringing back Edson Buddle into the fold, even if he costs slightly more than the $178,488 salary he earned in 2010 before leaving for Germany, the Galaxy probably hasn’t crunched its salary cap to any great extent, because of player departures as well as amassing allocation money.

Though the amount wasn’t disclosed, protecting keeper Donovan Ricketts rather than exposing him in the Expansion Draft – even though he wound up in Montreal anyway – made a lot of sense when he was traded not for players or draft picks, but allocation money. Yet without incorporating that undisclosed amount, a look at the salaries shed by the Galaxy in the past 2 ½ months gives credence to notion it has some room to work with:

Donovan Ricketts (traded) $170,000
Chris Birchall (contract expired) $144,000
Gregg Berhalter (retired) $96,000
Frankie Hejduk (option declined) $96,000
Juninho (loan terminated) $90,000
Jovan Kirovski (retired) $84,000
Increase in salary cap (from $2.675 million to $2.81 million): $135,000
Total of above six salaries and cap increase: $731,000

One interesting nugget from this is the salary cap increase. This year’s cap looks to be around $2.81 million. Time for club bloggers to speculate how much money their teams have!

Edson Buddle is back. (Getty Images)

Edson Buddle is back in a LA Galaxy uniform. The deal to bring back one of the league’s all-time best goal-scorers happened today.

Buddle rejoins the Galaxy after being released from his contract with FC Ingolstadt 04 on Tuesday. Los Angeles maintained his MLS rights following his free transfer to Ingolstadt last January.

For those wondering how this deal is even possible, give this a thought. The Galaxy are able to afford Buddle by shedding a good chunk of salary from the books this offseason with the losses of players like Juninho, Donovan Ricketts, Jovan Kirovski and Gregg Berhalter. Los Angeles also received allocation money from Montreal in exchange for Ricketts.

I think it is great that Buddle decided that coming back to MLS was the right call.

While the thought of having Buddle, Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane and David Beckham leading this offense sounds amazing. Let’s not get to ahead of ourselves. The offense will be stout, but the defense has many questions going into what could be a banner year for the Galaxy.

The day that Omar Gonzalez went down with a knee injury and Juninho went back to Brazil, the Galaxy showed that they have some issues that still have to be addressed. Right now their starting center back combo will be Andrew Boyens and AJ DeLaGarza. While I am a huge fan of DeLaGarza, I just don’t see how Boyens will be a solid enough replacement for Gonzalez.

The more troubling picture is still the replacement for Juninho. Marcelo Sarvas may be a good replacement. But time will have to tell on that front.

I’ve always been a big believer of the “defense wins championships” motto. Last year so did Bruce Arena and the proof as they say is in the pudding. Arena has a lot of work to do on his defense but with this kind of attack, it looks like it is CCL Finals, MLS Cup and Supporters’s Shield trophy* or bust this season.

* Yes you could include the Club World Cup and the USOC in this bunch but let’s be real, the Galaxy aren’t going to care that much about the USOC and the CWC won’t be a big deal until they are actually in it.

Dax McCarty and FC Dallas battle Juninho and LA for the right to play in this year's MLS Cup. (Getty Images)

In a perfect world this would be more fitting of a MLS Cup final rather than just a western conference final. The number one overall and number four overall teams from the season square off in a battle to see who gets the trip to Toronto next week. FC Dallas knocked out the defending champion Real Salt Lake last week while LA was the lone top seed to move on to the conference finals.

Not to knock San Jose or Colorado here but it is a shame that this isn’t the MLS Cup. Two of the best teams from this season battle for the league’s top prize. Dallas hasn’t been in this far in the playoffs in over a decade (1999 to be in fact) while LA has a history of going to and winning the MLS Cup.

One side of the pitch you have a collection of players that most didn’t imagine would be able to pull off the type of season that they did. MLS Coach of the Year Schellas Hyndman was able to patiently get his club where they are at today by making the right choices around the pitch like placing Kevin Hartman in goal and putting the captain’s armband around Daniel Hernandez’s arm.

