The Road to MLS Cup XIII, Week Two

1. Lots of goals. The average was four goals a game. In fact, this has been a pretty fast start for goals-- the league is averaging 3.3 goals a game over the first two weeks. Compare that to the period from 2002-2004 when the league averaged around 2.2 goals a game over the fist couple of weeks. Those years are rightly seen as tough years for MLS from a quality of play perspective.

So is this recent jump in goals a result of bringing in high-priced attackers without bringing in comparably excellent defenders? Maybe. MLS newbies have done pretty well. But last year, when some of the best newbies joined, the scoring average was actually down for the first couple of weeks (JP Angel, of course, arrived a few more games into the season). But the big jump in goals scored from 2.2 of the 2002-2004 era to around 3 goals a game actually first occured in 2005-- an expansion year. So I think the number of goals we're seeing is due to two things: (1) great scoring talent and (2) diluted defending. A number of teams look fairly disjointed defensively, including the Fire, DC United, Toronto, San Jose, LA, Houston, Dallas, Real Salt Lake, KC... Wait-- I could probably just name the entire league.

2. Speaking of defending. I said it last year, but the imports are going to show MLS defenders a little bit about free kicks. Free kicks are much more dangerous than they've ever been in this league. Case in point: Toronto's big signing, Laurent Robert, sent a long (40 yards or so) free kick towards the end line-- it looks like it's hit way too far. The United defenders gave up on it. But Jeff Cunningham didn't and suddenly the ball stops arching and just drops to him. He heads the ball across the goal and it hits the cross bar. You could see the players and the fans sort of looking at each other and saying "WTF just happened?"