MLS Playoffs: And Then There Were Four

By: Laurie | November 10th, 2008

I seriously need to start betting. In my preview, I picked all four of the MLS Cup semifinalists (technically the Conference semifinal winners), even the big RBNY over Houston upset.

Or maybe it wasn’t dumb luck. Maybe I caused all of this. I actually think that, say, the Houston Dynamo read this blog and said, “Wow. I know everybody says we’re going to be three-peat champions, but Laurie over at The Offside says Red Bulls are going to blow us out of the water. What does she know that we don’t?” And then they fell apart.

Yup, I’m pretty sure that’s what happened.

(I will use this power only for good.)

And now that the first four matchups are done, is anybody else ready to conclude that the two-leg system with no away goal advantage is a waste of time? With this setup, everybody plays for draws in the first leg. The only matchup where the first leg made a difference was RSL vs. Chivas, and that was a 1-0 game with the only goal scored in the 90th minute. Yawn. I say we either scrap the first leg altogether and give home-field advantage to the team with the best record, or we make away goals count more, like they do in the rest of the world. Give them something to play for. What do you think?

While we’re deciding, here’s how these (much more exciting second-leg) games went down:

Chicago Fire 3-0 New England Revolution
Chicago takes it 3-0 on aggregate
(My prediction: Chicago 5-2 on aggregate. Which I’m sure would have been the case if they hadn’t both slacked off in the first leg. Lazy bums.)

This matchup can be summed up this way: As with the stock market, past results are not a prediction of future performance. The Revs have made it to the MLS finals four times, including the past three years. Not this time. I expected Chicago to take out the weakened, injury-riddled Revs in the first leg, but they waited till this week to put them out of their misery.

The game stayed level until first-half injury time, when Chris Rolfe put one away. After that, NE never got back in the game. Conde and Segares both scored goals in the second half, and by the end New England was down to ten men after Chris Albright took down Cuauahtemoc Blanco from behind for his second yellow. As you can see in the video, Albright was not happy. (Damn, Blanco’s good at that. Columbus, beware.)

Columbus Crew 2-0 Kansas City Wizards
Columbus takes it 3-1 on aggretate
My prediction: Columbus 3-1 on aggregate. (!!!)

Brad Evans led off with a sweet volleyed chip over the goalkeeper in the 7th. After that there was no way back for KC, and Robbie Rogers made it final with another goal in the 58th.

Chivas USA 2-2 Real Salt Lake
RSL takes it 3-2 on aggretate
(My prediction: 2-2 on aggregate, with RSL taking it on penalties.)

And in their first post-season adventure ever, RSL advances. You know that at the end of the game, Salt Lake was ready to bow down and kiss Yura Movsisyan for his 90th-minute goal in the first leg. That’s what kept this game from going to extra time, and possibly to penalties.

Chivas had a better game this time around, but they couldn’t get it done. They took the lead on an early penalty, but RSL came back with goals from Dema Kovalenko and Javier Morales. Chivas managed an equalizer from Justin Braun, but that first-leg RSL goal meant they needed a win. Alas for Chivas fans they didn’t get it, and crashed out in the first leg of the playoffs for the third year in a row.

New York Red Bulls 3-0 Houston Dynamo
Red Bulls take it 4-1 on aggregate
(My prediction 5-2 RBNY on aggregate)

(Red Bulls Offside writeup here.)

And with this win, we now have the very real possibility that the Western Conference champions could be an Eastern Conference team: The New York Red Bulls.

My brain hurts.

Who was this team and what did they do with the Houston Dynamos? They put up a good fight (16 shots vs. the Red Bulls 7) but the ability to actually put the ball in the net in this game belonged entirely to New York. The ultra-speedy Dane Richards beat everbody for the first goal in the 25th. Then Red Bulls followed up with a Juan Pablo Angel penalty after a Rico Clark handball in the 36th. And they topped it off with a John Wolyniec goal in the 81st off a sweet Dane Richards run-and-assist.

And is anybody else thrilled for Danny Cepero, the newcomer goalkeeper who was thrust into the game after Jon Conway’s ten-game suspension? First he scores that miracle goal, and now a shutout over the defending champions. (A couple of little heart-stopping bobbles, sure, but in the end he got the job done.) A year to remember, eh? It makes my maternal area go all soft and squishy.

So in the Conference finals, we’ll have:

Eastern Conference Championship:
Columbus Crew vs. Chicago Fire @ Columbus, Thursday, Nov. 13, 7:30 Eastern on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes

Western Conference Championship

RSL vs. New York Red Bulls in Salt Lake, Saturday Nov. 15, 9:30 Eastern, FSC, FSE, HDNet