On the other side of the pitch you have the Supporter’s Shield winners in LA. Their hot start thanks to Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan set up their season. Things cooled off in the summer like we figured they would even with Buddle and Donovan back in uniform after the 2010 World Cup. The Galaxy managed to close out the season on top of the league thanks to some strong midfield play by Juninho and David Beckham.

This one could end up being a defensive battle. Both were near the top in goal-allowed this season with Kevin Hartman and Donovan Ricketts playing very well in goal for each club this season. LA proved last week against Seattle that their defense can hold up to speed with the move of A.J. DeLaGarza into the middle of the defense. Dallas may not have the speed that Seattle has but they do have some playmakers that can cause some issues. LA though has the advantage here having beaten Dallas twice this year, in fact half of Dallas’ losses this season came from LA.

Players to watch: Ferreira, Dax McCarty, George John (Dallas); Beckham, Donovan and Ricketts (LA).

X-Factors: DeLaGarza – His ability to shut down speed for LA was big in the Seattle series but it will be put to the test even more against a savvy offense like FC Dallas has with Cunningham and Ferreira. If he or the rest of the backline cracks any bit against Dallas you can expect the visitors to move on in this playoffs.

Outlook: Which defense cracks first will be the story here. Both are solid but have issues at times. LA did manage to beat Dallas a couple weeks ago but that was a Dallas team without a lot of their main guys. Having Hartman, Hernandez, Brek Shea and Ugo Ihemelu back will make a world of difference from the Texan side. LA still has home field on their side a place that Dallas does not do very well in when playing the Galaxy (Chivas USA may be another story).

Both clubs will counter attack very well, so mistakes in the midfield and defensive-third will be a key thing to watch. LA will likely come out with loads of pressure like they did against Seattle and force Dallas into defensive mistakes.

Part of me wants Dallas to win, obviously since I’ve been covering them for a couple years now. But I know LA will present a big challenge that could be too much for them to over come. At the end of the home field factor and the way LA plays Dallas just leads me to lean towards the Galaxy. After seeing both play in the first round I think LA just looks more dominate. Not to knock what Dallas did against RSL here but I just see LA moving on, possibly in penalty kicks.

WVH Prediction: LA 2, Dallas 1

David Ferreira takes home my MVP vote. (Getty Images)

For a couple weeks now I’ve held off on reveling my end of the year awards. I mainly wanted to see the season end and the playoffs begin before I wrote this all out. Plus I honestly had no idea how I wanted to present this. But on Election Day it just feels right to tell you all how I voted in this year’s MLS Awards.

First of all I’m going to leave out the pointless awards like Ref of the Year. I still don’t get why we vote on that in the first place since we know about all the officiating issues in MLS. I also won’t list things like Humanitarian of the Year or things like that. Most of you probably could care less about awards like that anyways.

Anyways, I’ll start with some awards that will be announced by the league here in the coming days and end with the big ones. I’ll also count them down by my vote as well, remember the media (and probably players/GMs/coaches) gets three slots for voting.

Defender of the Year

3. Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy)

2. Nat Borchers (RSL)

1. Jamison Olave (RSL)

Why Olave: To be real honest between Olave and Borchers it wasn’t easy. It was a 1a and 1b type of vote for me but more times than not I felt Olave was the better of the two this season. Had we done this vote back in June I believe Gonzalez would have taken it home but just like the rest of the year for the Galaxy, Gonzalez too had some issues in the latter part of the summer. Olave was more consistent this year than he’s been in the past as well which was refreshing to see.

Keeper of the Year

3. Donovan Ricketts (LA)

2. Nick Rimando (RSL)

1. Kevin Hartman (FC Dallas)

Why Hartman: Between the time he took over and his injury Hartman was the biggest reason why FCD went on that amazing run that they did. In 20 games this season he had 9 shutouts, and only 12 goals against. I know Rimando had a stellar year and I get why folks will vote for him. RSL fans can blame me on being too close to the action here with Hartman but I really had no hesitation in voting this way.

