Monday, August 4, 2008

Week 19 Spotlight

Four shutouts and one shootout accounted for Week 19 of the MLS season. DC United was on the winning side of a shutout for a change this season, the first time that's happened in 2008, but Zach Wells just had to make things interesting.

Meanwhile, LA was rattled by the 'Quakes just five days after LA was rattled by a quake.

Top XI
G: Zach Wells John Busch
D: Gonzalo Segares
D: Adrian Serioux
D: Ryan Cochrane Bakary Soumare
M: Darren Huckerby
M: Arturo Alvarez
M: Brad Davis
M: Brian Mullan
F: Patrick Nyarko
F: Luciano Emilio
F: Kenny Cooper

Coach: Frank Yallop's moves finally paid off. Suddenly, the 'Quakes seem strong with the additions of Scott Sealy, Arturo Alvarez, Francisco Lima and Darren Huckerby. But can the 'Quakes make a late playoff push? That we are even asking that question this late in San Jose's expansion season is amazing.

Top player: Kenny Cooper had two goals in the last 10 minutes that helped give FC Dallas a rare victory at BMO Field. The goals also tied him with Landon Donovan atop the goal-scoring charts. Cooper is a wanted man by Cardiff City, Rosenborg, FC Dallas and MLS but, strangely, not by the US national team. Let's hope that changes soon.

Top goal: Brad Davis' 20-yard rocket past William Hesmer was the best goal scored this week.

Top save: Pat Onstad had a terrific save off a shot from Guillermo Barros Schelotto in the second half with nothing but space in between the two players.

Top game: San Jose 3, Galaxy 2. San Jose has many new faces that will undoubtedly help the club the rest of this season while the Galaxy's defense is lousy as always. That combination made for a terrific match.

Golden Boot race heats up - all the top contenders scored this weekend, keeping the contest tight.

LOWLIGHTS
The Galaxy's defense is bad enough but it's only made worse by goalkeeper Steve Cronin. Time and time again, Cronin has proven himself completely not ready to handle the load of a starting MLS goalkeeper.

In keeping with the Galaxy theme, wasn't Eduardo Dominguez supposed to have been an upgrade on the Galaxy's backline? He was an upgrade on their bench Sunday.

Chivas USA knew all season that Brad Guzan stood a good chance of leaving. Then, he was dealt away to Aston Villa. So when did they get his replacement? A day before the club's first league match in the post-Guzan era.

Zach Wells and DC's much-maligned defense finally earned a shutout and it was of no surprise to anyone that Kansas City was on the wrong end of it. San Jose has a league-low 15 goals but the 'Quakes have improved tremendously. KC hasn't, and the club may finish the season dead last in goals scored.

Karma for TO fans? Their home-field advantage seems to have dissipated.



4 comments:

Ben7 said...

Hartman or Conrad for Ruiz ...

starinyourfire said...

we should have kept Reis and hartman, a bigger salary cap next would be nice but this team could and should pull it together but i'll hold out on that thought until proven other wise.

Anonymous said...

we would have been better off keeping Cannon, Albright, and never accepting the fish.

starinyourfire: You makes good points and comments. I'm curious about your username. What is its origin/meaning?

starinyourfire said...

to make a really long story short, i fell in love with a song by thrice called "the artist in the ambulance" and shortly made a design called starinyourfire which means to me: only you can create your own glory and you have to have a fire or desire to do it.


i'm glad that AA has found his form again(although it's hard to judge since its one game) now i regret taking him off on my fantasy team. haha