So the playoffs are impending, and it hasn't escaped notice that the way it worked out this year is just plain wrong. Playoffs, however, are here to stay and especially because schedules are likely to become unbalanced. So how do we set up playoffs so that playing better is always rewarded?

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So I talked today to a Sounders rep, and the season ticket for next year includes 17 MLS matches, which means the Sounders won't have a home game against at least one other MLS team.  It looks like the unbalanced schedule has arrived.  Personally, I'm not pleased by this development, because I think balanced schedules make for a better league.  MLS is already has a huge quality disparity between the conferences, and going to an unbalanced schedule will only exacerbate the problem.

Uh oh, the hand is going to the back pocket, is he really...

No way!

While ejections exist in the traditional American sports, their versions have nothing quite like the impact of soccer's red card, because they all allow you to replace the ejected player. That means that despite the loss of the player, the team can still carry on with standard play. If the player lost was a star, they might be less effective, but the way the game is played isn't radically changed. The closest the non-soccer fan is going to come to the dynamics of the red card is the power play in hockey, but that expires and the teams are soon on level terms again.

So, what to do? There are at least three levels that have to be addressed when responding to a sending off. From bottom to top these are the personnel, the formation, and tactical plan. And there's one big factor that's going to drive what a coach does to each of these: what kind of player was sent off?

Keeper

Losing a keeper is usually a major blow to a team's chances because there's often a large dropoff between the first and second string.  However, beyond that there's the simple fact that keeper is the one truly non-optional position. That's why when formations are listed, the numbers only add up to 10.  That there will be a keeper is assumed and it's always a given where he'll be.  You can play around with the numbers and places when it comes to defenders, midfielders, or forwards, but there's always has to be one and only one keeper in one and only one spot.

This means that one way or another, a personnel change will happen and an outfield position is going away.  If you have a substitution, then it'll be used to get your backup keeper on.  If not, someone in shorts is going to have to pull the gloves on.  Generally speaking, the most likely players to come off are attacking players.  With a less experienced or completely novice keeper back there, the first thought is going to be defensive solidity, and that means the the players most likely to get the hook are the offensive types, the attacking midfielders, wingers, or forwards.  In the same vein, the formation and tactical plan would most likely become more defensive in an effort to protect the newly introduced keeper.  

Everybody else

I was going to go forward line by line but I realized that there are no guarantees with the outfield positions.  It's all much more fluid.  Because of the defensive concerns playing a man down will tend to create, the general principle is the further back the field the player is, the more likely changes will be.  However, this will depend greatly on the previous preparations the team has made.  For example, losing a defender is much more likely to result in a substitution than losing a forward, but if the personnel on the field have a lot of training playing in a formation with fewer defenders, say a 3-4-3 or a 3-5-2 instead of a 4-4-2, it might not be so hard to adapt to a 3-4-2 or a 3-5-1.  Further, the tactical plan might well become more defensive, but it might not if the personnel on the field are capable of maintaining attacking pressure without leaving dangerous gaps in the back.

Today's TTnT is brought to you by the letters R, S, L, C, and K and by the numbers 2 and 3.

RSL, of course, is Real Salt Lake, who have the most Euro-poser name in the league, at least until Garber announces the introduction of Bayern Milwaukee. CK stands for corner kick, and two is the number of goals that RSL scored off corners in their last game, played at home against the Philadelphia Union. And last, but emphatically not least, three is the number of points those two well-worked corners reaped for the Royal team of Utah.

All of which is another way to state the blindingly obvious: set pieces are important. Various studies at various times from various competitions have shown that around 30-40% of goals scored are from set pieces. Interestingly, the Sounders and RSL have scored and allowed an identical tally from set pieces, 15 for and 8 against. For RSL, that works out to around 43% of their goals scored and 38% of their goals allowed. The Sounders have more goals scored and allowed, so it works out to 36% of their goals for and 28% of the allowed.

