In this post, I would like to summarize the regular season and give my analysis regarding each team.
1. DC United (16-7-7, 55 points) finished first in the league this season once again winning both the MLS Supporters Shield (trophy given to the team with the best regular season record)and clinching home field advantage in the Eastern Conference Championship. United had a long season playing their first game of the year on February 21st against Honduras club CD Olimpia in the CONCACAF Champions Cup (they qualified after winning Supporters Shield last season which gives them an automatic qualification spot in the most prestigious club cup in North and Central America and the Carribean. After beating them, they moved on to play Chivas de Guadalajara in two legs in the Champions Semifinals. In the first leg, they fought Mexican powerhouse to a 1-1 draw leaving alive to possibly make it to the cup final, but in the second leg, Guadalajara defeated the MLS powerhouse 2-1 causing Chivas to advance 3-2 on aggragate. DC United started their MLS regular season only four days later on Saturday April 7th losing to the Colorado Rapids 2-1 giving DC UNited an xtremely slow start after losing their next two games and a tie agaisnt Interstate 95 rival New England Revolution. United did not win their first game until May 6th, a 2-1 defeat against Chivas. Ever since then, their performance made an impressive turnaround and they were able to return back to the top of the standings with a 16-7-7 record. However, DC United may be in trouble while looking on into their first playoff game against the Chicago Fire. Even though, DC has won the Supporters Shield, their history in playing Chicago Fire in the first round of the playoffs is not a good one. As a matter of fact, Chicago has been the one to eliminate DC United, usually the highest seed in the Eastern Conference every season. Can DC United make a point and finally defeat Chicago after Chciago's successful and impressive run to qualify for the playoffs? At this point, anything can happen.
2. Chivas USA (15-7-8, 53 points) finished their regular season only two points away from DC United. vcen though they did not clinch the Supporters Shield, they did clinch best record in the Western Conference and therefore clinched home field advantage in the Western Conference final. Chivas USA was first established for the 2005 season as the siter team of the Mexican league's Chivas de Guadalajara. Ever since 2005, Chivas USA has shown impressive performances although they did not qualify for the playoffs until 2006 (last season). However, Chivas defintely improved this season bringing them to the top of the Western Conference and is second in the league only to DC United. Chivas had an easy start to the season playing Toronto FC (a club that was playign their inaugural season this year) who they defeated 2-0. However, they suffered their first loss pretty early in the season losing 1-0 against MLS Cup defending Champions Houston Dynamo. Chivas USA will take on Kansas City Wizards, fifth place finisher from the Eastern Conference in the first round of the playoffs.
3. MLS Cup defending champions Houston Dynamo finished third this season. Like DC United, they also started their season early as qualifiers of the CONCACAF Champion's Cup in whic they defeated Costa Rican team Puntarenas FC but were not able to defeat Pachuca, the eventual winners of the Champion's Cup trophy. Houston also started their season somewhat slow tying the Los Angeles Galaxy 0-0 in their regular season opener. In their next seven games, they only managed two wins and one their losses was against Major League Soccer newcomer Toronto FC. However, they did show an impressive performance in the inaugural season of the Superliga, the new tournament that is supposed to be a way of uniting Major League Soccer and the Mexican League. Houston Dynamo made it tot he seminfals of the competition nearly defeating Pachuca. The two teams battled through regulation time to a 2-2 draw forcing two 30 minute extra time periods and penalty kicks, in which Pachuca took the 4-3 advantage to qualify for the Superliga final. Between this matcha and the end, Houston played nine regular season match, only one of which was a loss. In the first roudn of the playoffs, Houston Dynamo will not have to travel very far in the first leg as they play fellow Texas rival FC Dallas.