Rookie of the Year

3. Michael Stephens (LA)

2. Danny Mwanga (Philadelphia)

1. Andy Najar (D.C. United)

Why Najar: Why not really? He was easily the best player on their team this year and should become the first academy product in the league history to win this award. He was consistent when others were not this season and provided a true spark for D.C. when they really had nothing else going for them this season.

Comeback Player of the Year

3. Jason Hernandez (San Jose)

2. Chris Albright (New York)

1. Bobby Convey (San Jose)

Why Convey: I’m still curious what Brek Shea came back from (he’s one of the three nominees with Albright and Convey). Anyways, to me it was down to Albright and Convey. Yes Albright missed 2009 while Convey just stunk up the place last year. For me it was about getting back to where he should be as a player and that’s what Convey did this year. Not to say Albright doesn’t deserve this award because he does, I just felt Convey made a bigger comeback from being so bad last year to so much better this year.

Newcomer of the Year

3. Ryan Smith (Kansas City)

2. Joel Lindpere (New York)

1. Alvaro Saborio (RSL)

Why Saborio: He lead his club in goals and really gave me no reason not to vote for him in this award. Lindpere was amazing for New York’s turnaround though so we can’t ignore what he did. I was just more impressed with the fact that a lot of clubs couldn’t figure out how to deal with Saborio this year.

Coach of the Year

3. Peter Nowak (Philadelphia)

2. Jason Kreis (RSL)

1. Schellas Hyndman (FC Dallas)

Why Hyndman: This may have been the hardest award to vote on outside of MVP. I put Nowak over Hans Backe because I was very impressed with how Nowak guided Philly through their expansion season. I believe he’s set them up perfectly for 2011. Then it came down to Kreis and Hyndman. Both had equally impressive campaigns in 2010 and we can’t ignore that enough. I went the direction that I did not because I was closer to the team here in Dallas than RSL but it came down to that 19-game unbeaten run. Sure there were a ton of draws with this Dallas team but due to the way Hyndman constructed this team for this season it was impressive to see their “never say die” attitude.

MLS MVP

3. Chris Wondolowski (San Jose)

2. Sebastien Le Toux (Philadelphia)

1. David Ferreira (FC Dallas)

Why Ferreira: Again the toughest award to vote on, probably ever. So many worthy choices but I stuck with Ferreira like I stuck with my pick of Hyndman. It wasn’t just that unbeaten run that was impressive from him and this bunch but Ferreira was the leader and the guy that just got stuff done for Dallas. We saw that in the opener in the playoffs against RSL, he just finds ways to get the team on the board. I was shocked to not see Le Toux as a finalist because let’s be honest he deserved it, then again so does Wondolowski.

WVH Best XI For 2010

(Voting format was a 3-5-2)

Keeper: Kevin Hartman

Defense: Jamison Olave, Nat Borchers, Omar Gonzalez

Midfield: David Ferreira, Sebastien Le Toux, Dwayne De Rosario, Javier Morales, Guillermo Barros Schelotto

Forwards: Landon Donovan, Edson Buddle

Reasons behind Best XI: First of all the way the league handles this is crazy. A 3-5-2 is always tough to vote on especially when they place guys out of position. I’d rather have Donovan placed in the midfield and Ferreira in the forwards but this is out it goes. I know some are thinking no Wondo in the forwards? Well Buddle was the leader going into the day I voted and Donovan was the top assist getter in the league too. If I had to vote on this again today I may replace Buddle with Wondo.

Buddle's 16 goals lead the league this season. (Getty Images)

I’ve always had a slight issue with one post season award that Major League Soccer hands out. The Comeback Player of the Year.

In some years the CPY is truly someone that had a great year after coming back from a big injury. Look no further to 2008′s CPY Kenny Cooper. It was a no brainer to pick Coop after his horrific injury in 2007. The following year he came back 18 goals, that my friends is a comeback. Same can be said about 2005′s winner Chris Klein who came back from an ACL injury.

In other years like this one it seems like the award will likely go to a guy that is simply having a monster year after not having one in the previous year.

I bring this up today because of what is on the MLS Insider blog this morning about Edson Buddle and Sebastien Le Toux. Both are in the running for this year’s CPY. But to me it seems like both are having more of a breakout season than a comeback. The Insider is dubbing the award as something you get when you come back from a dreadful season. I get that. But it always seems like we hype up a guy for this award when they have a breakout season instead of a true comeback season.

Maybe I misread something or just am not getting my facts straight about this award or maybe it is truly time for MLS to bring on yet another award, the Breakout Player of the Year.  What do you all think, is Le Toux and Buddle’s performances this season more Breakout than Comeback? Let’s hear it.

Javier Morales is one of a few players in the running for MLS MVP. (Getty Images)

I said earlier in the week I wanted to touch on this year’s MVP race. Well today looked like a good one to do it seeing as how I don’t care about Liverpool’s sale to John Henry and company and I feel a bit lazy to talk about the USOC Final from last night. What can I say its also a busy day around these parts for me.

This year’s MVP race is a hot one. I don’t think that can be said enough really as there are easily six to eight players in the running for the award. I’ll go ahead and say this list below is no ranking because right now today I honestly have no clue who I’d vote for. I know who I am leaning towards but if I had a ballot in my hand today I know it would take me hours to complete it. The race is just that damn close this year.

We have a two groups of players though in the running this time around, your playoff bound guys and your non-playoff bound guys. I’ll go with the playoff group first since it is a bit larger.

Playoff Bound

Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy) – Based on stats you have to include Donovan who clearly makes his team better. He leads the league in assists with 15 and also has offered up a cool seven goals on the year. Not shabby but I do wonder if it will be enough to win the award for the second straight year. Probably to get there he’ll have to help lead the Galaxy to an unbeaten run to finish the season by notching a few more assists and dropping in a goal or two.

Edson Buddle (LA Galaxy) – Some folks will disagree to include the potential Golden Boot winner on the MVP list but why not? MVPs typically score lots of goals and Buddle is no exception. He cooled off a bit in the summer which was expected after he was blazing hot to begin the year. Its no secret he’ll need to get his goal numbers up to at least 20 to really catch people’s eye for this award though.

Javier Morales (Real Salt Lake) - I’ve seen plenty of rants and moans from the RSL folks about how Morales isn’t being discussed as a MVP candidate this year on other sites. Well RSL folks those sites are crazy to dismiss Morales in this award because as you know RSL is a lot different without him on the field. His stats are solid but his play and leadership are what makes this guy a MVP in my eyes. I have a feeling however he’ll be the Shalrie Joseph of this year, you know the guy who deserves it the most but will come up short in the running.

David Ferriera (FC Dallas) – He’s probably the guy I’m leaning towards if I had to vote right now for this award. Still the competition is stiff this year and Ferriera will likely need to help keep this amazing unbeaten run in tact if he has a shot at winning this award this season. Tough to say that but its likely true that some voters will overlook him if Dallas stumbles once down the stretch.

Fredy Montero (Seattle Sounders FC) – You saw last night exactly how good Seattle can be when they want to. Montero is a big reason because of that. He cooled off a bit in September so he’ll need a big October to get some votes here but believe me there is good reason to count Montero in on the voting this year. Not only has he put in his share of goals again this season but his assist numbers are up and he’s helping make guys like Steve Zakuani and Sanny Nyassi better.

Omar Cummings (Colorado Rapids) – Based on stats alone you have to include him in the race. Boy lately he and the Rapids have been on fire (except for that D.C. game). Cummings’ 12 goals has helped push the Rapids back into the playoff picture for the first time since 2006.

Non-Playoff Players

Dwayne De Rosario (Toronto FC) – Hard to deny what DeRo means to Toronto. Take him off the team and you can imagine exactly how bad of a year this club would have had. It was already pretty bad towards the end but I’m sure it would be worse without him. His 13 goals have lead the team but he’s clearly the heart and sole of the club. Something you can’t replace which kind of sounds like “most valuable” to me.

