Kenny Cooper is moving east to New York. (Getty Images)

The draft day is here and the trades are starting to come in. This one, thanks to Fox Soccer, says that the Portland Timbers and the New York Red Bulls have struck a deal.

New York will acquire Portland Timbers forward Kenny Cooper. Separate Fox Soccer sources report the deal will send a 2013 first round draft pick and a large amount of allocation money to the Timbers.

With New York not picking until the latter part of the second round, the club had to make some deals to be active today. It is surprising to see them go out and get a striker like Cooper though with the likes of Juan Agudelo, Thierry Henry and Luke Rodgers on the team. I think this puts a greater emphasis on the fact that Hans Backe has little-to-no faith in Agudelo here and he could be gone for most of the season anyways with the U23 team.

New York trading another first round pick shows just how little they care about the SuperDraft as well.

Kenny Cooper is returning to MLS with Portland.

After a couple weeks of speculation and rumors former FC Dallas striker Kenny Cooper has left German side TSV 1860 Munich to join the MLS expansion side Portland Timbers.

The 26-year old transferred to 2.Bundesliga (second division) side 1860 Munich in 2009 after four seasons in MLS with FC Dallas. In Dallas, he tallied 40 goals and 10 assists in 90 regular-season matches and was named to the MLS Best XI and an MLS All-Star in 2008.

“I am really excited to be returning to MLS and joining the Portland Timbers for their inaugural MLS season,” said Cooper. “It is a great privilege to come to Portland, where there is a long-standing tradition and a deep passion for the team and the game. It is also extra special to be in the hometown of my adidas family. I am appreciative for the belief that owner Merritt Paulson, coach John Spencer and Gavin Wilkinson have shown in me. I am looking forward to wearing Timbers green, and I hope to make the Timbers Army and all those associated with the club proud.”

You have to admit that Portland already looks pretty good offensively on paper with the addition of Kenny Cooper alongside rookie Darlington Nagbe, Bright Dike, Eddie Johnson and Ryan Pore. As long as they find a creative cog in the midfield to lead their offense I think John Spencer’s club will be in every match this season.

Cooper never got going in Europe which is reason for me to believe that he’ll fit in well with Portland as he always found ways to score in MLS. I thought moving to Europe was the right thing for him at the time when he did but it was obvious pretty quickly that it wasn’t the right fit for him as he bounced around between Germany and England as he struggled to find playing time in Munich.

Its good to see Cooper back in MLS too, he was always one of the nicer guys to interview in Dallas and hopefully he’ll do well in Portland.

What do you make of this move for Cooper and the Timbers?

Kenny Cooper could be coming home this summer to Dallas. Take note in the emphasis.

A couple different outlets are reporting that the former FC Dallas striker could be set to leave Europe and head back home to MLS. A move that wouldn’t shock me in the least bit if it goes down.

The thing is getting Cooper back in Dallas won’t be easy. He’ll likely require a transfer fee from 1860 Munich, not to mention it will also require the club to move to the top of the allocation order (they currently sit at number four).

Cooper failed to impress overseas. He scored three times in 14 appearances for 1860 before being sent on loan to English Championship side Plymouth in January. While with Plymouth, Cooper was limited to just seven substitute appearances and failed to find the net.

A move back to MLS is one that would do Cooper a bit of good in my opinion. But getting out of his contract in Munich won’t be easy as it runs through 2012 and is guaranteed. 1860 could buy him out which would be the best case scenario. I doubt MLS or even the Hunts would be willing enough to buyout his contract to get him back here.

Then the issue will come down to how much would FCD be willing to pay Cooper? Its something that Cooper would have to probably take a pay cut to do if he really wants to play here again.

Just as I began writing this the club said on Twitter that the rumors with Cooper have no truth to them. Honestly I don’t buy that but we’ll see.

Blanco and Kljestan Grace FIFA Soccer 10 Cover

Link

Cuauht�moc Blanco of the Chicago Fire and Sacha Kljestan of Chivas USA will be featured on the front packs of FIFA Soccer 10. Anyone excited? Yeah, I’m honestly not. I use to be a big FIFA guy but I honestly haven’t bought the game in a couple years. The combo of Blanco and Kljestan is an odd one for EA if you ask me. I guess EA is trying to pick up on the Latin market a little more this year? Beats me. At least EA was wise enough to go with Frank Lampard too.

