Quick Friday Update

The Colorado Rapids are on the road again this weekend. They're in Houston looking for their first ever win at Robertson Stadium. The 1pm game, Mountain, will be broadcast on Telefutura. The 2 biggest questions I have for the Rapids at this point are if their defense will show up. They've been giving up far too many opportunities and goals. The other is if someone other than Conor Casey or Omar Cummings will step up for the team and put the ball in the back of the net. It's great to see the two starting strikers scoring goals. But we know in the long run we need more goal production from other players. Will we see that against Houston on Sunday?

In other news, ColoradoSoccerNow.com's George Tanner has been a part of InDenverTimes.com. InDenverTimes is a project that's risen from the ashes of the old Rocky Mountain News. One of the things they're doing is giving subscribers a chance to interact with the people covering the news. George Tanner did that today with a chat this afternoon giving people the opportunity to ask him questions and give their two-bits. Watch for more events like this in the future.

Saragosa Deserves Fine & Suspension

When is Garger going to grow a pair and start fining and suspending players for actions such as these? Saragosa, with no one around him, goes down. At best he's trying to feign injury in hopes of avoiding a yellow for pulling on Dwayne DeRosario's jersey. At worst he's hoping the referee will assume DeRosario did something. Either way, it's puerile bullshit that does not belong in the game.

Road Rapids

The Rapids are in Houston this weekend to take on the Dynamo. What changes will Clavijo make? And which Rapids will show up? As much talk as their has been over Houston's slow start, they have yet to win a game, I have a hard time taking Dominic Kinnear's Dynamo lightly. After all, the last time the Rapids had an easy game was against San Jose at home against Dicks Sporting Goods Park. And in that game the Rapids failed to come out and play, gifting the expansion Earthquakes an easy 2-0 win.

A Quick Question : What does the Rapids 2-0 win over DC United mean after seeing the Screaming Eagles fall 2-0 at home to the Chicago Fire? And why did the league schedule DC United for a Thursday night game right after a Sunday game?

Evaluating Team Defense

I just want to take a moment to point out yet another soccer blog, this one focused on the Colorado Rapids. It's View From The Couch. One bone I have to pick is with the idea that the Rapids had the 3rd best defense. I didn't walk away from 2007 thinking Colorado had the 3rd best defense in the league. I didn't think GA in itself was a good indicator. I think one needs to look at shots allowed and shots on goal allowed. When you look at that, you can see why I walked away with that gut feeling. Colorado more or less allowed other teams to take just as many shots as many other teams in the league. The key is that they only Houston allowed less shots on goal. Now SOG is not an exact measurement of the number of quality scoring chances given. I would argue that allowing the shot in the first place indicates some level of chance. But the Rapids allowed only 320 SOG by opposing teams. Other than Chivas USA, that is a lot better than most teams in the league. Bouna Condoul was a big part of that but the defense at a whole helped, too.

What other things can we see from these numbers? I think they show DC United relied on Troy Perkins to save their butts more than their GA indicates. It also shows that Real Salt Lake by far had the worst defense in the league.
Note: SOG (below) really is Shots On Goal Allowed. My apologies for any confusion.