It would be great to see an actual, in-depth analysis, and if anyone has a good source of data for set pieces in MLS, please put it into the comments. In any case, that RSL has what seems to be a higher than average proportion of set piece goals feels right, because RSL plays a fairly conservative style, which works to limit their exposure, but also somewhat limits their attack. They're not a team to commit a huge number of players to the attack all at once, especially not since losing Javier Morales.

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I'm hoping that this can be a regular series where we can have some discussions about how the game is played, especially the tactical/strategic side of things.  In the future I'll be taking a look at the tactics of upcoming opponents, tactical implications of Sounders transfer and roster moves, and any related topics you guys want to hear about.

To kick off, I want to talk about what I think tactics mean and the related issues of strategy and identity.

When most people hear the word tactics in the context of soccer, thoughts run immediately to formation.  While this is an important component, this is just a small part of the story.  Even if all formations other than 4-4-2 suddenly, magically disappeared, there would be huge variation in the way that teams played.  One team might have a very aggressively attacking version, taking defensive risks by frequently adding defenders to the attack.  Another team might take the completely opposite approach and commit only a striker or midfielder or two to offense, while using the bulk of the team to shut down the opposition.  And of course, there are many positions between these extremes.  Obviously, the real world does include all the different formations, and so the range of tactical options is huge, and selecting the right one for the situation is the central responsibility of a coach.

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Dave recently discussed where we can expect the Sounders to end up at the end of the regular season. I'd like to take the next step and look at what the playoff match-ups would be and how that would affect Kasey's chances of lifting the Cup in LA.

The table in Dave's post contained three different ways of looking at where a team will end up: points per match (PPM), Graham's formula applied to a whole season's slate of games (x34), and Graham's formula applied to each team's remaining games (xFinish).

The Scenarios

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PPM

If PPM is to be believed, this will be the playoffs:

Western Conference Qualifiers
Los Angeles Galaxy - SS
Real Salt Lake
FC Dallas

Eastern Conference Qualifiers
Philadelphia Union
Columbus Crew
New York Red Bulls

Wild Cards
Seattle Sounders FC
Colorado Rapids
DC United
San Jose Earthquakes

This would be an interesting scenario for the Sounders. As the top wild card they would play at home in their one-match play in against the Earthquakes. Also, if they won, they'd be the top surviving wild card, meaning that the other surviving wild card would face the Supporters' Shield winner. In all the scenarios, the Supporters' Shield winner is a Western team, meaning that if the Sounders advanced to the first round, they would go into the East and face Philadelphia home and away. Considering that the last two MLS Cup champions have been Western teams that crossed into the Eastern bracket, history would seem to be on the Sounders' side in this scenario. Particularly encouraging, in light of recent history, is that in this scenario the Sounders could only face the Galaxy in the Final.

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Something that's always annoyed me about soccer coverage in the US is the fact that records are listed in W-L-T order. I find it irksome because within the context of soccer, there's no logical reason for this: it orders the points 3-0-1, which is just bizarre. Of course the reason has nothing at all to do with soccer. The other sports that fill the other 90% of the sports pages (if you're very lucky and get that much soccer coverage) don't allow draws in normal circumstances, and so usually list their records as W-L. In the extremely rare circumstances that a draw or two actually happen during a season, that gets tacked on to the end, to make it W-L-T. Because that's what most American readers are expecting, that format ends up winning out over the more sensible W-D-L.

However, I've recently realized that there's a bigger problem than just cognitive dissonance. W-L-T completely misrepresents the competition. And before anyone gets overheated, W-D-L does as well, as would D-L-W, D-W-L, L-W-D, or L-D-W. This is because no team in MLS is competing on its record.

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Given the sorry state of play currently from the Sounders, and the quite likely scenario that we won't make the playoffs this year, I'd like to propose that we adopt a different approach to the season than is the standard MLS template.

Normally, highest priority is given to MLS matches, while other competitions, even the Champions League, are the province of second stringers and youth players. Because this season has been so screwy already, I say the Sounders should embrace the wacky and flip the script 180 degrees.

