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Good Morning Krusty Krew! I hope you had a good night's sleep. So much to do, so much to see, so what's wrong with taking the back streets...AHH EARWORM!
Barenaked Ladies aside, some fun linkage ahead. While us lowly beat writers are just letting you know when to get your butt to the Home Depot Center, national writers are doing full field previews. So this morning we've got a national magazine, a national broadsheet, and a website associated with a national cable broadcasting company. Woohoo! Have you guessed which is which?
L.A. Galaxy remains cup favorite - Steve Davis - SI.com
Playoffs begin quickly for teams in Major League Soccer's new wild-card round; the postseason opener is Wednesday. The favorites (Los Angeles foremost, followed closely by Seattle) join this weekend. Every side has Nov. 20 circled on the calendar, date of the MLS Cup final at the Home Depot Center outside Los Angeles. Here, then, is a team-by-team look at the 10 playoff qualifiers. (Listed in order of total points.)
David Beckham reaches crossroads as Galaxy enter playoffs – USATODAY.com
When David Beckham joined the L.A. Galaxy to much fanfare five years ago, he said he wanted to change soccer in the USA...
Ives Galarcep analyzes Major League Soccers top ten playoff teams this season. The Los Angeles Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders lead the list The Los Angeles Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders lead...
(analysis after the jump)
The book on LA so far seems to be, they're awesome and really should walk through this tourney if the soccer gods were just, but the best team rarely wins this thing. David Beckham apparently uses coffee as a performance enhancer, but mostly he's getting old. At this point both signing for one more year with the Galaxy so he can retire under relative comfort, and signing for two years with PSG so he can be closer to his country of origin make perfect since to me. I contend his next move with be more personal than soccer related. 36 seems a good time to stop looking for that new challenge and adventure.
Ives Garlacep, while leading with "an underdog may emerge" says pretty much the same thing. It's LA's cup to lose, as it was last year. But this year's different. The number two team isn't getting a cupcake like number one. Lost amongst all the 10 > 8 talk is that the tournament is the same as last year, but steps have been taken to weaken both the wildcard teams, and the number two, while giving the supporters shield winner every advantage. Last year was a fairly even tournament and one of the worst teams won, this year the tournament is weighted and stacked. It's LA's cup to lose.