MLS Postseason Kicks Off

Galaxy v Houston in the final - I got it right! Never underestimate a team coached by Dominic Kinnear and led by Brian Ching. Of course it helps when KC inexplicably decides to play zonal defense rather than man mark on set pieces.

Just hope that the delay before the final is enough for Davis to get healthy.

EDIT: Oops, I was thinking of the lack of man marking employed by Philly. Saw half of each game and merged them in my mind I guess.

 

Houston-KC; Tough loss of Brad Davis for the Dynamo. Doubtful he'll play in the FInal. Kinnear can flat out coach. Great atmosphere at that the stadium in KC.

Who would have thought Mike Magee would be the key player for LA?

Should be an entertaining title match and the league couldn't be much happier. Looked into tix for the Final; cheapest seat is $70 for the grass...ouch

 

Dynamo, putting my homer biased aside, deserved to win that game. Costly's goal was excellent. The D did not give up many opportunities to KC and Houston had the better of the chances. The Davis injury is huge, can't see how he can play in 2 weeks with that kind of injury.

They will have their hands full against the galaxy. As mentioned above, they will need a bit of luck to win. However, they did not need it v KC, they flat out won that game.

Let's go Dynamo!

 

Did Costly play for KC at some point? There were quite a few fans (men and women) giving him the finger after he scored.

 

AM, i don't think so. He did stick a dagger deep in their heart and twist it so I can understand the 1 finger salutes. Maybe something he did earlier in the season.

 

Re: MLS Cup Final

Early forecast for the Final in sunny SoCal...Not so sunny. Pretty big storm to roll in for the weekend. When the biggest match of the season happens in Mid-November this stuff happens. Maybe the league will get lucky and the forcast changes latter in the week.

 

Went by the stadium twice while in Houston. Looks AWESOME. I'll be flying down for the first US MNT game they decide to hold there. Hopefully a WC qualifier.

GO DYNAMO!!!!!!!!

 

Re: MLS Cup

Looks like Mother Nature is going to cooperate. The rain earlier forecasted for Sunday looks like it will hold off until Monday. Of course when it comes to the storms we do get, the Pacific Ocean changes it's mind all time on what day it rolls in.

Checked on Stub Hub and only 560 tix left. Was hoping to go and maybe the day of the match the prices will drop, but now the lawn seats are up to $77 a pop, No Thanks.

 

I'll be there. Will be sure to share a report after. It should be a great atmosphere.

 

Who to choose? The former 'Quakes or the California club? Just a good match is all I hope to take place.

 

Re: MLS Cup; Attn: Rob Stone

Or whoever is doing the postmatch interview if the Galaxy win...DO NOT I repeat DO NOT ask Becks the lame-@ss question 'So how does this compare with your other championships?'.

The weather does not look good, with/scattered rain throughout the day. It's cold, rainy, and windy 20 miles due east of the HDC right now, hopefully it's only cold tonight.

Echo Nev's wish for a well played match. Houston w/Davis would be very tough to beat, w/out him I'll take LA 2-1. Have fun tonight at the match TIm, and looking forward to your match report.

 

Re: MLS Cup

Yes, I've always dreamed of a job at the Weather Channel :shock:

Absolutely pouring right now. News just did a live report from the HDC and the rain is coming down hard, we'll see how the pitch is in a couple of hours.

 

Not sure if this has been covered yet in this thread, but who's bright idea was it to hold this game at 930p eastern on a Sunday night? I can understand not holding it earlier in the day against most of the football games, but come on. Should have started no later then 8 IMO.

 

Jim; it must have been the same genius that decided to use a ball that is barely visible on TV. I'm also fairly positive that for normal games televised from the HDC the cameras aren't this far away from the field. Utter fools running this league.

 

Just a quick report tonight...

Pretty electric atmosphere out at the HDC. Was seated in the corner, close to the Dynamo supporters (who were something less than gracious in defeat). But it did give me a prime spot to see the goal and the celebration immediately following the final whistle.