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Sorry for the late post, but technical issues and what not. The Sounders are down south of the Columbia tonight to start their campaign for the the US Open Cup, probably the only title that's still a realistic possibility. As always in the USOC, it's do or die, and the Sounders really need to bring their best, because the Timbers will not be rolling over. Normally, the Sounders would be favored in the matchup, but the way they've been playing recently, I have to say they're underdogs to pretty much anybody.

The lineups on the Reference Card is a best guess. Consider this your game thread.

The group stage ended today with Groups G and H playing their final matches. And in the end, everything ended up pretty much like everybody thought it would.

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I've been trying to write these as previews before the last group stage matches, but obviously I didn't make it for this one. So, here's a quick wrap-up of how these groups shook out.

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These groups are definitely not going as expected. Before the cup, conventional wisdom held this group as a contest between US and England for first and second with Algeria and Slovenia as sacrificial lambs. Well, luck and the referee's whistle have shattered that view and it's altogether possible that neither of the favored teams get through. Detailed scenarios have been done already elsewhere so here's the short version:

 

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Group A: Mexico's 2-0 victory over France today has made Group A almost come into focus. At the moment, at least one of Uruguay and Mexico will go on to the next stage,. France and the hosts, South Africa, are not yet mathematically eliminated, but will need a favorable result from the Uruguay-Mexico match. Here are the scenarios for each from toughest to easiest:

 

• South Africa
  Giving up the third goal against Uruguay might have been the fatal stroke for the Bafana Bafana. Without it, they'd be even with France on points and goal difference, but ahead of them in goals scored. As it stands, with their -3 goal difference, South Africa needs to beat France and hope that someone wins the Uruguay-Mexico match, and furthermore, hope that the goals total from both those matches reverses their goal deficit. A tall order, but US fans in particular know that it can happen.
• France
  In a similar, but slightly better position than South Africa. They also need a blowout in both matches, but with one less goal to make up. Domenech's reign as coach is set to end after this World Cup as he makes way for Laurent Blanc, and after this performance I'm sure many will be glad to see him go.
• Mexico and Uruguay
  Have the luxury of being able to lose and still get through, as long as the goal difference isn't huge between both matches. A draw of any kind will see both teams into the next round, but there's still a lot to play for, because finishing position will determine who plays who in Group B.

 

Speaking of which, Group B: Argentina's thrashing of South Korea has put them solidly in pole position for first place, which means that fight for the top spot in Group A is a fight to avoid facing Messi and Co. At the same time, it's also possible that they could be eliminated. Scenarios, again from hardest to easiest:

 

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This was the game that Sounders players and coaches have been talking about having for a while now. Like is the usual Sounders way, lots of chances were created, but the big difference tonight was that shots were put on frame. Tonight the Sounders put eight on target, twice their total for the last two MLS matches combined. That combined with a solid defensive performance that effectively took Shalrie Joseph out of the game allowed the Rave Green to grab all three points and take a big step toward righting the ship.

The Sounders were probably helped somewhat by the fact that the Revs were forced to play Shuttleworth in the absence of Reis and Burpo, and he definitely had the look of a third stringer, especially on the third goal. But the Sounders looked like the better team on all areas of the field and the other two goals would likely have beaten any keeper in the league.

Taking Dave's Keys to the Game in reverse order:

• Stopping Shalrie Joseph
  Big check here. There were long stretches where Joseph was invisible and he only looked dangerous once or twice. At lot of this was done by Ianni in the midfield, and I think Ianni is really showing his versatility in deputizing for Alonzo.
• Set Plays
  Another check here. Even though the Sounders didn't score from any set plays, they were very organized and balls were cleared out of the penalty area with dispatch. Obviously there are still things to work on, such as getting the ball in the net from a corner, but this was a solid performance to build from.
• Breaking the Bunker
  And check. This effort was helped immensely by Leo's early goal, which forced the Revs to chase the game, thereby opening up space for the Sounders to exploit. As they demonstrated against Boca, giving the Sounders room is a very dangerous thing.