Sebastien Le Toux (Philadelphia Union) – If I’m the Union faithful and the Union front office I would be doing a full on media blitz to get Le Toux up for the MVP. Nothing like trying to get some extra media votes by hyping up your best player. Le Toux has carried this expansion club like no other. There’s no getting around the fact that his 13 goals and 10 assists are impressive. No other player can say that right now this season that they have at least 10 goals and 10 assists.

Others of note: Chris Wondolowski (San Jose); Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus); and Juan Pablo Angel (New York).

Philadelphia hosts LA this Thursday. (Getty Images)

By Kevin Kinkead

Los Angeles. New York. Columbus.

Three remaining games for the Philadelphia Union, against three of the top five squads in MLS. It’s only fitting that the final test for this young expansion side, will come against the league’s best teams.

Though the Union are eliminated from the playoffs, it’s about ending the season on a positive note, and carrying the momentum into year number two.

Peter Nowak’s squad will want to forget about the May 1st trip to Carson, California. The Union conceded just 56 seconds into the game, the Galaxy cruising to a 3-1 win. The lone Union bright spot was a late goal from Jack McInerney, his first as a pro.

Fast forward to October, and the Galaxy atop the standings on 53 points.

If this were week 16 of the NFL season, we might be talking about putting in the backups. But regular season supremacy is on the line. A win Thursday can move the Galaxy 5 points clear of Real Salt Lake at the top of the table, another step towards bringing the Supporter’s Shield back to Los Angeles. RSL would then need to get a positive result against New York on Saturday, a Red Bulls side which will lose several players to international call-ups.

Three’s Company

In Philadelphia meantime, a sellout crowd will witness three of the best players in MLS this Thursday . (ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes. (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT))

Have a look at these statlines-

Sebastien Le Toux- 13 goals, 10 assists , 3 game winning goals

Edson Buddle- 15 goals, 2 assists, 6 game winning goals

Landon Donovan- 7 goals, 14 assists, 2 game winning goals

Safe to say, the key to this game will be finding these players, or denying them the ball. Le Toux, Donovan, and Buddle are all MVP candidates, and they’ve combined for 35 goals and 26 assists this year.

In fact, Le Toux has been involved in 23 of the Union’s 32 goals this season. He’s played 25 games this year, only Jordan Harvey and Michael Orozco-Fiscal logging more minutes. It’s easy to see why Le Toux’s trap and finish against Houston on Saturday, received a nomination for goal of the week.

Inside the Statistics

-The Galaxy have the best road record in MLS, posting an 8-3-3 mark away from the Home Depot Center. But the Union have only lost twice at PPL Park this year. Only FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake have lost fewer games on their home field.

-While Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle lead Los Angeles in the scoring department, 14 different Galaxy players have tallied this year.

-And the Galaxy are 15-0-0 when scoring first. They are only MLS team not to drop a point when bagging the game opener. When conceding first, the Union are 2-11-3 on the season. That means the Union have salvaged 9 points this year, even when the other team strikes first. No other team in MLS has salvaged more points than the Union, when conceding the first goal.

-Both teams are undefeated when leading at the half. Philadelphia: 4-0-2, Los Angeles: 14-0-0.

-When trailing at the half, the Union have come back to win two games this year. L.A. has not won a game this year when surrendering the half time lead. (0-4-1)

What should we expect from Los Angeles?

Bruce Arena has used different formations and pairings throughout the year. Obviously, injuries, national team duties, and suspensions are reasons to change the starting XI. But Arena is also trying to work David Beckham back into the midfield. Beckham missed much of the Galaxy season with that Achilles injury, but figures to have a key role in the Los Angeles playoff push.

Against New York, Beckham was used on the outside right flank. But his lack of pace, and perceived inability to cover ground, stalled the Los Angeles offense. The midfield was unable to distribute and get much of anything going.

But Sunday against Chivas, Arena paired Beckham in the central midfield with Juninho, using the Brazilian in his typical holding role while Beckham was given room to maneuver in front of him. Chris Birchall and Michael Stephens played on the flanks, while Landon Donovan moved up top with Edson Buddle. The change in formation resulted in a 2 to 1 win, Beckham completing 77% of his passes and committing just one foul in the process.

