clubgowi MLS newsletter notes 05/10 ....

Next newsletter is at 10.00 UK time Sunday.

Eastern Conference....

Eastern				Overall									Home						Away
				P	W	D	L	F	A	Gdf	Pts	Form	P	W	D	L	F	A	P	W	D	L	F	A
	1		New York	31	15	7	9	48	37	+11	52	XWWW	15	10	3	2	27	12	16	5	4	7	21	25
	2		Sporting Kansas City	30	14	6	10	43	29	+14	48	LWWW	16	8	3	5	28	15	14	6	3	5	15	14
	3	1	Houston Dynamo	31	13	8	10	39	37	+2	47	WXWW	15	9	3	3	24	14	16	4	5	7	15	23
	4	1	Montreal Impact	30	13	7	10	48	45	+3	46	LXLL	15	9	3	3	29	18	15	4	4	7	19	27
	5	3	Chicago Fire	31	12	7	12	41	45	-4	43	WXLW	16	9	3	4	28	21	15	3	4	8	13	24
	6	1	Philadelphia Union	30	11	9	10	38	39	-1	42	WLLO	15	6	5	4	21	16	15	5	4	6	17	23
	7	1	New England Revolution	30	11	8	11	42	34	+8	41	XWLL	16	7	4	5	26	14	14	4	4	6	16	20
	8	1	Columbus Crew	31	12	5	14	40	41	-1	41	WWWL	15	7	3	5	19	11	16	5	2	9	21	30
	9		Toronto FC	31	5	11	15	29	45	-16	26	WLLX	16	3	8	5	22	22	15	2	3	10	7	23
	10		D.C. United	31	3	6	22	20	55	-35	15	LLLX	15	3	3	9	14	26	16	0	3	13	6	29

Western Conference....

Western				Overall									Home						Away
				P	W	D	L	F	A	Gdf	Pts	Form	P	W	D	L	F	A	P	W	D	L	F	A
	1		Real Salt Lake	31	15	6	10	54	39	+15	51	WLLW	15	9	3	3	28	14	16	6	3	7	26	25
	2		Seattle Sounders	29	15	6	8	39	29	+10	51	XXWW	15	10	4	1	27	10	14	5	2	7	12	19
	3		Portland Timbers	30	12	13	5	46	31	+15	49	WWXW	15	10	4	1	28	11	15	2	9	4	18	20
	4		Los Angeles Galaxy	30	13	6	11	46	37	+9	45	LXXL	14	9	3	2	26	8	16	4	3	9	20	29
	5		Colorado Rapids	30	12	9	9	37	31	+6	45	LWWL	15	8	4	3	22	13	15	4	5	6	15	18
	6		San Jose Earthquakes	31	12	8	11	32	41	-9	44	WWOW	15	9	5	1	20	12	16	3	3	10	12	29
	7		Vancouver Whitecaps	30	11	8	11	42	39	+3	41	LWOL	15	8	4	3	27	17	15	3	4	8	15	22
	8		FC Dallas	30	10	10	10	42	46	-4	40	LLLW	15	8	5	2	25	19	15	2	5	8	17	27
	9		Chivas USA	31	6	8	17	29	55	-26	26	LLXW	16	5	4	7	17	24	15	1	4	10	12	31

Things are getting incredibly exciting in the hunt for a top 5 finish.

Three matches have my attention this evening....

New York Red Bulls- New England Revolution

Philadelphia Union- Toronto FC

Colorado Rapids- Seattle Sounders

So, in that order. I have to feel that this is a bigger match for the Revolution, who, with three of their remaining fixtures on the road, have made things difficult for themselves and cannot afford to come away from the Big Apple, empty handed.  Red Bulls are not secure yet, but a single point will cement their place in the post season and I suspect that getting that will be their priority, then, in remaining fixtures they can go for things a little more and look to claim the number one playoff spot.

Team news is not overly important for me at this stage of the season, at least in terms of one or two players, motivation, heart and desire can overcome the loss of a couple of starters. But Red Bulls are likely to have Thierry Henry and Jamison Olave back and likewise Juan Agudelo for the visitors. Revolution have been playing better than results might suggest and are creating plenty of goalscoring chances. They have scored in 14 of their last 16 starts, two or more in 9 of those, including in four road games and whilst they do not have the best record in New York, they do pose a much greater offensive threat now, than in recent visits .