 

 

Scoring Summary:

SEA - Leo Gonzalez (Zakuani) - 5
SEA - Steve Zakuani (Evans, Montero) - 24
SEA - Fredy Montero (Noonan, Gonzalez) - 42

 

 

Seattle Sounders: Kasey Keller, James Riley, Jeff Parke, Tyrone Marshall, Leo Gonzalez (Taylor Graham), Freddie Ljungberg (Sanna Nyassi), Patrick Ianni, Brad Evans, Steve Zakuani, Pat Noonan (Roger Levesque), Fredy Montero

SHOTS: 19, SHOTS ON GOAL: 8, OFFSIDES: 5, CORNER KICKS: 10, FOULS: 13, SAVES: 1.

New England Revolution: Bobby Shuttleworth, Kevin Alston, Cory Gibbs, Chris Tierney, Sainey Nyassi (Zak Boggs), Pat Phelan (Emmanuel Osei), Shalrie Joseph, Kenny Mansally (Edgaras Jankauskas), Joseph Niouky, Zack Schilawski, Marko Perovic

SHOTS: 2, SHOTS ON GOAL: 1, OFFSIDES: 2, CORNER KICKS: 4, FOULS: 11, SAVES 5.

Quotes after jump.

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Recently, ESPN did a nice story on the burgeoning MLS academies and what it means for the future of MLS and US Soccer. The article is worth a full read, but there are some points I want to highlight:

 

• First, this is the way forward, not fantasizing about "best athletes".
  Take a look at the biography of almost every top player and it's the same. Talent is recognized early and trained by full-time professionals, employed by teams who have strong incentives to find and nurture the very best talent they can find, either to add to their first team or to sell on for cash for the organization. The fact that MLS has fully committed to following a similar path is a hugely positive step for US Soccer.
• That's not to say there isn't room for improvement.
  As it stands, huge swaths of the country are left out of the "catchment" areas that each club retains in a 75-mile radius around its stadium. In fact 32 out of the 52 metro areas with a million or more people fall outside the reach of an MLS club. This is important because each club can retain only two players per youth team from outside that area, and that potentially leaves a lot of players out in the cold.
  
  At the same time, there's a lot of double coverage. Obviously, because they share the Home Depot Center, the Galaxy and Chivas USA also share the exact same catchment area, and therefore might come into conflict about who gets to sign some youngster or other. Similarly, The Philadelphia Union is situated almost exactly between the Red Bulls and DC United, with significant overlaps with both. All the better in my opinion, because an arms race in the development of serious youth programs is  one of the best things that could possibly happen for US Soccer. Actually, it's the second best thing. The best thing would be to open the whole country to a free-for-all for all clubs, but socialist tendencies die hard.
• Actually, there's something even better than that.
  The best thing would be if that free-for-all to produces teams all the way down to age 8. No, I'm not kidding. Lionel Messi was already playing for Newell's Old Boys, a first division club in Rosario, at that age, and most teams around the world have teams starting around then. Here's Inter's youngest team. Those kids were receiving training before they even turned 9 from the club that won the Champions League this year. Will all of them make it to be pros? Of course not, but the ones who make it all the way through the 10 youth teams have a real shot at becoming top level players, having had 10 years of professional coaching.
• What about the Sounders?
  Joe Roth has said that one of the milestones of success for the Sounders, alongside the standard trophies, will come when an academy product steps out on the field to play with the senior team. Personally, I hope that he remains aggressive about this and pushes the organization to follow up with that goal. I hope that we're very aggressive with our two spots per team that we can fill with players outside our catchment area. A steady pipeline of young, skilled players who will play some of their best years here before moving on for big transfer fees would help make us an extremely strong club consistently, year after year.

It's as predictable as the sunrise or sunset: every World Cup, some American will ask "What if our best athletes played soccer?" This year is no exception and Andrew Sharp and Spencer Hall have stepped forward to make sure SBNation isn't left out of this venerable tradition.