David Beckham is back to his old tricks. (Getty Images)

Smell that? Its the smell of October which means playoff soccer is right around the corner. Only three weeks left in the season and already we know of five clubs going to the post season dance. Three spots remain with really four clubs going for them. Sorry Toronto and Chicago you know your chances are longshots at best at this point in the season.

Hard to believe we are down to this, the final couple weeks of the season. Some things still remain the same way they’ve been all season long though, LA is still on top with RSL and Dallas closely behind and New York and Columbus continue to battle it out in the east. Week 27 is in the books for now and boy was it a great weekend of action even with a couple ho-hum draws on the table.

Becks is Back

Add me to the list of folks playing the hype here for the Galaxy now that David Beckham is scoring on free kicks again. Lets just say that LA looked very good in their win last night against Chivas USA. Edson Buddle returned to his scoring form adding to his league-leading tally. But how about that kick from Becks? Classic David Beckham if you will but the important thing here is that Beckham is starting to look good for the Galaxy at the perfect time for his club.

I do think this goal will serve as a bit of notice that Becks is back but then again so should be the Galaxy. With three games remaining the Supporter’s Shield remains theirs to lose here. Sure Dallas could catch them but that’s far off I think even with their amazing unbeaten run they have going on. RSL could catch them as well, which remains the most likely but I’ve said before their schedule isn’t nearly as favorable as LA’s.

Tying Marks

Boy it was a big night in the Big D. I know FC Dallas pulled out their usual 10k crowd at Pizza Hut Park but on a OU-Texas weekend in Dallas that number is actually fairly impressive. But the story in Frisco is the tying of two records, the league’s unbeaten streak number (18) and for Jeff Cunningham the league’s all-time scoring mark.

I always said this season would be special for Cunningham in that regard. After last year it just seemed like Cunningham was destined to at least tie Jamie Moreno for the all-time mark in goals but it looks more and more like this will be the year he breaks the record. With three games remaining and the way he’s been scoring lately you have to figure he’s good for at least one more this season.

Kudos for Jeff too. Earlier this year he wasn’t having the best of times again but after sticking with things he slowly turned his dud of a season into one that he’ll never forget. Kind of hard to believe he’s at 11 goals on the season too at this point. Back in June we wouldn’t have guessed he would even hit seven or eight on the year.

Now as for that club record for FC Dallas. The 18-game unbeaten run is pretty darn special. One more win or draw and they’ll at least have the chance to go down as one in league history for fewest losses in a season. I believe San Jose a few years back may have lost only four or five but in a slightly different era in MLS only losing a handfull of games in a season is pretty impressive.

Dallas still has to close the year out at home to Colorado and then on the road to RSL and LA. It won’t be easy getting to 21 games here but if any club can do it I do think it would be this one.

Mile High Shocker

The biggest result of the weekend was also the biggest shock of the weekend in Denver. I don’t think anyone, even die-hard D.C. United fans would have predicted their club winning in Dick Sporting Good’s Park this weekend but some how, some way they did shocking the Rapids 1-0.

Yea, let me say that again D.C. United beat Colorado in Colorado 1-0 this weekend. Writing it once just didn’t do it justice enough considering D.C. hadn’t won there since 2000.

Furthermore Ben Olsen has now tied his predecessor Curt Onalfo in wins for the year with three. Onalfo was 3-12-3 with United before he was let go. Olsen has done a decent enough job since taking over and grabbing three more wins, two in places I’d never dream of them winning at this season in Colorado and Toronto.

MVP Update

I may do this as a separate post later on today or this week but the MVP race for this season continues to remain one of the toughest in recent memories. But for now I believe its down to four guys; David Ferreira (Dallas), Sebastien Le Toux (Philadelphia), Landon Donovan (LA), and Fredy Montero (Seattle).

