Congrats to SKC

Congratulations to Sporting Kansas City for winning MLS Cup 2013 in a 10 round penalty shootout versus Real Salt Lake

Here is my final predictions update for the 2013 MLS Season

Playoff Predictions

Knockout Round

Colorado Rapids @ Seattle Sounders	SEA Win	Correct SEA Win 2-0
Montreal Impact @ Houston Dynamo	HOU Win	Correct HOU Win 3-0

Conference Semifinals (Home & Away)

Houston Dynamo vs New York Red Bulls	NY Win	Wrong HOU Win 4-3 on aggregate
New England Revolution vs Sporting Kansas City	SKC Win	Correct SKC Win 4-3 on aggregate
Seattle Sounders vs Portland Timbers	POR Win	Correct POR Win 5-3 on aggregate
LA Galaxy vs Real Salt Lake	LA Win	Wrong RSL Win 2-1 on aggregate

Conference Finals (Home & Away)

New York Red Bulls vs Sporting Kansas City	SKC Win	Correct SKC Win 2-1 on aggregate but played vs HOU
Portland Timbers vs LA Galaxy	POR Win	Wrong RSL Win 5-2 on aggregate

MLS Cup Final

Portland Timbers @ Sporting Kansas City

POR Win

Wrong SKC Win vs. RSL 1(7)-1(6) in penalties

 I went 5 for 9 or 55.55% in my pre-playoffs predictions for the 2013 MLS Playoffs.

The Week That Was - October 29th

Here are the updated standings:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3qPRqJFXHoRaVhYdm0yWUxoZ2c/edit?usp=drive_web

Toronto FC

We did our part but the necessary results did not fall our way to eliminate Montreal from the playoffs but what we did do was make them have to take the hardest path to MLS Cup and probably, with the poor form they showed against us, will not make it past the first round.

But on to what we did right.  Earnshaw made a goal-scorer’s deflection to put us up early in the game and we continued to push and could have scored 2 or 3 more if not for the framework and Troy Perkins.  Finally Bendik showed again why Stefan Frei has been able to get games making two incredible game saving stops in the 53^rd and 87^th minute.

But it could have been completely different if the referee had made the correct call in the Earnshaw skirmish where he hit a Montreal player in the face and should have received a red card for his actions.  This kind of officiating is one of the major roadblocks to the growth of MLS and the refs need to be called out on every bad call not just the ones that affect each supporters own team.  If we do not speak up nothing will be changed in the quality of officials in MLS.

The win was a good way to end the season but now is when the real work begins and we will see if something will finally change with this club and if this group of people in control does not change it I don’t see many people being around for when the group that does change it comes around.

Movers of the Week

The Western Conference kept the same order of the 5 playoffs teams after this weekend’s games.  But the Eastern Conference saw a lot of shake ups.  Chicago fell from 4^th to 6^th just outside of the playoffs, which New England took advantage of and jumped from 6^th to 3^rd. Houston followed suit and moved up from 5^th to 4^th as Montreal slipped from 3^rd to 5^th.  All of this movement will surely lead to some exciting playoff soccer.

Predictions

Last Week

Chivas USA @ Real Salt Lake	RSL Win	Correct RSL Win 2-1
Sporting Kansas City @ Philadelphia Union	SKC Win	Correct SKC Win 2-1
Montreal Impact @ Toronto FC	TFC Win	Correct TFC Win 1-0
FC Dallas @ San Jose Earthquakes	SJ Win	Correct SJ Win 2-1
Portland Timbers @ Chivas USA	POR Win	Correct POR Win 5-0
Houston Dynamo @ DC United	HOU Win	Correct HOU Win 2-1
New England Revolution @ Columbus Crew	NE Win	Correct NE Win 1-0
Chicago Fire @ New York Red Bulls	NY Win	Correct NY Win 5-2
Colorado Rapids @ Vancouver Whitecaps	VAN Win	Correct VAN Win 3-0
LA Galaxy @ Seattle Sounders	SEA Win	Wrong Draw 1-1

Last Week’s Prediction Record	9-1
All Time Record	67-62

For a 51.94% success rate in my predictions across the season since July 23^rd

Playoffs

Knockout Round

Colorado Rapids @ Seattle Sounders	SEA Win
Montreal Impact @ Houston Dynamo	HOU Win

Conference Semifinals (Home & Away)

Houston Dynamo vs New York Red Bulls	NY Win
New England Revolution vs Sporting Kansas City	SKC Win
Seattle Sounders vs Portland Timbers	POR Win
LA Galaxy vs Real Salt Lake	LA Win

Conference Finals (Home & Away)

New York Red Bulls vs Sporting Kansas City	SKC Win
Portland Timbers vs LA Galaxy	POR Win

MLS Cup Final

Portland Timbers @ Sporting Kansas City

POR Win

The Week That Was - Sept 10th

Here are the updated standings:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3qPRqJFXHoRVHh2UVBsWEFtbTg/edit

Toronto FC or as shown through events of this past week “Shitshow”

What a game.  The team was able to get a goal just as the first half was ending, and when their opponents came at them they were able to sustain the pressure and punish their attacking mentality by playing the counter attack and were able to score three more times.  Oh wait, that was Portland not Toronto.  Seriously though, Toronto FC did have a ten minutes stretch where they looked like they could get back into the game.  But it must be bad when we, the players, and the coach cling to that ten minutes and see it as some kind of growth.  This team is just bad. Alright the second goal which opened the flood gates was just a mistake by Agbossoumonde, but the next two occurred because of players being out of position after needing to cover for someone else.

