It’s just what we expected, a very tight playoff race this year is happening. Out of the 15 clubs in the league, 11 are in playoff contention. Sorry San Jose, Dallas and KC fans…we’re pretty much writing you all off for the playoff race this year along with the Red Bulls who have been out of contention for months now despite the two straight wins.

Just how tight is the race? Let’s have a look. For our purposes in tiebreakers we will use the teams with the most remaining games as the higher team.

—SUPPORTER’S SHIELD RACE—-
Houston 11-7-7, 40 points
Columbus 10-4-9, 39 points
Chicago 10-6-8, 38
Los Angeles 9-4-11, 38
—AT LARGE BIRTHS—-
Seattle 8-6-10, 34 points
New England 9-6-6, 33
Colorado 9-7-6, 33
Chivas USA 10-9-3, 33
——-NEXT IN LINE——–
Real Salt Lake 9-9-6, 33
D.C. United 7-5-11, 32
Toronto 8-8-7, 31
—–ALL BUT ELIMINATED—–
Dallas 6-11-5, 23
Kansas City 5-10-6, 21
San Jose 5-12-5, 20
New York 4-16-4, 16

Right now it is a true dead heat for the Supporter’s Shield crown as LA inches closer to the top with a win over their rivals Chivas USA. Houston, Columbus and Chicago all dropped games this weekend. I still feel that LA has the best shot out of the four to win the Supporter’s Shield crown this season. Chicago doesn’t look like they have the right mix of things to do it and Columbus’ and Houston’s schedules are too packed in the final months of the season. LA has plenty of win-able games left and it makes sense to see them continue on their current form. Continue Reading…

We had 31 long weeks this season but now the league heads into an American past-time, the playoffs. The Major League Soccer version of the playoffs is still being worked on by the league but this year’s edition is set to be one of the best after how this season went.

It all came down to the final week for a couple clubs to get in. That’s how it should be and it’s how the league wanted it to be. More interesting from week one through 31. It worked and now we should be getting a decent product on the field for the post season.

So after week 31, Kansas City finally got in thanks to a New York loss on Thursday, RSL got in thanks to a late game-tying goal against Colorado, and New York ended up getting in thanks to a DC loss at Columbus.

Here is how the bracket is laid out:

Eastern Conference

(1) Columbus Crew vs. (4) Kansas City Wizards
(2) Chicago Fire vs. (3) New England Revolution

Western Conference

(1) Houston Dynamo vs. (4) New York Red Bulls
(2) Chivas USA vs. (3) Real Salt Lake

Continue Reading…

Just one final weekend stands between four MLS clubs and playoff glory. Thing is only two of those clubs will be able to enjoy that glory. The old “Just Win Baby” slogan will ring true to those four clubs.

One club did catch a break last night as Kansas City punched their ticket to the dance thanks to a New York blowout loss to the Fire in Chicago. The Wizards will either play Columbus or Houston in the first round of the playoffs (all depends on DC’s result this weekend).

Week 31 has six games on the menu for us all to enjoy, two with major implications for the post season. As always feel free to post your predictions below. Continue Reading…

A fairly predictable weekend in Major League Soccer. Three open spots left in the playoff picture are still being chased by five clubs now that Dallas, LA, San Jose and Toronto are all eliminated from contention.

However, the Kansas City Wizards, New York Red Bulls, D.C. United, Real Salt Lake and Colorado Rapids are going to make this one of the best finishes to any season in recent memory here.

It all comes down to one final week of games, just how MLS dreamed it up for this season. I honestly don’t think they expected the new playoff format to work this well this season. Most argued that it wasn’t good enough but now we can see that it may just be what the league needs if they are going to keep the playoff format.

Now that one week has a lot of “if’s” surrounding it. If this club wins they are in as long as this club loses or ties their game. Yeah, there are plenty of them and I will run down what each club still in contention has left to do or not to do here this week. I spent some time this morning figuring out the possible scenarios that need to happen for each club. If for some reason I am wrong about something, just let me know and it will be corrected.

Here is the final week’s schedule for playoff hopefuls (no need to add the other games until the predictions later this week since they aren’t in contention):

• Thursday- New York Red Bulls at Chicago Fire
• Saturday- Kansas City at New England, Real Salt Lake at Colorado
• Sunday- D.C. United at Columbus Crew

Here is a rundown of what each team needs to happen in order to qualify for the playoffs (current point total included): Continue Reading…

This weekend sure has the making of one that will spell out the entire playoff picture for this year. Three spots remain in the hottest race ever. Last night things were made even more interesting with Francis Doe’s coming out party against New England as DC United pushed themselves back into the mix.

Just when you think they are dead huh? Yeah, well two clubs are pretty much dead in the water (San Jose and Toronto) but the rest are not. We may not find out about the wildcard births just yet but I do have a feeling we will get a better understanding of who will come in third place out west.

As always feel free to pipe in your predictions below. I’m sure to be wrong on nearly all of them but I do reserve the right to gloat endlessly if I do get one right. Continue Reading…

Lost in the shuffle of today’s expansion madness was a game, a very important game between Houston and San Jose. The two square off tonight in Houston as they make up this game due to Hurricane Ike a few weeks ago. For a while we said that this game in hand would be huge for San Jose and tonight they have to prove it.

Houston has looked mighty solid at home this season but I wonder if they put their best foot forward now that they won’t be winning the Supporter’s Shield this year. They do have their sights set on winning the western conference again and three points will certainly help them get closer to that goal.

But for the Quakes and their playoff chances they have to win out in their final three. So far the road play this season hasn’t been all that great. They’ve dropped some games that they shouldn’t have dropped and have had some calls not go their way in the process.

I like the Quakes tonight on the bases that Houston will try to go for the draw in this one and save some legs for this weekend’s game against LA. A desperate team is the Quakes and I think they get their stuff back in order to make the playoff race even more interesting. Thing is they have to or else they won’t be apart of it if they fail to get three points. I’m pretty sure they’d be all but eliminated after this game if they fail to get three full points.

Still I see them coming through tonight by the way of Darren Huckerby.

WVH Prediction: San Jose 1, Houston 0

Only two weeks to go right now in the 2008 season. Five playoff spots have been determined but three are still up for grabs as nine other MLS clubs are still in contention. A few movers in this week’s power rankings, but nothing too crazy.

1. Columbus Crew (54 pts., same) – There’s really no way anyone passes Columbus up top here in the final two weeks of the year. They’ve wrapped up the Supporter’s Shield and have still looked very solid in the process.

2. Houston Dynamo (44 pts., same) – The draw to DC ended Houston’s hopes at a Supporter’s Shield but more importantly I am wondering if this club will run out of gas before the playoffs begin. A lot of tired legs out there. Continue Reading…