By GA
Team	GA	Shots	Shots / 90	SOG	SOG / 90	Saves	Saves / 90	Saves / SOG	GA / 90	GA / SOG
Houston	23	280	3.111	118	1.311	93	1.033	0.788	0.256	0.195
Chivas USA	28	324	3.600	125	1.389	100	1.111	0.800	0.311	0.224
Colorado	34	320	3.556	161	1.789	121	1.344	0.752	0.378	0.211
DC United	34	349	3.878	164	1.822	124	1.378	0.756	0.378	0.207
Chicago	36	351	3.900	157	1.744	123	1.367	0.783	0.400	0.229
New England	43	359	3.989	169	1.878	120	1.333	0.710	0.478	0.254
Columbus	44	354	3.933	152	1.689	131	1.456	0.862	0.489	0.289
FC Dallas	44	381	4.233	158	1.756	112	1.244	0.709	0.489	0.278
Kansas City	45	342	3.800	159	1.767	110	1.222	0.692	0.500	0.283
NYRB	45	366	4.067	168	1.867	116	1.289	0.690	0.500	0.268
RSL	45	403	4.478	205	2.278	152	1.689	0.741	0.500	0.220
Los Angeles	48	388	4.311	179	1.989	125	1.389	0.698	0.533	0.268
Toronto FC	49	352	3.911	169	1.878	115	1.278	0.680	0.544	0.290
By SOG
Team	SOG	SOG / 90	Shots	Shots / 90	Saves	Saves / 90	Saves / SOG	GA	GA / 90	GA / SOG
Houston	118	1.311	280	3.111	93	1.033	0.788	23	0.256	0.195
Chivas USA	125	1.389	324	3.600	100	1.111	0.800	28	0.311	0.224
Columbus	152	1.689	354	3.933	131	1.456	0.862	44	0.489	0.289
Chicago	157	1.744	351	3.900	123	1.367	0.783	36	0.400	0.229
FC Dallas	158	1.756	381	4.233	112	1.244	0.709	44	0.489	0.278
Kansas City	159	1.767	342	3.800	110	1.222	0.692	45	0.500	0.283
Colorado	161	1.789	320	3.556	121	1.344	0.752	34	0.378	0.211
DC United	164	1.822	349	3.878	124	1.378	0.756	34	0.378	0.207
NYRB	168	1.867	366	4.067	116	1.289	0.690	45	0.500	0.268
New England	169	1.878	359	3.989	120	1.333	0.710	43	0.478	0.254
Toronto FC	169	1.878	352	3.911	115	1.278	0.680	49	0.544	0.290
Los Angeles	179	1.989	388	4.311	125	1.389	0.698	48	0.533	0.268
RSL	205	2.278	403	4.478	152	1.689	0.741	45	0.500	0.220
By Shots Allowed
Team	SOG	SOG / 90	Shots	Shots/ 90	Saves	Saves / 90	Saves / SOG	GA	GA / 90	GA / SOG
Houston	280	3.111	118	1.311	93	1.033	0.788	23	0.256	0.195
Colorado	320	3.556	161	1.789	121	1.344	0.752	34	0.378	0.211
Chivas USA	324	3.600	125	1.389	100	1.111	0.800	28	0.311	0.224
Kansas City	342	3.800	159	1.767	110	1.222	0.692	45	0.500	0.283
DC United	349	3.878	164	1.822	124	1.378	0.756	34	0.378	0.207
Chicago	351	3.900	157	1.744	123	1.367	0.783	36	0.400	0.229
Toronto FC	352	3.911	169	1.878	115	1.278	0.680	49	0.544	0.290
Columbus	354	3.933	152	1.689	131	1.456	0.862	44	0.489	0.289
New England	359	3.989	169	1.878	120	1.333	0.710	43	0.478	0.254
NYRB	366	4.067	168	1.867	116	1.289	0.690	45	0.500	0.268
FC Dallas	381	4.233	158	1.756	112	1.244	0.709	44	0.489	0.278
Los Angeles	388	4.311	179	1.989	125	1.389	0.698	48	0.533	0.268
RSL	403	4.478	205	2.278	152	1.689	0.741	45	0.500	0.220

Expansion Draft Guesses & List

Today Major League Soccer is holding it's expansion draft for the new San Jose Earthquakes. The new eQuakes will have 10 rounds to choose a player from the 13 existing teams. They can only choose one from each team. 3 teams will get through the expansion draft without loosing any players. A list of the players they've left exposed is below.

The question is, who will they pick? It's hard to say who Frank Yallop will go for. Is he being pressured to get results the first year? Or is the team looking at other recent expansion teams, going for 7 - 8 wins, and looking to make sure a good team is in place for a making the play-offs in their second year?

Just for fun, I bolded and highlighted some players I'd pick today if I were Yallop.

Note : The new San Jose Earthquakes is not to be confused with the old San Jose Earthquakes. The old San Jose Earthquakes moved to Houston after the 2005 season and became the Houston Dynamo.
[Below list from MLS's web site]

Chivas USA Arvizu, David Brooks, Desmond Burling, Bobby Burpo, Preston Cunliffe, John Flores, Jorge Guevara, Amado Hamilton, Anthony Llamosa, Carlos Lopez, Rodrigo Hernandez, Jason Merlin, Laurent Myers, Justin Nunez, Ramon Perez, Orlando Robles, Eder Solorzano, Erasmo Zotinca, Alex