But the game this weekend, for how bad it was, was the least of Toronto FC’s worries this past week.  Before the game, Kevin Payne Toronto FC President/General Manager left the club as seen here.  But after his release and the game this past weekend, his most hyped acquisition Maximilliano Urruti was traded to Portland along with an International Spot in exchange for 26 year old striker Bright Dike, not a fake name, a 2015 first round draft pick, and allocation money.  This one transaction is a microcosm for how Toronto FC has been run; each person in a position of power is pulling in their own direction while in the media they portray a united front on how they will collectively change the culture of Toronto FC.  How is it allowed by the organization to have people on completely different pages of the type of players to bring in?  It looks like the team is now Tim Leiweke’s to run, he wants to and probably will bring in two big Designated Players with the supposed $26 million that he has secured to use on these acquisitions. 

Movers of the Week

In the Western Conference Seattle, Colorado, and Portland all tied each getting 3 points closer to clinching a playoff spot.  While Vancouver had the biggest drop in the West this week, getting 6 points closer to elimination through a loss and 5^th place team points going up by 3.  Whereas in the Eastern Conference Montreal, New York, and Kansas City all got 6 points closer to clinching a playoff spot through a win and the highest max points of a non-playoff team dropping 3 points.  Coincidentally all teams in the Eastern Conference not in the playoffs all got 3 points closer to elimination all through losing their respective game. 

The under 20 club is getting filled up with almost everyone with the season coming to an end, so next week it will become the under 10 club. But for this week Chivas USA, Toronto FC, Columbus Crew, San Jose Earthquakes, Vancouver Whitecaps all are under 20 points till being eliminated. Former member, DC United, was eliminated from playoff contention this past weekend.

Predictions

Last Week

Houston Dynamo @ Columbus Crew	CLB Win	Correct CLB Win 2-0
Chivas USA @ Seattle Sounders	SEA Win	Correct SEA Win 1-0
Vancouver Whitecaps @ FC Dallas	FCD Win	Correct FCD Win 3-1
Columbus Crew @ Sporting Kansas City	SKC Win	Correct SKC Win 3-0
Chicago Fire @ Seattle Sounders	SEA Win	Correct SEA Win 2-1
Colorado Rapids @ LA Galaxy	LA Win	Wrong COL Win 1-0
Toronto FC @ Portland Timbers	POR Win	Correct POR Win 4-0
New York Red Bulls @ Houston Dynamo	Draw	Wrong NY Win 4-1
Montreal Impact @ New England Revolution	MTL Win	Correct MTL Win 4-2
DC United @ Chivas USA	CHV Win	Correct CHV Win 1-0
Philadelphia Union @ San Jose Earthquakes	PHI Win	Wrong SJ Win 1-0

Last Week’s Prediction Record	8-3
All Time Record	34-31

This Week

Chicago Fire @ Toronto FC	TFC Win
Real Salt Lake @ Seattle Sounders	SEA Win
Columbus Crew @ Montreal Impact	MTL Win
LA Galaxy @ DC United	LA Win
Toronto FC @ New York Red Bulls	NY Win
Houston Dynamo @ Philadelphia Union	Draw
New England Revolution @ Chicago Fire	Draw
FC Dallas @ Colorado Rapids	COL Win
Vancouver Whitecaps @ San Jose Earthquakes	SJ Win
Portland Timbers @ Chivas USA	POR Win

MLS All-Star Game

A preseason Italian Serie A team, in AS Roma, versus a collection of the supposed best players in Major League Soccer in midseason form played each other in the “MLS All-Star Game” last night at Sporting Park home of Sporting Kansas City in front of 21,175 people. The game finished AS Roma 3 – MLS All-Stars 1.

MLS props this game up as a way of furthering the leagues international exposure and allows their players to compete against the best teams in the world.  I see it as portraying our league, MLS, as an inferior product compared to soccer in Europe.  We would never see the English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A or any other major professional soccer league take a break in the middle of their season to have a foreign club come play their best players, albeit a club that is using it as a preseason game.

Don Garber, Commissioner of MLS, said that the “stated” goal of MLS is to be one of the best leagues in the world by 2022, if this is to be accomplished the MLS All-Star game, as it is now, needs to be scraped.  No one in the world of soccer will take the MLS seriously if it continues.  MLS needs to be able to grow by itself if will ever truly be one of the top leagues in the world.

If the All-Star game needs to continue the only way I can support it is to see the elimination of foreign clubs involvement and switching back to an East vs. West format, similar to other North American professional sports leagues.  The All-Star game could then be used to determine which Conference champion has home field advantage in the MLS Cup, similar to how the MLB uses its All-Star Game. This change would, in my opinion, bring actual relevance to the All-Star instead of being an overhyped friendly.

Oh yah, speaking of overhyped friendlies AS Roma’s next game is August 7^th vs. Toronto, if you can’t tell already I’m really excited.