Lots of action in week 23 to count and figure out who shined brighter than who. To make this quick and simple I went with a two goal effort this week over a couple solid one goal efforts and a two assists effort out of a couple others.

I went with Real Salt Lake’s Fabian Espindola’s two goal effort against Colorado on Friday night because not only was it the games two goals but watching Espindola perform on Friday night was fun to watch. He’s back from an injury and looks great. Plus he got some help from some sloppy defending from Colorado.

Again, to be quick, week 23’s Player of the Week goes to RSL’s Fabian Espindola.

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Not a whole lot of change this week in the WVH Power Rankings. The Labor Day weekend saw the Crew go on top of the standing and the Rapids fall to the bottom of the standings. In regards to the standings here on WVH, it is pretty much the same on top as it is on the bottom.

1. Columbus Crew (40 pts., same) – Made the most of things on the road to become the first club to 40 points this season. I like the schedule from here out for Columbus too, eight games left and all equally good for this club who hopes to get their second Supporter’s Shield trophy. Their key though remains in the hands…or feet rather of Guillermo Barros Schelotto. Continue Reading…

What can we really say about how things are going this season in Major League Soccer. From week to week we find a new club to move up the charts or a move down the charts. All it takes is a victory to do so with the jam packed standings these days. After 23 weeks you’d think we would know more about every club but in fact most of the clubs we are still figuring out here.

Week 23 was one of those weeks that saw a couple big wins and a couple late goals. From this we got to see a couple clubs that are looking more like true MLS Cup contenders and a couple that look to have little or no hope at reaching the playoffs this season. The eastern conference is beginning to spread out a bit, but the west is still packed full of a mess.

However the west did go 3-1-1 in head-to-head matchups with the east this weekend. Tide turning or just a random thing? Eh, probably just a random thing.

So how did we get where we are at from this past weekend’s set of games? Let’s just find out shall we.

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First off, sorry for the late start today (and yesterday even), I’ve been battling a lovely cold this week so hopefully that has all passed here as we head into the weekend. All 14 clubs are involved in action this weekend starting with a rare Friday Night Lights game tonight out in the Rocky Mountains. Then we head into the usual weekend menu of five on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Its great that all these games have some sort of playoff implications to them at this point in the year. Nearly every club is still in the hunt to some degree. Some clubs are probably starting to slip into desperation mode here as we only have nine games (or eight after this weekend) left on the year.

As always feel free to pipe in your predictions below. Continue Reading…