The MLS season is still young, and it would certainly be a mistake to put much stock into results to this point. Teams playing well and looking good now might suddenly take a nosedive during the dog days of summer. Power rankings that make sense now might be rendered completely ridiculous by July. Injuries will take their toll, older players will hit the proverbial wall, and every blogger on the net will be left with their head spinning when they try to sort out who's good and who's not.
All that being said, here's the Long and the Short as I see them after MLS Week 8.
POST-WEEK 8 LONG SHOT
FC Dallas
One change in this spot from last week; FC Dallas is once again alone as the long shot. New York somehow got themselves together and thumped San Jose, while FCD continued their woeful form. New York obviously has some offensive weapons (Kandji and Angel), so if they can get some consistency, we might not see them compete for the long shot title again this season. Dallas, on the other hand, just makes me sad. The Hoops have some talent, but it's clearly not enough to overcome a lack of cohesion, a out-of-his-depth coach, and an ownership group who appears content with the status quo. I can't imagine Cooper's heart is with his teammates considering how poorly they've played and his potential sale, but the big guy is going nowhere if his current form holds (or if the team's current form holds, since Cooper is getting not getting the service he needs). Why do I get the feeling FC Dallas will have the long shot spot locked up for awhile?
MFUSA ODDS: 1000-1 (Essentially, I'm calling it now; there's no chance in hell that FCD wins MLS Cup)
RUNNER UP: San Jose (get shown up by New York, drop into the bottom two)
POST-WEEK 7 FAVORITE
Chivas USA
How could I bump Chivas USA out of the shot spot when they just continue to chug along? Preki for the Nats anyone? Kidding (kind of), of course, but the man has done a fabulous job to this point. As Chivas in slowly getting back to full-strength, and while that would seem a great thing on the surface, it's now Preki's job to work those returning players back into the team without ruining they chemistry the club's had to this point. I was unable to watch the Goats match this weekend with RSL, so it's possible that the Lakers dominated and Chivas simply got lucky with Nagamura's goal: but if that were the case, I'd be giving Chivas credit for once again finding a way to win. Chivas now has an eight point gap in both the West and overall (Seattle and United are each on fourteen points); that's pretty damned impressive this early in the season. I'm not sure Chivas is far and away the best team in the league, and of course things could change over the course of the season, but it will be almost impossible to bump them if they continue to win.
MFUSA ODDS: 10-1 (not changing the odds, since they don't matter anyway)
RUNNER UP: Seattle Sounders (that resiliency again, holding onto a draw with LA despite Riley's red card)
A little bonus action on the Long and Short this week, in the form of a few observations:
DC United's season hinges on old broken down fogies and inexperienced youngsters, and that's a scary thing.
United is a tough team to figure out. If the vets and kids continue to work things out and gain some momentum, they could challenge for top of th east. If not, well, United might drop like stone, and we'll be talking about Tom Soehn's potential replacement (again). Like Seattle though, United is certainly a resilient team.
If Toronto figures out how to play both DeRo and Guevara successfully, watch out.
I was solidly in the camp that believed DeRo and Guevara couldn't possibly play together. They both like to be in the same space, and I was sure that any efforts to position them in a effort to mitigate the problem would end in disaster. Not so, at least so far. Toronto showed in DC just how dangerous they can be, and will continue to hang around as long as Cummins doesn't screw things up (which I think is possible, but since I don't know the guy all that well, I'll defer judgment). I had TFC as a playoff team before the season began, and it doesn't look like there's any reason to back off from that opinion now.
There's a large group of teams that I just can't figure out
Tell me if you have any idea where these teams are headed, because I sure don't: Houston, New England, Colorado, Kansas City, and Chicago. It's like a giant blog of mediocrity in the middle of the table. All of those teams are capable of impressing one week, then leaving me cold the next.
Let's try an exercise I'm going to call "Three Word Impressions" for each of the aforementioned teams:
Houston: Quite possibly okay
New England: Not looking good
Colorado: Not inspiring trust
Kansas City: Blech, Okay, Blech
Chicago: Supremely disappointing draw-ers
Might have invented a word at the end there, but I think you get the point. So far it's Chivas and a bunch of inconsistent teams who are impossible to figure out.
Share your thoughts on the season to this point, and let me know where I went wrong (Is Dave there?).