Look at Portland-Seattle Success in American Soccer

Link

If you haven’t taken the time to visit Pitch Invasion, do so and fast. Its a quality site with plenty of good material to read. Today we get a great look at the Portland-Seattle rivalry and its successes over the years. There is a reason why MLS will be great in two years, and this rivalry (along with Vancouver in the three-way rivalry) will be just the reason. Do yourself a favor and read all about these two clubs.

Ty Harden’s Track Back To MLS

Link

This was one of those stories a couple years ago that no one really understood but we all sort of respected the person involved for doing it. Ty Harden retired from soccer before the 2008 season, just out of no where, to focus on school and volunteering. It caught everyone with the LA Galaxy and throughout the league off guard since it wasn’t a retirement for injury purposes like we see with most young players. Harden did what he wanted to do and we should all respect him more for it. Now he is back with the Colorado Rapids after getting the itch to compete again. Good for him too.

Kyle Martino’s Story

Link

Here is a story from the Connecticut Post on ESPN’s B-team broadcaster Kyle Martino. Martino is one of those guys that deserved more love as a player and now deserves more as a broadcaster.

Cooper Scores In Munich Debut

Link

It took 17 minutes for Kenny Cooper to set his mark on his new club. The goal also ended up being the game-winner, as 1860 Munich defeat TuS Koblenz 2-0. The former FC Dallas striker was subbed off in the 72nd minute and was given a loud ovation from the 1860 Munich supporters.

Adu To Denmark?

Link

Could we finally see Freddy Adu get some real PT? It’s possible as Steve Goff is reporting that Adu is in final negotiations with Odense on a one-year loan from Portuguese club Benfica. Odense finished second in the Danish Superliga last season and will face Genoa in a Europa League playoff later this month.

Odense isn’t a big name club and Denmark isn’t a high profile destination at this point for Adu but let’s be honest as long as the kid gets some playing time it won’t matter where he is at. Denmark has plenty of American’s playing there right now so the move wouldn’t be the worst thing for him at this point.

Red Bulls New Project?

Link

Jack Bell over at the New York Times dicusses the possible resurrection project for New York. Again I will say, they need to take mold after some other MLS clubs and get some quality young American talent mixed in with some gritty MLS veterans. The MLS veterans are key because right now this club has veteran players but none are quality and most are over the hill foreign talent.

It still comes down to management and their lack of knowledge of the game. Bell runs down the list of talent that this club has missed on over the last year:

Agoos has always been quick to point out that constructing a team in M.L.S. takes a certain kind of alchemy. He is not wrong, and bad choices can be deadly: Juan Pietravallo, Diego Jimenez, Oscar Echeverry, Carlos Johnson, Gabriel Cichero, Jorge Rojas, Khano Smith, Dominic Oduro represent more misses than hits. Before the current season, the Red Bulls gave away Dave van den Bergh, ultimately for nothing in return. The team allowed their most consistent, albeit unflashy, defender Jeff Parke walk away.

Bad choices lead to a terrible record. In a league with pairity it doesn’t take much to suck. Talent wins and bad talent gets you fired or at least we thought it did.

Beckham Linked To Chelsea?

Link

England manager Fabio Capello has told David Beckham to leave the US as soon as possible if he wants to be a part of next year’s World Cup squad. Now we all know Beckham will end up back in Europe but with clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham eyeing the midfielder it may be end up being a battle for his transfer rights. Then again it may end up being another ugly loan from LA.

Collection of US-Mexico Links

Instead of commenting on each, here is just a simple hype list for Wednesday’s game against Mexico.

USA Roster Breakdown (Avoiding The Drop)
USA-Mexico Update (Soccer Insider)
Guardado: “Of Course We Will Win” (SBI)
Five factors favor the US as it looks to break curse in Azteca (SI.com)
USA-Mexico behind tennis on Extra Mustard event for the week (SI.com)
US Players Like Their Chances at Estadio Azteca (ESPNSoccernet)

I mentioned earlier on Twitter that I will be doing a post about each club’s remaining schedule. That may be up by the end of the week. I was hoping to get it out today but again work kept me from getting finished with it. I believe my stopping point was either Dallas or Houston. I do hope to finish it soon though.

Anyways, down to the business at hand, a few links/stories for your evening reading.

