No Beckham For Rapids Fans

As FC Rocky points out, Los Angeles Galaxy's coach Frank Yallop has chose to have David Beckham not play against the Rapids. That's correct, Beckham played for England in a meaningless scrimmage against Germany earlier this week. Then less than 48 hours later Yallop chose to continue to play him against Chivas USA for the full 90 minutes. Now that Beckham is looking to play in his 3rd game in less than a week, Yallop has elected to rest him. That isn't surprising. What is to me that a team that can barely afford to loose more than a couple games for the remainder of the season isn't going to have David Beckham on the bench. Why not have him available as a sub? Regardless of that, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out in the rest of the Denver media.

Injury Problems

I was annoyed earlier this year when Clavijo apologizes, people experienced in the pro game, were claiming the Rapids had injury problems and that Clavijo shouldn't be judged until he had a fully non-injured squad. It bothered me because at the pro-level, that rarely happens. The coaches job is to find ways to get the team to win despite it's obstacles. The injuries may be the difference between 1st place and 2nd but usually they're not even that bad. Especially when it's a minor injury or two causing a player or two to miss a game or three.

In the case of Toronto FC right now things are different. They are missing 3 key starters for the rest of the season due to injury. Greg Sutton has been out due to a concussion. Ronnie O'Brien was injured in the fancy scrimmage against Aston Villa. And last years league leading goal scorer Jeff Cunningham is out with a hernia. 3 starters out for the last 10 games or so? Now those are injuries that are going to cause problems!

Best GD, Worst GD

Right now in the MLS Houston has the best goal difference at +14. Toronto has the worst at -16.

Come On Saints

I feel as though somehow all of the Rapids' coach Clavijo's bad mojo has affected my beloved Southampton. While the Rapids have somehow managed to win their last 2 games, the Saints have dropped their first two of the new season. It's far too early to panic but if Southampton are to get automatic promotion they can't afford to dig too big of a hole for themselves early in the season.