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Southampton Geading For Oblivion

That was the headline over at the Times Online. Southampton were on the verge of being relegated to Div. 3 (sorry, I'm in no mood this morning for the fancy name the marketers ) for the first time since 1960.

Saints destiny was not in their own hands. Going into today they were tied with Leicester on 51 points. Only Southampton's horrible defense had them with a -17 GD. They needed Leicester to not win. Or at least if Leicester gets a tie, Saints had to win. It wasn't going to be easy with Sheffield United going for a last minute chance at a play-off spot.

Somehow at home in front of a sold out St. Mary's Southampton managed to pull off a 3-2 win. Stern John had a brace twice over. He had a 2 goals but managed to take a few years off of everyone's life from the stress of being a man down for the last ten minutes after John picked up a 2nd yellow.

SAINTS STAY UP!

Clavijo Watch

The last time I put out an update on Clavijo's coaching record he had one of the worst in MLS history. At that time it was 46-59-29. Since then, it hasn't improved. Fernando Clavijo's current all-time coaching record in the is now 48-62-29.

Fire Illuminates Rapids True Colors?

I haven't watched this game. But a quick look at the stats had me wondering what the Rapids were doing. Last week the Fire lost 1-0 to KC. They had 19 shots to KC's 10. The week before they traveled to San Jose, winning 1-0 and getting off 9 shots to San Jose's 19. The week before that they beat NE at Bridgeview 4-0 getting off 10 shots to New England's 7. To open the season they tied Real Salt Lake at Rice-Eccles 1-1 getting off 8 shots to RSL's 17. In their 2-1 win over the Rapids on Saturday they let the Rapids get off 13 shots to their 12. That is, the Rapids got off 1/3 more shots than previous Bridgeview visitors this year. Obviously it's too simplistic to say shots tell the whole story. Nevertheless, it shows that the Rapids weren't shy to pull the trigger. What went wrong? Are the 2008 Rapids going to be any different than 2007?

-What View From The Couch has to say
-What We Want Rapidsman has to say
-American Soccer News' two-bits on the match
-The Offside on the match

Did Anyone Notice?

I was watching some weekend MLS highlights on-line last night and when I saw Toronto vs. KC highlights I found myself taking a double take. The video was small and on my computer screen so it was tough to see but for the life of me I couldn't tell who was in blue. For a second, a brief second, I thought I was looking at Liverpool v. Chelsea highlights that somehow made it onto MLS' website by some accident. Really. All red vs. all blue uniforms, packed stands rocking with fans...it didn't look like MLS. I'm not trying to say that the play on the field was EPL quality, just saying the colors, the fans and the atmosphere looked like it could have been in Liverpool, England on a Saturday morning.