Dan Loney
18 Aug 2006, 01:55 PM
Four game unbeaten streak, three game winning streak, new stadium - these have to be the best days in the long and glorious history of the Royals. Sure, "Cleats" Wilson handed Salt Lake the first win, but they earned the other two. They picked the right time to get hot, because the schedule starts being cruel at this point. A Saturday game after a Wednesday road game just sets the table. Next week, a Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday set, the last two effectively being must-win games against Colorado and Los Angeles. At least they'll be at home.
Can they catch either of Colorado or Chivas? Both the Rapids and the Goats are pretty mediocre. The Rapids are playing horrible ball as of late - two straight 4-1 losses followed by a drab home win against the Galaxy. Fernando Clavijo's contract extension seems as warranted as Pia Zadora's Golden Globe. Nico Hernandez is leading the Rapids with six goals and four assists, which is a mere seven goals and three assists fewer than Jeff Cunningham.
(I'm pretty sure I owe Cunningham an apology - I thought the Jeff-for-Mathis trade would hurt both teams. Well, I was half right.)
Chivas USA is...well, maybe I'm reading too much into this. But they're playing in front of 90,000 Chivas de Guadalajara and Barcelona fans, none of whom have any real reason to sympathize with New England. And they settle for the tie. Sure, when Jesse Marsch is your scoring machine, your options are pretty limited. And a series of limp draws and opportune wins will get them into the playoffs, probably. Seeing as how they recently went to Pizza The Hutt Park and put hurting on the Hoopy Toros, they'd probably even prefer the fourth seed to the third seed. And yeah, Bob Bradley won a championship back in 1998 with that kind of intelligent strategy. Still, the 1998 Fire easily clinched a playoff spot, and Chivas USA hasn't.
But the bottom line is, Chivas USA is afraid to throw themselves forward, and Real Salt Lake isn't. That tells me the better team right now is in Utah.
Oh, yeah, the Galaxy. Well, if they don't win on Sunday, there's really no point in talking about them (outside of the "Who takes the fall?" and "Holy crap, are they really going to get David Effin' Beckham on a YOU SUCK ALLOCATION?!" discussions).
Can they catch either of Colorado or Chivas? Both the Rapids and the Goats are pretty mediocre. The Rapids are playing horrible ball as of late - two straight 4-1 losses followed by a drab home win against the Galaxy. Fernando Clavijo's contract extension seems as warranted as Pia Zadora's Golden Globe. Nico Hernandez is leading the Rapids with six goals and four assists, which is a mere seven goals and three assists fewer than Jeff Cunningham.
(I'm pretty sure I owe Cunningham an apology - I thought the Jeff-for-Mathis trade would hurt both teams. Well, I was half right.)
Chivas USA is...well, maybe I'm reading too much into this. But they're playing in front of 90,000 Chivas de Guadalajara and Barcelona fans, none of whom have any real reason to sympathize with New England. And they settle for the tie. Sure, when Jesse Marsch is your scoring machine, your options are pretty limited. And a series of limp draws and opportune wins will get them into the playoffs, probably. Seeing as how they recently went to Pizza The Hutt Park and put hurting on the Hoopy Toros, they'd probably even prefer the fourth seed to the third seed. And yeah, Bob Bradley won a championship back in 1998 with that kind of intelligent strategy. Still, the 1998 Fire easily clinched a playoff spot, and Chivas USA hasn't.
But the bottom line is, Chivas USA is afraid to throw themselves forward, and Real Salt Lake isn't. That tells me the better team right now is in Utah.
Oh, yeah, the Galaxy. Well, if they don't win on Sunday, there's really no point in talking about them (outside of the "Who takes the fall?" and "Holy crap, are they really going to get David Effin' Beckham on a YOU SUCK ALLOCATION?!" discussions).