Major League Soccer Fan Blog

It was a wild weekend of soccer, especially in DC where there were 3 red cards and a game winning PK made, but then missed when the ref required a re-take of the kick.  DC United was not happy with the referee in this game.

Sporting KC and San Jose Earthquakes stay on top of their conferences.  DC United move past Montreal Impact for last playoff position in the East.

Seattle Sounders FC 2 - 0 Vancouver Whitecaps FC Fredy Montero Eddie Johnson

Toronto FC 0 - 1 Sporting Kansas City Kei Kamara 

Montreal Impact 3 - 1 San Jose Earthquakes Chris Wondolowski Marco Di Vaio Lamar Neagle Patrice Bernier

Chicago Fire 2 - 1 New England Revolution Chris Rolfe Fernando Cardenas Sherjill MacDonald 

Real Salt Lake 1 - 2 FC Dallas Fabian Castillo Alvaro Baborio David Ferreira

Colorado Rapids 1 - 1 Chivas USA Brian Mullan Juan Pablo Angel 

DC United 1 - 1 Philadelphia Union Brian Carroll Amobi Okugo (OG) 

NY Red Bulls 3 - 2 Portland Timbers Bright Dike Darlington Nagbe Kenny Cooper Tim Cahill Heath Pearce

It sure was exciting watching the MatchCenter play by play scroll by.

Thanks so much to DISH Network for not having GOL TV.  What I want to know is was this game available to Direct Kick subscribers?  If yes, I'm going to ditch DISH and order Direct Kick on the Roku.

So Sporting KC finally put an end to the Seattle Sounders dominating reign on the US Open Cup.  Here is an instant reply of the end of the game, how exciting it was to see this live!

If the Portland Timbers continue at their current pace they will finish the season with a perfect record.  They will also likely break season scoring records, but they'll be tied with Real Salt Lake in both departments.

What a season this is going to be!  The West looks to likely be dominant over the East again.  Six West teams got W's and the defending MLS Cup Champions aren't even in the win column yet.  Only KC and Houston, last year's Eastern Conference championship game participants, got victories.  The Sounders, who should be one of the strongest teams in the league, have not had a regular season game yet.

Watching MLS on TV got a whole lot better this year with the addition of NBC Sports picking up a bunch of games!

In honor of NBC Sports showing games, I'd like to start a little friendly prediction competition.  Predict the outcome (win, lose, or draw) of each game on the NBC Sports TV schedule.  Post it to Twitter with #MLSPredictions.  I'll start:

The MLS SuperDraft is happening live on ESPN2 right now.  I went home to get some food and watched a little bit.  The Sporting KC fans are rocking it!  They are louder than most basketball crowds ever get!

I'm not sure if this was supposed to really be a question or what.

vs

Well well, who expected the Houston Dynamo to make it to MLS Cup 2011? 

Without Brad Davis?

If you answered yes to the first question, you are probably a Dynamo fan.  If you answered yes to the second question, I call BS.

Plenty expected the Galaxy to be here.

So who is going to win it?  I guess I have to go with the Galaxy.  They've got a few things going for them:

They are playing at home

Brad Davis is hurt

They've already lost 4 MLS Cups.  Certainly they don't want to lose another.

Real Salt Lake vs LA Galaxy The Home Depot Center, Carson Sun, Nov 6, 9 pm ET/6 pm PT

Real Salt Lake survive a close one in Seattle after thumping the Sounders 3-0 in Salt Lake.  The Galaxy took care of NY 3-1 and their fans developed a special place in their hearts for NY forward Luke Rodgers for this:

Houston Dynamo vs Sporting KC Livestrong Sporting Park, Kansas City Sun, Nov 6, 5:30 pm ET/4:30 pm CT

Meanwhile in the much weaker Eastern conference, Sporting KC cruised to a 4-0 victory over the reserve squad of the defending champion Colorado Rapids (they had a lot of injuries).  Houston Dynamo played against an un-inspiring Philadelphia Union team that seemed just fine to be down by 2 goals at the end of their second leg.  These teams finished 9th and 12th in the league last year, neither of which was good enough to make the playoffs.

Predictions

Sporting KC look too damn good to be stopped by the Dynamo, especially at home.  

Real Salt Lake are up and down.  They were horrible at the end of the regular season but then put a thumping on Seattle before going to get dominated in Seattle.  The Galaxy should be consistently really good, but probably not great.  If RSL play a great game, they can beat LA.  I think Donovan and company will do exactly what they need to do to get back to the MLS Cup.

The first legs of the round of 8 are over. RSL was very impressive in getting a 3-0 win over SSFC.  The result may have been a surprise to a good number of people, but the score was a surprise to most all non-RSL fans.  It will be very hard to Seattle to overcome 3 goals.  I expect RSL to advance. Sporting KC won 2-0 on the road over Colorado.  Due to the crazy number of injuries the Rapids have taken, their reserve squad will have to travel to KC on Thursday.  Sporting KC should advance pretty easily. Houston got a 2-1 victory on the road, so this serious could go anywhere now.  Philly has the potential to get a road win and end Houston's season.  I don't expect it to happen though.  Houston advances after a draw in Houston. LA went to NY and got a 1-0 win.  I didn't see this whole game but from the looks of it the most exciting part of the game was right after the final whistle.  Rafa Marquez decides to throw the ball at Landon Donovan after the game which ends in a red card for himself and one for Juninho.

"Marquez fell down, maybe a fly went into his eye"

 @ 

Columbus Crew @ Colorado Rapids

So Kasey Keller is retiring after this season :( He is one of the greatest keepers we've ever seen, there is no doubt about that.  But instead of showing of his complete awesome-ness in goal, I wanted to find a video of a goal he gave up to Mexico sometime in the 90's.  I remember seeing the goal on TV when it happened, but I don't remember exactly what year or competition it was in. It was probably a back pass to Keller that was being chased by Luis Hernandez.  Keller smacked the ball directly into the oncoming Mexican striker's head which went straight into the goal. I searched a little bit for the video but maybe my memory is not working right.  I know it was USA vs. Mexico, I'm pretty sure it was Keller, and it might not have been Hernandez.  But anyway.... In the 1998 Gold Cup semi-final the US beat Brazil 1-0.  According to Wikipedia, Brazilian legend Romario said “That is the best performance by a goalkeeper I have ever seen” about Keller's game in that shutout.  Keller was the MVP of that tournament even though the US went on to lose to Mexico in the final.  A song was written about Keller's performance in that game.  So that is what you are left with here because I couldn't find the goofy goal he gave up sometime in the 90's. Kasey Keller by Barcelona: