Random MLS Musings

My daughter had a surprise for me when I woke her up this morning. It came in the form of stink breath, crusty matted hair and last nights dinner on the bed. It was gross. This obviously has nothing to do with MLS and I have no natural segue. Just a story I thought I would share.

Ok, so let's talk MLS. Their are a few things in particular that caught my eye the past few weeks.

Playoffs: As I said before, the 2010 playoffs are going to be the best the league has ever seen. The two match-ups in the "East" are both quality and feature teams that play some exciting, up-tempo soccer. It will be interesting to see how recent form plays out in the Columbus-Colorado series as Columbus limps into the playoffs with only 1 win and 3 ties in their last 7 league games while Colorado will be trying to forget how they blew a 2-0 lead in the 90th minute against RSL last weekend. In the other series, San Jose will be looking for their first playoff win since the old franchise moved to Houston. I am never impressed when I look at their roster on paper, but the Quakes play really well together and have break out star Chris ("Wait, this guy scored 18 goals??") Wondoloski leading the charge. At the end of the day, we will find out if the quartet of Wondoloski-Convey-Geovanni-Opara can take down the vastly superior quartet of Henry-Angel-Marquez-Lindpere. I think this should be an exciting series.

While the series in the East are intriguing the two West series are loaded. In RSL-Dallas, you have the reigning MLS champs against a young, hungry team making their return to the playoffs. Both teams made it through the season with only 4 league losses, a truly rare feat (the only other time in league history where a team had 4 or less losses was SJ in 2005). I truly think that both teams should be considered the favorites to win the Cup. But then I think about the other series, LA-Seattle, and truly think they should be considered to win the Cup as well. LA has the star power - Donovan, Beckham, Buddle - and finished with the most points in the league this year. Seattle has gone 10-2-2 in their last 14 league games. It's hard for me to make a prediction in this one. On one hand, we owe LA. They thumped us 4-0 and 3-1 in our team meetings. We are too good of a team to let that happen again. but on the other hand, maybe we match up poorly against them. Maybe losing 4-0 and 3-1 is a sign that they are simply better than us. I don't really know.

Retirements: What has been apparent for most of the league continues to be true - the league is changing. The most recent evidence is the growing list of MLS veterans who are hanging up their shoes after the season. From what I can tell, the list is 6 people deep, each who has played a vital role in the league's history. Here's a few words about each:

• Brian McBride - An all-time US great, he was the 1st ever MLS draft pick out of St Louis University. He scored 62 goals in 161 games for Columbus before moving to Europe for 8 years. Upon his return he scored an additional 19 goals in 58 games for Chicago.
• CJ Brown - He was an original member of the 1998 expansion Chicago Fire who has played all 13 years with the club, appearing in league 286 games. Never flashy, but always solid and gritty, he will greatly be missed by the Fire.
• Eddie Lewis - Another all-time US great, Lewis spent 4 years in San Jose before moving to Europe for 8 years. After playing 115 games for the Quakes, he has now logged 48 games for the Galaxy in 3 years.
• Chris Klein - I still consider Klein to be the most underrated player of his generation (apparently the nicest, too). In 13 years, Klein has played 333 games for three different teams, scoring 49 goals. While never flashy, you would never find a more solid player in the league.
• Mike Petke - He was the heart and soul of those early MetroStars teams (a team I once supported). He has 307 league appearances in 13 years and remains to this day the most popular player in team history.
• Jaime Moreno - Thanks to his goal this past weekend, Moreno retires tied as the league all-time leading goal scorer, with 133 goals in 340 league games. I have no idea how he has done it over the years as I thought he was washed up in 2003 when he went bottoms up in 11 games for the MetroStars (since then he has 62 goals for DC United). A true pioneer, he has played a game in all 15 years of the leagues history and will be sorely missed.

Portland: I am not a fan of the Timbers and I suspect most of my readers are not either. That being said, it is important for Sounders fans to be aware of what is going on down in Portland. Last week, the club announced it's first four signings - Bright Dike, Ryan Pore, Steve Cronin, Eddie Johnson - and say to have two more on the way. Dike and Pore combined for 25 goals of the team's 29 goals in the USL last season. Pore is no stranger to MLS, having played parts of 4 seasons with KC, while Dike was a 2010 first round draft pick who was released by Columbus before the season even began. Both are interesting building blocks, but the jury is still out on whether they can contribute at the higher level. Johnson has previous experience in some of the lower leagues in England and recently played for the Austin Aztex. I don't know much about him, but a lot of pundits are saying his signing was a real coup, as he should be able to step in and contribute immediately. For Sounders fans though, the most important signing was Steve Cronin, as it may help the team decide to leave Kasey Keller unprotected in the expansion draft. If Cronin is truly the man in Portland, then Portland will have no use for Keller (besides to stick it to us) and seeing how Vancouver is all about developing young players, there is a great chance he would not get selected if left unprotected. This might be a good gamble to take as it would allow us to protect one of our younger players.

2011 Season Tickets: Apparently season ticket prices have been raised and no one is happy about it. I want to take some time to digest the situation as I don't have all the facts (and don't even know how much my tickets went up), so I won't be speaking publicly on the issue. One thing I want to say though, is that our situation is different from Toronto - we have a team that in two years has made the playoffs twice, won the US open Cup twice and played against Chelsea and Barcelona. No matter how much our tickets have gone up, we cannot be as angry as Toronto FC fans. It is one thing to pay more money to help a successful franchise continue to grow; it is an entirely different thing to pay more money to watch a floundering franchise continue to suck.


Ok, that's all I got -make sure to tune in to Sounders-Galaxy at 5pm on Sunday. Come on Sounders Score a Gooooooooal, Score a Goooooalll, Score a Gooooalllooooalll.