There are 8 league matches this week and the first legs of the CCL quarterfinals. The Galaxy, Columbus, and DC United get league byes this week. San Jose, Colorado, and Toronto play their first league games. Tuesday, March 11 CCL: San Jose v. Toluca 9:00 pm FS2/UDN Wednesday, March 12 CCL: Kansas City v. Cruz Azul 7:00 pm FS2/UDN CCL: LA Galaxy v. Tijuana 9:00 pm FS+/Galavision (FS2 on tape-delay) Saturday, March 15 Philadelphia v. New England 3:00 pm UDN New York v. Colorado 3:00 pm Seattle v. Toronto 3:30 pm NBCSN Kansas City v. Dallas 7:30 pm Houston v. Montreal 7:30 pm CSN-H San Jose v. Salt Lake 9:30 pm Sunday, March 16 Portland v. Chicago 2:00 pm UniMas Chivas USA v. Vancouver 6:00 pm 4 conference games this week. The only game matching winning teams from the first week is CHV-VAN.
out of curiosity, is the 3-teams-a-week-getting-byes look to be normal or does it drop down to 1-team-byes soon?
The first two weeks originally had 9 games but San Jose and then LA postponed their games to help with CCL congestion. We may see more of that if MLS teams advance. The scheduled games in the weeks between now and the World Cup break: Week 3 - 9 league games 4- 9 games 5 - 9 games 6 - 9 games 7 - 10 games 8 - 9 games 9 - 9 games 10 - 12 games 11 - 10 games 12 - 11 games 13 - 11 games 14 - 11 games 15 - 2 games
My rooting interests this week: CCL games Red Devils over Quakes, I guess Cementeros over Sporks, easy Xolos over Gals, almost as easy League Revs over Union, meh Rapids over Red Bulls, do it! TFC over Sounders, this may change as the season goes on but for now I'll stick with tradition SKC-FCD, blech Quakes over Royals, not happy about it but that's where I am Timbers over Fire, I guess Baby Goats over 'Caps, 1st place!!!
we're geographically closer to most liga MX teams than we are to Seattle/SJ/SKC/LA, right? or is it close?
Here are the air mileages for the CCL teams: Houston to Kansas City, KS - 650 miles Mexico City, MEX - 752 miles Toluca, MEX - 773 miles Tijuana, MEX - 1,294 miles Carson, CA - 1,373 miles San Jose, CA - 1,610 miles
assuming air travel: Rayados, Tigres & Santos are all closer to Houston than Sporting KC. All other teams with the exception of Chiapas & Xolos are approximately 800 miles away. Only Xolos is over 1,000 miles away. conclusion: let's petition FIFA to leave MLS and join La Liga MX.
The Sporting KC vs. Cruz Azul match will almost certainly find its way to my television viewing agenda tomorrow night.
Replacement Referees for week 2: Seattle Sounders vs. Toronto FC CenturyLink Field (4:30pm ET) REFEREE: IOANNIS STRAVRIDES AR1: Kyle Longville AR2: Andrew Bigelow 4TH: Bernard Hosu Philadelphia Union vs. New England Revolution PPL Park (4:00pm ET) REFEREE: KEVIN MORRISON AR1: Randy Cook AR2: Jose Da Silva 4TH: Bruno Mozzo New York Red Bulls vs. Colorado Rapids Red Bull Arena (4:00pm ET) REFEREE: ALAN KELLY AR1: Caleb Mendez AR2: Dimitar Chavdarov 4TH: Marc Lawrence Houston Dynamo vs. Montreal Impact BBVA Compass Stadium (8:30pm ET) REFEREE: YADER REYES AR1: Stefan McHardy AR2: Luis Guardia 4TH: John DeArmond San Jose Earthquakes vs. Real Salt Lake Buck Shaw Stadium (10:30pm ET) REFEREE: JORGE LUNA HERNANDEZ AR1: Eugene Mednikov AR2: Pedro Trejo 4TH: Miguel Panduro Sporting Kansas City vs. FC Dallas Sporting Park (8:30pm ET) REFEREE: ABBY OKULAJA AR1: Eric Weisbrod AR2: Nikola Aleksic 4TH: Leszak Stalmach 03/16/2014 Portland Timbers vs. Chicago Fire Providence Park (3:00pm ET) REFEREE: MARCOS DE OLIVEIRA AR1: Isreal Fernandez AR2: Brandon Major 4TH: Bernard Hosu Chivas USA vs. Vancouver Whitecaps StubHub Center (7:00pm ET) REFEREE: RAMON HERNANDEZ AR1: Nestor Chavez AR2: Matthew Miscannon 4TH: Pedro Trejo
I'm correcting a mistake I made on the TV coverage. Saturday, March 15 Philadelphia v. New England 3:00 pm New York v. Colorado 3:00 pm UDN Seattle v. Toronto 3:30 pm NBCSN Kansas City v. Dallas 7:30 pm Houston v. Montreal 7:30 pm CSN-H San Jose v. Salt Lake 9:30 pm Sunday, March 16 Portland v. Chicago 2:00 pm UniMas Chivas USA v. Vancouver 6:00 pm
Saturday results: Saturday, March 15 Philadelphia 1-0 New England New York 1-1 Colorado Seattle 1-2 Toronto Kansas City 1-1 Dallas Houston 1-0 Montreal San Jose 3-3 Salt Lake Sunday, March 16 Portland v. Chicago 2:00 pm UniMas Chivas USA v. Vancouver 6:00 pm East 1. HOU 2 g.p. 6 pts 2 w. +5 g.d. 2. PHI 2 g.p. 4 pts 1 w. +1 g.d. 3. CLB 1 g.p. 3 pts 1 w. +3 g.d. 4. TFC 1 g.p. 3 pts 1 w. +1 g.d. 5. SKC 2 g.p. 1 pts 0 w. -1 g.d. -------------------------- 6. NYR 2 g.p. 1 pts 0 w. -3 g.d. 7. CHI 1 g.p. 0 pts 0 w. -1 g.d. 8. MON 2 g.p. 0 pts 0 w. -2 g.d. 9. DCU 1 g.p. 0 pts 0 w. -3 g.d. 10. NER 2 g.p. 0 pts 0 w. -5 g.d. West 1. RSL 2 g.p. 4 pts 1 w. +1 g.d. 2. FCD 2 g.p. 4 pts 1 w. +1 g.d. 3. VAN 1 g.p. 3 pts 1 w. +3 g.d. 4. CHV 1 g.p. 3 pts 1 w. +1 g.d. 5. SEA 2 g.p. 3 pts 1 w. +0 g.d. ------------------------- 6. COR 1 g.p. 1 pts 0 w. +0 g.d. 7. POR 1 g.p. 1 pts 0 w. +0 g.d. 8. SJE 1 g.p. 1 pts 0 w. +0 g.d. 9. LAG 1 g.p. 0 pts 0 w. -1 g.d.
