In Thursday’s edition, Tony highlights a contender for quote of the year as Salt Lake gets their Champions League campaign back in order, handicaps the race for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference, and hangs a corner for Jaime Moreno to drive home.
If you have to be missing three center backs, is playing a non-Mexican team at home in the Champions League a good way to regain some confidence?
Let’s ask Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando, who not only had a shutout, but gave us an entry for quote of the year. "…we all knew what Panama was going to try to do when they came here – sit back, fall down, and their trainer probably ran more than their players,” Rimando told MLSsoccer.com.
With a 2-0 victory over Tauro FC of Panama, Salt Lake stays in the running for advancement to the next round. But, continuing a season-long theme, RSL made it difficult. They couldn't turn a massive possession advantage in the first half into goals (both goals came after halftime) and saw Kyle Beckerman sent off with a straight red card after a dangerous tackle.
While there’s been many questions asked of San Jose coach Frank Yallop and his team’s style of play, is another West Coast team also getting a reputation because of yellow card accumulation?
"I don't think we're getting a reputation at all," Whitecaps Head Coach Martin Rennie told the Vancouver Sun. "A lot of the yellow cards have been very, very soft yellow cards." As for the other color card, Rennie attributed all of those – each and every one – to "professional fouls." Well, that clears everything up.
As the article states, Vancouver is third in the Disciplinary Points standings, with 438 points. Montreal has 458 points and Salt Lake 452. This is not a table you want to top. Six Whitecaps have received at least six yellow cards this season.
Going into Sunday’s game against the Galaxy, FC Dallas is unbeaten in August. Is there a realistic chance they can overtake Vancouver or Los Angeles and make the playoffs?
The good news is that Dallas still has 21 points to play for and 2 of those games are against Chivas USA. The bad news is they are still five points behind Vancouver, who have a game in hand. The rest of Dallas’s games are Vancouver, the Galaxy, San Jose, and Seattle (twice).
Of Vancouver’s eight games remaining, they have Portland (twice), Colorado, Chivas, Dallas, the Galaxy, San Jose, and Seattle. Put it this way, if Vancouver has a 3-3-2 record (11 points), Dallas will need 17 points out of their last 21 to avoid a tie-breaker and make the playoffs.
Which MLS team had the most corner kicks during a season?
While Kansas City leads the League at the moment with 151 corner kicks, it’s unlikely they will top DC’s record of 263 corner kicks (in 32) games in 2000. That’s an average of more than 8 corner kicks a game. In fact, with the exception of the Galaxy in 2001, DC United led the League in corner kicks taken every year from 1996 to 2004.
Which team will have a greater average home attendance this season… a team that plays in a gridiron stadium or one that plays on a college field?
Highlighting how desperately both teams need new homes, San Jose’s current home average attendance is 14, 464, thanks to games at Stanford University and in San Francisco. The New England Revolution, thanks to all its games in Foxboro, is averaging 12,916 in home attendance.
With no more games scheduled away from Buck Shaw Stadium in the regular season, San Jose’s number will decrease, but with the Revolution now out of the playoff race, it will be interesting to see how their attendance holds up now that school has started.
For all the attention Seattle rightly draws for their attendance, there are five teams in MLS drawing less than 15,000 in home attendance.
