Week in Review: RSL continues Cup trend
Final team to qualify for playoffs makes MLS Cup for second straight season
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- Complete MLS Cup Playoffs coverage
That's probably not what managers write on locker room boards during eager preseason talk of team goals. But it sure doesn't seem to be a terrible place to land.
Even if the "Eighth Seed" is not an official designation, it sure seems to pay in the MLS Cup Playoffs to be that last team invited into the field, the slowpoke that just sneaks in before the postseason door slams shut.
But what about claiming the Supporters' Shield? Yeah, that's a great goal and a worthy achievement. It's a little something to hang your hat on for the regular season, and it does demonstrate accomplishment over the wearing, seven-month long-haul of a full campaign. But it doesn't mean diddly in the playoffs, a point reiterated over the weekend in the 2009 conference finals.
Real Salt Lake was a "No. 8." Never mind that, though, as the men of Utah will be soaring to Seattle on Thursday, prepping to meet the LA Galaxy in the 14th MLS Cup Final.
This gets a little tricky, because MLS playoff teams aren't truly designated by a 1-8 seeding. But if we're just talking about the final team invited into the field, and then assigning an unofficial designation as the "No. 8 seed," some trends are becoming clear.
Bottom line: In recent playoffs, it has been easier to reach the final as the No. 8 than as the No. 1.
Since MLS adopted the current playoff structure (two-leg first round, single game conference final) in 2003, the Supporters' Shield winner has advanced to MLS Cup twice. Chicago made it there in 2003 and Columbus did so last year.
Meanwhile, three teams that just barely slipped into the playoffs, taking the bid right down to the wire and nosing out the challengers, have used the 11th-hour momentum to slingshot their way into the MLS Cup Final. That list includes the last two.
In the 2005 season Los Angeles wasn't the No. 8 seed, per se. But the Galaxy were the fourth seed in the West, and had a lower point total than the fourth seed in the East. So, if we ranked the playoff participants 1-8, we would surely have listed the Galaxy at the bottom.
No matter, though. Los Angeles powered past Supporters' Shield winner San Jose right away in the playoffs and then went romping and stomping into Colorado, as Landon Donovan's pair of goals led the upset there. The Galaxy moved a little further East to Dallas to complete the implausible march. Little did we know at the time that it wouldn't be such a rare feat.
For the 2007 season MLS officials tweaked the playoff structure. To achieve a truer representation of the best clubs throughout MLS, regardless of conference affiliation, the league began inviting the top teams from each conference and then adding "wild cards" regardless of conference attachment.
The plan worked perfectly, as Kansas City benefited right away. The Wizards finished fifth in the East, but well ahead of the Western Conference's fourth-place side. As the "crossover" team, Kansas City went West to face the best team in the other conference. And sure enough, Kansas City took advantage of this newly arranged postseason reprieve, upsetting Chivas USA in the opening round before falling to Houston inside Robertson Stadium. Even though the Wizards, led that year by Eddie Johnson, didn't make it all the way to the final, the signs were clear: this updated arrangement had succeeded in strengthening the playoff field, as the No. 8 seed (unofficially speaking) could definitely smite the favored warrior.
The next year, the final team (the No. 8 seed unofficially) picked up the cadence and took the upset march a few miles further. The New York Red Bulls shocked Houston before pouring some kind of hoodoo voodoo over Rio Tinto Stadium and managing to tip-toe out of Utah with a win and a date in the MLS Cup Final.
Which brings us to this year. Real Salt Lake, as we know, rose from a gaggle of desperate sides on that final weekend of regular season play. Jason Kreis' team had seemed the least likely of the bunch to elbow its way into the playoffs. But the determined side clobbered Colorado on that last weekend, claiming the very last spot available.
In the opening round, who was Real Salt Lake's first victim? That would be Supporters' Shield winner Columbus.
TACTICAL CORNER
• For those tracking such things, the home teams are now 8-6 in the conference championship games since MLS adopted the current playoff structure.
• Manager Bruce Arena made just one change for the Galaxy from the previous win against Chivas USA as A.J. DeLaGarza was a late replacement for the ill Todd Dunivant at left back. Houston also needed to change its left back as veteran Wade Barrett replaced the suspended Mike Chabala.
• Best player on the field during Friday's extended Western Conference Championship: veteran center back Gregg Berhalter. Even before he struck for the first (and absolutely enormous) goal, Berhalter was a mighty force along the Galaxy back line. He was dominant in the air, helping neutralize Brian Ching's aerial presence as a target striker. His orchestration along the back was such that Dominic Oduro's potentially troubling edge in speed was sufficiently mitigated. His tackling was fair but fierce, never once pulling the punch. Houston did manage to create a few chances over 120 minutes, most notably that disallowed 80th-minute goal. But by and large, the Dynamo didn't create a critical mass of chances, and Berhalter's presence in perhaps his best game in the Galaxy shirt was a big part of the reason.
