Bizarro World (Continued)

The Revs crush the Dynamo and, in turn, are crushed by the Fire.

The Galaxy are crushed by the Rapids and, in turn, crush the San Jose Earthquakes.

None of these results are, by themselves, really all that surprising, but put together, they sure make a decent case for the existence of karma. Or at least an ESPN Primetime Curse.

Each game was interesting, although truth be told, the Fire-Revs matchup was a much better match. Even when the Revs lost Jeff Larentowicz to a soft red card in the 7th minute, the Revs continued to threaten Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch. For a team that lost 4-0, New England looked pretty good. Their young additions Nyassi and Mansally created problems for the Fire-- Mansally's skill created a few of New England's 11 corner kicks. The Revs have always had a fairly sticky midfield with Shalrie Joseph, with the ball always landing at his feet, but the young players, in addition to offseason addition Mauricio Castro, seem to give New England an element of surprise that they lacked, even with since-departed better players like Dempsey, Noonan and Dorman. It's hard to take much out of a match with an early ejection, but in bizarro world MLS, I found myself thinking that New England established themselves as an excellent team, even in a disasterous defeat. With Taylor Twellman in the lineup, you just know they would have finished at least a couple of their 11 corners.

The Fire, on the other hand, still look flawed. The Fire defense looked vulnerable and I have to think they'll be punished in the future. The attack looked, I suppose, better. New Polish attacker Thomasz Frankowski scored a pair of goals that I'm not sure Chad Barrett would have finished, but Chad Barrett scored a decent goal himself. Blanco got involved and showed his ability to hold onto the ball and kill the game. But despite the offensive fireworks, I found myself unconvinced by the Chicago attack. They've got an absolutely loaded midfield with Blanco, Mapp and Rolfe, but it didn't quite seem to click. I'm especially curious if Frankowski is going to continue to score goals. On the plus side, Barrett had a couple of nice runs and showed better decision-making.

But then again, I've got a soft spot for guys who suck. I want to believe that Chad Barrett is going to be a star, and, no, not just because he looks vaguely like Wayne Rooney. I remember feeling similarly about Matt Taylor of Chivas USA. Formerly of Chivas USA, at least.

Speaking of guys who aren't very good, how about Alan Gordon? On the same day Chad Barrett scores, Alan Gordon of the LA Galaxy gets a secondary assist in the Gal's win over the San Jose Earthquakes. But the predictions of those who said that Gordon would become a 10 goal scorer on the back of David Beckham's crosses look to be off by about 8 or 9 goals. I really want to see Gordon succeed-- I just have doubts about whether it will happen.

But his Galaxy got a much-needed win against the expansion Earthquakes. It was a poor match. The Earthquakes looked completely disjointed: their was no midfield to speak of, so defenders took to launching balls towards the relatively weak Quake forwards. Ronnie O'Brien, at times one of the best players in the league, was curiously absent. For a team that was supposed to have a solid core defensively, the Quakes seemed to lack a little nastiness. I know they're probably looking for a marquee attacker, but I half wonder if they wouldn't do better going after Pablo Mastroeni, or at least someone like him...

The Galaxy deserve some credit, too: both goals were scored because David Beckham can pass a ball and Landon DOnovan is quick with great vision. In other words, they were scored for reasons that make sense given how the team was constructed. Donovan's speed was, in particular, necessary for both goals-- he was simply doing what he does best. Beckham did fine, although some with high expectations of him may still claim to be disappointed.