Chicago Fire Busch, Jon Banner, Michael Curtin, Jeff Curtin, Jim Franks, Floyd Guerrero, Ivan Gutierrez, Diego Marques, Bruno Noble, Nick Plotkin, Brian Russolillo, Jordan Telesford, Osei Thorrington, John Woolard, Daniel

Colorado Rapids Cancela, Jose Casey, Conor DiRaimondo, John Gargan, Dan Harvey, Jordan Hernandez, Nicolas Hughes, Justin Keel, Stephen Kirovski, Jovan LaBrocca, Nick Petke, Mike Prideaux, Brandon Sanneh, Tony Thornton, Zach Wilmes, Clifton

Columbus Crew Garey, Jason Gaudette, Bill Grabavoy, Ned Griffin, Leonard Gruenebaum, Andy Herron, Andy Hunter, Ben Junge, Ryan Miglioranzi, Stefani Moffat, Adam Moss, Brandon Pacheco, Andrei Peterson, Andrew Pierce, Rusty Thomas, Jacob Virtuoso, Ricardo

FC Dallas De Oliveira, Denilson Botero, Juan Daniels, Andrew Dello-Russo, Michael Gbandi, Chris Gbandi, Sandy Goodson, Clarence Jones, Scott Mina, Roberto Oduro, Dominic Pitchkolan, Aaron Rhine, Bobby Sala, Dario (GK) Thompson, Abe Wagenfuhr, David Wileman, Chase Yi, Alex

D.C. United Addlery, Nicholas Carroll, Brian Carroll, Jeff Crowe, Shawn Deroux, Stephen Dyachenko, Rod Gros, Joshua Kpene, Guy Mediate, Domenic Monteiro, Jerson Moose, Justin Mupier, Mira Nolly, Jay (GK) North, Brad Vanney, Greg Walker, Jamil

Houston Dynamo Ashe, Corey Chabala, Mike Cochrane, Ryan Dalglish, Paul Ebert, Eric Hatzke, Nick Hayden, John Michael Hoerner, Kenneth James, Jordan Onstad, Pat Ustruck, Erik Waibel, Craig Wells, Zach Wondolowski, Chris Wondolowski, Stephen

Kansas City Wizards Burciaga, Jose Colombano, Eloy Elcock, Edson Godbolt, AJ Guadarrama, Willy Hartman, Kevin Hohlbein, Aaron John, Will Konopka, Chris Kraus, Michael Kronberg, Eric Lowery, Amir McMahen, Ryan Pore, Ryan Raybould, Ryan Wahl, Tyson Watson, Lance

LA Galaxy Cronin, Steve Caso, Mike Friesz, Lance Glinton, Gavin Gordon, Alan Gray, Kelly Harmse, Kevin Martino, Kyle Mathis, Clint Tudela, Josh Vagenas, Peter Veris, Kyle Xavier, Abel

New England Revolution Byrne, Bryan Dorman, Andy Flood, Gary Franchino, Joe Gonzalez, Miguel Helton, Kyle John, Avery Knighton, Brad Leonard, Marshall Loftus, Chris Mansally, Abdoulie Nyassi, Sainey Riley, James Sims, Willie Warren, Doug

New York Red Bulls Doe, Francis Caccavale, Sal Camp, Blake Cepero, Danny Goldthwaite, Kevin Ikangu, Elie Karcz, Chris Laventure, Jerrod Leitch, Chris Magee, Mike Patterson, Randi Quaranta, Santino Schopp, Markus Ubiparipovic, Sinisa Vide, Joseph Wolyniec, John

Real Salt Lake Brown, Chris Brown, Kyle Curfman, Steven Cutler, Kenny Forko, Willis Hashimoto, Duke Jimenez, Christian Kipre, Jean-Martial Kirby, Dustin Kotschau, Ritchie Lancos, Chris Reynish, Kyle Stewart, Jack Watson, Jamie Williams, Andy

Toronto FC Boyens, Andrew Attakora-Gyan, Nana Braz, Adam Canizalez, Maycoll Djekanovic, Srdjan Gala, Gabe Guzman, David Hemming, Tyler Lombardo, Andrea Lumley, Stephen Melo, Joey Nunez, Cristian Pozniak, Chris Reda, Marco Stamatopolous, Kenny

MLS Cup Final (Spolier!)

