Author Archives: Ridge Mahoney

[MLS PREDICTION] Two teams with only one win each face off in Wednesday night action.

[U.S. OPEN CUP] Dreams of the double are alive and well in Seattle, thanks to the expansion Sounders beating Colorado, 1-0, in the U.S. Open Cup play-in round Tuesday in Tukwila, Wash.

[MLS] San Jose has bolstered its sputtering offense but will be without its best defender so far this season when it plays the Crew Wednesday in Columbus.

[TEAM OF THE WEEK] Players from the two teams — Toronto and Houston — stood out in last weekend’s play, including Amado Guevara, who struck twice for the Canadian club.

[USA] Only half of the 24-player squad will be available Tuesday when the U.S. national team gathers in Miami to prepare for its fourth and fifth games of the Concacaf Hexagonal, to be played in San Jose, Costa Rica, and Chicago next week. For a look at the squad and who’s committed elsewhere for the next week …

[MAKING A LIST] If you’ve been marking “X” on your 1-X-2 prediction card for MLS games this season, you’ve been doing well. Almost 40 percent of MLS games to date have ended in ties, making a tie almost as common as a home win. Tie results are significantly higher than they’ve been over the last nine years, while home wins and away wins have dropped correspondingly.

The decision of D.C. United lead partner Victor MacFarlane to sell out to partner William Chang represents MLS’s first major ownership change since the freezing of credit markets in September. The move follows several setbacks in United’s efforts to get a new stadium project off the ground and was necessitated by MacFarlane’s need to concentrate on his real estate interests.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] Seattle and Real Salt Lake have flattened out after quick starts, and are on the road to play Colorado and D.C. United, respectively.  The Galaxy has tied all four of its road games. Can it get at least a point again in Dallas? The matchup of San Jose with the former Quakes of Houston may be a mismatch, and the Revs play Toronto at BMO Field, where TFC has won only two of six games in 2009. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney breaks down all the weekend action.

[CANADA] Vancouver moved into second place behind Toronto FC in the Canadian Nutrilite Championship, which determines Canada’s Concacaf Champions League qualifier, by stunning host Montreal with two early goals and winning, 2-0, at the Stade de Saputo on Wednesday.

[U.S. OPEN CUP] For a change, the D.C. United fans were the ones agonizing over a dwindling lead. Rookie Chris Pontius scored twice in an eight-goal extravaganza as United blasted out to a 4-0 lead but had to scramble in the second half to walk out of RFK Stadium with a 5-3 U.S. Open Cup victory.

[TEAM OF THE WEEK] With five of the seven games played last weekend ending in ties, a lot of players turned in solid showings yet there were only a few outstanding performances. One of them, by Josh Wolff, earned him honors as MLS Player of the Week, yet there were several late goals, and admirable displays of ability.

[MLS] Last weekend was a good one for some of the thirtysomethings in MLS who are edging into the second half of that decade as well as a few on the lower end. A hustling, physical league will always be dependent on young legs but a few of the older (can’t say old!) guard proved they can still get it done at critical moments.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] San Jose, stuck near the bottom of the overall standings at 1-5-2, takes its turn as the bye team during a week that features a matchup of conference leaders (Chivas USA vs. D.C. United), followed by defending champion Columbus at Los Angeles the following day at Home Depot Center. Toronto and Chicago, a point apart in the Eastern Conference in second and third, respectively, meet at BMO Field; 2006 and 2007 MLS Cup winner Houston heads to 2008 finalist New York, which knocked it out of the playoffs last year. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how we’ve fared on prediction so far this season …

[NUTRILITE CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIP] Soccer fever has swept Canada as evidenced by Wednesday’s crowd of almost 20,000 that watched Toronto FC defeat the Montreal Impact, 1-0, in a Nutrilite Canadian Championship match at BMO Field. The win gives TFC two wins in the competition to determine Canada’s representative in the CONCACAF Champions League. The evening wasn’t entirely positive for the MLS club, though. Marvell Wynne left the game with a hamstring injury in the 16th minute.

[MLS] Unless it brings in another goalkeeper, FC Dallas will be playing Ray Burse in goal for at least the next month. Regular goalie Dario Sala, who sat out most of April after undergoing surgery to repair the meniscus in his left knee, is projected to miss the next four to six weeks to recover from bone bruising detected in that same knee by an MRI exam.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] Of the seven games, only Friday’s matchup of New York and San Jose pairs teams from different conferences. Out west, Texas rivals Houston and Dallas play the first of their three meetings this season. In the East, foes Chicago and New England square off again, the Crew celebrates the 10th anniversary of the first game played at Columbus Crew Stadium when it hosts Kansas City, and leader D.C. United takes on second-place Toronto FC at RFK. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how we’ve fared on prediction so far this season …

Precious few games pack more action and drama into stoppage time than the rest of the match, but by such a remarkable scenario Real Salt Lake and Los Angeles wound up tied, 2-2, Wednesday at Rio Tinto Stadium.