MLS Thursday Night: Red Bull New York v Chivas USA

By: Bob | July 26th, 2007

With the all-star game and David Beckham’s coming out party mercifully behind us, things are back to normal for that noble experiment we call MLS Thursday Night. Normal in this case means a game shown on ESPN2 that will be viewed by you, me and couple thousand others. Remember friends, it isn’t about being popular. It is about being a martyr for the cause. Martyrdom does not always come easy. It sometimes requires great sacrifices, like exposing your eardrums to Eric Wynalda and gang for 90 minutes.

The game of the week this time around is a pretty good one as far as Thursday night affairs go. Red Bull New York will play host to Chivas USA at the intimate venue known as Giants Stadium. RBNY started the season hot and then went into a June swoon. They have played slightly better of late, defeating DC United 1-0 on Sunday behind a goal from John Wolyniec.

Chivas USA have been the model of inconsistency this season, flipping back and forth between decent and surprisingly poor performances. The Goats have not had much success away from Los Angeles. They have one road win from eight games. They have also never defeated New York.

A few things to keep an eye on while you do your patriotic duty and watch a game that you may or may not care about.

1. Mercurial Man – When a player is called both “mercurial” and “unpredictable” in the first sentence of the team’s official site it can be taken to mean that he is a nutter. Those are the words used to describe Chivas USA midfielder Francisco Mendoza who has started all 15 games this season.

2. Pretty Boy Seth – Not only has defender Seth Stammler been a model of consistency for New York this season, but he has also been a model of modeling. He was featured in a November ‘06 issue of Maxim Magazine, a November ‘05 photo spread in Vogue Magazine with supermodel Gisele Bundchen and a September ‘06 issue of Vanity Fair. Can’t say the same about Clint Mathis now can we?

3. What he said – Our man David on the Red Bulls blog actually breaks down the matchups and such. Better him than me.

Enjoy the game, fair martyrs, and as always feel free to use this space to discuss all things MLS and/or my consistent abuse of grammar.