Sry, few details this week, too busy, too full of steak and booze. Good luck. THU Los Angeles vs. New York 1.75 l 3.40 l 4.25 It's 1-1 right now, but I would have taken NY to win outright...if for no other reason than that ridiculous number. NY@4.25 SAT Toronto vs. New England 3.40 l 3.25 l 2.20 odds NE, too many guns for short TOR to handle. NE@2.2 DC United vs. Columbus 1.44 l 4.33 l 8.50 odds DC at home is all you need to know DC@1.44 Dallas vs. Kansas City 2.00 l 3.50 l 4.00 odds I'm going down swinging. Flippin' Wizards have no business being in a game to just make the playoffs. Disgusting. KC@4.0 Colorado vs. Salt Lake 1.85 l 3.50 l 5.00 odds RSL away is a nightmare. COL@1.85 Chivas vs. Houston 2.00 l 3.40 l 4.50 odds Chivas has no Razov and has looked more than vulnerable the last 2 outings. HOU is flying. HOU@4.5 SUN Chicago vs. Los Angeles 2.05 l 3.40 l 4.05 LA playing on short rest. CHI has been good at home since Blanco. CHI@2.05
Postscript: LA continued their improbale run against NY - it happens. On review of past seasons and this one it seems there might be a way to isolate and identify at a much higher level opportunities to capitalize on the abundant draws in the early and late seasons. My tact to date has been to ignore the possibility and take the hits, as that has been the mathematically superior thing to do. The lesser of two evils, etc. They seem to be too common to have that be the best way. More later. TOR should not have earned a tie, NE tanked this one. You wonder if either NE or NY will deserve to be in the East Final. CLB was playing for pride and some measure of retrobution. I didn't think that would be enough. Turns out with Emilio and Moreno picking up injuries, it was. KC was always going to beat Dallas that day. KC was dominant from the opening whistle. 2-0 was a kind scoreline. The only thing you can say for Dallas is they had nothing riding on it. Professionals will hustle, but in meaningless games they will always be less inclined to die for the 40/60 ball the way that might happen in meaningful games. That played out here, even though KC was better on the day. KC has also shown game maturity; guadually going form all out attack with distain for defensive runs to a more subtle and controlled version of the same thing. They have improved in every area over the last month. RSL sending Eddie Pope into retirement with the Rocky Mountain Cup. Good for them. RSL also has been worlds better since moving Klein to LA - a win/win trade for both teams. The addition of some veteran leadership and a quality SI could find them in the playoffs next year. COL, by contrast needs to fire their abysmal coach and start fresh from there. With LA tanking and a new stadium there was absolutely no excuse for missing the dance this time around. Pitiful. No, I'm not bitter about COL being my bogey betting team all summer...OK, maybe a little, but they still underacheived. Chivas earns a scoreless draw. I thought HOU would be good enough at home, no dice. This is easy to see in hindsight as quality forwards were out and these are the best two defenses and goalkeepers in MLS. 0-0 draws suck. Nobody wins. Fans deserve some sort of decision...pks, shootouts, something. Purist balk and I get their view. End of the day this is entertainment and that's it. Nothing entertaining about a 0-0 draw that can't be had in a good bar/restauraunt. Fire wasted 21 shots before finally getting the chip to bury LA. LA gets that same chip late going the other way and the conspiracy theorists would still be chirping about the two non-calls in the box against CHI. CHI is now unbeaten in 9. Wow. LA with a humane schedule and Becks all season should find themselves in the playoffs again. Too many holes to be a title contender, they should find a way to get Jones back after the pre-season. He can only help.