we've danced to this tune before, eh? -- then Hyndman must be prepared to replace the team's only consistent offensive producer over the last two seasons.
3. A booming voice in the Seattle locker room: Discipline is suddenly the hot-button topic around Qwest, where Sigi Schmid's Sounders FC are undoubtedly a terrific team to watch for its highly-caffeinated, attacking style and a compelling story to knock about.
On the other hand, there's a rouge thread weaving its way into the fabric of the club as things develop around Qwest. Veteran goalkeeper Kasey Keller certainly did his part to snip the troublesome thread before it gets woven extensively into the team material, commenting purposefully and powerfully on how his team blew a late, two-goal lead in Wednesday's 3-3 draw with D.C. United.
Mince words? Not Keller.
"It's part of the game," he said in the kind of public, post-game tirade that is surely intended to get his team's attention: "Our lack of discipline is killing us, and from multiple things, but you don't pick and choose when you mark a guy. You don't pick and choose when you run with your runner. You don't pick and choose when you decide to make a run and put pressure on the ball. You do all the hard work. At 3-1 at home, you close up shop. You just make sure.
"Instead, we don't have the discipline to do it. We don't have the discipline to say, 'OK, I'm not going to go forward this time. I'm not going to try to flick a ball over somebody's head and do something special. I'm going to do my job and make sure that this stays 3-1 at the very least.' Until that comes into our game, we're going to throw games away."
Issue addressed. Case closed. If the others aren't paying attention now, the only thing left is to assume they can't or won't master the requisite attention over 90 minutes.
Don't forget that over the weekend, Seattle was cruising in dominant fashion against San Jose. Suddenly, against the run of play, San Jose scored and was within one strike of an equalizer. It very nearly came as Sounders FC got sloppy in the back late against the northern Californians. So, some of that was most likely still percolating in Keller's head when he served up Wednesday's no-nonsense wakeup notice.
Now, on to the other traditional element under the umbrella of "discipline." Seattle and Los Angeles lead the league in ejections with five apiece. In the Sounders' case, most have been in the "silly" category; that is, they weren't "professional," tactical fouls or hard fouls that resulted in second cautions. Rather, they were for lashing out imprudently or for throwing unneeded elbows. Think the acts of petulance have not affected the bottom line? Consider the SigiSounders' record in matches that have seen a player sent off is 0-2-3.
4. It's Mehdi time -- finally: Can it be that Mehdi Ballouchy is finally finding his footing in MLS? It's been a long time in coming for the second overall draft pick from the 2006 MLS draft.
Ballouchy has always possessed the technical ability, but the bottom-line production has long been lacking. Ballouchy too often opted for the safer, lateral pass. Consequently, he came into this year with a modest four goals and eight assists to show for 74 career appearance -- hardly inspiring numbers for an attacking midfielder.
But he has assists in three consecutive matches now, one of just six players around the league to claim such a nice run of production. He looks increasingly confident as he steers the surprising Colorado Rapids offense. Ballouchy made the pass last week that led to Omar Cummings' brilliant league Goal of the Week.
Ballouchy had even more to say about the Rapids' 3-2 win earlier this month at Giants Stadium. His tight control in traffic led to one Rapids' goal and his well-taken, pressurized penalty kick provided the game-winner. All along, Ballouchy's set piece service has proven troublesome for opposition.
Now he'll have Noonan around, someone else to get on the end of theat service. Noonan, looking to jump-start a career that's stalled somewhat, will give the Rapids additional options while leading scorer Conor Casey is away on national team duty.
5. Records watch: Think teams get kicked a bit during a date with Chivas USA? The stats sure indicate so.
To watch Preki's men is to know, anecdotally, that they are easily the league's most physical side. Now, halfway through the Red-and-White's 15-game slate, the statistical evidence is clear on this matter. Preki's side is on pace to set a league record for most cautions in a season. At its current pace (a league-leading 37 over 15 games) Chivas USA would eclipse the 2005 Colorado Rapids mark for yellow cards in a season. That team was booked 72 times.
Chivas also leads the league in fouls currently with 208.
Houston is on pace to set a league mark for fewest goals allowed. (Stop us if you've heard this before, as the Orange set the league standard in this category two years ago and flirted for a while with it last year.) Obviously, there's a lot of soccer left, and a three-spot or two against goalkeeper Pat Onstad and crew will probably scuttle any reach for a record. But at present the Orange are on pace to allow a paltry 19 goals. That would beat the 2007 league record of 23.
Houston is just slightly behind pace for several other records -- the run since April has been amazing, but that sluggish start might eventually trip up any records sniping. The Orange are on pace to finish somewhere around second or third on lists such as most points in a season, best winning percentage in a season and most points earned at home.
Meanwhile, the New York Red Bulls need to pick up the pace or they could threaten dubious season records for fewest wins and fewest goals.
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.