I spoke about the visitors back in August ...
They are coming into the game with back-to-back wins for the first time since winning three in a row at the end of May, I was particularly impressed with the road wins at Columbus Crew and DC United as they rotated heavily for those two matches and coach Jay Heaps now has a lot of options at his disposal . Up front, what looked an offensive line short of experience through early season, is now one full of potential, 18 yo Diego Fagundez (18-7-4.... improving on a daily basis) and 23 yo Dimitry Imbongo (9-3-0.....three goals in his last five appearances) both scored in DC. Fagundez has scored in the last two and they are his first goals since scoring in four consecutive games, he is obviously "streaky" like most strikers and you know I love an inform frontman ! One of those goals came when the teams met here at Gillette Stadium on May 25th, Revolution won 2-0 with 20 yo US International Juan Agudelo (11-4-1) scoring the other. Both goals came from crosses in that game and that could be key again today, the first via a Chris Tierney ball which set up Fagundez, in recent starts left sided back/winger Tierney (17-3-3) has been forced to hold back a little more , but he set up the equaliser last week and the introduction of left back Kevin Alston from the bench ,who has been injured since March, allowed Tierney to get far further forward.

Coach Heaps spoke about this after the game:"He's exactly what we needed-a shot of energy. He's been great all week in training and up to this point in two weeks of training," Heaps said. "He's been itching to get on the field and you could see when he came on he was like a shot out of a cannon."We needed a player and we needed an outside back, we needed cover and you saw how it changed tonight when we were able to get Chris up by bringing on Alston. "It's an awesome story,I know he's going to make an impact on our team, it's almost like a signing and a lot of the players feel like we added a really excellent outside back."In the second half we really wanted to get Tierney in some better spots. We switched Saer Sene to the other side to give ourselves a bit more width because he naturally wants to come in so we pushed him wider. "We found the little gaps. I thought Dimitry had a nice finish and Saer really should have had two goals." So much potential in the hosts, who are only going to get stronger.

Regardless of what happens today and the rest of this season, Revolution will be pleased with their campaign, they were bottom two in each of the last two seasons, each time 18 points adrift of the playoffs and this is a franchise back heading in the right direction. If they build and do not sell, they will have a big 2014. 1.25 units New England Revolution +0.5 ball 2.14 -2.17 asian line.... IBC are biggest as I type.

Philly host TFC today and go to DC United next week, after which it is Montreal away and SKC at home, so far harder and I would suggest they probably need six points from these next two and certainly at home today, to make the post season. TFC had a confidence boosting big win over fellow strugglers United last week, but their opponent had that US Open Cup final to concentrate on and I would not read too much into that. Nothing for the visitors to play for and I guess thoughts are very much on next season and with only two games left for them after today and a two week gap until the next, they might, at least mentally, already be lying on a beach somewhere. Union looked to have blown things after a five match winless run, but really stepped up with a 1-0 win at Sporting KC last time out and they will have been basking in the warm glow that brought for eight days and will be well rested and fired up to record back to back wins. Massive game for them. 1.5 units Philadelphia Union -1 ball 2.17-2.21 asian line... again IBC are biggest as I type.

You know that I am a Seattle "fan" and have tipped them up as likely Supporters Shield winners for many weeks and I have been on the money there, but I feel they might lose this evening. They have two games in hand of many teams and they might just be more focused on two big West Coast match ups over the next seven days against Vancouver and Portland. Rapids have matches against Vancouver (twice) and a trip to San Jose ( if they know the way there !) left after this, two teams they are battling toe to toe with for a top 5 finish. They are solid at home ( 8-4-3) and in many ways, this might be the "easier" of their four remaining fixtures. They are unbeaten in seven at home and have not played in 15 days, since a 1-0 loss in Portland, they are straining at the leash to get out there and will strip fresher that Sounders, who have played twice in the meantime. Hosts might start with  Martin Rivero, Gabriel Torres and Vicente Sánchez for the first time , but whomever plays, will be up for this. Clint Dempsey did not travel with the Sounders squad. 1.25 units Colorado Rapids -0.5 ball asian line 2.29 Pinnacle Sports.

Good Luck.