2009 SuperLiga Final

Chicago Fire host Tigres UANL of the Mexican Primera Division.- 7pm CST on Telefutura

I would expect nothing less than a Fire win really. I hear the Fire are taking this game serious and from the sound of it so are their supporter’s, which is really good to see. Tough part is until this tournament gets an English broadcast on FSC or something like that no one will care about it (you can watch it online though). I asked folks on Twitter earlier if they cared and those that responded didn’t see too unless they were actually a Fire fan.

CONCACAF Champions League Play-In Round

New York Red Bulls host Trinidadian side W Connection – 8pm EST on FSC

This is big and it is a make or break kind of game. If the Red Bulls win and advance they could at least salvage a little bit of their pathetic season. All they need is a win or even a 0-0 or 1-1 tie to advance. It is that simple. All MLS fans need to get behind New York tonight and hope they advance. If they don’t it will just add fuel to the fire on so many things surround this club.

International Friendly

Seattle Sounders FC host FC Barcelona – 10:30pm EST on ESPN

This should be fun. Tune in to ESPN2 tonight for this one folks. I know Seattle held their own against Chelsea a while back but I would be impressed if they are able to do the same against Barca. If I were Sigi Schmid I would be resting key guys as much as possible in this one, even if it means getting beat. With the playoffs coming up you don’t want to lose someone because of this game.

Jozy Moves To England

Link

The big topic today was Jozy Altidore and all his tweeting about moving to England to play for Hill City. The best part was reading all the reports with quotes from Jozy’s Twitter feed. I guess that is the world we are starting to live in, when players say something on twitter before the press get ahold of them in person.

Cooper Introduced in Germany

Link (to photos)

No need to say much, Cooper is finally over in Europe and looks happy in the process.

Argentina League Season Put On Hold

Link

Wow, big news down in Argentina is that a new season was suppose to start in two weeks. However that has been put on indefinite hold due to a deep financial crisis at many of the clubs. No other actions were announced. This could very well mean we could see a flood of players come north if nothing is resolved soon.

Not official word yet on how much the deal is for. Some across the pond have been saying it is less than a million. I don’t buy that for a second. More credible people here like Buzz Carrick at 3rdDegree or Steve Goff at the Washington Post suggest the club/league could end up with as much as $3 million, depending on how Cooper does in Europe. Which Dallas will pocket most of that.

Cooper had wanted to move across the pond last summer but the club rejected mulitple offers from clubs. Apparently the club also rejected a couple more offers this past month from various clubs, including 1860 Munich.

We know that Dallas in a way was planning for such a move during the Gold Cup run while Cooper was with the US national team. Head coach Schalles Hyndman tried a couple different moves up top in place of Cooper, one being veteran striker Jeff Cunningham. At times things worked out but just like most of the season it did not.

At this point FCD has 14 days left in the summer transfer window to bring in a player (window closes on August 14th), but can also sign anyone that is out of contract during that window until the roster freeze date on September 15th.

In a way I just don’t see them filling this void until the winter. Maybe I am wrong and will be proven wrong but I kind of think the club is throwing in the towel on this season with this move.

Overall though I can’t but be more excited for Cooper. I know this is a move he has wanted for some time, even though he does indeed love Dallas. It’s a good move for him personally because another year in Dallas would continue to hold him back I think. He could only carry that club so much.

I felt looking at the results and each game this past week that week 16 was really predictable. I know I missed a couple games in my score predictions but aside from the RSL-San Jose game this week lacked a lot of surprise or anything worth getting overly excited about. Maybe that is the dog-days of summer kicking in here for the league but each result was as predictable as the next on Saturday.Which can be a good thing but can also be a bad thing.

RSL Gets Lucky Late

I’ll start with the first game of the week on Friday here today. Something can certainly be said about Real Salt Lake nearly losing at home to San Jose while dominating the bulk of the game. Kudos to the Quakes for their defense for the first 90 minutes of the game. Unlucky was certainly the own-goal to Chris Leitch. Sometimes the ball bounces that way folks.

But looking at this result for RSL I begin to really question this club going forward this season. Certainly some pieces were missing but I still felt they had the side on the field that should have won this game. I just feel that they are certainly missing a piece or two here though. I like Robbie Findley and Yura Movsisyan but neither are the go-to striker that this club needs to depend on. Findley can be too hot and cold while Movsisyan tends to miss the easiest of shots. Then I look at their defense and wonder if they have the talent to hold up against clubs like Houston or Chivas in the playoffs. Right now I just don’t see them getting there.

