First things first: the Galaxy's Alecko Eskandarian is on Drew Carey's "The Price is Right at 10
a.m. on CBS (sorry for the late notice).
In other momentous MLS Cup related news:
*Seattle introduces - the Galaxy dog.
*Former Galaxy midfielder Ned Grabavoy is a hero in Salt Lake City after scoring the PK that put
them through to the final - but may not play Sunday against his former team.
RSL made it to MLS Cup this year, but who will they protect for another run in 2010? (Getty
Images)
Our second club for the day as we get closer to finishing out our look at each 15 MLS clubs
before next week's expansion draft. Earlier in the day we took a look at the lowly New York Red
Bulls, now we turn our attention to one of this year's MLS Cup participants, Real Salt Lake.
Nine months, 456 matches, and controversy aplenty. And it all comes down to to one game, one
high-octane head-to-head for the title.
The fourteenth season of Major League Soccer is nearing its end and, while Seattle Sounders have
skewed an otherwise worrying attendance picture, the action on the field has impressed.
It wasn't supposed to end that way. We were hosting the Conference Final at home for the first
time in six years, after losing on the road to Columbus last year and in New England two years ago
when also 90 minutes away from the MLS Cup Final, and everything seemed to be in the Fire's favour
against Real Salt Lake, with the 21,723 capacity crowd rocking from warm-ups on.
While FIFA's decision to seed the European group playoff match-ups—basically a mulligan for
underachieving powerhouses Portugal, France and Russia—worked according to plan, along came Egypt
to remind us all why football is a sport like no other.
Former Galaxy player and goal hero Ned Grabavoy, left, and Real Salt Lake, which beat the
Chicago Fire on penalty kicks to become Eastern Conference champions (let's get rid of these silly
conferences based on irrelevant geography, MLS) will face the Galaxy Sunday in Seattle.
Grabavoy scored the winning goal just before the picture was taken above, although former Galaxy
striker Robbie Findley almost scored in the dying moments of regulation time only to be denied by
Palos Verdes Peninsula product John Thorrington.
The Major League Soccer 2009 Eastern Conference Final was on Saturday with Real Salt Lake
traveling to face the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park. The winner would move onto the MLS Cup Final
next Sunday against the Los Angeles Galaxy. Here's a recap of the match along with video
highlights.
Real Salt Lake beats Chicago Fire 0-0 (5-4 on penalty kicks) Video
Highlights
It was a close match on Saturday but Real Salt Lake found a way to advance and continue their
improbable run to the MLS Cup Final.
Three big saves by Rimando in the penalty shootout keeps the Fire out. Ned Grabavoy nails the
winning penalty kick after Fabian Espindola misses his chance. The Fire fell victim to a peculiar
directional bias that made them test Rimando low on his left as Thorrington, Pause, and Prideaux
became predictable.
So did you enjoy the MLS regular season? Were you compelled to watch not only your own team's games, but others as well since they all
mattered? Are you looking forward to some exciting playoff games? If so, Richard Snowden wants you to know that every time New York loses a CONCACAF Champions League
qualifier, God kills a kitten. Click to continue reading...
Down a goal, up a man for about 60 minutes, against a Real Salt Lake team that was missing a few
starters and decided to play only one forward, the Peter Vermes strategy called to have, on paper,
5 defenders on the field. Wow, and I thought before the game that things couldn't
get any worse.
Kevin Hartman made his 91st start for the Wizards in all competitions, tying him with Peter Vermes
for 20th on the all time list. Ned Grabavoy's red card was the 16th in a Wizards game this season in allcompetitions, which
continues to set a team record. It was also the 8th red card handed out to a Wizards opponent this
season in all competitions, a new record. Click to continue reading...
I'm tired. So tired. I'm tired losing. So tired. Ok, so it doesn't work out as well as Weezer's "Tired of Sex", but the sentiment is the same, I'm
plain tired of losing at this point. It's been over 2 months since the team won a game. It's been
over a month since the team scored a goal, and that continued last night back at CAB as Real Salt
Lake came in and got only their second road win of the season, beating KC 1-0. Click to continue reading...
I know that Real Salt Lake would rather all of us not think about their Open Cup debacle from last
night, obviously there wasn't much thought put into the match on their part. So, I'm going to focus
my remarks on the joy and joyness that was last Saturday. I mean, can you really talk too much
about a 6-0 victory? Click to continue reading...
Chivas USA (5-6-3) can jump from sixth to tied for first in the Western Conference with the
Galaxy if they manage to beat the worst team in MLS, the San Jose Earthquakes (3-8-3), who have one
goal in the last four games while going 0-2-2.
Coach Preki makes three changes to the team that drew 1-1 last week with the Red Bulls.
Starting Galaxy lineup: Steve Cronin, Chris Klein, Sean Franklin, Abel Xavier, Mike Randolph, David
Beckham, Alvaro Pires, Josh Tudela, Ante Jazic, Ely Allen, Edson Buddle, Starting Earthquakes lineup: Joe Cannon, Adam Smarte, Ryan Cochrane, Jason Hernandez, Eric Denton,
Ronnie O'Brien, Ned Grabavoy, Kelly Gray Ramiro Corales, John Cunliffe, Ryan Johnson. Click to continue reading...
Well, MLSnet.com finally posted the list of players Frank Yallop picked up for the New Model San
Jose Earthquakes in today's expansion draft (and thanks to all the good people out there who
forwarded the list while I was blab, blab, blabbing away in another post). Here's that list: 1.
Ryan Cochrane (Houston Dynamo) 2. Click to continue reading...
A man misses a thing or two when his eyes are looking elsewhere. While I know that, tomorrow, Major
League Soccer (MLS) will hold the expansion draft that will begin building the New Model San Jose
Earthquakes (NMSJE, from here forward), I've been too busy to poke around to see who MLS's 13
current [...] Click to continue reading...
