The US top league teams do their best to spoil my predictions: The top four in the East table all played West foes and all won.. ....leaving bottom dwellers MetroStars and Crew to battle each other at Giants rubber-mat playground today at 6pm for "Best of the Worst in the East". Notes: Rumors that Bradley is the next MLS coach to get the axe. This is where I went wrong... Bradley had put together a strong team, including the surprisingly effective -after the Matteus fiasco- Youri Djorkaeff. Then he picked up Razov (a divider), in exchange for Wolyniec (a teamplayer/uniter). While this MAY be true, technically... Steve Sampson is ALREADY good as gone UNLESS he can pull a rabbit out of the hat and get the Gals to play out their arses for the remaining schedule. No doubt the LA fornt office is going to hang back after the season to give Lalas the opportunity to fire Bradley first BEFORE they announce that Steve-O just didnt cut it. {The UCLA athletic dept looks smarter and smarter all the time, right Steve? - They hired Tom Fitzgerald over Sampson several years ago. Fitz was proven college coach but failed at Crew, Sampson singlehandedly made the US team look like chumps in WC98. Fitz took UCLA to the NCAA trophy} DC United, who was my pick to share "also-played the '05 season" status with the Crew, has managed to overcome Pietr Nowak's sophomore jinx early and is looking to make a strong run at the end -AGAIN- to retain the MLS Cup. I am STILL looking for RSL to beat out Colorado for the last playoff spot in the West, though, and that would make me 3 of 4 in picking the also-rans. My beloved Crew has no hope... mainly because we arent in the West.. but I am content to merely watch BETTER soccer from the team, rather than pine for the playoffs.
Follow-up: Well, the Crew evened up their stats on Sunday. They had been noted for losing all games where they didnt score first and were trailing at the half. Now they have a loss tacked up where they scored first and were leading at the half. But still winless, away. Mutts took advantage of lethargic clearances and passing in the second half to come back to win 2-1 - Merz, Cols Dispatch Hmmmm... I agree. But what does that help. The Crew have a rep of going on tears when the manager is changed, this time it isnt happening.
