to me that's part of the game you deal with), Colorado is at least tied going into Game 2. A lot of people I talk to in the soccer business have been saying all year that the Rapids are not a good team and I disagree wholeheartedly. To me, they're one of those hard-to-figure MLS teams. They have enough grit with guys like Pablo Mastroeni and Mike Petke to create turnovers and force the other team into errors, and they have a goalkeeper in Joe Cannon who is fully capable of standing on his head in any game. Tell me you can't see this series going to penalties. I'm not listening.
8. The Revolution have too much firepower, with Taylor Twellman and Clint Dempsey and Steve Ralston and Andy Dorman, to bow out quietly. They are not going to get shut out at Gillette Stadium, so unless the Fire can get a goal or two, this series is totally up for grabs for 90 more minutes. Chicago, to its credit, is playing well and seems to be the best "team" in the tournament. Translated, there's cohesion and trust on display out there and you get the feeling that Chris Armas is on a mission to get back to another MLS Cup.
7. If Chivas USA thought for a second that even a 2-0 lead was going to be safe at Houston, they got slapped right across their collective face, surrendering a goal to Brian Ching and conceding a penalty in the final 20 minutes Sunday. Brad Guzan came up with a big save on Dwayne De Rosario to preserve the one-goal advantage, but if Chivas surrenders as many free kicks (by my count, Houston had 654 re-starts inside of 30 yards on Sunday), they'll pay.
6. Houston will probably have the best-home field advantage of any of the four teams hosting this weekend. Yeah, I know that sets D.C. fans off, but you get the feeling that the Red Bulls would rather play anywhere but on the FieldTurf of Giants Stadium. The players hate to use it as an excuse, and the Red Bulls were a pretty good home team this year, but in a playoff game against a D.C. United team that is (justifiably) more concerned with keeping a clean sheet than scoring a goal, it's not the ideal surface for attacking soccer. It's also rarely mentioned, but the field at the Meadowlands is hardly regulation width.
5. Robertson Stadium, which should be rocking pretty good (I get my info from ESPN2's Houston resident play-by-play man Glenn Davis), will be a hostile environment for Chivas USA. Robertson's pitch is narrow and fast (though it's hardly Spartan Stadium), so Dynamo will try to come out flying from the start and make the pace of the game dizzying. My gut here is the same as the Chicago-New England series and it's too tall an order for Chivas to keep a clean sheet in this match, so Ante Razov and Paco Palencia and Juan Pablo Garcia are going to have to put a chance away.
4. For New York, I think Youri Djorkaeff has a moment of magic left in him. He dropped a few hints in the last game, eluding defenders with the ball at his feet on several occasions, that he's going to do something great before he hangs up his boots. If Bruce Arena can get wide play on the right side, either from Markus Schopp or Marvell Wynne, that mirrors what he got from Todd Dunivant, D.C. can be pinned back. And, this is no knock on Jon Conway, who has been great, but if I have to win one game, I go with Tony Meola, because he's always had a lot of "I'll show you" in him. Would it be classic, or what, to see Tony going up against D.C. in a penalty kick shootout?
3. For Colorado, I don't know what it is about this team, but they just have a way of doing things the hard way. I've seen them score some late equalizers and winners this year, and I can see this game staying on a one-goal margin until the last 15 minutes and the Rapids pulling even on some late-game heroics. If it goes to penalties, as good as Sala was last week, the edge goes to Cannon.
2. I haven't even looked at The Weather Channel (except as it pertains to St. Louis and Detroit) but I'll be shocked if I turn on my miniature MLSLive.tv screen (can I make it larger, anyone?) and don't see the Revs and Fire playing in some type of monsoon at Gillette. Against that backdrop, I see Twellman sliding on his butt to knock one in. Yeah, I can definitely see penalties here, too. I've picked Chicago to go to the finals on the USA Today writers poll, so I have to stick with my pick, even though Reis is a dynamite PK stopper.
1. And my predicted MLS Cup Final has Houston taking on Chicago, so even as Chivas USA carries a lead into Leg Two, I'm picking Dynamo to advance on (why not?) penalties. This one going to PKs, actually, makes a lot of sense as Chivas have been a hard team to beat by more than a goal all season long. Chivas USA went to penalties once this year, in their miserable Open Cup loss to that FC Roma amateur team, and isn't it too much to ask Guzan to stop any more PKs? At any rate, I'm sticking with all my original predictions, which means I have only the Fire holding onto their lead. Do I believe a thing I've written will actually happen? Uh, no. Except that nothing's decided.
Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. Send your comments and complaints (200 words or less, please) to Jeff at jbradleyespn2003@yahoo.com and he promises to read (but not respond to) all of them. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
