By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Nov 7, 2012) US Soccer Players – We’ll start with the obvious. Houston did enough in Game One to expect to advance to the Eastern Conference final. Sporting Kansas City has no choice but to talk up home field and their advantages (9pm ET – MLS Live), but the reality is a team up against it. Though Sporting can point to two-goal wins against the bulk of the East during the regular season, Houston wasn’t one of them. The Dynamo has Sporting’s number in 2012, and they called it on Sunday at BBVA Compass Stadium.
Should the result go as expected and Houston advances, where this leaves Sporting is a good question without an easy answer. There’s no doubt Sporting has a squad that should be competing for the Supporters’ Shield and advancing in the playoffs. They couldn’t put points between themselves and the rest of the East during the regular season, and now they look like the easiest pick to exit as we head into the Wednesday night second-legs.
If Sporting’s season ends tonight, in many ways they face the same scenario as the Columbus Crew after the 2009 season. The Crew was the best team in the East and won the Supporters’ Shield only to exit the playoffs in the opening round. They faced the same scenario, trying to figure out what small changes would make them better after a successful regular season. Nobody wholesale revamps a Conference champion, and the Crew’s choices had them in contention for a second Conference title in 2010. Then they exited the playoffs in the first round. Last season, they couldn’t get past the World Card game and in 2012 they missed the playoffs entirely.
What we already know is this isn’t easy by MLS standards. Getting a team into the ‘good’ category is difficult enough, and improving that to ‘great’ is simply too much for many clubs. Sporting’s revival as the class of the Eastern Conference requires more than the regular season and all involved know it. Their job becomes avoiding what happened to Columbus.
Obviously, this is significantly easier if they do what Columbus couldn’t and advance in the playoffs. Yet, the Sporting comeback scenario downplays a very good Houston team. It’s not just that the Dynamo got out of the playoff round with an impressive away win over Chicago, it’s that they did it again to Columbus. Neither of these wins should be taken as shocking. Over the regular season and into the playoffs Houston is one of the toughest clubs in MLS. They could easily tell a counter version of their season that turns losses into believable wins. Sporting has the better record, but they’ve done very little in the regular and post season to show they’re the better team.
That brings us to New York hosting DC United in the other Eastern Conference semifinal (8pm ET – NBC Sports Network). New York needs this series more than DC. They have a front office reorganization, another season where their high payroll didn’t meet expectation, and the clock ticking down on the careers of some of their key contributors. That desperation for a result wasn’t evident a man up in Washington, and that might be more surprising than Sporting’s loss to Houston.
DC United winning in 2012 isn’t as necessary. Nobody needs a return of RFK as one of the most advantageous home fields in MLS when the team that plays there is trying desperately to leave. Success now and the fans it will bring in the DC market is at cross-purposes with getting out of an antiquated and poorly maintained venue that’s lost most of its charm. Another title at RFK is another reason why their current stadium is good enough. It also proves that the current squad and the tactical choices that go with them are good enough. They aren’t. DC is a team still in transition with a number of moves yet to happen to get them into the reliably good category. They could just as easily be out of these playoffs and the same issues would need addressing.
In the West, LA gets a chance to show that they can play with San Jose even a goal down (11pm ET – ESPN2). There’s certainly not the same feeling as the champion vs wildcard game in the East where the series feels over after the opening 90 minutes. San Jose struck late, added to their story, and could punish any team in this League at home with an offensive setup. Still, if you were going to hand select the one team to cause them the most trouble wouldn’t it be the Galaxy?
J Hutcherson has been writing about soccer since 1999 and has worked as the general manager of the US National Soccer Team Players Association since 2002. Contact him at jhutcherson@usnstpa.com.
More from J Hutcherson:
