Western Conference — and Real Salt Lake — should be improved
Dallas and Colorado never reached their potential, Real Salt Lake were a disaster, and the L.A. Galaxy were a mess with perhaps the wackiest schedule in league history combined with David Beckham's various injuries.
In the end, five of the league's eight playoff spots went to teams from the Eastern Conference. Don't expect that trend to continue.
With the Major League Soccer season kicking off this weekend, here's a look at sports writer James Edward's predictions for the 2007 season.
1. Chivas USA
2007 record: 15-7-8 (53 points)
Conference finish: First
Coach: Preki (second season).
Outlook: After the Goats uneventfully bowed out of the playoffs last year, it's easy to forget they finished with the best regular-season record in the Western Conference. A year later, and without any significant losses, Chivas USA should win it again — but there are uncertainties. Injuries to strikers Ante Razov and Maykel Galindo in the playoffs exposed Chivas' lack of depth as Kansas City pulled off the first-round upset. Chivas addressed that depth by trading for a pair of former Real Salt Lake forwards Alecko Eskandarian and Atiba Harris, neither of whom was very good in 2007. Their new club is counting on a change of venue to increase their production. If not, Razov and Galindo will need to duplicate their 23 combined goals last year. The midfield will once again be led by Jesse Marsch and Sacha Kljestan, two of the best at their position in MLS. Chivas' schedule will be particularly busy this summer with the SuperLiga and the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
2007 record: 15-8-7 (52 points)
Conference finish: Second, MLS Cup Champs
Coach: Dominic Kinnear (fifth season).
Outlook: The two-time MLS Cup champions seem like the obvious choice out West, but there are several factors working against them. First, as good as the Dynamo were last year, they still didn't win the West, finishing second to Chivas USA. A year later, they've got less depth with the departure of players like Ryan Cochrane, Joseph Ngwenya and Nate Jaqua, and a busier calendar. Houston has already advanced to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, and later this summer it will participate in the second annual SuperLiga and then the newly created CONCACAF Champions League. The busy schedule will inevitably lead to a few extra regular season losses. With all that said, Houston's starting 11 is as good as any other team in MLS, and coach Dominic Kinnear is the best in the league. At the end of the day, all the Dynamo need to do is qualify for the playoffs and they'll be the favorite. That shouldn't be a problem.
3. FC Dallas
2007 record: 13-12-5 (44 points)
Conference finish: Third
Coach: Steve Morrow (second season).
Outlook: This team is tough to figure out. On paper it's one of the best in MLS and should be a factor all year. Maybe it's the coaching style of coach Steve Morrow that makes FC Dallas so puzzling. Realistically though, what's not to like about a midfield that will feature the likes of Juan Toja, Pablo Ricchetti, newcomer Andre Rocha and Dax McCarty. Up top, Kenny Cooper has returned from last season's broken leg and the coaching staff is counting on him to pick up the scoring slack left by departed striker Carlos Ruiz. The biggest question marks are at the back. Two starters from a year ago, Clarence Goodson and Chris Gbandi, are both now playing in Norway. Their replacements are more than capable of filling those shoes, but it might take some time to jell. If Mexican National Team veteran Duilio Davino can step in and play with some passion right away, those defensive questions might be a moot point. If he doesn't, expect a lot of 3-2 type of games from Dallas this year.
4. Real Salt Lake
2007 record: 6-15-9 (27 points)
Conference finish: Sixth
Coach: Jason Kreis (first full season)
Outlook: The best case scenario for RSL in 2008 is that its dozen or so new faces make an immediate impact and the club challenges for the Western Conference title. More realistically it will take the newcomers time to jell, but once they do — and assuming they're as good as advertised — a franchise-first playoff berth should be in the cards this year. The defense will undoubtedly be improved with the addition of Ian Joy, Nat Borchers and Jamison Olave, but what about the other side of the pitch? So far it looks positive. Attacking midfielder Javier Morales has had an unbelievable preseason, and he's one of the fittest players on the team. If he carries that form into the regular season, he should set up plenty of scoring opportunities for the doctor, Kenny Deuchar, along with Robbie Findley, Yura Movsisyan and Fabian Espindola. With fresh faces in the midfield in Dema Kovalenko and Matias Cordoba, this team has the potential to be very dangerous.
