Will David Beckham and Landon Donovan be celebrating on Sunday? (Getty Images)

This is a game I’ve gone back and forth with all week. Two western conference squads meeting in the league final is going to be interesting. Not many had picked both the LA Galaxy and Real Salt Lake to make it this far back at the start of the season. I know some had RSL going far in the playoffs but not the Galaxy. Then again I knew some who had an idea that LA could be good this year as well.

But a RSL-LA matchup was not expected yet I do think the league is welcoming it a bit. It’s not quite a David vs. Goliath type of match but its close to some degree. But these two squads weren’t separated by much in the points column this season. Just eight points was the difference between the top seed in the west from the bottom seed in the east (or eighth seed in this year’s case).

I do see this game going either way though here. In one regard LA looks like they should easily win it but you can’t count out Jason Kreis’ club right now with the way they’ve been playing lately. Both are hot going into this game which should yield a good match.

I have a few points in my preview to go over then I will give you all my score prediction for the final time this season. Hard to believe that this season has blown by so quickly here. Continue Reading…

Eric Brunner and Columbus try to slow down Yura Movsisyan and RSL tonight. (Getty Images)

Tonight the second leg of the first round playoff matches kickoff in Columbus as the Crew host Real Salt Lake. RSL holds a slight 1-0 lead in the goals department in this two-legged series thanks to the late goal from Robbie Findley last weekend.

Now is really where the fun begins for each side. Columbus went defensive in the first game by sitting Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Alejandro Moreno. Each should see plenty of time in this game as the Crew will be gunning for goals to take the advantage back. Most figure RSL will go defensive in this game and bunker down as much as possible.

To come away with a victory on the road won’t be easy as the Crew were one of the best home teams in the league this year while on the flip side RSL was one of the worst road teams. RSL’s lone game at Crew Stadium this year was a 3-1 loss back in July. Going defensive means they will have to rely more on the play of guys like Jamison Olave and Chris Wingert. I’d also imagine we’ll see a little more Clint Mathis in this game as well from Jason Kreis.

RSL has to continue to hope that the Crew stays cold. Its been a few games since the Crew have scored a goal and one has to figure that streak will end at home. The pressure is on the Crew to score but it is also on a very much on the RSL defense to do well in this one. During the regular season RSL gave up 24 goals on the road while the Crew scored a mean 25 goals at home.

I think having a rested Schelotto goes far for the Crew in this one. It was a big gamble sitting him in game one but he sees the field like no one else out there. RSL will rely a lot on the speed of Robbie Findley and Yura Movsisyan up top but with Chad Marshall a little more fit going into this game I just like the Crew at home. Its still very hard to pick RSL on the road anyways. Columbus escapes this series but only by a slim margin.

WVH Prediction: Columbus 2, RSL 0

Jason Kreis and RSL need a win tonight to stay in playoff contention. (Getty Images)

While there is an important US game tonight in Washington DC, there happens to also be a MLS game tonight. Yay for MLS scheduling a game right during World Cup qualifying season, in the middle of the week no less.

Still tonight after the US beats Costa Rica (oh yeah, calling a 2-1 win tonight), turn your television sets to ESPN2 to watch even more soccer (at least that part is good!). Real Salt Lake hosts New York Red Bulls tonight in a must-win game for the home-side. Oddly enough the last time these two squared off at Rio Tinto Stadium it was for the right to go to MLS Cup 2008.

Its win or be pretty much be eliminated for the Lakers tonight. RSL sits 34 points with three games left. The mission is to keep winning and survive another game of being in contention. Anything less just won’t cut it for Jason Kreis’ bunch. Interesting thing is out of all the clubs that have struggled at Rio Tinto or in Salt Lake for that matter, New York has never lost to RSL in Salt Lake.

RSL has to get their key offensive guys involved early and break the rust off from their long 18-day layover (thank God we will have balanced schedules next season and no more weird layoffs for clubs). Robbie Findley is one guy that has to be involved early. He tends to be hot and cold too often and this is a game that he has to heat up for here. New York’s defense is the worst in the league and when on the road they are just flat out pathetic. They have to pressure the backline with Findley and Yura Movsisyan.

The thing is I believe RSL will come out a bit flat in this one due to the layoff between games. New York oddly enough probably stands a good shot at getting at least a point out of this game as these two always seem to play to a draw (six draws in nine meetings all-time). I see Juan Pablo Angel and company putting enough pressure on RSL in this one to get a draw. I just don’t see them doing enough to get their first road win of the year here though.

Something about this game screams a draw and that’s what I am going with tonight. I haven’t been high on RSL all season for a reason but I wouldn’t mind seeing them actually show up for once tonight and remind me how good they can be. Angel gets one for New York early and Movsisyan ties things up in the second half for RSL.

WVH Prediction: RSL 1, New York 1

As the playoff race has heated up in Major League Soccer, so have the goals that have been scored. This week we saw plenty of good goals but only a select amount were above the rest.

The best goal for me was either Sainey Nyassi’s run against New York or Brad Davis’ strike against RSL.

(Note QuickKicks on the league site did not have the Columbus/Chicago goals)

Order of video: David Beckham, Edson Buddle, Brian Ching, Yura Movsisyan, Brad Davis, Dax McCarty, Jimmy Conrad, Sainey Nyassi, and John Wolyneic.

We had plenty of goals scored in week number 19 in Major League Soccer. A few PKs, own goals and a lot of nice one touch shots. The best in some folks eyes will probably be the midfield bomb by KC’s Claudio Lopez though. I would be shocked to see another goal pass that one up for goal of the week.

Here is the order of goals: Jacob Peterson, Mehdi Ballouchy, Ryan Johnson, Claudio Lopez, Ali Gerba, Jason Garey, Jeff Cunningham, and Yura Movsisyan.

One western club’s attack is about to lighter. Next January Real Salt Lake striker Yura Movsisyan is leaving Major League Soccer for Denmark according to Goal.com. Movsisyan has signed for Danish side Randers FC.

Movsisyan’s current MLS contract with RSL will be up after the 2009 season.

This loss will be a big one though I’ve said a few times this season that I haven’t felt good enough about Movsisyan as a go-to striker for RSL. He’s a big, strong guy that will probably do well in a league like Denmark. At least he is getting to test the waters before it is too late on his career.

What RSL will do to make up for his departure is unknown at this time. I honestly believe right now that if they even want to think about reaching the playoffs for a second straight season, they need to get a big time scorer on their roster. Right now with Movsisyan and Robbie Findley their attack just lacks a punch of some sort. Mainly Findley is too hot and cold at times and Movsisyan hasn’t proven he is a guy that can finish a lot of clean up around net.

What do you think of the move? Happy for Movsisyan? What will RSL do to make up for the loss?

I blame the holiday weekend for getting me off to a late start here this week. Plus throw in the fact that I am a homeowner now all the trips to Home Depot and places like that are easily killing off any spare second over the weekend. Oh well, no time to bitch and moan about that but time to get down to business once again this week.

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. Continue Reading…