Write On Sports LLC - "MLS Week 6: Previews" by Jeff Bull

MLS Week 6: Previews

2007-05-10 10:34:16 | By: Jeff Bull

With the Great Sorting of the 2007 season now truly under way, expect the jitters to hit a few teams in Week 6. If some trends don't reverse - particularly, the Columbus Crew's problems with scoring and FC Dallas' and Chivas USA's two-game losing streaks - the jitters will shortly give way to panic...and so on, till Total Freakout is achieved in the more luckless corners of Major League Soccer. Meanwhile, teams like the Kansas City Wizards will look to keep rolling and proving doubters wrong; others, like Week 5's big winners, the Houston Dynamo, won't have the opportunity to roll courtesy of a bye week.

Regarding the subjects of bye weeks and momentum, the New England Revolution's match against the LA Galaxy bears watching. The Galaxy have played only three games this season - a gift from the league's 13-team set-up - leaving them to twiddle their thumbs after Week 4's demolition of in-stadium rivals Chivas USA. The Revolution, on the other hand, did very well over two games last week; they're very much in the hunt and a win against LA on the road should go some distance to turning the quiet surprise at their start to expectation for more.

That's not to say the Galaxy have been totally idle: on Tuesday night they beat Red Bull New York 3-1 in their second U.S. Open Cup play-in. The 120-minute marathon won't weigh heavily as it might thanks to Galaxy Coach Frank Yallop's decision to rest some key starters; it bears noting that two of them - Landon Donovan and Kyle Martino - scored decisive goals in the contest. The win sends the Galaxy to the U.S. Open Cup proper.

Moving on to the previews:

Colorado Rapids (2-2-1, 7 pts.) v. Real Salt Lake (0-4-0, 0 pts.)
May 10, 2007; 6:00 p.m. PST (ESPN2)

Players to Watch: Rapids - Kyle Beckerman, Ugo Ihemelu, Conor Casey(?); RSL - Chris Klein, Carey Talley, Chris Seitz

While these teams' most recent games featured vastly different endings - the Rapids were thoroughly dominated by the Dynamo, while Salt Lake scored two goals in second-half injury time to draw the still unbeaten Red Bull - expectations remain the same: Colorado should win, perhaps comfortably. Between Salt Lake's all-time record against the Rapids (2-6-1), a poor road record (4-24-5), the intensity of this rivalry, and this being only the second game in charge for new head coach Jason Kreis (and I mean new: we're talking second game EVER) the deck looks pretty stacked. Then again, might Kreis be an ace in the hole?

Toronto FC (0-4-0, 0 pts.) v. Chicago Fire (3-1-1, 10 pts.)
May 12, 2007; 12:30 p.m. PST (Fox Soccer Channel)

Players to Watch: TFC - Danny Dichio, Alecko Eskandarian, the entire defense; Fire - Chris Rolfe, C. J. Brown, Justin Mapp

When the best thing to say about one's season is that the last game was lost by only one goal, there's not much else to say. The Fire comes to Toronto with an opportunist striker on a streak in Rolfe, which means Mapp getting into this game could prove fatal. On the upside for Toronto, their first-ever goal almost came against Kansas City, whose defense matches pretty well with Chicago's; it's only a matter of time, really, and the players gaining familiarity can only help. Provided they keep the score close, Toronto has a shot - maybe even at a win. But a blowout, even against a somewhat goal-shy Chicago, remains a too real possibility.

Columbus Crew (1-1-3, 6 pts.) v. Chivas USA (2-3-0, 6 pts.)
May 12, 2007; 4:30 p.m. PST

Players to Watch: Crew - Alejandro Moreno, Guillermo Schelotto, Frankie Hejduk; Chivas - Francisco Mendoza, Ante Razov, Sacha Kljestan

Look for individual match-ups to liven this one - especially with both teams playing something less than complete games. It might be wise, in fact, to re-frame this encounter using each team's better parts: Columbus' defense versus Chivas' offense. The marquee match-up pits Hejduk, Columbus' right-back, against Mendoza, Chivas winger; both have speed to burn, which means the latter's trickery versus the former's grit will decide matters, on the individual level at least. The Crew's defense will need to be very alert to keep out Razov, who will look to Kljestan to improve the service he received last weekend. But unless the Crew's new editions - Schelotto and Moreno - can breathe life into the Crew's offense, any points will likely go to whichever team scores first.

Kansas City Wizards (4-1-0, 12 pts.) v. FC Dallas (2-3-1, 7 pts.)
May 12, 2007; 5:00 p.m. PST

Players to Watch: KC - Eddie Johnson, Tyson Wahl/Aaron Hohlbein, Kevin Hartman; FCD - Pablo Ricchetti, Kenny Cooper, Ramon Nunez

First things first: Dallas needs this game more than Kansas City, no question. A third consecutive loss and the former's confidence will certainly evaporate. While Johnson, the Wizards biggest threat at forward, will keep Dallas' young defenders busy, Dallas should truly test the Wizards defense for the first time in 2007. If anyone bothered to show up to Wizards' games, home field might matter; that should help Dallas a little. But Dallas head coach, Steve Morrow, knows his young team, about whom he has had little good to say, will need to do better to beat the Wizards. The absence of defender Jimmy Conrad should help there, especially with Cooper prowling the area.

LA Galaxy (1-1-1, 4 pts.) v. New England Revolution (3-1-2, 11 pts.)
May 12, 2007; 7:30 p.m. PST

Players to Watch: LA - Landon Donovan, Tyrone Marhsall, Robbie Findley; NE - Steve Ralston, Adam Cristman, Khano Smith

Ryan Hunt, Sports Illustrated's MLS reporters, just dubbed the Revolution the surprise team of the early season, but the next few games, beginning with LA, could send a shock or two back at them. LA shook off a slow start to ruin Chivas' early reputation in league play, while their recent Open Cup victory pitted some reserve players against the best Red Bull had to offer: happy days are clearly here again. They would do well to review the drubbing New England just meted out to the Fire; even without current goals leader Taylor Twellman scoring, Cristman caused all kinds of havoc with his speed and physical play up top, Smith ran rampant on the left, while Ralston ran the Revolution's attack with remarkable poise. Make no mistake: this is as close to heavyweight bout as this week has to offer.

Red Bull New York (3-0-2, 11 pts.) v. Colorado Rapids (2-2-1, 7 pts.)
May 13, 2007; 12 noon PST (Telefutura)

Players to Watch: RBNY - Clint Mathis, Dave Van Den Bergh, Jon Conway; Rapids - Roberto Brown, Jovan Kirovski, Herculez Gomez

Having stumbled in their past two games - albeit in different competitions - Red Bull's reputation picked up some tarnish, but with the Rapids' loss to Houston positively trashing theirs, that probably ends in a wash. The best news for New York comes with the apparent return of midfielder/forward Mathis; the worst, with the absence of starting keeper Ronald Wattereus; Conway should start in his stead. As badly as Colorado needs to rebuild the spine of their midfield, perhaps nothing matters more than rebooting their offense, which failed almost completely against the Dynamo; that makes production from Gomez and, arguably Kirovski, paramount to returning their team to winning ways. But with Red Bull no less formidable defensively than Houston, they'll have their work cut out.

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