Team by team MLS rundowns will be appearing on Spotlight Soccer throughout the week, but in the meantime, check out my personal playoff predictions. Discuss in the forum here.
When it’s all said and done, I predict that the 8 playoff teams will be split evenly between the Western and Eastern Conferences.
The Chicago Fire, DC United, New England Revolution, and the Columbus Crew will represent the Eastern Conference.
Meanwhile the Western Conference playoff teams will be the LA Galaxy, Houston Dynamo, Chivas USA, and the Colorado Rapids.
In the aggregate first round of the Eastern Conference bracket, New England will knock off the Columbus Crew and DC United will wallop the Chicago Fire. The DC United/Chicago Fire games will feature DC United finally snapping its playoff ineptitude and Blanco setting new unbreakable records for complaining to officials.
Finally, New England will top DC United 1-0 on an eyes-closed 40-yard half volley from Taylor Twellman in the last minute of injury time to advance to the MLS Cup.
In the aggregate first round of the Western Conference bracket, the LA Galaxy will destroy the Colorado Rapids and the Houston Dynamo will slip past Chivas USA in the most entertaining games of the first round.
The Western Conference final will culminate in a 2-2 overtime game featuring Houston bombarding the leaky LA Galaxy defense for 120 minutes, while Landon Donovan shows up for the entire game and creates opportunity after opportunity. Finally Dwayne De Rosario rockets an upper corner blast to break the deadlock, launching Houston into it’s 3rd straight MLS Cup matchup against New England.
The MLS Cup, then, is nothing new, as Houston and the Revolution square off. This time, however, there is little drama in New England’s continued drought as Houston pounds New England 4-0.
Dwayne de Rosario is crowned the Cup MVP and threatens to melt every hockey rink in Canada if Canada doesn’t qualify for the 2010 World Cup.
Let’s get the MLS season started! It’s going to be the most exciting one to date…and with the upcoming expansion, it’s only going to get better.
Disagree? Want to share your valuable thoughts? Join the discussion on the forum here!
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