You could make an argument for someone like Omar Cummings in Colorado or Guillermo Barros Schelotto in Columbus. But those four continue to remain my top picks here and at this point in the season its hard to really decide who deserves the nod.

If you go on goals and assists in the year it has to go to Le Toux who leads the combo with 13 goals and 10 assists on the year. But then again Ferreira also has seven goals and 13 assists. Montero has 10 goals and nine assists while Donovan leads the league in assists with 14 and has also bagged seven goals.

Its anyone’s guess at this stage really. Le Toux will be pressed hard by the Philly faithful and deservingly so. Some folks unfortunately will have problems with voting in a guy who didn’t at least get his team into the playoffs. I say that’s BS. Without Le Toux Philly would possibly be the worst expansion club of all-time as he’s been apart of 23 of their 32 goals this year.

I hate going homer on you but Ferreira may be my selection if I had to vote today. But again I’ll go more into that later on.

Hanging By A Thread

Kansas City has only themselves to blame at this point. They gave New York all they could handle last weekend and yet nothing was able to go in for them. Peter Vermes’ side continues to still look like the biggest threat to Colorado, Seattle and San Jose for that final playoff spot as their schedule remains the nicest of the four.

But the thing is I wonder if its already too late for the Wizards. At this point they’ll need to at least go 3-0-1 in their final four games. A tall task considering they still have Seattle at home coming up and then a Tuesday-Saturday swing as they travel to Chicago and to New England before closing out the year at home to San Jose.

Again it won’t be easy. Their hope stating out is to catch a tired Seattle squad at home. The Sounders have the USOC final this week. You have to figure they’ll have some tired legs in this game.

LA and New York battle in a high profile game tonight. (Getty Images)

Call me one of the skeptics on this but really this dubbed “Game of the season” doesn’t quite do it for me. Sure having the LA Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls face off in a late season battle on national TV is good for the league, there’s no debating that even though the time-slot for the game isn’t very good (11pm on the east coast is a stinker).

For me this game doesn’t do a whole lot. Both teams are playoff squads and we could very well be getting a preview of this year’s MLS Cup if all things go right for these two the rest of the way out.

But I look at this game with the glass half empty. Its late in the year, neither have any extra games on the slate like Real Salt Lake or Columbus do, and both aren’t fighting for the final playoff spot. One could argue that its a battle for the Supporter’s Shield but with a nine point advantage over New York it seems like the Galaxy have little to worry about New York getting in their way of winning that award, RSL is the more likely challenger at this point in the year.

I love the effort by the league to hype this game, but its getting a bit old hearing “game of the year” or things like that when teams with one or two designated players square off against one another. First it was the Chicago-New York clash, then the Chicago-LA game, then the Seattle-Chicago game, then New York-Toronto and now LA-New York. I get it, DPs are high profile and the league has to hype them but dubbing games as the best game of the year is a bit much.

Normally I’m an optimist at things but even this is a bit much for me. Plus the loss of Thierry Henry to this game really hurt its chances of being what the league hoped it could be. David Beckham and Henry against one another on a MLS field would be great to see but looks like we’ll have to wait for a possible MLS Cup meeting to see it happen this year.

I could be wrong about this game but I feel it won’t be the 5-4 blockbuster from a couple years ago when Beckham first joined league. It seems like the league is throwing all it’s eggs in the basket for this game because of that game a couple seasons ago when really it will likely be a defensive battle this time around. A 1-1 draw or a 1-0 win by one of the two seems more likely.

Now this could be the best game of the year by the end of the night but I honestly won’t be counting on it. But then again I’ve been proven wrong before.

I’ll say this though, at least we’re talking about this game. And by we I mean most of the soccer blogging world is talking about this one well before the game has kicked off. So in that regards the hype is good and has done its job.

LA continues their slump with a recent loss to Kansas City. (Getty Images)

A few clubs took a step forward this past weekend while others were taking two steps back. For the first time nearly all season the standings appear pretty tight in various spots. Up top is becoming increasingly closer as LA drops points yet again while RSL, Dallas, Columbus, and New York all sneak up on the Galaxy.

