Just when you think you’re starting to figure MLS out, a week like this sends you back to the drawing board.
Major League Soccer Week 29, Review: Still As Unpredictable As Ever
The Sounders and Lakers remain hot, while the Red Bulls and Galaxy miss opportunities to secure the top spots in the conferences.
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The Galaxy had a chance to lock up the Supporters’ Shield by winning at home against one of the worst road teams in the league: The Rapids, of course, scored three unanswered goals and won going away.
The Red Bulls could have clinched the top spot in the Eastern Conference by beating a team that started the day averaging less than a point per match: The Union, naturally, built a 2-0 win and held on for the victory.
Even the Earthquakes, who were not playing for much in terms of playoff positioning but were facing one of their rivals, couldn’t find a way to get a point at home against a team that had won just twice on the road all season.
The upshot to all this upheaval: a nine-match final week schedule that features seven matches that could affect the playoffs.
The Supporters' Shield and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference are still in play and none of the eight playoff spots are locked in. Two teams can still finish with the best record in MLS (Real Salt Lake and the Galaxy); two can finish atop the East (Columbus and New York); and three teams don't know if they'll be playing in the East or West (the Sounders, Earthquakes and Rapids). The closest team to knowing their playoff fate is FC Dallas, and they could finish anywhere from third to sixth in the overall standings.
The Bigger They Are...
That the top spots in the East and West are both still in play comes as a particular surprise and raises legitimate questions about the ability of either the Galaxy or Red Bulls to make the MLS Cup.
The New York Red Bulls, at least, could be forgiven for possibly overlooking the lowly Philadelphia Union. Coach Hans Backe opted to leave striker Thierry Henry off the 18-man gameday roster and were coming off a week in which news of Juan Pablo Angel's imminent departure was the big storyline.
The Union were ready to take advantage. They dominated early and scored two first-half goals. Although the Red Bulls seemed to get their act together in the second half, with Danleigh Borman scoring in the 48th minute, they were never able to pull even. Their best chance to do so came in stoppage time, but Philadelphia's Fred was able to clear a ball off the line to preserve the victory.
No such allowances can be made for the Los Angeles Galaxy, who were finally playing with their full compliment of players after getting center back Gregg Berhalter back from injury and seemed to be hitting their stride after a midseason lull.
After taking the early lead on Edson Buddle's MLS-leading 17th goal, they simply fell apart. For the first time in 16 such instances this season, the Galaxy scored first and failed to win. Buddle scored an own goal to equalize in the 18th minute. Conor Casey and Omar Cummings took over after that.
Casey finished a perfect cross from Cummings in the 30th minute to give the Rapids the lead. The Rapids would hit the frame two more times before Casey repaid the favor to Cummings by feeding his teammate on a breakaway. It was the fourth time in the past nine matches that both Casey and Cummings have scored in the same game and marked the fifth and sixth times they had linked up on a goal.
On both of their goals, they beat what is supposed to be one of the top center back pairings in the league: Berhalter and Omar Gonzalez. The Galaxy defense, in general, is also showing some chinks. After going the first 15 matches without allowing two goals in a game, this marked the sixth time in the past 14 they've allowed at least that many. Even more troubling, this is the fifth time in the past seven home matches the Galaxy have allowed at least two goals.
The Tortoise and the Hare
The Seattle Sounders and Real Salt Lake didn’t exactly start the season strong -- although the degree to which that is true is wildly different -- but are now two of the three best teams in the league since the World Cup break.
RSL had just four points through their first five matches; since then they’ve lost just once and claimed 70.8 percent of the available points. Facing one of only two teams playing better than them since the break, RSL had its way with FC Dallas, especially in the second half.
The Hoops managed to stunt the RSL attack in the first half by employing a 4-5-1, but the Lakers broke the deadlock on a Ned Grabavoy header. The goal highlights an area of concern for Dallas, who lost for the first time in 19 matches. Since Dario Sala took over for the injured Kevin Hartman in goal, the Hoops have just not been the same on defense. This was the third time in the last five matches that Dallas has allowed two goals, something that had occurred just two other times during that unbeaten streak: in the game that started the streak and in the game Hartman was hurt.
On the goal, Sala was never committed to the ball and Grabavoy was able to lollipop it over the keeper who was in no position to make the play.
The second goal was a less egregious mistake, but Sala was again caught in no man's land as Javier Morales was given plenty of space to score the insurance goal. Hartman should return soon, but how effective he'll be after missing more than a month with a knee injury is obviously anyone's guess.
The Sounders, while waiting much longer to turn it around than RSL, have also sprinted toward the finish line. Their victory over Chivas USA -- a game in which they didn't look particularly sharp but still managed to dominate -- gives them 33 points in their past 14 matches. It also ran their winning streak to five games, tied for the longest streak in MLS this season. A win on Saturday would tie them for the longest single-season streak in the post shootout era. (The longest winning streak without needing a shootout was eight games, a streak the Galaxy accomplished by winning the first eight matches in their history).
The highlight of the match, and the likely Goal of the Week winner considering the voting power of Sounders fans, was Steve Zakuani's first-half goal in which he dribbled through four defenders before beating goalkeeper Zach Thornton.
A win on Saturday against Houston combined with a Hoops loss at Los Angeles would give the Sounders the No. 3 seed in the West and the third most points in all of MLS, quite a climb for a team that was stuck on 15 points through 15 matches. The No. 3 seed would give them a shot playing the conference finals at Qwest Field, where they have gone 5-0-2 in their past seven matches.
Filling Out the Bracket
It's tough to know what, exactly, to make of the Columbus Crew and the San Jose Earthquakes. Neither teams' playoff aspirations have been much in doubt for the bulk of the season, but neither has looked especially strong since the All-Star Game.
The Crew have amassed the worst record of any playoff team since July 28, a Points Per Match mark of 1.083 that is better than only four teams since that time. Playing rival Toronto FC on Saturday, they salvaged a point, but still have not won any of their past six MLS matches.
Only time will tell whether they way they earned that point -- with goalkeeper William Hesmer scoring a stoppage time goal on a corner kick -- will prove to be the change in luck they've been looking for.
TFC, perhaps emboldened by their protesting fans, had the better of play in the first half and took a 2-1 lead. But the Crew seemed to turn it around after forward Steven Lenhart and TFC goalkeeper Jon Conway were both ejected for their roles in a melee that started in the 71st minute. Lenhart was probably responsible for starting the fracas when he crashed into Conway while going for a free ball near the box, but Conway escalated it when he tossed Lenhart to the ground.
The Quakes have not been nearly as bad, but that PPM of 1.539 since the All-Star Break is a tad misleading. During the same span, the Quakes have been outscored 11-10 and they've only won once by more than one goal since May 15. Chris Wondolowski has carried almost all of their scoring burden and when he's shut down, as he was against Houston, it is usually lights out for San Jose. The Quakes have won just twice all year when Wondo hasn't had a part in a goal and just once since the All-Star Game.
With a pair of wins in the final week, though, they could conceivably earn a first-round date with a Galaxy team they’ve outplayed this year.
In Other News
The Kansas City Wizards put up a valiant late run at the playoffs, but couldn't sustain that energy in the last month or so. The 1-0 loss to the New England Revolution was their fourth loss in five matches and was just the latest example of the Wizards' remarkable inability to turn shots into actual goals. The Wizards outshot the Revs 22-7 and yet never came all that close to scoring (although Teal Bunbury did hit the post on one occasion). For the season, the Wizards turned shots on goal into actual goals just 19.7 percent of the time. Assuming that doesn't improve much next week, it will be the third worst conversion rate since 2004 (they year my records go back to).
The only team that converts fewer of their shots on goal into goals is DC United, who are currently scoring just 14.9 percent of their shots on goal. That would be by far the worst mark since 2004.
Their essentially meaningless game against the Chicago Fire was given a slight boost of life because it was also Brian McBride's final home game. The American soccer pioneer went out on a rather mundane note as the Fire and United played to a scoreless draw. McBride nearly went out on a high note, but his header in first-half stoppage time was stopped by a diving Troy Perkins.
Player of the Week: Omar Cummings probably isn’t going to get a lot of attention for MVP, but his performance against the Galaxy was just the latest example of how important of a player he is. His pass to Conor Casey set up the go-ahead score, he later scored an insurance goal and he could have had at least one more but was robbed on a header by the post.
Goal of the Week: It's tempting to go with Steve Zakuani's undressing of the Chivas USA defense and it would be be too easy to pick Will Hesmer's "strike." I'm going with Maicon Santos' wundergol from about 35 yards out.
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