Red Bulls On The Brink

The few that cover this Red Bull club up in New York are all saying the same thing today. “The Season on the Brink.” Well with the most games played (19) and the most losses (13) and the fewest points (10), yeah you could say they are on the brink. Honestly they’ve been done for a lot longer than that. I said in my season preview for this club that they’d either be a good playoff club or an underachieving side.

One thing that is amazing is how long Juan Carlos Osorio has kept his job here. After nearly two-thirds of the season being complete and his club is this bad, many would think he’d be gone already. I kind of have a feeling he will be there until the end of the season. That is unless he decises he has had enough before then and leaves on his own terms via Fernancdo Clavjio.

I think the only thing that can be said for Osorio at this point is the couple players he draft this year that have turned out to be pretty good. Jeremy Hall and Nick Zimmerman both definitely show a bright spot for this club’s future. Comes to show that you can’t win on over priced foreign talent alone in this league, you need quality young talent to do work too.

Dallas Gaining

Much can be said about winning 2-1 at home but a lot more can be said about how it was done. Dallas got a huge lift getting New York in town this past week. Not only were the Red Bulls a fairly easy test but it gave way for guys lik Jeff Cunningham to break the club out of a bit of a funk when the club doesn’t have Kenny Cooper in the line-up. I liked the combination of Cunningham and former Red Bull Dave van den Burgh on Saturday for Dallas. Some how it worked but sadly enough we won’t get use to it here once Cooper returns.

Still on another note Dallas has a long way to go here. No doubt they won’t be in contention to reach the playoffs out of the west this season. But they are slowly building a decent base for next year.

Houston Returns To Winning

After a small slide for the Dynamo the league leaders return to the road in Kansas City and get a quality win. The Dynamo get another win, their ninth of the season and become the first club to break the 30 point mark in the standings.

Houston really handled the pressure well late as Kansas City pressed for a game-tying goal late. KC continues to lack some punch up top which is going to haunt them as this season moves towards the playoffs in the next couple of months.

This was a physical game between these two sides. Houston may have gotten the win but they will be without two key defenders for their next game in Seattle. Both Geoff Cameron and Bobby Boswell will miss the important game with the expansion Sounders due to suspension.

Crew and DC Level

Too bad both sides were missing a chunk of their roster for call-ups and injuries because this one would have been much better for it. Still a quality game with some bad calls from the center ref in it. DC took a late first half lead into the lockerroom to only give it right back up after the break to the Crew. From there on neither side really took hold of this game. DC seemed to control a little more of the pace in this one which lead to a boat load of extra attempts on goal. Big credit to the Columbus defense for stepping up a little more in this one because of that.

DC presented the Crew with a five-man midfield which seemed to slow down Guillermo Barros Schelotto a decent bit. The Crew did find a couple ways around it but never enough to really pressure the Black-and-Red backline.

Both sides are in the thick of things for this eastern crown race. In all honesty right now I think it will between these two sides though we could see the Fire sneak up in there after the way they played in Colorado this week.

Colorado On the Slide

I guess my talk of this side being a dark-horse in the west was possibly a kiss of death to the Rapids. Another loss at home, this time to the Chicago Fire who have looked really good in their last couple of games (SuperLiga mostly). To me Wilman Conde was the player of the game and possibly the player of the week from this game. Colorado had no answer for him when he was around the goal and when he was defending his own goal.

The win was a big one for the Fire as they leap back up the standings into a tie with DC. They really looked like the side we thought we’d see all season long this past weekend. Maybe this is the start of their run going forward here.

As for the Rapids I still have high hopes for them going forward, espeically once they get Conor Casey and company back in the lineup. This club still has some work to do though to make sure they are in contention for the rest of the season to get into the playoffs. I’m slowly writting them off for catching Houston or Chivas here but if they want to stay up there with Seattle for third-best in the west they need to improve their roster right away. Add some depth to the defense and find a playmaker who can set up the scoring in the midfield. Right now they are lacking a bit and it is causing them to drop games that they shouldn’t drop, especially those at home.

Newcomer Nets One For LA

Not a bad start for Alecko Eskandarian. He moved lockerrooms at the HDC over the week and it payed off in a big way. His goal marked a quality win for LA on a night that really saw nothing more than a bunch of fouls. Honestly there may have been more fouls on the field than fireworks in the sky after the game.