Well, the Houston Dynamo do it yet again. They didn't really do anything spectacular in this game. They took care of business and kept knocking at the door. Their reward for consistency was winning the game 2-1. Congrats to Houston for winning another title. The questions I'm left with : a) How did Khano Smith not get a red card for head butting Brian Mullan (at least I think it was Mullan; I was at the bar watching the game)? I try to avoid criticizing referees. Too often too much is made out of things they do. But here we are in the MLS Cup final, the title match of the season with what should be the best referee on the field. Head referee Prus was right there to see what happened and yet he only produced a yellow? Since when is a head butt a yellow? I'm all for stretching the rules especially in a title game but I fail to see why that should be done when violent conduct is involved. b) Will Paul Mariner or John Spencer find themselves coaching a new team next year? Just last week on From The Pitch Mariner said that he was ready to take the right head coaching job if it was there. Could New York now make a move for him since moving for the Fire's head coach Osorio doesn't appear to be going anywhere? And what about John Spencer? Yes, rumors are floating around that the Rapids are not about to give Fernando Clavijo the boot despite the team getting worse the last 2 years. Could it be that the Rapids and Dynamo were waiting until after the MLS Cup to make things official? c) Could Garber have asked for any better weather in DC in late November than they had today?

Chivas USA With Best MLS Home Record Ever?

The 2007 Major League Soccer season is almost over. Beside playoff significance, the upcoming Chivas USA - Colorado game is important in that Chivas USA could be on the way to set the MLS record for the best unbeaten home record. The 2005 San Jose Earthquakes, since then having relocated to Houston, own the unbeaten record having gone 9-0-7 for 34 Points in 16 games (2.125 points / game). As long as they don't lose either of their last 2 home games, Chivas USA will best San Jose's 2005 record.

Even if Chivas USA win out they'll come up short in 2 other measurements. The 2000 Chicago Fire have the most points overall at home, 40 in 16 games. The 2002 San Jose Earthquakes have the best points per game with 37 points in 14 games for 2.6429 points per game.

Current Record
2007 Chivas USA 10-0-3 : 33 points - 13 games (2.5385 points / game)

Below are the possible home records that Chivas USA could end up with in 2007. They have Colorado and Dallas at home to close the season out. Neither of those teams have been doing anything to show that Chivas isn't quite capable of winning both of them.

Possible final home records for Chivas USA :
10-2-3 : 33 points - 15 games (2.2 points / game )
10-1-4 : 34 points - 15 games (2.2667 points / game )
10-0-5 : 35 points - 15 games (2.3333 points / game )
11-1-3 : 36 points - 15 games (2.4 points / game )
11-0-4 : 37 points - 15 games (2.4667 points / game )
12-0-3 : 39 points - 15 games (2.6 points / game )

Previous MLS season best home records by points :
2006 Houston 12-3-1 : 37 Points - 16 games (2.3125 points / game)
2005 New England 11-2-3 : 36 Points - 16 games (2.25 points / game)
2004 DC United 9-2-4 : 31 Points - 15 games (2.0667 points / game)
2003 Chicago 10-1-4 : 34 Points - 15 games (2.2667 points / game )
2002 San Jose 12-1-1 : 37 Points - 14 games (2.6429 points / game)
2001 Miami 10-2-2 : 32 Points - 14 games (2.2857 points / game)
2000 Chicago 13-2-1 : 40 Points - 16 games (2.5 points / game)
1999 Dallas 13-3 1SOW : 37 Points - 16 games (2.3125 points / game)
1998 Chicago 13-3 : 39 Points - 16 games (2.4375 points / game)
1997 Tampa Bay12-4 : 36 Points - 16 games (2.25 points / game)
1996 Tampa Bay 12-4 : 36 Points - 16 games (2.25 points / game)

Ruiz - Clark Videos

If you haven't heard, during Houston's 3-0 win over FC Dallas Ricardo Clark and Carlos Ruiz were red carded. Clark's snapping and kicking another player is sickening and inexcusable. Nevertheless Ruiz's punching him in the back and then acting as though he was kicked in the face is inexcusable in another way. The question is, what should their punishments be?

Best GD, Worst GD

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

Fernando Saved By A Win

Was he? Colorado won at home against the Houston Dynamo but it was due to an own goal by DeRosario. The Rapids managed only 4 shots in the entire. It's unconfirmed but this may tie an MLS all-time record for least shots taken in a home game.