As is the custom, they pick a bunch of football, basketball, and baseball players (and, for variety I suppose, Andy Roddick) and proclaim how much ass they would kick in soccer had they decided to play it professionally. I guess this exercise must be amusing if you follow American sports, otherwise it wouldn't keep coming back over and over like a stubborn fungal infection. The problem, of course, is the question itself is based on faulty premises.

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The US has its popularity problems, as the hegemon of the day is wont to have. Heck, the Romans have PR issues to this day and their empire fell 1,534 years ago. In any case, it's just a fact of life that there are people around the world who resent the US, for reasons real or imagined.

Apparently, their numbers are not high enough for Denz over at RSL Soapbox, because today he proposed the most effective thing to make Brazilians hate the US into eternity: take away their chance to host the World Cup.

Even more, what's the rationale behind depriving the people of the world's most passionate soccer nation the joy of hosting the premier event on their soil again after 60 years? It's not fair to ask the poor Brazilians to shoulder the burden in these hard economic times, and the US should extend it's paternal hand to relieve them, because it knows so much better what's good for them than they themselves do.

Brazilians would see such a proposal as personally insulting and the height of arrogance to boot. They would be very quick to point out that Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, Goldman Sachs, and the rest of the cabal that demolished the world economy had their headquarters on Wall Street, NY, USA, and not Avenida Paulista, SP, Brasil. The further out conspiracy theorists would probably say that the US wrecked the world economy specifically to set up the theft of the World Cup.

If the US wants to help Brazil, it could start by rebuilding the world economy and then making sure that it doesn't destroy it again. But if we think we're short on enemies, this plan is a surefire way to instantly create 200 million more.

Now that we're in the new era of multiple DPs, I'm renewing my call for MLS to go and get Juninho Pernambucano. Specifically, I'm calling for the Sounders to go and get him. If you don't know who he is, he's this guy (apologies in advance for the music):

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One of the things that most perplexes Americans not familiar with soccer is the draw. People are used to there being winners and losers and for them a draw isn't really a "result". Well, as we all know, there are draws and then there are draws. There are times when the ref blowing the whistle with the scores level seems like sweet salvation, when you can savor that point you earned when it could have very well been nothing. Tonight was not one of those nights for us. Tonight was the flip side of the coin, when the point you received seems paltry and tarnished because you know you had three in your hand and you threw two of them away.

The ironic thing, of course, is going into this game, many of us felt that a 2-2 draw in Sandy would have been a good result. Because of the altitude and various other factors, RSL has one of the best home records in the league and in most cases a team coming away with a point would have reason to feel good about themselves. The difference, of course, is that the Sounders had the three points for big chunks of the game, and but for some quite dire corner defense, could be flying home as winners.

There's no reason to panic, of course, because there are still a lot of games left to play and we don't need to finish first in the league, just eighth or better. But Sigi does need to organize his corner and set piece defense, because if we remain as confused and ineffectual as we are now, this will be a very difficult season to watch.

I didn't realize that he was literally medieval. If your program survived the rain, flip to your roster and check out Pete's info:

No.	Name	Pos.	Height	Weight	D.O.B.	Hometown	Last Club
8	Vagenas, Peter	M	5-8	163	02/06/1078	Pasadena, Calif.	UCLA

I immediately take back anything unflattering I've ever said about Vagenas. To paraphrase Yoda, when 932 years old you reach, play this good you will not.

Here's his opening paragraph (read the rest here):

Imagine you work at Burger King and you get sacked. Now, you want to get another job at McDonald's, but you're not allowed to unless McDonald's compensates Burger King. It seems absurd, but that's the way certain things work in MLS at the moment. If your team terminates your contract, it still can demand a trade from another club before you can go and play for that other club.

This, of course, would be absurd in a lot of situations, but there are such things as non-compete clauses, so it's not completely unheard of for an employer to attempt to restrict a former employee's employment options. What is unheard of, though, is for that to last into perpetuity. What this paragraph highlights more than anything, however, is the difference between how sports teams operate here in the US versus the rest of the world.