The Galaxy were thoroughly impressive on the night. It may sound odd to suggest that they've been through adversity in the past few years (given the caliber of talent on the roster), but to enter every season with that degree of expectation and scrutiny certainly provides a challenge. Pretty clear tonight that everyone out there, Beckham included, gave their all to finally secure that title.

Some more thoughts to come tomorrow.

 

The first MLS team with a DP to win an MLS Cup. Hmmm. Congrats to LA and Landycakes. Supposedly Beckham played with a torn hamstring. Can someone tell me how that is possible?

Atmosphere was great. I hope they continue to hold the cup at the home stadium of the team with the best regular season record. Should not be a problem if they keep the 2 wk break before the final.

Go Dynamo with 1/4 the payroll of LA!!!

 

TV ratings: Fox's taped British soccer tops MLS title game

Not sure if I am surprised by this or not

 

Re: MLS Cup & Next Season's Changes

Aside from the horrific choice of ball, the match itself was decent given the pitch condition and weather. Really unfortunate that Houston didn't have Brad Davis who is arguably more important to his team than any player in the league. He either scored or set up the majority of the Dynamo's goals, and they looked like they didn't have many ideas in the final third.

Beckham has a pulled hammy, no way that it's torn. Much has been made out here (especially by the anti-soccer sportswriters) about Beckham being a failure, but the league is far better than it was 5 years ago, and he has contributed. It was only fitting that the winning goal (the earlier disallowed Keane tally was a bad call) was a Beckham flick, Keane perfect pass, and Donovan finish.

The league is changing the playoff format. It is better, and includes a 2 legged Semi-final. I would even go further and have the top seeded team left host the Final every year. From Soccernet;

CARSON, Calif. -- Major League Soccer will have 10 playoff teams and more games between regional rivals under new competition policies in 2012.

MLS made several announcements about next season's schedule before Sunday's MLS Cup between Los Angeles and Houston.

Next year's MLS Cup will be hosted by the finalist with the most regular-season points, a long-rumored change from the league's tradition of neutral-site championship games.

After a regular season weighted for games within each conference, five teams will make the postseason from each conference. The bottom two seeds will play a knockout game to determine who takes on each conference's top seed in a two-game aggregate-goal format.

The conference finals also will be played in a two-game series, a change from this season's winner-take-all finals for an MLS Cup berth.

 

24 hours later and some additional thoughts.

Despite an unusally soggy day in Southern California, the HDC was pretty much packed. They even set up auxillary bleachers in the corners to accomodate a few extra spectators.

The crowd was enthusiastic. Say what you will about Los Angeles sports fans (and I often do), Galaxy supporters are legitimate fans who know the team and the game. The section of traveling Dynamo supporters didn't impress me, however. I know it's not much fun to travel a thousand miles to see your team lose in a Cup final. But I would've liked to see a little more class at the end of the match from that group.

That said, there were plenty of Houston fans scattered throughout the stadium who were perfectly well-mannered and respectful. I really only had issue with those in that one corner section.

As for the game itself, most of it's been said already. The Galaxy clearly in a different class on the night. I, too, wish Brad Davis had been fit.

As for the television rating, it's unfortunately low. As Jim pointed out, it was a late start on the east coast and was up against a compelling NFL matchup. It's a shame, because this was a particularly good sample of MLS. When Beckham first came over, my conern was that people would tune in to see him, only to discover MLS as a substandard soccer product. Well, the league's come a long way since then, and if more people had tuned in last night to sample the league, they would've been far more impressed with what they saw.

Also, very interesting to see Philip Anschutz out on the pitch to hoist his namesake trophy. He notoriously shuns the spotlight, but since he owns the Galaxy and has a stake in the Dynamo, he was going to win either way, I've not always been a fan of his (that has more to do with hockey than soccer), but his investments have more or less made the MLS what it is. Impossible not to appreciate what he's done for the game in this country.