Playoffs In The East and Trouble In Salt Lake City

MLS Eastern Conference DC United has secured a playoff spot in the East. They have a 15 point lead over 2nd place with 21 points, 7 games, left to play for. If they win their next game at RFK against Real Salt Lake and Chicago looses at the Columbus Crew it will be an 18 point gap with only 18 points left to play for. Columbus is nearly mathematically out of the playoffs. There is a 14 point gap between them and 4th place. They only have 18 possible points, 6 games, left to play for. It's likely that DC will wrap up 1st place in the East within a few more games while Columbus is out of the playoff race. Major League Soccer Tid-Bits 2 teams in the East look to be competing for the title of worst attendance for 2006. The numbers are a couple weeks old but Kansas City has averaged 10,313 and New England 10,644. Who's going to be worse? 6 of Nico Hernandez's 7 goals this year have been game winning goals. I haven't confirmed this yet but it appears that Colorado has more 1-0 wins this year than any other team in the MLS. FC Dallas's Simo Valakari is on track to be the league's biggest hack this year with 70 fouls committed in 25 games. For all the talk about Dwayne DeRosario yet again this year, I've often felt as though Houston's most valuable player has been Alejandro Moreno. If measuring a player's worth is proportional to the number of fouls suffered by a player, Alejandro is not only Houston's but the MLS' MVP. He's suffered 92 in 25 games. Anyone know what the record is for a season? RSL has been shutout more times at home, 5, this year than any other team in the MLS. Rocky Mountain Cup It's Labor Day today so the league offices are not officially open. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the league this week in regards to Dave Checketts complaints. The complaints have some merit. But how much in light of RSL's players antics and their fans (throwing stuff onto the field after both Nico's goal and the game) is questionable. In fact, the whole thing is a gray area. There are no hard and fast rules for what is acceptable and not either by the league or from Real Salt Lake. For example, a few weeks ago nothing much was made of Jeff Cunningham's faux machine gunning down of Colorado supporters by Real Salt Lake. The Rapids actions may have been in bad taste but it's not clear if they did anything wrong. As Real Salt Lake midfielder Chris Klein said, "They deserved to celebrate". Send Him Back To Hospital Dave Checketts comments also seem to be in line with an organization bent on filing complaints. During spring training they alleged that DC United's coach made a racist remark. Awhile after that incident Andy Williams accused Amado Guevara of making racists comments during a match. These things may all be legitimate complaints. But at what point does it go from being wronged to an organization that is more focused on how they're being wronged than how they're going to win games? And don't miss Jimmy Conrad's Grillz!!! JC @ Soccernet