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Freddie Ljungberg's new post on his blog clarifies exactly what his status is for next season. Unsurprisingly, it's "unclear" and it all depends on whether there's a CBA and if there's a lockout. If there wasn't incentive enough for MLS to resolve this situation quickly, a top team losing a DP to Europe because of the labor instability should provide a bit more. Here's the relevant bit of the post:

During the winter there has been some reports in media about teams in Europe asking for my service, and as a Player it is always an honour when top teams are interested and evidently this shows that MLS these days is a very reputable League.

I have not made any final decision about the spring as a lot depends on the outcome of the new CBA and lockout threat in MLS.

Stay tuned.

Dave pointed me toward a great blog called 3 Four 3 that I want to highlight, because I think these guys have very much the right idea when it comes to the qualities that make a player great:

This term "elite" is very often abused. In conversations with players, parents, fans, coaches – the soccer community in general – I have heard many label this or that player elite. And many times it actually is a decent player. But elite they are not! Also, it’s amazing how many times the player that was referenced is in reality just one of the bunch.

The issue arises because people, specifically in the US, have the wrong idea of what constitutes elite. Their metrics are just flat out wrong. The most resounding error is focusing on physical attributes. Is he big? Is he strong? Is he fast?

This does not make or break elite status!

What makes or breaks you are two and only two fundamental attributes: Technical Quality and Soccer IQ.

Please read the rest of the post and the blog as a whole, because these guys are showing a kind of thinking that is not found often enough in American soccer. The point that they make in the post referenced above can't be made forcefully enough. What the professional American player is lacking generally is not size, speed, or strength, it's some combination of those two attributes they identify. Think back on the Sounders season, and remember those stretches when it seemed like nobody could string more than four passes together. Remember the possessions that went for nothing because someone couldn't trap the ball or needed too many touches to control the ball. Think back to those times when we couldn't get past a team packed in their own end for ninety minutes. To use their terms, these are failures of technical quality and soccer IQ.

Of course, this is hardly a problem of just the professional level. American soccer suffers from this at all levels from the toddlers on up. I saw a particularly stark example a couple of years ago. A friend of mine, who coached his son's U-12 team, invited me to see them play in a local tournament. We arrived a little early and a girls' match was finishing up. We watched as we waited for the field to open up, and I saw a little girl anticipate and intercept a pass, smoothly dribble around the opponent she had just beaten to the ball, and take off down the field, head up, looking for her teammates. Impressed, I turned to my friend and said, "That number 44 is pretty good," to which he replied, "But she's so small." I really wish I could say I was surprised at his response, but unfortunately that sort of thinking is all too common.

This week the Wall Street Journal published an article on the efforts American sports organizations are making to attract Hispanic fans. Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic group in the US and their buying power is growing rapidly as well. Included in the article is a brief discussion of how Hispanics figure into MLS' plans:

Many Hispanics hail from countries where soccer -- known there as fútbol -- is a national passion, which Major League Soccer is trying to tap. The U.S. league is sponsoring games featuring Latin American teams in the hope that fans will stick around for U.S. matches the same day.

"For us, the Hispanic market is incredibly important," said MLS commissioner Don Garber.

But catering to "the Hispanic market" is a big challenge for U.S. sports promoters, in part because Latinos here have ties to more than a dozen countries.

Eduardo Carvacho has been navigating the Hispanic market for U.S. soccer teams since 2007. He started out building a fan base for the Columbus Crew in Ohio, where most Hispanics were recent arrivals. To start a "porra," a group of diehard fans who set the tone at the stadium, he relied mostly on personal interactions, like eating tacos with community leaders.

Mr. Carvacho now works for the soccer team in Dallas, a much bigger market with established Hispanic institutions where he can proselytize through businesses such as Fiesta, a Hispanic-food grocery chain that sells FC Dallas tickets.

"You have to customize every single thing," he said of appealing to Hispanic fans, depending on the local community.

