Maybe the MLS Golden Boot should not have been a surprise after all.
San Jose Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski, who has had to overcome long odds to succeed in MLS, is a descendant of an Oklahoma Native American tribe and he received a unique name, Bau Daigh, which means the “warrior coming over the hill.”
Quakes manager Frank Yallop still can’t believe that Wondolowski has 18 goals on a team that doesn’t score many goals. He will hope there are a few more left for Saturday night’s first-leg playoff match vs. the New York Red Bulls (10 p.m. ET, TeleFutura).
With RBNY’s Thierry Henry hampered by a knee injury and forward Salou Ibrahim also ruled out of the match against the Quakes, New York could very well start youngster Juan Agudelo, who despite only registering only 14 minutes of MLS action, sees it as “a good chance to score a goal.”
Preventing goals will be the job of RBNY ‘keeper Bouna Coundoul, whose story reads like Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America.
On Thursday, we read how Colorado Rapids captain Pablo Mastroeni wrote in his journal about the importance of making the playoffs this year. He made the most of his first playoff match in a while by scoring the only goal in yesterday’s 1-0 first-leg win over the Columbus Crew.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber was hand for the match in Colorado and spoke to reporters at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
Ahead of Saturday’s match in Pizza Hut Park, all the talk has been about the injuries facing both FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake. But RSL’s Chris Wingert says that they’re not a big deal at all.
The way FCD manager Schellas Hyndman speaks about goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, who has not played since Sept. 16, it would seem very likely that the veteran will start in goal in their Saturday first-leg playoff match vs. RSL.
Unlike most professional soccer players, Real Salt Lake defender Nat Borchers admits that he reads all the articles and blogs about the club and notices that there are still many who are counting out the defending champs in these playoffs.
There has been much talk about the MLS awards race with the finalists being announced this week. The Galaxy’s Landon Donovan, who was not an MVP finalist, says he will be bummed if he is not elected to the Best XI team.
Donovan’s teammate, David Beckham, has never played against the Sounders in Seattle and looks forward to experiencing a Sounders gameday on Sunday with their first of a home-and-home against the US Open Cup champs. He compares it to a European atmosphere.
Galaxy manager Bruce Arena says that the Sounders became a different team when they handed the keys of the team over to Colombian Fredy Montero from Freddie Ljungberg.
After securing another major sponsor, the Vancouver Whitecaps say that broadcast contracts are the club’s next priority as it prepares for the jump to MLS.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, there is speculation that the firing of assistant coach Mike Matkovich could lead to recently retired Fire legend C.J. Brown to be appointed in his place.
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