we watched an MLS match yesterday

as you know, i watched VERY little MLS before this year. the fact that there wasn’t a local team was the major part of that, but i would be lying if i said it didn’t have anything to do with some of the level of play.

this year however, i have been very surprised with what has transpired on the pitch. i think the sounders have played some beautiful footy almost all season. of course it is intermixed with a poor pass here, an immature decision there… but all in all, it is entertaining to watch and not only do i support my local team now, but i have to take back my reserve on the level of play.

well that is until yesterday. that was a game that i expected to see in the MLS. it was sloppy, no movement, missed chances left and right and generally down right boring at parts. the second half picked up a bit from the first, but all that is saying is that it went from a giant pile of poop to a slightly less stinky pile of poop. if you step in it however it still gets all over your shoe.

a few thoughts and then have at it.

- if i was a toronto fan, i think i may be more pissed of than as a sounders fan. how they didn’t have 4 goals in the first 25 minutes, i don’t know. they had 2 open nets even.  maybe they looked at stevie Z’s miss last week and said “i could do worse than that”. well they didn’t, but they gave it a go.

- FL10 sort of did good about keeping his cool, but sort of not. even though i think that was never a foul, his reaction was a bit over the top. i think he was lucky to not get a second yellow. later in the game, when he was absolutely fouled, he kept his cool and just walked away even though you could see steam coming out of his ears.

- letoux. let me just say this. i don’t know if you had some bad experiences with some chose your own adventure books as a kid, but why do you keep choosing the ending where you make the pass into the box with a boat load of defenders vs. the shooting ending. next time try the shooting ending, you might like the result. thanks

- TFC was timewasting from about the 60th minute on. i have no problem with time wasting. a draw away from home is a good result for them, but there are some unwritten rules  about when and how. and that generally starts somewhere around the 75th – 80th minute. there was one time in particular, where the ball had gone out for a goal kick and their right back specifically chased after it and made sure it came back on the pitch around their corner flag. their keeper then happened to “see” that ball, but decided to ignore the ball the ball girl threw right in front of him. he lollygagged over to far away ball and promptly wasted a good 30 seconds. if it wasn’t so infuriating, i would be laughing at the B movie type of acting. i can just see the keeper saying in his head “OH, there is a ball over there, i will go get it” and then after getting the furthest away ball he turns around and sees the other one that was waiting for him in the goal box “OH, when did that get there, shoot, that would have been easier. i sure didn’t mean to waste all that time. Darn.”

- for the first time all season, i think that the chances of missing the playoffs, may be greater than us making it. the teams in the east are coming on quite well of late, and for a while, that was our bread and butter for getting into the playoffs. LA keeps their hot streak going and RSL has also come on thick and fast. given that we can’t seem to count on our own form, we also need Chivas to keep sucking it up and some teams in the east to cool off. DC beating chicago yesterday was not a good result. today we REALLY need houston to beat colorado. houston are far enough ahead of us that we can count on them being in the playoffs already, so let that be and keep colorado down below us.

but, for the next 4 days we need to forget about the league and concentrate on the game this wed. as much as i want to be a positive person, the realist in me says, this is likely our only chance to win some silverware this season.

finally, sorry for my absence lately, i have some life stuff going on. not bad, just busy.