MLS Week Three Review

On Fox Sports’ Football Fone-In show at the start of the week, Alexi Lalas, the Los Angeles Galaxy general manager, claimed that Major League Soccer is “the most competitive league in the world”. With a number of instruments in place to retain parity, such as salary caps and draft picks, it is difficult to disagree.

A glance at the league table after three rounds of fixtures backs up his claim. Picking a winner for November’s MLS Cup Final at this early stage seemingly requires a large degree of luck rather than any skilled judgement. Only two teams, Chicago Fire and FC Dallas, remain unbeaten whilst Houston Dynamo and San Jose Earthquakes are the only sides awaiting their first victory.

Chicago lead the way after a narrow 1-0 triumph in the Bay Area. The original San Jose franchise relocated to Houston for the 2006 season after their owners, Anschutz Entertainment Group, failed to secure a commitment from local businessmen and councillors to build a soccer-specific stadium. With agreed plans now in the pipeline, the returning Earthquakes will share Santa Clara University’s 11,500 capacity Buck Shaw Stadium in the short term. Their home opener, however, was switched to the Oakland Coliseum, home of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics, to accommodate over 20,000 enthusiastic fans.

As in their first match at L.A. Galaxy, the Earthquakes conjured a decent performance for an expansion side and were unfortunate not to take an eighteenth minute lead when Gavin Glinton’s effort was brilliantly tipped wide by the flying Jon Busch, the Chicago goalkeeper. One minute later, Cuauhtemoc Blanco made his only significant contribution in the stifling afternoon heat; retaining possession under pressure before threading a through ball for Tomasz Frankowski. The Polish striker saw his attempt palmed away by Joe Cannon, the Quakes goalkeeper, but team-mate Chad Barrett was quickest to the rebound to score the game’s only goal.

Shea Salinas, San Jose’s rookie forward, will be the only person who knows how his side did not gain a share of the points in injury time. After Ramiro Corrales hit the bar with a misguided cross, Kei Kamara saw his header from the continuing attack deflected on to the foot of the post. From four yards out, and with Busch stranded on his knees, Salinas contrived to fire the rebound high over the bar with the net gaping. Another defeat, but head coach Frank Yallop can take heart from the early endeavours of his fledgling squad.

In a week that saw the MLS Players Union reveal 2008 player salaries, a move which is commonplace in America’s major sports, the paucity of riches afforded to the Los Angeles Galaxy rearguard was matched only by their lack of defensive abilities. In a battle between two of last season’s three worst teams, Toronto left Home Depot Center with maximum points after a 3-2 win courtesy of a late strike from substitute Jeff Cunningham.

It has become increasingly obvious that showering fortunes on the Beckham-Donovan connection (combined annual base salary of $6.4 million) is futile when their typically half-hearted efforts are so easily undermined by errors from the likes of Greg Vanney and goalkeeper Steve Cronin (combined annual base salary of $166,800). As if to magnify the team’s shortcomings, half of the 26 man roster earns less than $40,000 per year. Galaxy’s defence are not so much the supporting cast as background extras. It was also interesting to note the announced crowd of 20,426 given that 27,000 sell-outs are routinely proclaimed by Brand Beckham’s promoters. Huge spaces in the stands suggested that the revised figure may too have been subject to inflation, but there was little doubt about the feelings of true Galaxy fans as they subjected their team to a chorus of cat calls at full time.

By stark contrast, Real Salt Lake, the third side in last season’s inglorious bottom trio, has reshaped their team around a collection of hard-working if unspectacular players, allowing them to improve the overall quality and depth of the squad. In further comparison with Los Angeles, only a quarter of their roster falls below the $40,000 mark in base salary. After finishing the previous two campaigns in last place in the Western Conference, head coach Jason Kreis is aiming for definite improvement ahead of the team’s move to their impressive new home later this year. Salt Lake made a real statement of intent on Saturday night with a 4-0 thrashing of D.C. United, many analysts’ favourites for this year’s title.

Finally, in the weekend’s most action-packed fixture, Columbus Crew withstood a late rally by visiting Chivas USA to scrape a 4-3 win. The points looked secure when Robbie Rogers put the Crew 3-1 ahead with nineteen minutes remaining, but goals from midfielders Jesse Marsch and Paulo Nagamura hauled Chivas level before Rogers completed the scoring on 82 minutes. Hopes of a further Chivas comeback were extinguished by uncharacteristic dismissals for Francisco Mendoza and Sacha Kljestan, though the latter can feel extremely unfortunate to have received a straight red card for a clumsy late challenge.

If any Arsenal scouts were watching Brad Guzan, the highly rated goalkeeper for Chivas, they will not have been impressed. His positioning looked suspect throughout the match and can be blamed for the third goal. Rogers’ winner came as a result of poor setting and catastrophic handling. On a day that saw the Gunners’ fans witness lingering hopes of silverware extinguished at the hands of Sir Alex Ferguson’s exhilarating Manchester United side, they will not sleep any easier in the knowledge that, for the time being at least, they are better off with Jens Lehmann.

Midweek Result
Kansas City 1 New England 3 (one apiece for the Rev's Gambian teenagers)

Complete Weekend Results
San Jose 0 Chicago 1
Columbus 4 Chivas 3
New England 0 Colorado 1 (Rev's inconsistent start continues)
Kansas City 0 Houston 0 (valuable clean sheet for the struggling defending champs)
Dallas 2 New York 0 (Kenny Cooper - "tremendous touch for a big man")
Salt Lake 4 D.C. United 0
L.A. Galaxy 2 Toronto 3

Standings

Eastern Conference
1) Chicago 7 points (3 games)
2) Kansas City 7 (4)
3) Columbus 6 (3)
4) New England 6 (4)
5) New York 3 (2)
6) D.C. United 3 (3)
7) Toronto 3 (3)

Western Conference
1) Colorado 6 (3)
2) Dallas 5 (3)
3) Chivas 4 (3)
4) Real Salt Lake 4 (3)
5) L.A. Galaxy 3 (3)
6) Houston 2 (3)
7) San Jose 0 (2)