The first weekend of the Major League Soccer playoffs is in the books, and now each one of these teams has one more game to get it all together.
Seattle and Houston battled to a 0-0 draw, Real Salt Lake sneaked one past defending champs Columbus Crew late to win, New England got another win in the playoffs against Chicago, and El Super Clasico ends up tied setting up a winner-moves-on finale. The best part about the weekend is that every team still has a chance. The question is: who is going to make the most of it?
Real Salt Lake vs. Columbus Crew was the only game not on television over the weekend. I really don’t understand why they couldn’t have just put this game on Sunday and put the New England vs. Chicago game on Saturday in Fox Soccer Channel’s normal slot for MLS games. Telefutura could have easily taken the RSL vs. Columbus game--especially considering that next week all the games will be on television.
Regardless, it doesn’t lessen the fact that Real Salt Lake pulled a stunner at the death to take the series lead. Robbie Findley scored in the 88th minute, marking his 3rd goal in his last two games. The defending champs played an ultra-defensive game and it cost them. I’ve made it known that I hate ultra-defensive soccer, especially when the better team is the one doing it.
I understand Coach Robert Warzycha was playing the odds and trying to hold the 0-0 draw away to get the win at home. Yeah, RSL has been bad on the road this season, but you do not sit your three best players for the entire game; there’s no reason for it. In the end, this may come back to haunt Columbus if they lose at home.
New England vs. Chicago Fire was what I expected. Both teams had their stretches where they maintained control of possession. Brian McBride had a very good game where he was active and almost scored twice. Blanco was not as involved in the game as he should have been and the defensive lapses on the two New England goals are something that needs to be addressed.
New England got another win against their playoff rivals while controlling the game for the most part. Emmanuel Osei had a nice goal at the end of the first half that tied the game and shifted the momentum to the side of the Revolution.
It was just desserts for Shalrie Joseph, who has carried this team the whole year, to score the game winner. Chicago now gets to go home only a goal down, but considering the history between these two teams I wonder if Chicago coach Dennis Hamlet is worried.
Here’s the Osei goal (at around the 2:00 mark).
David Beckham’s first foray into the playoffs ended decently. They fight back to tie the game at 1-1 and then a huge defensive mistake allows Chivas USA back into the game at 2-2.
In fact, three of the goals were due to blatant defensive errors. None more apparent than Omar Gonzalez’s awful back pass to no one in particular, which Maykel Galindo then stole for a score. You have to play the full 90 minutes especially in tournament type games because all it takes is one.
The Galaxy paid dearly for starting slow at the beginning of both halves. Maicon-Santos scored in the 4th minute to put Chivas ahead while Galindo scored early in the 2nd half. That doesn’t mean Chivas played a spotless game either, as Sascha Kljestan and Carey Talley both worried about something else than defending their man in the box on both Galaxy goals.
Landon Donovan had another great game and even though both of these teams are essentially at home in this series, its really a toss-up as to who will come out of it next week.
Our Take:
The MLS playoffs make me wish the away goals rule didn’t exist in other tournaments because we could easily have multiple overtime games this weekend because two teams only have to score one goal to tie things back up in the series. It is anyone’s guess as to who will come out, but I think I’ll still stand by my predictions I made in my preview.