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The Philadelphia Union released their expansion draft picks and many Sounders fans will be saddened to see the very first MLS Sounder on the list. While names such as James Riley and Stephen King were heard quite often in the speculation leading up to the announcement today, Le Toux didn't figure much in the discussion. I, for one, have to admit to being completely surprised. The press release from the Sounders is here.

While Le Toux wasn't our biggest star, he was one of the players who made the most effort to connect with the fans, so he'll be missed more than just as a midfielder or forward. Thanks for everything, Seba and good luck.

Here's the full list of expansion draft selections:

Jordan Harvey
Andrew Jacobsen
Brad Knighton
Sebastien Le Toux
Stefani Miglioranzi
Alejandro Moreno
David Myrie
Shea Salinas
Shavar Thomas
Nick Zimmerman

Update: Statement from Adrian

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The 2009 MLS season is now in the books, and a final long on quantity (120 minutes plus penalties), but short on quality has crowned Real Salt Lake the champions. I'm sure the streets of Salt Lake City will be in full Rio Carnaval mode well into the middle of the day. Elsewhere, GMs around the league will roll into their offices and continue the process of building their teams so they can take RSL's place on the podium next year. The long term strategy of MLS has always had a strong emphasis on containing costs and anyone familiar with the history of soccer in the US knows why that is. Blockbuster transfers for international superstars will not be a featuring in MLS for a very long time. Instead, finding bargain players will be key to MLS success and the true test of GMs across the league.

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Referees have once again made their way into the headlines and for once MLS has no apologies to make. In the second leg of a UEFA World Cup Qualification playoff, Thierry Henry made a vital assist, crossing across the face of goal to William Gallas' head to score the tying goal. The goal pulled France level in the match and ahead 2-1 on aggregate. There was a problem, though. See if you can spot it in this video.

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On May 26th, 2009 the whole world found out that this player would be available on a free transfer:

For those of you not familiar with him, Juninho Pernambucano is probably the world's best free kick taker. Give him a free kick within 35 yards and you're facing a very dangerous situation. Add in smooth as silk dribbling ability and precision passing and you've got an attacking midfielder of the highest caliber.

Available for free.

So, where is Juninho now? A month after announcing his departure from Lyon, Juninho signed a contract with a club in Qatar. From what Dave tells me, Qatar is a vanity league, where oil tycoons play at owning soccer clubs as a fun way to spend their ridiculous piles of cash. Is anyone else seeing the problem here? At the time of Juninho's announcement, there were nine DP slots open in MLS. If I were Don Garber I'm on the phone to each and every MLS GM with one of those free slots as soon as that press conference is over. I would harangue them until one of them committed to getting Juninho's signature on an MLS contract. Then I'd go and grab him by the scruff of the neck, toss him in the seat next to me on a flight to Lyon and we make sure Juninho is wearing a USA flag on his left sleeve ASAP.

For a league that's striving to establish its credibility and convert soccer fans into MLS fans, a player such as Juninho would have been perfect. A creative attacking force in the run of play, his amazing free kicks would negate the usual strategy of constant fouling adopted in this very physical league to stifle skillful players. Take a good look at some of those free kicks and imagine them playing as highlights on American TV. Imagine the electricity at games featuring Juninho's new MLS club as the crowd becomes instantly charged with anticipation any time the referee blew his whistle and pointed toward their opponents' goal.

MLS' cautious approach has served it well in the past, but the league also needs to push the franchises to make sure they're bringing in the best talent they can afford. Clubs sitting on their DP slots when a major talent like Juninho is within MLS' reach are hurting the league and depriving American fans of the top level players they long to see. MLS can't be cavalier about opportunities like these. It's rare when a top player becomes available under such favorable conditions. Next time, MLS needs to be ready with a game plan to get him on board.

Well, more suffering for fans at Qwest. It's beyond a cliché to say that MLS referring is subpar, but there were two hugely controversial calls that will soon be reverberating over the interwebs. First is Onstad getting off with just a yellow. It's hard to see how that's not a red, and the Montero yellow is also mystifying. The second is the whistle stopping play as the ball arced toward the Houston penalty area. The advantage rule was put in place to prevent a team from benefiting from fouling. In this case, Houston got one of the biggest benefits possible.

