Stupid Conspiracy Theories

Some folks would have you believe that the Freemasons, the Knights Templar and Don Garber are fixing MLS to make sure that David Beckham makes it into the playoffs.

In Saturday's MLS nightcap, a red card and penalty against the Galaxy's opponent, Toronto, would seem to provde some evidence for this. But Marco Reda's grab on Gavin Glinton on a breakaway seemed pretty clear (at least on the replay). It looked like a good call. But LA, despite a man advantage, continued to look bad and let Toronto tie up the game. Only a late surge by LA got them a barely earned victory.

I'm not one of those who will bag on LA if they make the playoffs after being terrible for so long. But these wins are, by and large, not particularly convincing. The Galaxy's unbeaten streak has featured 3 ejections and 3 penalty kicks. I mention this not because I think the league is rigged but because it suggests to me that LA still hasn't really righted the ship.

This is what an 8 seed looks like in 13 team MLS. They're really not that good. Compare them to Chicago, which is the odds on favorite to be the 8 seed, but are an example of a team that has turned the tide. They had a bad middle of the season, but, as they're playing right now, they can hang with the best. I can see them pulling an upset in the playoffs. The Gals, should they make the playoffs, look like odd's on favorites to bow out in the first round.

Their roster still looks like Lalas was attempting to build a First XI out of the most disappointing players in the league. Between Buddle, Martino, Gordon, Glinton and, good lord, Carlos Pavon, the Gals have more reclamation projects than the EPA. How bad is Carlos Pavon? I get that the guy's not as mobile as he used to be. But why does his touch suck so bad? In the first few minutes of the Toronto-LA game, we watched him fail to win a corner by accidentally nutmegging the Toronto defender when he needed to smack the Red in the legs with the ball and then lose balls in ever more creative ways, such as trapping it by kicking it into his face and then watching it bounce out of bounds.

One final thought on FSC's presentation of the LA-Toronto game: I liked how they were talking about how rookie Josh Tudela's play was going to make things really difficult for coach Frank Yallop in deciding the starting lineup, which has got to be the stupidest of many odd comments during the broadcast. Josh Tudela's "backup" is David Beckham-- somehow I don't think the rookie for Evansville is going to keep an England international on the bench.