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Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of The Daily.
It's Friday, September 9th here with Greg Lalas.
I'm Nick Firchau. Greg, lets take a look at some of the biggest
games this weekend on MLS. Starting on Friday night.
A big one for the Western Conference. The Colorado Rapids at the LA Galaxy at 11pm
eastern on Fox Soccer. There's a live chat here on mlssoccer.com
What do we expect from this one? Two very good teams out west.
The Rapids looking to solidify their playoff chances.
They're still right now in the wildcard mix. They want to move up and get into that guaranteed
playoff spot. They've been sort of spotty all season.
Back and forth in terms of their results. Sometimes they look very good, and sometimes
they struggle. They go out to a very good LA Galaxy team,
and mind of course, the best team in the league. Not just from a winning standpoint, but also
from their abilities on the field. The Galaxy will have some more players back.
Landon Donovan should be in the starting lineup. He was on the bench coming off of international
duty the last time they played. Robbie Keane is back.
Chris Burchill is back. They got all their guys back now.
This is a Galaxy team that I think is ready to make a push during a very busy stretch
for them. They've got a lot of games coming up over
the next 6 or 7 weeks. Another big game for the Western Conference
standings on Saturday. Seattle Sounders at home against Reals Salt
Lake, 4pm eastern on MatchDay Live. Again, RSL is a team that struggled a little
bit. They're still finding their identity.
The Seattle Sounders, who enjoyed the best August we've seen in a long time.
The thing for RSL comes down to their defense. They have to stay very organized against a
Seattle attack that really likes to push. The way Mauro Rosales has been playing the
last month or so, he's been maybe arguably the best player in MLS.
The way he gets in the attack. The way he drives that entire offense.
With guys like Mike Fucito finding his form as well.
This is a very difficult team in Seattle to stop.
Salt Lake, all of the usual suspects, it's all about their defense.
I see this game turning into a Seattle attack, Reals Salt Lake defending.
You mentioned Olave, he is the new leader on top of the Castrol index after that great
month of August. You can find that on mlssoccer.com
Landon Donovan the first defender to be at the top of the rankings this season.
Lets look at another game. A big one for the Eastern Conference.
Sporting Kansas City at home against Houston at 4pm eastern on Saturday on MatchDay Live.
Houston we know has traditionally struggled on the road this season.
Sporting Kansas City, it's always dramatic at LiveStrong Sporting Park.
What are we gonna get? Well no wins on the road yet for the Houston
Dynamo. There will be some shifting in their lineup.
Andre is back from international duty with Canada.
Also, Jermaine Taylor is back as well. That puts Jeff Cameron into the midfield again
where they look to get a little bit more attack in the thrust going forward.
I'm also curious to see whether Louis Comardo will play in there to get a little bit more
attack out of the midfield. On the other side, it's Kansas City.
They get some guys back. Teal Bunbury will be back in the lineup.
That adds another attacking option. I see two teams in this one that will look
to push the attack as much as possible. If Kansas City plays like they did toward
the end of their game with LA on Labor Day. This is a team that can definately put some
goals in the net and put some points on the board.
Another big game, it's one on the east coast, the Philadelphia Union back in action on the
short week against the Portland Timbers. Greg, both of these teams struggling to stay
in the playoff mix. We talked about Philadelphia.
A short week after that draw against New England, what are they gonna get against the Timbers?
It's the positives and the negatives for the Union.
Basically, you come back from the 3 goal deficit, and you get a draw.
At the same time, you gave up 4 goals at home in one half against a team that's not even
in the playoff mix right now. Peter Novak, the coach for the Union, very
disappointed in his defense in particular, which is amazing considering how good they
were in the first half of the season. Valdez and Cauliff really need to pick it
up. I think Sheehan Williams on the right side
played very well in the first half of the season, has really struggled as of late.
All those guys will be key in this one particularly. Portland, they struggle on the road.
When are they going to start to score some goals on the road?
That's the key, and Eric Bruner said actually that they need to start getting some points.
This is when they can make a push for the playoffs.
In their first year of existence in MLS. A big game for both teams.
That's at 7:30pm eastern on MatchDay Live. For a full list of all the games this weekend,
you can log onto mlssoccer.com Greg, one of the big themes this weekend is
going to be the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Tributes all around the league.
What to we have coming on the site. A fascinating story on the site right now
about the Kansas City Wizards in 2001. A little slice of MLS at that point.
They were actually stuck in Peru during the days of the events of 9/11.
They played a game on September 12th against Sporting Kristal.
It's a fascinating sort of oral history of their trip from Peru about that game.
We were the only professional sports team that played on or around 9/11.
Check out that story. It's really amazing.
Another bit of 9/11 nostalgia is Mike Petke of the New York Red Bulls, who joined us on
ExtraTime Radio on Thursday. Had a lot of candid and very emotional memories
of 9/11. He was in the New York metro area.
Had a couple of great things to say about his experiences then.
You can find that on iTunes or BuzzSprout. For all the latest headlines in MLS and all
the weekend coverage, log onto mlssoccer.com