Write On Sports LLC - "MLS Playoffs: The Week Four Becomes Two" by Jeff Bull

MLS Playoffs: The Week Four Becomes Two

2006-11-03 02:04:05 | By: Jeff Bull

By sundown Sunday, Major League Soccer will produce the two contenders for MLS Cup. The past two weekends tested the four teams remaining - DC United and the New England Revolution in the Eastern Conference, and the Houston Dynamo and the Colorado Rapids from the West - in the hardest-fought, and not incidentally, some of the best games of the 2006 season. With the end of the two-game series - from here on out, all games are single-elimination - the margin of error for all teams just shrunk a little more. And given the way some individual games within those two-game conference series played out, the one-game format becomes one more thing to watch. The road ahead will take a path of its own, but the first-round games taught us a thing or two about where these teams are - and that’s about all we know just now.

Between the first leg and 20 minutes into the second, the Revolution went two goals down on aggregate to the Chicago Fire; at that point, it seemed only a matter of waiting on the coroner to pronounce New England’s demise. Over the subsequent 60 minutes, however, the Revolution crawled “away from the light,” knocking in the two goals to knot the series; even after one player after another limped off the field, the Revolution battled through overtime and advanced on the back of a flawless performance in the penalty-kick tie-breaker. On the other side of the East, DC United made unbelievably hard work of their series against Red Bull New York. Two moments of brilliance - one in each game - from Argentine midfielder Christian Gomez rescued DC from almost implausibly dismal defending, and an overall mediocre performance.

Out West, the conference semifinals lived up to the “wild, wild” reputation when both games unraveled in heated and ugly brawls. Without question, Colorado is the biggest shock of the 2006 playoffs - which isn’t to say they didn’t deserve their win; one report noted that they outshot FC Dallas, who went into the series as favorites, 44 attempts to 19. On one level, this counts as one more Dallas collapse, but Colorado showed they’re dangerous when they throw everything into winning. Not a few have dubbed the West’s other series, between upstart second-year Chivas USA and the Houston Dynamo, the best of the first-round. Both teams came out fighting and firing; momentum shifted both abruptly and often over the two games, but Houston scrapped harder for the win. Fortunately, the fights haven’t reduced either Houston or Colorado’s roster for the conference finals.

Between the two series, the single-elimination format seems a bigger factor in the Eastern final. New England looks the steadier team by some distance, but they’ve got to cope with something DC does not: injuries. Most the injury chatter and woe surrounds star players like forwards Clint Dempsey or Pat Noonan, but the potential absences of guys like Andy Dorman, Joe Franchino, and MLS’s leading “iron-man” Steve Ralston, probably worries the New England coaching staff more. After all, the real work of soccer - the chore of keeping shape and possession - falls on these steady souls, who furnish the stars with the time and freedom to score the goals. Assuming the Revolution’s regulars show up, success comes down to how well the big guns show on Sunday. Taylor Twellman, in particular, needs to stay sharp in front of goal and do what he did last weekend: leave his heart and soul on the field.

On DC’s side, the big concerns point squarely to the defense. And as much as left-back Facundo Erpen’s embarrassing performance garnered most of the attention, his partners in crime, Bobby Boswell and Bryan Namoff, gave him ample assistance in nearly handing the series to Red Bull. That DC faces the Revolution instead of Red Bull immediately doubles the pressure on DC’s defenders; New England’s five-man midfield could make that a triple should they bully DC’s midfield as badly as Red Bull did last weekend. The key for DC boils down to giving Christian Gomez time to work another miracle. DC’s odds go way up if anyone - whether Jaime Moreno, Freddy Adu, or, if he can rub off the rust from his own injury, or Alecko Eskandarian - give New England’s defense another threat to manage. With New England good for around 20 anxious minutes per game, DC has every chance to edge them - but that’s only so long as they keep their house in order.

The story lines are muddier out west where the Rapids effectively crashed the party and spiked the punch. In broad terms, their post-season run - even the simple fact they made the post-season at all - exploded assumptions about this team: e.g. that they can’t score or that they suck on the road. Moreover, they’ve become the Brazil of MLS, the team your guys can score against, but who always seem able to score just as many plus one more. Standing as a symbol for this ratty bunch is Clint Mathis, the oft-criticized wunder-kind of yester-year. Any close observer of the 2006 season would have doubted Mathis could play 90 minutes against FC Dallas, never mind scoring a magnificent, and decisive, goal deep in overtime. But that’s precisely what he did. Some teams have swagger, but Colorado’s a different prospect. Imagine a guy you unwittingly insulted; now picture him stalking just beyond the barroom window with a big chip on his shoulder: that’s Colorado.

Of all the teams remaining, though, the Dynamo seem best equipped to cope with that sociopathic lug of a team. Their players have their roles and play them simply and well. That’s not to say the Dynamo lack in star power: whether it is Pat Onstad in goal, Brad Davis on the left wing, Brian Mullan on the right, Brian Ching at forward, or star-man Dwayne DeRosario anywhere he damn well pleases to play, they’re as good, or better, position-for-position as any team in the league. But sometimes, they’re too simple, the formula too predictable and direct. And when that happens, the wheels come off - not badly or suddenly, but just enough to be fatal. Colorado proved they can run at, and with, Houston in the final game of the regular season when they produced a 3-3 tie in Houston - thus began their “Brazil” days. Back then, though, Houston was in with little for which to play; on Sunday, however, both teams will have everything on the line. That setup may still favor Colorado, who seems to relish playing desperate, but the talent equation tilts strongly in Houston’s favor.

The one constant of MLS’s 2006 season was the absence of a favorite, a team waiting only on its coronation. Given that, it has been tempting to write off one team or another - and Colorado always looked likely - but even in the post-season, wisdom still cautions against even that. That reality has been disappointing, frustrating, and exhilarating all at once. Then again, this means the league's honchos got their wish: it's anyone's guess what will happen.

(GAME TIMES: DC United v. New England Revolution, Sunday, November 5th, 4 p.m. EST, ESPN2. Houston Dynamo v. Colorado Rapids, Sunday, November 5th, 7 p.m. EST, Fox Soccer Channel.)