April 25, 2008 by f4denz.

OK, it seems that I forgot a couple things in my preview from late last night. First here is the link to the official game guide.

Second here are the projected starting line ups:

I will be posting this week’s Jason vs. the 360 results later tonight; I hope to also be able to add in the video of the match. One thing is for sure that there should be nobody making excuses, about players being tired, about the surface being the RES turf, it should be two teams putting their best 11 on the pitch, and going for 3 points and their second win of the MLS season.

OFF MY SOAPBOX

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April 25, 2008 by f4denz.

Weekend Predictions

Wizards go to Canada

So the East leading Wizards head north of the border to face the red hot TFC, who have won two matches in a row and now have a 2-0-2 record and play the next couple games at the very friendly BMO field. As good as KC has been, this new look Toronto squad really looks impressive to me with all their new talent, including another player signed this week Olivier Tebily. Yet another international player, Tebily is a defender from the Ivory Coast and has EPL experience, the question is how are they getting away with 13 international players, have they really picked up 5 international spots in trades? However they are getting away with it, and however they are paying these players, they surely are a very improved roster with now 4 players with EPL experience. I wanted to pick this one as a 1-1 tie, but the more I think about how good Robert and Ricketts looked last week, I am going to say 2-1 for TFC as they get the first 3 game winning streak in their history.

Reversal of roles

So Columbus sit just 1 point out of first place, and Houston sit at the very bottom of the West with just 3 points and no wins in league play. It looks like Houston will go into battle one more time without Pat “ice ice” Onstad, but something more has been wrong with the Dynamo this season, they have scored only 5 goals so far this year and 3 of them came in a 3-3 draw with Dallas. Houston is on a 3 game tie streak, while the Crew are on a 2 game win streak (Chivas and DC United), one of the streaks have to end, and I think it will be Houston’s. I am picking the Crew to win at home 2-1.

Who will heat up this week?

So last week Chicago lost their first match of the season 0-1 against the Wizards, this week they face off against the Rapids, who lost to expansion San Jose last weekend 2-0. In defense of the Rapids they have been facing a lot of injuries to start the season, and this week they will be missing Connor Casey and Mike Petke. DeRaimondo, and LaBrocca may see action but are nursing injuries, and Chicago has Brown and Rolfe injured but available. This one will be a showcase for the Fire defense who have only allowed two goals so far this season, I think Chicago will score that many on Saturday and beat the Rapids 2-0.

SuperClasico 2008 version

The teams that share the Home Depot Center will face off Saturday evening in Carson, Chivas is coming off back to back loses to the Crew and Dallas, while the Galaxy got two goals from Landycakes to get a 2-2 draw against Houston. This is always a battle and I don’t see much changing, the Chivas defense has given up 6 goals in the last two weeks and the Galaxy have put up 2 each of the last three weeks. With both Razov and Kljestan both back from red card suspensions, I have to pick the Goats to win this one 2-1, but I would not be surprised with a 3-2 win or 2-2 draw, this should be fun as both teams have had some defensive struggles in recent weeks. The keepers may end up being the busiest players on the pitch Saturday night.

Opening day redux

Well this was supposed to be a rematch of the week 1 trip of the Red Bulls out to NoCal, but with stadium problems out west that match will be played in late July, so can the Earthquakes get another win? Or will the Red Bulls rebound after a 1-1 draw against a 10 man New England? Well this Sunday match should be entertaining as the attacking style that San Jose showed last week against the Rapids was enjoyable to watch and resulted in the rebirth of the Earthquakes get their first win in franchise history for a second time. But I think Jozy and Juan Pablo will have something to say about it and I think the Red Bulls will give the New York fans a 2-0 win to celebrate.

United seeking revenge

I am sure that DC United did not expect to be sitting at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings going into week 5; I also doubt that they expected to be out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup already, and I am sure they did not expect to be at minus 4 in goal differential at this point of the season. We all know that they did not expect to get beat 4-0 two weeks ago at RES, but all these things have happened, in fact the only thing to go right for DC this year is their 4-1 win over TFC in week 2. Their million dollar man Marcelo Gallardo has looked good but only 1 goal in 3 matches, and the fact the DC’s defense without Ben “my kid is a Beckham fan” Olsen is simply not as good as they have been in the past and the result is that the offense that often benefited from the rock solid defense has struggled and only scored 1 goal against teams other than Toronto. Real on the other hand got a sobering awakening last weekend at BMO field, in a 1-0 defeat that coach Jason Kreis took responsibility for this week, I expect that the attacking style we saw when these team met a couple weeks ago will be attempted again. If RSL can finish their scoring chances, this one will end up a 2-2 draw and DC will have to settle for only partial revenge.

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