The Galaxy really controled this match from start to finish as Steve Nicol’s group is really struggling to find their way again now that the injury bug has knocked out more key members of their roster. Either they are going to have to be creative to find ways to win or just hope they can ride out this strom of injuries again here this summer. Things are not looking good either way in New England right now.

As for LA it was a typical win for them, once they got the goal it was all they needed to play their style of game. Sit back and take pressure while countering when needed. Look LA will make things interesting this season but once this circus called Beckham kicks up again it will be real interesting to see which way this club heads. History should tell us which way that will be though.

Butts-in-Seats

Holiday weekend produced good numbers for the league. All over 10k, even in Dallas. LA and Colorado posted the biggest numbers with 20k and 19k respectively while Columbus and Dallas each got 14k. RSL posted a solid 17k on Friday’s game. And KC scored another sell-out, five in a row at home now. Very positive things there folks.

If you think I missed a goal, please let me know below.

Order of goals: Taylor Twellman (New England), David Ferreira (Dallas), Arturo Alvarez (San Jose), Kenny Cooper (Dallas), Omar Cummings (Colorado), Edson Buddle (LA), and Stuart Holden (Houston).

Guillermo Barros Schelotto got the best of Claudio Lopez on Saturday in KC. (Brian Stevens, WVH Photo Correspondent)

If you blinked this weekend you may have missed some changes in the standings this weekend. A couple clubs continues to fall down the standings while a couple more continue to rise. Also we saw the western race (and the overall race for that matter) tighten up a bit with a Chivas win and a Houston win this weekend.

I believe the groups I’ve mentioned a couple weeks ago in the standings are still shaping up though one or two teams may have shifted around in the groups. The bottom of the barrell is still what it has been for a while now this year.

The Shifting Crew

The biggest move though may be one few noticed due to their game being on at the same time as the US national team’s game on Saturday (yeah, genius plan to schedule it like that). Columbus notched another win in typical Crew fashion this week in Kansas City behind two goals from their MVP and probably current league MVP front-runner Guillermo Barros Schelotto. With GBS scoring instead of setting up the goals this season we are seeing a slightly different Crew side this season but one that is starting to get results.

Sometimes it takes a club a while to get use to a new coach but if you didn’t notice the Crew are back in playoff contention right now. They also have a game to spare on those above them in the east.

Weird part may be though that this club still isn’t healthy here in the least bit this season. But as always good teams figure out a way to get results no matter the lineup. Columbus was still a good team at the start of the season but now they are finishing out games and getting points rather than struggling to get draws. Its hard to keep in mind that they’ve only lost twice this season.

One more thing, when I look at KC I still see a quality team here but I’ll keep saying it, they are missing one to two key elements to make them really good here. I think keeping their attack through Josh Wolff and Claudio Lopez can help but the playmaking in the middle just isn’t there enough. Also the defensive mistakes are really hurting this club. The U-8 style defending on the first goal just won’t get it done. I know Jimmy Conrad is already taking the blame for that goal.

Chivas Rolls Yet Again

It didn’t seem to take much but Chivas USA continues to stay at the top. Give credit once again to Preki for finding the bunch to get it done this week after his lineup was changed a bit due to Sacha Kljestan and Jonathan Bornstein’s US callups and Jesse Marsch’s suspension.� Still the lineup produced what it needed to to get the three points against the Sounders.

Once again give a lot of credit to Zach Thornton in the back for keeping Fredy Montero and company off the boards. He showed some true MVP form in goal Saturday night.

While the Chivas attack isn’t fancy they get the job done. Eduardo Lillingston, Maykel Galindo and Paulo Nagamura combined on the game’s lone goal. I loved the heart those three showed on the play, they pressed hard and got the result. Too many times clubs aren’t pressing enough on goal and that could be a reason why we see so many draws.

I’m also wondering about Seattle now. Is the early success coming to a head and we are seeing this expansion side be an expansion side? Sigi Schmid could use some healthy players to cure that but this group is falling a bit. Maybe a visit from San Jose coming up will help.

Toronto Continues To Stumble

Talk about a bad stretch of play for Toronto FC. A blowout loss a week ago in Houston followed by an embarassing loss in Vancouver in the Canadian Cup. Most thought a home game against a LA squad that would be without Landon Donovan would be the answer to get them back on the winning ways. Instead Edson Buddle made sure his former side didn’t get the three points.

