And, one day later, Dominic Kinnear comes back to earth.
I guess we don't really need to wait for the MLS playoff percentage calculator at Sports Club Stats to update. They still had the Dynamo making the playoffs fifteen chances out of a thousand before last night, but I have to think De Rosario – aka "some Canadian guy," if you're Preki – snuffed out most of those fifteen scenarios.
And, if that site's math is anything resembling accurate, it's going to take a couple of epic collapses to bring back a playoff race, thanks to the Crew looking past the Sounders in order to focus on the CCL. (That's the most charitable way I can put it.)
Even before the DC game, Sports Club Stats had the Galaxy listed as "In" the playoffs – for those of you who hate clicking links, "In" is a category separate from and better than "100%." They also had a 68% chance of winning the shield, which probably didn't improve THAT much, since Salt Lake also won, but it sure didn't hurt.
It looks as if both the Shield race and the final playoff spots each have roughly a seven out of ten chance of staying just the way they are. I suppose in theory a relegation race would make things interesting, depending on how many teams you wanted to throw into the pit – but I'd rather see a system where playoff spots meant a real home field advantage. I think I'd rather pay attention to Salt Lake and Dallas playing well than Houston and CUSA playing like garbage, wouldn't you?
I suppose we could pay attention to the Eastern Conference race. Which is looking as if it will end up being a race for fourth place in MLS. I know the winner will be seeded #2 – which is actually sort of important, because the Eastern champ gets the home field in the conference final. That's cancelled out by the crapshoot in the first round, but at least it's something.
But apart from that, I think we're pretty much done. See you in November!
I was trying to figure out last night why Landon Donovan always seems to score against DC United. They seem to make him mad, and, like the Incredible Hulk, the angrier Donovan gets, the stronger he gets.
And he was pretty annoyed last night. The expression on his face after he converted Clyde Simms' assist was pretty much controlled rage. He was only slightly more euphoric after he either placed a header as well as any player in the history of the game, or got a mondo lucky bounce off his dome. Donovan still has too much of a baby face to pull off a complete Eastwood, but he was trying.
But, why DC United? Was he an MLS fan in the late 90's? That would certainly do it. Was he a Galaxy fan bitter about 1996? He was well on his way to young professional status in 1999 – a path that at the time was going to avoid MLS altogether. He couldn't also have been mad about Lassiter breaking Robin Fraser's collarbone in 1999, could he?
It had to be a coincidence that Landon treats DC United like he treats Mexico. Or so I thought, until, once again, Green got the story:
Emphasis added.
My God, he really does hate DC United. And he really is still bitter about those early MLS Cups!