As predicted here on www.glenndavissoccer.com the New England Revolution and the Houston Dynamo have advanced to the MLS Cup Final.
It is not the match-up MLS would have preferred but one out of two made it to the finals. Can you imagine from a marketing standpoint if Colorado was taking on NE in the final………The moral of the story is that in MLS you can have a bad season and still win an MLS Cup, that’s not to say that NE and Houston had bad seasons but they were up and down like everyone else in MLS…..FC Dallas and DC United rightfully had us all singing their praises at the All Star break but in the end they didn’t time it right.
Last year the Los Angeles Galaxy were a mediocre to bad team during the regular season yet timed it right on the back of Landon Donovan and won an MLS Cup.
The moral of the story in MLS is that with so little differences in teams coaching leadership, player management and the ability to get players to play for each other is a must.
Coaches Dominic Kinnear of Houston and Steve Nicol of NE clearly are coaches that have gotten the respect and attention of their players. This goes a long way in Major League soccer. In fact all the way to the MLS Cup Finals…….With Houston’s Ricardo Clark not eligible for the final due to yellow card accumulation Houston will have alot to overcome with a talented New England midfield. As we saw during the regular season Kinnear will likely move center-back Adrian Serioux into midfield inserting Ryan Cochrane into central defense. His other option would be to move Craig Waibel into the middle and bring Kelly Gray in as a right back….Isn’t speculating fun…