The final three spots for the playoffs still remain pretty open too. Seattle did their part getting three points this weekend, as did Colorado. The gap between 6, 7, and 8 is there but that last playoff spot is slowly starting to be anyone’s game between San Jose, Chicago, Toronto, and Kansas City.

Week 22 is in the books folks but its weird to think that we can actually say a handfull of clubs are nearly out of the running this year. Yes done. Before September. That’s how things go as the league expands.

Below are some other nuggets of thoughts I had on this past week in MLS.

1. LA continues to sink.

Speed kills and LA has little of it to show for. With Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan now producing on the same level as earlier in the season the Galaxy have gone from unbeatable to very beatable in a matter of two months. Since the World Cup ended the Galaxy have lost their way. In all competitions since July they are 3-6-1. See that middle number? Yeah its growing against teams they should beat, like Kansas City at home. No way on earth the Wizards are better than the Galaxy right now (no disrespect Wizards fans your club is getting much better) but the fight and hunger isn’t there from Bruce Arena’s team.

But back to my main point on the Galaxy. Their lack of speed continues to be an issue as it was a year ago and a couple years before that. Yes they’ll get David Beckham back in the lineup soon enough and I do believe that will be a nice spark to their lineup but speed wise they have none to burn while other clubs are burning all over them. You want to beat LA, just pull a quick counter on them and see what happens.

Its the age in the back and in the midfield that is hurting this side. Its the weakness that has been there all season long that we just ignored because they couldn’t stop winning early on in the season. It also doesn’t help that the quality young players like rookie Michael Stephens that they have are hitting that late summer wall.

2. Montero is the talk of the town.

Right now the MVP race is a two horse thing between Seattle’s Fredy Montero and Dallas’ David Ferriera. Why those two Colombians? Simple really, they both just get results for their clubs. Montero definitely had the upper hand this weekend as Ferriera and Dallas just looked a bit lost in Columbus in the 0-0 draw to the Crew. Montero and the Sounders hosted their old mate Freddie Ljungberg and the Fire this weekend and came away with a big time win, mostly due to Montero.

Seattle should get into the playoffs with the way Montero is playing right now. He, like his club, are peaking (in league play, not CCL play for the moment) at the right time here. Yes they had a bad slump in the early-to-middle part of the year but that appears to be over for now. Montero’s ten goals and nine assists are simply staggering to see.

Another name to consider in the MVP race is still Philadelphia’s Sebastien Le Toux. I just worry that folks won’t give him votes considering how he plays for one of the worst sides in the league right now.

3. New York and Dallas closing the gap?

Both clubs stand a good chance still at winning either their conferences or even the Supporter’s Shield this season. At 37 points they both sit six points back of LA and their overall league lead. Dallas has a game in hand against the Galaxy too.

New York has really started to grow on me lately, something that some of you thought would never happen. Basically it comes down to their recent additions paying off in a big way. Are they a title contender this year? You have to think so. No one wants to play them at Red Bull Arena right now and they have enough talent to get results on the road for a change.

But let’s look at Dallas for a moment too. They now have the league record for unbeaten games on the road at 10 and a club record for unbeaten games overall at 12. Its hard to think that their only losses this year are at home to LA back in May (their most recent loss) and all the way back in the beginning of the year in New York (a game that really should have been a draw).

Could Dallas and New York be headed for a trip to Toronto this November? Right now I wouldn’t bet against it.

4. End of an era

Lets go ahead and put New England and Houston with the bottom tier clubs for this season. As I see Philadelphia, D.C., Chivas all not making the playoffs I see the same out of New England and Houston now too.

Hard to believe the staple of consistency over the last six or eight years is coming to an end with these two. This year just wasn’t in the cards for either of them really as they continue to stumble in games that they probably could get results in.

I know both had red card issues in their games this weekend that definitely changed the outcomes a bit but looking at how the two played in those games they were never going to win them anyways.

New England needs around 20 points in their last nine games to have a shot at the post season while Houston needs about 17 in their final eight games. Doesn’t sound likely now does it folks?