and formerly boffo player -- has steered a relatively starless squad of worker bees seamlessly through the tough MLS summer.
Then there's New England and manager Steve Nicol, steadily doing their thing with a flourish in Foxborough. Los Angeles is barely clinging to playoff dreams -- but hanging on nonetheless. A certain handsome Colombian, who happens to be a goal-scoring wiz, is keeping things interesting New Jersey.
Those are the dominant stories in MLS. But what of Houston? Things seem to be disquietingly quiet in south Texas. There seems to be an absence of fuss, even though the league champs have put together a good September -- and are about to become considerably more dangerous as reinforcements arrive in force.
Stuart Holden and Brad Davis each played about 30 minutes in Houston's midweek reserve match against Toronto FC. Manager Dominic Kinnear said both players looked OK but probably need another match before they are ready for combat in a full MLS contest. Additionally, Dynamo have right back Craig Waibel and forward Paul Dalglish healthy again.
With all that comes tough choices for Kinnear. The options seem especially difficult to sort out at that suddenly stacked left midfield spot.
There's Davis, the club's longtime fixture at the position. There's Holden, who filled in so well during much of Davis' extended absence due to knee injuries. And then there's Corey Ashe, who has started the last four matches in the team's current five-game unbeaten streak. Ashe had three assists in Dynamo's latest win at home.
Holden can play left, right or centrally. Davis has spent some of his career as a central midfielder. But none of that relieves the logjam, because Kinnear has some pretty reliable fixtures in there already: Dwayne De Rosario and Ricardo Clark, with Richard Mulrooney in reserve. With all that, the Houston manager says none of this is a bad problem to face.
"It's always a good thing to have a lot of good players," Kinnear said plainly on Thursday, Dynamo's regular day off.
Kinnear's other issue to monitor is the effect of a relatively lengthy respite. After staying so busy with matches over much of August and September, Dynamo suddenly had a 13-day break. Kinnear said his team's attitude and energy have been good in practice this week.
"But that's just always a question better answered after the game," he said. Dynamo meet FC Dallas on Sunday in Frisco.
Juggling the schedules: U.S. Soccer officials say they plan to be flexible with rosters for upcoming friendlies in October and November, being careful not to leave a mark on competitive MLS matters. Bob Bradley's national team faces Switzerland in Basel on Oct. 17 and South Africa in Johannesburg on Nov. 17.
In both cases, the United States will depart about a week before the match. Major League Soccer has eight matches in potential conflict with the October window. Bradley is expected to name a heavily European roster, probably announcing the roster around Oct. 8.
The contest in South Africa is a bigger issue. U.S. Soccer officials say Bradley will probably name the roster, again, about two days prior to departure on Nov. 10 or 11. The second conference semifinal is set for Nov. 10.
Since the U.S. match is a friendly, and not a tournament that might require an official roster to be submitted in advance of arrival, Bradley has plenty of flexibility. He could easily add a player whose team was eliminated in that last conference semifinal.
No Open Cup "trap door"?: It seems that in Europe, there's a real trap door that lies directly in front of any team on the weekend before a midweek UEFA Champions League date. This isn't really rocket science here, is it? For an Arsenal or a Real Madrid, it's easy to overlook a domestic fixture against Wigan or Osasuna when some glamorous continental heavyweight on deck.
So, can the same be said for MLS, as a big Open Cup date peaks around the corner?
There isn't a significant sample just yet, since the current Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup timetable was adopted just three seasons ago. Previously, the Open Cup Final was decided some time in October or November, after the competing finalists had gotten through their MLS competition. Now, the Dewar Trophy is awarded to the Open Cup winner in late September, about the time the MLS regular season enters its bell lap.
So, what's happened in the three years? Teams about to play in a midweek Open Cup final have gone 3-2-1 on the previous weekend. The ties and losses have all been on the road.
Dallas and New England face matches at home this weekend before Wednesday's Open Cup Final in Frisco.
Speaking of the Open Cup Final: No one wants to walk off victoriously more than Revolution defender Jay Heaps. He's the only New England player to have participated in all four Revolution setbacks in finals. He was there for the U.S. Open Cup championship match loss to the Galaxy in 2001, and started for New England on the MLS Cup losing sides in 2002, 2005 and 2006.
The correct road?: Remember when we called it the "Information Super Highway?" The internet really does make the flow of information faster, more nimble and more forceful. Unfortunately, not all the information is always correct. If it was, Ronaldinho would already belong to Chelsea, as reports on both sides of the Atlantic claimed erroneously earlier this week.
Sometimes, a snippet of information gets moving in the blogosphere and takes off, somewhat uncontainable. So it was with a bit about Toronto's offensive struggles. Earlier this week, some bad "411" slipped into the stream, claiming that no MLS team had ever scored fewer than 30 goals in a season. (The hook, of course, is that Mo Johnston's team is endeavoring to avoid that dubious distinction.)
Just for the record: Colorado scored 29 goals in 2004. That is the all-time low for goals in a season. Toronto currently has a league-low 19 goals with five matches remaining.
Twellman sneaking up: Can Taylor Twellman make a late run and sneak into a tight league MVP race, where Luciano Emilio and Juan Pablo Angel are probably the front runners? The New England Revolution striker has a shot at having his best goal-scoring season since nailing 23 in his rookie season, 2002.
Twellman has 14 goals this year. New England has four matches remaining. He had 17 goals in 2005, his second-highest season total.
In the bigger picture, Twellman appears to be on a fast track overtaking the current MLS all-time goal-scoring leaders. He currently ranks fifth with 89, and he is the only member of the top five all-time leaders who is south of 30 years old.
In fact, Twellman, 27, is several years younger than all the active players ahead of him, including Jamie Moreno (33 years old), Ante Razov (33) and Jeff Cunningham (31). Jason Kreis, now third on the all-time list, is retired as a player.
Jones might hang on: Cobi Jones is making a little noise about holding on for one more season, which would be the 13th for the man who wears No. 13. Do we have Pete Vagenas to thank for that?
Vagenas said recently that he's been working hard the project, hoping to get his longtime teammate to stick around for 2008. He said Jones remains a valuable member of the Galaxy, in whatever role management chooses to assign him, whether it be a starting assignment or one coming off the bench. He said Jones commands utmost respect in the locker room, and that players truly pay attention when the longtime midfield fixture speaks.
"I'm doing everything I can," Vagenas said. "I'm trying to wear him down a little bit every day."
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.
