- Keith Hickey
So I didn't get to see as much MLS action as I would have liked this week. I was out of the house for nine hours on Saturday to cover a Union game and enjoy an adventure that included 3 buses, a train, a bummed car ride, and a considerable amount of precipitation. The next day, I had to talk myself down from the roof after Arsenal shit the bed, then my family wanted to take me out for dinner because Saturday was my birthday, so there was not a lot of time to see everything I wanted to.
Raise your hand if you thought, before the season, that four of the five best defenses would be in the East. Coach Nowak, you can put your hand down... Yeah, that's what I thought.
The Union game was interesting, if your definition of "interesting" includes a monsoon blowing in the PPL Press Box and getting my laptop wet as I'm trying to write a game report that has to be changed after the Philly defense decides not to mark Fredy Montero in the box, because, you know, the game is like practically over anyway and it's pretty muddy over there. Then yeah, sure, it was interesting.
I will say, the Union defense closed down just about everything until Montero and Jaqua (But really Montero) came on and Seattle started to really go after it. Either that, or O'Brian White has exhausted his allowance of good form for the year.
New York finally decided to look like a $15 million payroll, even if the catalyst was a guy who at one point played in the fifth tier of English soccer while his teammate was busy being the best player in the world.
This Union/Red Bull race for the Eastern Conference could come down to the wire, and conveniently, the last regular season game for both is Philadelphia at Red Bull Arena. Which, if everything goes to plan, could end up being one h-e-double-hockey-sticks of a showdown.
Portland won two games at home in front of a crowd which gave everyone not from Seattle or Vancouver a raging clue, making them the highest placed Cascadia team, with a game in hand over the others and bragging rights for now.
Unfortunately, this was not one of the weekends in which Real Salt Lake deigned to grace mere mortals with their presence (they played last Wednesday and beat Colorado in the Rocky Mountain Cup), but they remain in first place, with three games in hand and a +7 goal difference over the second placed Galaxy. That kind of good has got to be illegal in Utah. Or at least forbidden to Mormons.
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Mostly unrelated to this post, I have a question for you readers. Come May, Jason and I will both be involved with a new project that's going to sap some of our time, and we may have to streamline our coverage somewhat. What I want to know is what you want to read. Do you like the top ten lists? The MLS Previews? Player of The Week? The MFR Breakdown? The Power Rankings? Or would you prefer more of the "classic" Match Fit USA style, with one or two more thought out posts as opposed to four or five regular features?
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