and Los Angeles has four more matches spread out, including the visit to BMO, on turf through the rest of the season.
2. Chicago's embarrassment of defensive riches: The soaring Chicago Fire are collecting central defenders the way some airlines collect complaints. Although veteran center back C.J. Brown has yet to resume training (still suffering from a groin ailment), the club just added Lider Marmol. He joins a roster that already includes starters Bakary Soumare and Diego Gutierrez, and that's impressive enough.
Then there's Wilman Conde. And just what is to become of the unhappy Colombian, who was so important to Chicago's 2007 playoff run?
The answer for now, it seems, is not much.
Marmol won't have his work visa for perhaps another 10 days. And progress for Brown has been frustratingly slow. Several teams have inquired about obtaining Conde, according to Fire officials, including teams in the East. (Reports that Chicago won't deal with fellow Eastern Conference clubs are apparently inaccurate.)
But word out of Toyota Park is that Conde, who played in Friday's reserve match in D.C., will probably be on the field for the Fire sooner or later. What happens down the line, once Brown returns and the highly regarded Marmol is in place, that's another matter.>
3. The hardest working man in MLS?: How good is the Fire defense right now? Having allowed just three in seven matches, Denis Hamlett's side is on pace to concede about 13 goals this year -- a startling total, if it were to happen.
That's not going to, of course. A bad outing or two is out there, somewhere. Still, it's an impressive feat so far, especially considering that one of the three conceded was actually an own goal off Soumare. (That guy might have more athletic ability than any center back in MLS. He's on his way to an outstanding campaign.)
But it's not just the back four. Chris Rolfe is working double shifts out there, pouring everything he has into these games. He might be doing more running than anybody in the domestic game.
When he plays out wide, he slides inside whenever opponents gain possession, doing the midfield tracking for Cuauhtemoc Blanco. Then, once Chicago gains possession, Rolfe hurries back out wide, while Blanco drifts inside to collect the ball.
Lately Rolfe has been playing as a forward alongside Chad Barrett. And yet he's still doing the running for Blanco. Against United on Thursday, whenever D.C. went on the attack Rolfe usually passed Blanco on a rearward dash, retreating into a central midfield position. Then, once the Fire went on the attack, Rolfe maneuvered back into a forward position, leaving the midfield space for Blanco.
Justin Mapp and John Thorrington are working hard, too, pinching in to help defensively from those wide positions. You look at that kind of effort, that kind of selfless team spirit, and it's not hard to see why Hamlett's side has lost just once in seven matches.
4. Mapping the route into 20-goal territory: Landon Donovan seems destined for the somewhat elusive 20-goal season. Not only did he jet off to a remarkable start, with a league-leading eight goals in six matches. He's also got the other ingredient frequently seen attached to a 20-goal scorer: a cagey assist wingman.
There have been eight 20-goal seasons in MLS. Going all the way back to Year 1, Roy Lassiter -- who holds the all-time single-season record with 27 strikes -- had Carlos Valderrama to supply those defense-splitters for Tampa Bay. "El Pibe" finished with 16 assists.
Raul Diaz Arce recorded 23 goals for United that year; Marco Etcheverry contributed a worthy 19 assists to the overall effort. And Eduardo Hurtado struck 21 times for Los Angeles in 1996, ushered along by Mauricio Cienfuegos' 11 assists.
In 2000, Mamadou Diallo netted 26 times for Tampa Bay. Valderrama, who turned 39 during that season, supplied an all-time league record 26 assists.
Carlos Ruiz scored 24 times in the regular season en route to the Galaxy's first title, in 2002. No surprise, then, that Cobi Jones matched a career high with 13 assists that year.
Now, of course, Donovan has Beckham hitting all those sweet serves from the right, and keeping defenders honest with the occasional effort from distance. (Right, RSL?) Assuming Beckham and Donovan remain healthy and don't miss too many matches due to international duty, the dynamic Galaxy duo stands to be one Major League's Soccer's most productive since Diallo and El Pibe tore it up in 2000.
5: Did we miss the signs at RFK?: Things aren't getting any easier for Tom Soehn's men at D.C. United, who have limped so surprisingly out of the 2008 gate. Three of United's next four are on the road, at Chivas USA, Toronto FC and New England.
Put bluntly, United have been awful on the road this year. The Black-and-Red haven't been particularly inspiring at home, either. But at least the club has picked off a couple of results at RFK.
United have traveled five times in two competitions this year. The high-water mark was a 1-1 draw in Jamaica against anonymous Harbour View during the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. Since then the club has been blanked in matches at Kansas City, Mexico's Pachuca, Real Salt Lake and Colorado.
Going back to last year, United were shut out in a playoff match at Toyota Park in their last road go. In fact, you'd have to go back to Sept. 1, 2007 to dig up a United "W" on the road. Since then, in all competitions, Soehn's men have six losses and four ties away from RFK. They scored just five goals in those matches.
Overall in 2008, United's scoring isn't wholly anemic, with nine goals in seven matches. But the side can't quite rise to score at critical moments -- like Thursday night, when United desperately needed to respond to Chicago's opening strike. Instead, it was the Fire pressing United for the next goal.
Luciano Emilio's struggles are a big component of the attacking drag. He has just one goal in seven starts, flagging production when compared to last year's 20-goal campaign. But should we have seen some of this coming?
Emilio's production had slowed by the end of last year, regressing to a drip sometime around mid-September. Remember all that midseason talk of Emilio perhaps challenging Lassiter's all-time league mark for goals in a season (27), or Diaz Arce's club mark (23)?
Emilio's production didn't slow enough to strip the sheen off a league MVP campaign. Still, to examine his scoring curve of 2007 more closely could be revealing: The Brazilian front-runner struck just once over United's final nine matches in 2007.
Steve Davis is a freelance writer who has covered Major League Soccer since its inception. Steve can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com. 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.