I still don’t know what to make of this win for LA. While it is good I still don’t beleive they have the depth to stay like this without Donovan this summer. Still a win is a win and I am sure this bunch will take it even if it is only their second one of the year.

Toronto on the other hand dips back down into the territory that they shouldn’t be in. The place below the top group of clubs and right in the middle pack that could go either up or down here. Right now they are falling fast though. Maybe this is their usual summer slump too. I still believe this club has plenty of talent to be good in this league but they lack a finisher up top. Until they get a true go-to scorer they will continue to be middle of the pack here.

Houston Rising

Don’t look now but Houston is up there in the standings with Chicago and Chivas. Stuart Holden and company jumped all over Chicago early and held on with their strong defense late to keep Chicago off the board.

Houston continues to impress with their defense, which is the best in the league at the moment in terms of goals against. I think we are also seeing their offense click a good bit here with the play of Holden. He knew he ahd to be a leader this season and he is definitely showing it.

What’s with Chicago at home here this season? Just like last year they struggle at home while playing very well on the road (league best road record 4-0-3). They tend to give up a lot of easy goals at home for some reason and defensively make me question just how deep this club really is.

Yeah, Colorado May Be That Good

I know it was a draw but the fashion the Rapids scored their game-tying goal late in Salt Lake gave me the impression that this club probably can compete without the services of Conor Casey up top. Good thing too since they will be missing him a decent bit this summer.

Omar Cummings was a good go-to filling if you will for Colorado. It’s exactly what the Rapids need out of him when Casey is gone. His speed is there and right now is finishing is starting to be there more for him. If that keeps up the Casey-Cummings duo could be a really fun one to watch this season.

I know RSL had the bulk of chances in this game but finishing continues to ruin what could be a really good club this season. I think once the summer transfer window opens up in a few weeks we will see this club change up a good bit. Jason Kreis has to make some moves to get this club back to where many expected them to be here at the start of the season.

Bottom Clubs Are There For A Reason

I wasn’t at all about to get excited over the recent play of Dallas and San Jose here. While both are starting to slightly come around here this season they are both still not very good. Its sad too since both have the potential to be good but just can’t get over the hump on a few items.

Both San Jose goals were just a product of terrible defense by Dallas here. More of the same if you will from the back four for Dallas, bad give aways in terrible spots.

But for Dallas both goals were very good to see. Great build ups by Jeff Cunninham on the first after a quick restart by David van den Burgh. David Ferrierra bags his first MLS goal (finally) on the play. Brek Shea helped set up the game-tying goal to Kenny Cooper. Just the kind of build up you need from this side, which makes me want to see more of Shea in the lineup here for Dallas.

Still I do like Dallas shifting their lineup a bit by moving Jeff Cunningham to the wing. His pace on the wing is much needed on a hot day like yesterday. The thing though about a guy like Cunningham is he isn’t always there for you out there. Too many times he gives up on plays but at the same time he could have been more involved at times.

The man of this match for me though had to be Ray Burse. For Dallas fans I think it is easy to say Burse has claimed his spot as the starting keeper for the club, even when Dario Sala is healthy again.

New England Lays Into New York

For a while we’ve said that New England will be good once their offense gets going. Well after a four goal effort yesterday I wonder if everyone else is still having doubts about this club like they were a few weeks back. Thing about this club is they’ve seemed to get over the hump a bit in terms of the amount of injuries that they had early on this season and are finally seeing results on the field that we’ve come to expect out of Steve Nicol’s bunch.

Kudos to Taylor Twellman for becoming joining the 100 goal club. No doubt his play on the field is sparking this club in a big way. I still have little doubt that he will go into the books before long as the all-time leading scorer in league history.

So what can we make of New York here? Six goals against in two road losses this week. They still haven’t found the back of the net here and most are certainly calling for Juan Carlos Osorio’s head now. Would it even be the best move for this club going forward? Maybe and maybe not. All I can say is the moves that were made by Osorio haven’t worked and that may be enough for a dismissal. It’s just gone from bad to down right sad there.

Other Notes:

The butts-in-seats look this weekend wasn’t all that bad. Everyone had at least 11K except for the lowly figure in Dallas yesterday. No way in hell there was even 5700+ at Pizza Hut Park. You’d have to count for all the workers at the stadium and the folks playing on some of the other fiels in the area to make that number. Now I know that is technically the number of tickets sold but its a pathetic number nonetheless.

