Week 6 predictions

May 3, 2008 by f4denz.

Revolution vs. Fire

New England’s roster is filled with walking wounded, and some not even walking (Twellman, Parkhurst, Albright, Ralston, Nyassi, and Larentowicz) and while some will play it really has been amazing that the Rev’s have won three of their six matches so far this season. The Fire are no joke, they have three wins in five matches and have only one loss on the season. If this match were on the road, I would pick the Fire without too much doubt, but in New England on a chilly, windy, and possibly rainy night I am going to be safe and call this one a 1-1 draw. Game Guide

Surprise vs. Surprise

I know that nobody would have thought that the Crew and KC would have been two of the top teams in MLS this season, but they are and the Crew have won four of their five matches, plus they have not lost in their 3 matches at home. The only injury on either side that might actually impact the match is the shoulder sprain that Will Hesmer is suffering. I can’t pick the Crew to lose this match at home (they were the first team I ever had season tickets for), and with Alejandro Moreno with four goals already, the Crew appear to be for real this season. 3-2 Crew to stay at the top of the East for another week. Game Guide

Champions Struggle

So just like the surprises in the East, the struggles of Chivas and Houston in the west is a huge surprise, the two teams have one win between them in ten matches. Houston is the only team in MLS without a win this season, but have 3 ties in their five matches and are only one point behind Chivas, and both teams have a -4 goal differential. Chivas looked good early in the year, but their defense has fallen apart and given up eleven goals in their last three matches, and the Dynamo have scored only five goals in their five matches (all the goals came in two of their draws). Something has to give and I have to believe that the Chivas defense will step up and Chivas will get a road win 2-1. Game Guide

Who will rebound?

Dallas lost their first match of the year last weekend (0-1 against the Revolution), and San Jose not only lost to NYRB last weekend, but lost a midweek LHUSOC match 4-0 against RSL. They lost more than the match on Wednesday, a horrible collision between Ryan Cochrane and Jay Ayres has both of them out of action. Dallas will rebound and pick up a win, they have too much offensive power to be stopped by the Earthquakes. FC Dallas 2- SJ 0. Game Guide

Sunday Showdown

Well DC United have struggled in recent years when they have to play in the mountains (either Wasatch or Rocky), and this weekend they make the trip to the “mile high” city. Both teams have six points in their first five matches, but both teams have shown they can score a lot of goals (9 for DC United, 8 for the Rapids), but both teams have also shown they tend to give up a lot of goals (7 for the Rapids, and 10 for DCU). The Rapids have lost two straight matches, and DC United is coming off their 4-1 thrashing of RSL, but this is a mountain match. I can’t pick the Rapids to win, they have looked two bad the last couple weeks, so I am going to pick a 2-2 draw on Sunday. Note: this match will be on Altitude as well as Telefutura, so you can watch it in English and hopefully with a better picture in some markets. Game Guide

From Santa to Beckham

So Wednesday night it looked like Santa had come to Salt Lake City, it was snowing and RSL got a 4-0 win against the San Jose Earthquakes in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup play-in match. Now comes team Beckham, with golden boot boy (still a princess to me) Landycakes with his 8 goals, but the other 10 players have only scored 3 goals in five matches. Then consider that LA has given up 11 goals in their five matches, and the only team not to score at least two goals on them was San Jose, who got shut out. RSL showed last week that they can give up goals in bunches as DC United put in 4, but they also have scored 4 in a match twice this year (4-0 against DC United, and 4-0 against San Jose in the Open Cup), so this one could be a goal fest. With Sturgis out, it looks like Talley will get the start in the midfield again, but I would expect that we might see Andy Williams early, since Talley is suffering from a minor knee injury. This will be a great battle of a team that loves to go up the sides (the Klein and Beckham side is fun to watch) and RSL got beat twice last week from such attacks, but when RSL attacks the ball in the midfield, they have shown that they can get goals from unlikely places Beckerman has two in league matches and scored two more on Wednesday. Will this be the match that Kenny Deuchar finally gets going offensively? Can Yura Movsisyan stay on his feet when he has the ball in the box? Which will be the dominant force the Galaxy offense or RSL’s defense? Come on I have to pick RSL to win at home in an exciting 3-2 match. Game Guide

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