I've always wanted that. Did you see the story about how Dallas should get a Liga MX team to play at the Cotton Bowl? Most of their points are valid reasons for the Dynamo to join Liga MX. I can't find the link to the story, but part of the idea was that the Cotton Bowl is a good soccer stadium and Dallas has a lot of Liga MX fans that would fill it. Probably, however, not to watch the home team.... Also they thought a Dallas/FC Dallas "superclásico" would be fun. Though probably not so much for FCD....
Watching Fire/Timbers and we got a good result there considering Chicago was leading. The field in Portland looked ridiculously slow! The little rubber junk was flying up even when the ball was just rolling quickly. And some of the players looked like they were running in mud. What's up with that field?
Week 2 is complete: Saturday, March 15 Philadelphia 1-0 New England New York 1-1 Colorado Seattle 1-2 Toronto Kansas City 1-1 Dallas Houston 1-0 Montreal San Jose 3-3 Salt Lake Sunday, March 16 Portland 1-1 Chicago Chivas USA 1-1 Vancouver East 1. HOU 2 g.p. 6 pts 2 w. +5 g.d. 2. PHI 2 g.p. 4 pts 1 w. +1 g.d. 3. CLB 1 g.p. 3 pts 1 w. +3 g.d. 4. TFC 1 g.p. 3 pts 1 w. +1 g.d. 5. CHI 2 g.p. 1 pts 0 w. -1 g.d. 3 g. -------------------------- 6. SKC 2 g.p. 1 pts 0 w. -1 g.d. 1 g. 7. NYR 2 g.p. 1 pts 0 w. -3 g.d. 8. MON 2 g.p. 0 pts 0 w. -2 g.d. 9. DCU 1 g.p. 0 pts 0 w. -3 g.d. 10. NER 2 g.p. 0 pts 0 w. -5 g.d. West 1. VAN 2 g.p. 4 pts 1 w. +3 g.d. 2. RSL 2 g.p. 4 pts 1 w. +1 g.d. 4 g. +1 r.g.d 3. FCD 2 g.p. 4 pts 1 w. +1 g.d. 4 g. +0 r.g.d 1 r.g 4. CHV 2 g.p. 4 pts 1 w. +1 g.d. 4 g. +0 r.g.d 0 r.g. 5. SEA 2 g.p. 3 pts 1 w. +0 g.d. ------------------------- 6. POR 2 g.p. 2 pts 0 w. +0 g.d. 7. SJE 1 g.p. 1 pts 0 w. +0 g.d. 3 g. 8. COR 1 g.p. 1 pts 0 w. +0 g.d. 1 g. 9. LAG 1 g.p. 0 pts 0 w. -1 g.d. MLSsoccer.com has FCD ahead of RSL. That may be because of Disciplinary Points but those have not been updated so I'm sticking with Road Goal Differential.
Teams in bold are the ones who made the playoffs the previous year. The season is still early but 4 teams from last year's playoffs are not in top 5 for now.
Which tells me that it will probably be a battle this year. I still see NY and SKC making it in which leaves all of these teams fighting for it in my book: 1.Houston 2.SKC 3.NY 4.TOR 5.CLB 6.PHI 7.CHI Who's the two odd outs? Probably Chicago and ???? The other six look to be pretty good early on.
Supporters' Shield standings by PPG: 1. HOU 3.00 -------------- 2. CLB 3.00 3. TFC 3.00 4. VAN 2.00 5. CHV 2.00 6. FCD 2.00 7. RSL 2.00 8. PHI 2.00 9. SEA 1.50 10. POR 1.00 11. SJE 1.00 12. COR 1.00 13. CHI 0.50 14. SKC 0.50 15. NYR 0.50 16. LAG 0.00 17. MON 0.00 18. DCU 0.00 19. NER 0.00
Not that I'm keeping track or anything but.... Regular Season Points since 2006, updated through March 16, 2014: 1. HOU 389 2. LAG 387 3. RSL 371 4. CLB 369 5. SKC 365 6. CHI 364 7. FCD 360 8. NYR 356