FanNation

The Haunted Team In Need of an Exorcism

By: Ridge Mahoney, Soccer America Senior Editor

 D.C. United is haunted; not by the dearly departed, but by those whose recent departures have left great voids in a once-great team floundering and flailing in search of points and answers.

Last Sunday, ex-D.C. Christian Gomez and Facundo Erpen orchestrated a 2-0 defeat in Colorado.

On Thursday, former United defender Brandon Prideaux returned in Chicago Fire red and helped smother United in another 2-0 setback. Prideaux departed after the 2006 season, Erpen followed him to Colorado during the 2007 season. A major clearout last winter stripped away Gomez and several other central components of a team that posted the league's best regular-season record (16-7-7) but lost to Chicago, 3-2, on aggregate in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

MLS Week 5 Predictions

Busy week looking ahead of us, with several key top of the table matches that will prove to be exciting.

Week 5 got under way slowly but surely with New England Revs ending FC Dallas' unbeaten streak in a sloppy 1-0 win with a goal from Khano Smith in the 72nd minute being the difference maker.

The game defidently had its fair share of slow matches and was a major contrast to Europe's Champion League play, but regardless it was the Beautiful Game won ugly, and the Revs now share first place in the Eastern Conference with Kansas City.

A Penny For Your Thoughts

"Robble, robble, robble. Nobody watches the MLS. Nobody goes to games. Robble, Robble, I need a brain, robble, robble."

Wrong again, Anti-MLS Man!

Thought that no one ever sees the MLS play? That they have low attendances? Think again. Kansas City Star sports writer Pete Grathoff did some research on his own (giddy up, Pete) and came up with some interesting numbers. He explains it much better than I could, so I'll let you check out the article right here. Very interesting stuff...

Catching Up on the MLS

Been a little behind lately. Sorry to leave you waitin, but here's an updated table (as of April 15th) and my thoughts on it.

Eastern Conference  Overall       GPWDLGSGA             GDP1 Chicago 321061             572 Kansas City 421165             173 Columbus 320165             164 New England 420266             065 New York Red Bulls 210122             036 DC United 310247             -337 Toronto FC 310248             -43

MLS Playoff Predictions

We've covered both the Western and Eastern Conferences and gone in depth about how each team has gotten better and improved more over the offseason. The league is considerably getting better each year, if you look at the improved lineups that every single team has. For this reason, the race for the MLS Cup should be a very exciting one this year. I'm not ready to count out ANYONE out of the playoff race this year, but I do have a pretty good idea of what the playoffs would look like.