Enough of that for now. All in all I thought the team put in a good effort, even if they couldn't quite put together a scoring move. Overall I thought we had a better performance than Houston for most of the match, but I wouldn't say that either team was truly dominant in the game for any stretch.

Here's how I saw some of the more important individual performances in this match:

• In my opinion, Ljungberg was Man of the Match. Once again, he put in a world class effort and was a constant threat all over the field. It was evident that he was getting extremely frustrated but he kept it under control and kept his focus on the game.
• Jaqua put in another good performance, and I'm sure he felt some déjà vu when the wrap was going on his head.
• Montero had a quiet night and his miss wide in the second half was a painful and much too familiar sight for Sounders fans.
• Ianni was a great presence on both sides of the ball and played with confidence. He was especially effective on corners and could have put us up 2-0 but for the crossbar and a right-place-right-time goal line clearance. Sigi will have a tough choice to make if Marshall is healthy for the next game.

Now it's all down to the game in Houston, and whether we can continue our recent road form. Both teams have a ludicrously long time to think things over and while Houston may have somewhat of an edge, I have to say this series is too close to call. Houston was very conservative tonight, and even though they did get some good chances in, they seems to be very satisfied with counterattacking and walking away with the draw. The Sounders have done well against attacking teams this year, and my sense is that Houston could feel an obligation to take the game to us in their home stadium. If they do and play opens up in Houston, the Sounders are very capable of taking advantage.

I'm sure Dave will be posting soon with some real numbers and I'll be very interested to hear his take. Tonight wasn't a dream night for the Sounders nation but it wasn't a nightmare either. We're still very much alive and Sigi and the veterans will have to pull the team together so we can push our way into the next round.

Well, actually, the West was won yesterday by the Galaxy, but today everything is completely settled. Houston's 3-2 victory over Chivas gives them second and puts us into third. The truth is that today's result couldn't ever have changed much in terms of our playoff picture. The main difference is our home match will be first and then we'll play away in the second leg. Whether we play in LA or Seattle in the second round will depend entirely on which of the SoCal teams comes through the first round.

As for last night's game, Dave has already posted some first thoughts and it sounds like he has some interesting news yet to come as well. For my part, I was extremely frustrated by the lack of concentration that gave Dallas the lead in the first half and the appalling finishing which made it look like we were in for another depressing night at Qwest. Thankfully, the Sounders seem to have developed the ability to take control of matches under adverse circumstances and were finally able to make all that attacking pay.

Individually, our guys displayed a lot of the things that we both love and hate about them. Jaqua seems to be growing as a presence. Sigi has finally abandoned the idea of Jaqua as a target man, and it's allowing Jaqua to play more effectively. He's actually begun to win the headers that everyone expects a 6' 4" player to win and his good positional sense was on display again as he put himself in the right place for Montero's centering ball on the equalizer. His first touch is still nothing to write home about and he still gives up the ball much too often. Zakuani is still a nightmare for opposing backs and combined really well with Ljungberg. At the same time, opposing goalkeepers can sigh in relief when they see Steve step up to crack a shot.

In the grander scheme of things, yesterday's and today's results were just the finishing touches on what has been an amazing regular season for the Sounders. At the beginning, everyone involved with the team set making the playoffs as the big goal for the club. That ticket got punched last week in dramatic fashion and this week was about asserting ourselves and getting the "no goals at Qwest" monkey off our backs. Check and check.

We'll be hearing soon about the details of the first round, and we'll soon see if we're up to task of bringing home a double in our first year, just like the Chicago Fire did in 1998. If we do, then we've made a strong case for the title of best MLS expansion team ever. But that's a debate that will be fun to have if the Sounders can take it all the way. For now, the Sounders Nation can enjoy the success that has been achieved so far, and look forward to the coming playoff campaign.