• Here's how the presence of Berhalter and big rookie Omar Gonzalez can alter the tactical psychology on the field: Houston right midfielder Brian Mullan seemed tentative at times to drop balls into the penalty area. Several times over the course of the long night, Mullan passed on opportunities to hit a first-time cross. Why? The fact that Berhalter and Gonzalez were consuming everything in the air surely had something to say about it.
• Ricardo Clark was perhaps the best midfielder at The Home Depot Center on Friday -- but he did make two mistakes at critical moments. It was Clark who committed the foul just inside the Galaxy's offensive third that led to the first goal. And it was Clark who brought down Alan Gordon inside the penalty area.
• That disallowed 80th-minute goal seemed to suck the life out of the Dynamo. They weren't the same from there, and the Galaxy was easily the better side in the 30 minutes of extra time. Then again, it could have just been the physical effects of a tougher road to Seattle. Not only did the Dynamo have to travel to play Los Angeles (underscoring the importance of gaining that home-field advantage), Houston's players also had to manage an extra 30 minutes in the opening-round series against Seattle.
"I think the extra 30 minutes they had to play on [the previous] Sunday really depleted their tanks," Arena said.
• It was no one's fault, of course, but those two 18-minute delays happened to work in the home team's favor. The first one was a cold bucket of water on the Dynamo at a time when the visitors were applying relentless pressure. So, edge to the Galaxy there. Later, there wasn't the same kind of reversal effect. But the Galaxy were a little older and slower in midfield Friday, so the extra little break probably didn't hurt. Suffice to say, dealing with the interruptions wasn't easy on anyone.
"Stopping twice for 15 minutes was really tough," the Galaxy's Gonzalez said. "It takes you out of the game a little bit but you just have to be on your game. Just being able to focus and just fight through that. You body cools down and you just have to get yourself back in the game."
• Saturday at Toyota Park, Chicago winger Marco Pappa never found the space he was finding in the previous two matches against New England. Will Johnson provided left back Chris Wingert with plenty of assistance in dealing with the young Guatemalan. Pappa actually started on the right -- and Johnson started on RSL's left. When Pappa switched sides early in the match (to the left, where he's been lately), Johnson went with him, freeing up teammate Andy Williams to do a little more of the attacking.
• Similarly, Cuauhtemoc Blanco never found the gaps between the defense and midfield as he so often does. He managed to be a bother a few times, but was nothing like the playmaking presence he was over two matches against New England. Good communication between RSL's midfield and defense helped the visitors keep track of Chicago's top offensive threat.
• As Clint Mathis came on for Williams in the second half, RSL switched out of its diamond midfield. Instead, Johnson moved inside in a dual holding role with Kyle Beckerman, while Mathis and Javier Morales held slightly more advanced starting positions along the outside.
• Best player on the field Saturday in Bridgeview? Hard to say, as there were plenty of candidates, especially in RSL's dogged midfield. Morales was the maestro of possession for RSL, helping establish an edge in terms of time with the ball. Beckerman and Johnson did their part to help keep tidy possession, but also did lots of destroying on defense. And then there was goalkeeper Nick Rimando, the hero of the tiebreaker. But just as impressive as any of his penalty kick saves was the second-half dandy he managed on Pappa. Rimando had to be quick to see Pappa's stinging shot through traffic, then had to be athletic enough to get there.
• Chicago's strategy all along seemed to be about defense first, and then hitting on the counterattack. To be sure, Real Salt Lake's fullbacks got into the attack far more often than the Fire fullbacks. Russell was particularly free to move forward, thanks to Chicago's low-pressure approach.
It did work to a point for Chicago, even if it was something of a strange tact for a home side. The strategy came particularly close to paying off in the final 15 minutes as Real Salt Lake pressed forward, somewhat naively perhaps. Beckerman and Johnson got caught too far forward, leaving gaps from which the Fire launched some dangerous counterattacks.
The home team's strategy surprised Kreis. "I thought they'd be pressing the ball more to be honest," he said.
• One unintended effect of manager Denis Hamlett's conservative approach: the crowd at Toyota Park never seemed to reach the same intensity as a week earlier, when it was in such great voice against New England. RSL having so much of the ball served to mute the madness just a smidge.
• It's pretty much standard operating procedure for managers to get their best penalty takers on the field as the tiebreaker approaches. Still, it's worth noting that Kreis did just that, inserting Ned Grabavoy for young defender Robbie Russell in the dying seconds of Saturday's contest. It was Grabavoy's shot that clinched the tiebreaker and the trip to Seattle.
"Russell was cramping up really bad and we looked at our bench and thought who is a good penalty kick taker and who has experience and who won't waver in a situation like that and Ned was our guy," Kreis said.
Steve Davis is a freelance writer who has covered Major League Soccer since its inception. Steve writes for www.DailySoccerFix.com and can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
