The Road to MLS Cup XII, Week 6

1. Teams that need a steering wheel: the Red Bulls and Chivas USA. The Red Rulls, with their loaded lineup, still need a linchpin. When healthy, that's going to be Claudio Reyna, who's been better than advertised. Without Reyna, the Bulls can look quite pedestrian, as they did last week in a 0-1 home loss to the Rapids(!) But it doesn't need to be Reyna: Bruce Arena moved forward Juan Pablo Angel back a few meters into the midfield and the result was that journeyman striker (and personal favorite) John Wolyniec looked great. Angel bossed the field and the Red Bulls destroyed the Crew 4-0. The Bulls can get all the great wing play they want from their wide players (and does anyone have a better mix than the Arby's, with Schopp, Van Den Bergh, Richards, and Freeman?), but they need someone in the center of the park to put order to it.

And that's what Chivas USA is finding out. I love the look of Chivas USA when they're on-- a bunch of guys who like possessing the ball. But Amado Guevara was going to be the linchpin of that offense and they look a little lost without him. Right now, Chivas USA seems to rely on two things: Panchito Mendoza's ability to clear up space elsewhere on the field with his slashing runs (with or without the ball at his feet) and passing combinations to confuse the defense. And they really do that well (the Telefutura announcer wasn't too far off when he said that Chivas was "asphyxiating the Galaxy"). So why did Chivas tie the Galaxy this weekend? Because they don't have a single person who can make that final pass. Ante Razov might be the best passer up front from the Goats, but the fact is that you want him to be taking (many) shots at goal. Kljesten, Bornstein and Mendoza are fantastic players who will key components on any offense, but you need someone to put it all together. Right now, no one's getting balls to Cuban speedster Maykel Galindo and the Goats are suffering because of it.

The Gals, for their part, looked pretty pedestrian, but... the "veteranisimo" Cobi Jones showed a couple of times why having a soccer brain is so important. On at least two occasions, he played insightful balls forward that Donovan was able to take advantage of. That just further underscores why Chivas USA needs a playmaker (and, incidentally, why the Galaxy need a supporting cast for Lando): during the first half, Cobi freaking Jones looked the most like a pure Number 10 on the field.

2. All This and Nothing: the Chicago Fire. Tongues were wagging when coach Dave Sarachan left volatile Wayne Rooney-think-alike Chad Barrett on the bench on Thursday against Dallas. But Barrett's replacement, Calen Carr, had done enough in spot duty to warrant a start (although he clearly needs more seasoning in front of goal). The real problem is that Chicago doesn't have any ideas. The Fire are still, for my money, the team that loves the ball the most, but damn if they don't have any ideas about what to do with it. Justin Mapp might be a metaphor for the entire team: he may be at turns the best player in the league, but sometimes you wonder if anything will come of it.

I think Dave Sarachan's plan follows the underwear gnome school of coaching: Step 1 Get the ball to Mapp or Rolfe, Step 2 ???, Step 3 GOAL!!! With Rolfe out against FC Burn, the Fire looked like they had even fewer ideas. Sure, they possessed the ball and had some gorgeous sequences. But what did it come to? A 1-2 home defeat to their Brimstone Cup rivals. The best thing you can say about first-time Fire starter Pascal Bedrossian? I hear he played in Europe. Maybe the guy needs more time to settle in, but right now it's not clear why he's starting in MLS (or getting paid decent bank to do so).

Incidentally, Big D's D deserves a lot of credit for their away win: they really worked as a unit to contain an impressive Justin Mapp.

3. All Quiet on the Wasatch Front. Ok-- so they dropped one to FC Dallas, but Jason Kreis's Real Salt Lake is a much better team than John Ellinger's Real Salt Lake. They still need help on defense-- and the loss of Carey Talley in the 10th minute against Dallas didn't help-- but this team is defending better. And as a result, their luxury attacking team is doing better as well, led by none other than Freddy Adu. When your team is not in total crisis, Adu is a nice guy to have around. He seems to do just enough things very well to make people keep saying "Just wait til he develops." I hope Adu keeps pushing himself, but I wonder if we won't all be better off when he realizes that he's a great role player. I mean, the guy draws defenders away, he wins corners-- he's a nice guy to have on the field. But he might never be a star. And that would be ok-- he could probably still be a national teamer if he learned to do a little more dirty work.

4. Karma has paid the Revs back. The Revs deserved better than their season-opening loss to Chicago after only letting in one goal in a first half that the Fire absolutely dominated. The Revs have looked much better since then and you could say that they hadn't been outplayed since. Until their match against Houston. The Revs looked pretty rough (with Andy "We Don't Need Dempsey" Dorman taken off at the half), but they still were able to grind out a win against a frustrated Dynamo team. Call it a mulligan-- the Revs are the best team in MLS. I'm circling July 14th against the Red Bulls-- I think both teams will still be in the elite.

5. The Elite. A couple weeks back, we didn't know who the elite was. Now, I think it's pretty clear that at least two teams are there: the Arby's and the Revs. I'm not ready to anoint FC Dallas just yet, but Juan Toja is a monster pickup who may have launched them into the elite. I think the Wiz still have a ways to go.

6. Guile Monster. Schelotto has yet to turn Cbus around. The result this weekend (a demoralizing 4-0 demolition at the hands of the Red Bulls) would get many coaches fired. Still, Guile showed why everyone was so excited about him: he lined up for one free kick about 40 yards out and... hit the crossbar. He'll make a couple of those eventually. That's just not a threat most MLS teams have. But Guile and (obviously) Beckham will teach MLS defenders to take more care even far from goal. I couldn't help but recall Tim Howard's first game for Man U against Arsenal in the Charity Shield. Thierry Henry was lining up for long-distance free kick. Howard casually set up a three man wall despite Roy Keane's angry insistence that the wall be comprised of at least four. And... Henry hits a perfect shot, the likes of which Howard had never seen in MLS. Here's hoping our next European goalkeeper exports get a little more exposure to dead ball experts.