Herr Siegfried

One of the league's early surprises thus far this season has been the Columbus Crew. Not many pundits (myself included) gave the Crew much of a chance to compete in the Eastern Conference and while the season is still very young the Crew looks like a club that will compete for a playoff spot at least and possibly even more.

The Crew's latest win was Sigi Schmid's 100th MLS coaching victory which is really a significant accomplishment. Only Bob Bradley has more MLS coaching wins in league history - that's pretty elite company.

I always felt that Sigi got a bit of a raw deal here with the Galaxy, that he was fired prematurely. I still feel the Galaxy would have made it to MLS Cup 2004 had he remained in charge, but that late-season coaching change was too much for that team to overcome. Still, some would argue that he should have been sacked after the '03 season, which I can't really counter.

Ultimately, though, Sigi landed on his feet and finally has the Crew headed in the right direction. He's gotten quite a bit of criticism for his playoff-less time in Columbus but this team has the makings of a pretty good side and Sigi deserves credit for the job he's doing.