I think Kevin Lindstrom and I have about as different of opinions ofthis game as is possilble to have. LA plays well and moves up to #1. Ok. Well, 2 weeks THEY couldn't finish and lost in New England. Will the real Galaxy please stand up? Jersey scores 5, but gives up 5, and they're approaching the top of the table, rank 2. San Jose scores 5, gives up 5, and 'couldn't hold off the Metros'. Ranked 7. Sure. That magic mantra of 'win at home, tie on the road', I guess. Fire scores 2, gives up 2 vs. City and they're 'showing signs of improvement', while City falls in the rankings for tying the Fire at home again. Magic mantra, again. Colorado, Kansas City, and San Jose tie, but it's the Rapids that are 'being held back' by injuries?
Or you could take rankings with a large grain of sodium and just have fun with it? edited for spelling
Media whores of the world unite: http://proxy.espn.go.com/et/corr/corrview?id=185&leagueCup=USA.1&cc=5901 Be gentle.
Hey - I don't mind the comments, but w/o detail, it is kind of hard to evaluate what you're saying. But we'll give it a go. Well, if you look at their overall season so far, you'd see that other than that one game, they have been able to get the result most of the time. Uh, yeah. If you don't believe in it, go back and check past years on who does better with that mantra. San Jose hasn't been able to win the games it needs to - lost to DC, tied the Fire, Metro, etc., etc., etc. Their only win was over New England, on the road - but they haven't been able to replicate that success on a consistent basis. That is trouble in this league. Metro has a similar problem, but they have found a way to scrape out some results. Hence, the difference. Oh, and funny that, it is reflected relative to the Mantra. Is or is not KC a good team? They are a good team. Chicago plays there, and gets a tie. That is a good thing for a road team to do. When you add that to their past games, you see that they are one of the top teams in the league. City has OVERCOME its injuries. The EQs aren't all that injured - their problem is more finding their rhythm. The Rapids, OTOH, have their top two forwards and their main central midfielder hurt again - and you don't think that matters?
At this point, outside of slotting Columbus as last you could have a decent argument with placing any club in any position. While I think he does overrate NY and especially Chicago, putting San Jose and Dallas in those spots would be just as susceptible to counter-arguments.
I'm curious - why do you think Metro and the Fire are overrated? Well, strike that - I can see the argument on Metro. We still don't have a good feel for the East just yet. But the Fire? Have you seen what they've done since the Burn smoked them like Cubans? OTOH, the Burn have struggled to beat Columbus and then lost their composure to the Gals. That being said - the main concern I have with the Burn is this - with a solid defense, the key is going to be finishing. Until we see them doing that on a more consistent basis, I think there are legit concerns.
Chicago has given up two goals to two teams (Dallas and KC) that have had trouble attacking so far in the year. They had a good win against NY, but I didn't feel their win over an increasingly poor looking DC was all that great and a draw against KC was a poor result for a top tier team, which is where you place them.
Didn't mean to sound as negative as I did. I was just expressing some general wonderment at how 2 people can look at the same events and drew some very different conclusions. Didn't mean to imply any kind of value judgement on his analysis. Just wanted to introduce a different way of looking at things.Anyway, Overall, I would agree with SoftTackle that los Metros aren't that good, mostly because of their defense. I guess we'll find out this weekend when they play Chicago again. I think San Jose is underrated. Their defense is depleted. Robinson, Dunivant, and Roner all saw some major minutes in their title run last year. Colorado is surely missing Spencer. I haven't seen Powell play enough to know what he brings to the table. I'm not sure Zizi is better than Pequero. KC may have compensated, but surely they're a much more dangerous team with Preki and the Russian than without.
I'd rank them like this: 1. LA 2. Mets/Chi 4. NE/KC/Dal 7. SJ/DC/Col 10. Cbus I think there is so much parity, distinctions become difficult - so I'm taking the easy out. My main differences with Kevin would come around NE and Col. NE has taken 5 in their last three matches (two on the road), where the Rapids have only taken 4 (with two at home). I'm still worried about SJ because I've got this nagging feeling that they have the players - just haven't found the form.
Good points - definitely worth considering. I think part of the difference is that I have a higher opinion of KC than you do, apparently. And I never undervalue winning on the road unless it is your only win. Stopper4 - no worries. And this early, surely there are going to be tons of value-judgments. I admit your post seemed a bit . . . antagonistic. Thanks for the clarification - and I apoligize if my response was a bit strong. br - I really struggled with the bottom half this week for that very reason. But while the Rapids have struggled to win, they also haven't lost at home. They didn't lose to the Revs, and they didn't lose to LA. New England's win came at home on a controversial pk - not as convincing as LA's win against us... And they lost to a San Jose team that still hasn't found its groove - and I agree, they are a powderkeg ready to fire. Thanks for the thoughts, folks! Sometimes it feels like I'm throwing those out in a vacuum - it is always good to kick the tires.
That is very true. And I owe the ECG a big old column on the 2004 Burn. I finally have my hook and hope to get it written this weekend. If I knew when the next ECG was coming out that might help so I could avoid putting in material that would be dated by time it is published.
The reason almost all magazine are features driven is because material is almost certain dated by the time it is read. Publication date is all but a secondary condition. I'm in layout now, so it better show up quick.