5. Colorado Rapids
2007 record: 9-13-8 (35 points)
Conference finish: Fourth
Coach: Fernando Clavijo (fourth season)
Outlook: There's a T-shirt idea in the works by Real Salt Lake fans that says "I love Fernando Clavijo" etched on a big red heart. After all, the Colorado coach is the one who strangely pulled the trigger on sending Jeff Cunningham and Kyle Beckerman to RSL in the past three years. Many people, particularly Colorado fans, were surprised he wasn't fired after the team missed the playoffs in 2007. By not addressing its offensive needs up top, the Rapids will likely miss out on the postseason again. Internally the club expects the big-ticket signing of former D.C. United midfielder Christian Gomez to lead to more production, but the attacking players in front of him like Jovan Kirovski, Herculez Gomez and Conor Casey all have question marks. If nothing else, Colorado will be better defensively with the addition of Tim Ward and Jose Burciaga Jr.
6. L.A. Galaxy
2007 record: 9-14-7 (34 points)
Conference finish: Fifth
Coach: Ruud Gullit (first season).
Outlook: With half the team's salary cap invested in a handful of players, it doesn't seem realistic for this team to succeed for countless reasons associated with depth. Most of that high-priced talent is locked up on the attacking side of the ball (David Beckham, Carlos Ruiz, Landon Donovan), putting a lot of responsibility on a backline that wasn't very good in 2007. The Galaxy added veteran Greg Vanney to that mix, but his best days would appear to be behind him. National Team duty could wreak havoc, too, if Donovan becomes one of the three overage players selected to join the U-23 team at the Olympics in August. He's indicated he'd go if asked, but new L.A. coach Ruud Gullit will probably do anything in his power to convince him otherwise. There are questions at keeper as well, with unproven guys like Steve Cronin and Josh Wicks battling it out for the starting nod.
7. San Jose Earthquakes
Expansion team
Coach: Frank Yallop (first season).
Outlook: Whenever MLS executives are asked if expansion teams are doomed to fail, they always use the example of Chicago winning the MLS Cup in 1998 to refute that claim. That scenario panned out in the olden days of MLS and will never happen again. The last three newcomers to join the league have all suffered through miserable expansion seasons. RSL and Chivas USA posted 5-22-5 and 4-22-6 respectively in 2005, whereas Toronto FC finished with a 6-17-7 mark in 2007. San Jose fans should expect much of the same in 2008, even though they're probably just thrilled to have soccer back in the Bay Area and will overlook futility for a while. The Quakes need a big season from goalkeeper Joe Cannon to have any hope whatsoever, in addition to contribution from expansion draft pickups like Ned Grabavoy, Ivan Guerrero and Ryan Cochrane.
Fan voting
The Deseret Morning News asked its online readers to make predictions about the upcoming season as well, and here are the results of the 25 readers who contributed. Seven points were awarded for a first-place vote, followed by six for a second-place vote, etc. First-place votes are in parenthesis. As expected, Real Salt Lake received a little home cookin', including one first-place vote.
1. Houston (15) 158 points
2. Chivas USA (5) 141 points
3. RSL (1) 111 points
4. L.A. Galaxy (3) 104 points
5. FC Dallas (1) 103 points
6. Colorado 52 points
7. San Jose 28 points
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com
Recent comments
I think that this year will be impossible to predict for RSL. I...
AIG | March 27, 2008 at 9:56 a.m.
I think the #3 spot is wide open in the West. Chivas USA and Houston...
Andrew | March 26, 2008 at 10:13 a.m.
I think it is impressive for James to enter his predictions for the...
Mike | March 25, 2008 at 12:25 p.m.
