News and Blog update
April 21, 2008 by f4denz.
Some Blogs
MLS Weekend: Shots on Goal USSoccerPlayers.com wrap up of week 4 in the MLS
“Four games in and it’s San Jose showing they could be more than gimme points at the bottom of the Western Conference. ”
Week 4 MLS Power Rankings SoccerbyIves.com
“And then there was one.
FC Dallas is the lone remaining unbeaten team in Major League Soccer as we look past week four of the 2008 season. Chicago was knocked from the unbeaten ranks by Kansas City, which regained the top spot in the newest power rankings after traveling to Toyota Park and posting a shutout.”
The Good, the Bad, and the Coyote Ugly blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider
Weekly review of MLS action by Steven Goff soccer reporter for the Washington Post
Some News
US Men’s Olympic Draw in Group B ussoccer.com
The U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team has been drawn into Group B of the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament along with Japan, the Netherlands and Nigeria, and will based in Tianjin for its first two games before moving to the Olympic host city of Beijing to round out the first stage.
Real’s road woes continue in loss to Toronto Deseret News
Real Salt Lake psyched itself out of three potential away points Saturday afternoon north of the border.
Fully expecting Toronto FC to come out aggressively in its home opener at sold-out BMO Field, RSL’s coaching staff approached the game conservatively to weather the storm. It turned out to be totally unnecessary.
Robert’s bullet carries TFC past Salt Lake Toronto Star
Half an hour into yesterday’s game against Real Salt Lake, Amado Guevara ran a quick give-and-go with Danny Dichio and took a hard foul 20 yards from the Salt Lake goal. Fans at BMO Field rose from their seats, anticipating a booming free kick from Laurent Robert, who was already crafting a plan.
Toronto FC fans have reason to hope Toronto Star
The atmosphere, the colour, the sense of anticipation at yesterday’s Toronto FC home opener matched the team’s local debut a year ago. But the similarities ended there.
This is an entirely new sort of Toronto FC. Personnel changes are one thing. Flipping the club’s attitude on its head is entirely another.
RSL goes scoreless in Canada SL Trib
By the time Real Salt Lake made the adjustment, it was too late.
Laurent Robert’s low free kick through the wall in the 31st minute gave Toronto FC a 1-0 victory in its Major League Soccer home opener before a sellout crowd of 20,219 at BMO Field.
Week 4 Review
April 21, 2008 by f4denz.
Expectations met and missed in week 4
So let’s review, who expected that Houston defending two time MLS champions would be the only team in MLS without a win in the first four weeks? Who would have expected that Dallas would be the only team without a defeat, and that every team but them would have at least one loss within the first four weeks of league play? Would you have picked KC and Columbus as the top two teams in the East after week 4? Who would have expected that New England would have had to finish two of their first five matches with only 10 men on the pitch? Who would have picked that expansion team San Jose would pick up their first win in their third match of the season and on the road? Who would have guessed that at the end of week four that DC United would be in last place in the East with only 3 points. So many expectations at the beginning of the season, and in week four so many teams would already have missed their expectations and that a few teams (Toronto, Columbus, Dallas, and San Jose) would have probably exceeded their early season expectations.
RSL fail to live up to week 3
Let’s face it, many of us were expecting better on Saturday morning as RSL faced off with Toronto at BMO field, a draw or a win seemed like a given after RSL stepped up in week 3 against DC United and appeared to have solved their finishing woes. But this is not the same TFC as last year, some great pickups from around the globe have TFC looking a whole lot better in week four than they did in week two when DC United dropped them 4-1. It sure was not the same RSL squad that we saw at home against that same DC United, the looked flat in the first half (I think the worst 45 minutes they have played this year), and even when they stepped up the attack in the second half, they could not finish their chances and gave Toronto all 3 points as they picked up their second win in a row.
Revolution play better with 10 men
So one would expect that the 1-0 lead that the Red Bulls took into the second half of the match against New England looked great when Castro was given a red card in the 46th minute and the Revolution went down to 10 men. Looks can be deceiving in MLS and the Red Bulls could not control the second half and allowed the Revolution to continue to attack and to be honest the Rev’s looked a lot better with 10 men than they had with a full squad. Only 10 minutes after going a man down New England tied the match at 1-1 and that is how it would end. The Red Bulls did lose Angel to injury in the first half, but they simply could not figure out how to take advantage of their man advantage, surely their expectation would have been to capture all 3 points at home. Another case of expectations missed.
Rapids fail to live up to their hype
So the early season surprise in the West has to be the Colorado Rapids, who were 2-1-0 going into what should have been an expected win at home against expansion team San Jose, but again expectation missed. Colorado has a bunch of players who had not seen a lot of MLS action before this season, most of them were the stars of last years reserve squad who were given chances due to a rash of preseason and early season injuries, all of whom have to be considered to have exceeded expectations in the first three weeks of the season. San Jose on the other hand has looked much better than expansion teams of the past few years, playing well against LA in their season opener despite losing 2-0, and continued to perform well against Chicago in a 1-0 loss. Unlike last years expansion side TFC who holds the record for longest time without a goal, San Jose put in two as they played at the Dick’s and looked to be a far superior side as Colorado looked very human in week four and could not score a goal. San Jose wins their first match in franchise history (for a second time) 2-0 over the Rapids.
Dynamo still without a victory
Saturday’s surprised wrapped up with a late match from the Home Depot Center, a place where the Dynamo have done very well since their move to Houston, but again expectations are not always met. Houston looked to be the better side and controlled the match better than their overpaid counterparts, and at the half Houston had a 1-0 lead on a goal from Brad Davis (his 19th goal in his MLS career). But superstars finally lived up to expectations, well kinda, a pair of goals by Landon “princess” Donavan, and both with assists from Golden Balls himself. I expect that the second goal will be the winner in this weeks “goal of the week” contest. It wasn’t enough to get a win, but it was enough to keep Houston from getting their first win of the season. End result a 2-2 draw that neither team had to expect.
Fire vs. Wizards
Well I have to be honest I missed my expectations of being able to catch all the matches this weekend; I simply forgot this one as I was out running errands. I know the result was 1-0 with the Wizards taking over sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference, surely more than meeting their expectations.
Dallas tops the West
Despite the match being fairly evenly played, Chivas could not finish their scoring chances and Dallas was able to including goals from Cooper (5th minute) and Thompson (80th minute). I did not expect much from Chivas this week, after a rough road loss to Columbus last weekend; they were missing two key pieces in Sasha Kljestan, and Francisco Mendoza. Dallas on the other hand looked good last week as they beat the Red Bulls, and this week’s victory on the road has to surpass their expectations.
OFF MY SOAPBOX