Best crowd this weekend may have been at Rio Tinto Stadium for the Rocky Mountain Cup match between the Rapids and RSL. A near sell-out according to the final attendance numbers.

Seven games spread out on three days this weekend with one tonight, four tomorrow and two on Sunday. Not to mention the all important US game tomorrow in Chicago as well.

Friday

Houston Dynamo – at – Chicago Fire:

Too bad we won’t see the true clash of the titans with these two meeting tonight. So many international callups will make this game a little less interesting than it really should be. Chicago will be missing a bulk of their starting lineup though which makes me worried for their chances after seeing how a slightly reserve side from this bunch did a week ago against one of the worst clubs in the league at home. Brian McBride needs to be involved in the attack early for the Fire or you can bet Houston will control this game through their backline. It sounds like a road win for Houston but I am giving Chicago the benefit of the doubt from their last game. A draw sounds good with one from each here.

WVH Prediction: Chicago 1, Houston 1

———————————————————–

Saturday

LA Galaxy – at – Toronto FC:

Honestly TFC needs this game badly. Losing the way they did a week ago, followed by the embarassment in Vancouver earlier this week and this club had hit the bottom of the rollar coaster that is their season yet again. This could be a good time for them to play the Galaxy though even without Amado Guevara in the lineup (WCQ callup). LA won’t have Landon Donovan to carry this club on the road and we know what a road club they are without him. TFC should respond in this one and get three points behind Dwayne De Rosario.

WVH Prediction: Toronto 2, LA 0

————————————————-

Columbus Crew -� at – Kansas City Wizards:

This one really could go either way. I think the Crew have turned a corner after their slow start but the thing is they are still ravaged with injuries here. KC on the other hand is fairly healthy and at home but the thing is they’ve been a bit inconsistent lately no matter where they play. We hate calling more draws here this season but I see it continue in this one. I still feel like KC is missing a big time piece that would make them a true contender here.

WVH Prediction: KC 1, Columbus 1

—————————————————-

Colorado Rapids – at – Real Salt Lake:

You wanna know who is loving Bob Bradley right now? Jason Kreis and RSL. Why you may ask, it’s simple Conor Casey won’t be involved in this game due to his late callup yesterday with the national team for this weekend’s game in Chicago. No Casey could mean a big break for a struggling RSL side. Still RSL will be without some key elements in their midfield. In the end it will come down to who’s speed wins over, Robbie Findley for RSL or Omar Cummings for Colorado. I wanna go with RSL at home but my gut is telling me a draw sounds more likely.

WVH Prediction: RSL 2, Colorado 2

————————————————–

Seattle Sounders FC – at – Chivas USA:

Expect this game to be wide open in the middle of the park. Both clubs are missing big time players in the midfield (Jesse Marsch, Chivas; Osvaldo Alonso, Seattle). Without those key players this game could be played more on the wings. If that is the case I might side a bit more with the visistors since Chivas will also be missing Sacha Kljestan and Jonathan Bornstein in this one. I think this may be an upset of some sorts here with another Chivas loss at home with Seattle surprising us by stealing three points. Even though both are missing plenty of starters I just think Chivas is missing a bigger chunk here. Though Preki has found ways around that already this season.

WVH Prediction: Seattle 2, Chivas 1

—————————————————–

Sunday

San Jose Earthquakes – at – FC Dallas:

A game I should be at sees two of the worst sides in the league right now square off. Even though the Quakes really looked better last week they will be gutted by suspensions and call ups this week. Dallas will also be missing their coach to a suspension but I doubt that will make a big difference. I think this Red Stripes squad may have found a bit of a groove after last week’s win in Chicago. If they build on that I don’t see any reason why they can’t make it two in a row here. Kenny Cooper has to be the reason for that as he hasn’t carried this club nearly the same way he did a season ago.

WVH Prediction: Dallas 2, SJ 1

———————————————–

New York Red Bulls – at – New England Revolution:

Two road games in one week usually smell trouble, especially if your club is missing plenty of players to call ups. Doubt the fact that New York typically doesn’t play well in New England to begin with (four wins all-time out of 23 games). And I guess to add another point that New England is actually starting to play some good soccer these days. I honestly don’t like New York’s chances Sunday after seeing them play last night. The Revs should take the three points thanks to a goal from Taylor Twellman.

WVH Prediction: New England 1, New York 0