4. New England Revolution finished fourth in the league and second in the Eastern Conference. Their opening match against Chicago Fire was a 1-0 loss followed by a seven game unbeaten streak. In addition to their regular season, the Revolution also played in the US Open Cup (teh only tournament in which both ameatur and professional soccer team in the United States take part). New England started their US Open Cup campaign, after automatically qualifying due to finishing in the top four in the 2006 MLS regular season, with a win against United Soccer League (USL) side Rochester Raging RHino, who they defeated 4-2. They continued in their US Open Cup run with a 2-0 sweep of the USL side Harrisburg City Islanders and a 2-1 win against USL side Carolina Railhawks, eventually making it to the final against felow MLS club FC Dallas who they defeated 3-2. With only three more matches left in their regular season, they lost two games and tied one, but still managed to clinch a spot in the playoffs. In the first round, they will play fellow Interstate 95 rivals New York Red Bulls in an away match at Giants Stadium this Saturday. This is a big game for the Revolution, not only because they have a chance to qualify for he conference championship game, but because they currently have soemthign to prove against their rival the New York Red Bulls. In their regular season series, the New England Revolution has the advantage over the Red Bulls with a 2-0-1 record in their three game series. However, the Red Bulls clearly dominated all three games making Red Bull fans call their team's rival a fluke. Even though I am a Red Bulls fan myself, I try to be as unbiased as possible in this arguement and I have to say that my fellow Red Bulls fans have a point. The Red Bulls had many more chances in all three games and dominated all three as well as majority of ball possession. The third game was the worst of the three as the New York Red Bulls were looking at a 1-1 tie in the final ten minutes of the match and were pretty much settling on a tie and pocketing one point, but when a Red Bulls player foudn the need to pass the ball back to his own goalies, the goalie misjudged the pass and an owl goal gave New England the win! In addition, after winning the US Open Cup, the Red Bulls are currently considered the best soccer club in the United States having just won the title. Even though the MLS Cup is way more prestigious, the US Open Cup is the only competition that allows all professional teams in the United States (Major League Soccer and United Soccer Leagues) to join all of the ameatur teams in the country that have registered with the United States Soccer Federation. Therefore, this is a very big deal for a New England taht is getting ready for a quest to win the prestigious MLS Cup, a trophy that they were so close to winning in the 2006 season after Houston Dynamo scored the equalizer literally seconds after the Revolution scored the first goal of the match. With the score 1-1 at the score 1-1 at the end, teh match went into extra time and eventualy Houston Dynamo won the title on penalty kick.
5. FC Dallas finished their regualr season off at fifth place. LIek teh New York Rd Bulls, FC Dallas will face off their biggest rivals in the first round of the plyoffs, defending MLS Cup Champions Houston Dynamo. The next few games will be extremely important for FC Dallas as they make their run for the cup as tehy also have somethign to prove. After losing to New England in the US Open Cup final, they had to settle for the second place and are therefore setting their sights at their more prestigious goal--the 2007 MLS Cup.
6. The New York Red Bulls, finishing the regular season insixth place, started the season off strong. They did not play any games before the regular season started and did not take part in the CONCACAF Champions Cup before the season started. That honor was only given to the 2006 Supporters Shield Champion and the 2006 MLS Cup Champion, DC United and Houston Dynamo who were the only two teams to qualify from the United States. However, not having to play any games in other competitions before the regular season and any side competitions, such as the US Open and Superliga, gave tehe Red Bulls the oppurtunity to concentrate on the regular season only, which is exactly what they did. Aside from a scoreless tie against the Columbus Crew in their opening match on the road, the Red Bulls started their season on a strong note winning all of their next three games against MLS Cup defending champion Houston Dynamo and two wins against FC Dallas (one home and one away).At this point in their season, the Red Bulls were on fire with awesome players, such as Altidore, who many think will be ready to play in a European club very soon, and Colombia international Juan Pablo Angel, who the Red Bulls have been relying on to score many of their goals. They were also at the top of the Eastern Conference standings at one point during the season but due to IS 95 rival DC United's sudden win streak that shot them to the top and disspointing losses and ties to teams such as Kansas City and DC United kept them from holding to position. Their biggest win of the season was against the Los Angeles Galaxy, a team that they lost to closer to the beginning of the season in a US Open qualifying match that that left the Red Bulls out of the competition due to the 3-1 loss against their western coast rival. This match did not have anything to do with MLS regular season and did not affect the standings in any way. However, the Red Bulls got their revenge on Saturday August 18th in a regular season match in front of a packed house of over 60,000 fans (the largest attendence at a regular season match in Red Bulls/MetroStars franchise history) that swarmed Giants Stadium to catch a glimpse of English international celebrity David Beckham as he made his MLS regular season debut for the Galaxy. However, Beckham was not the star as expected in this match. He played well in the first half and posted at least one assist but failed to score in any of his free kicks in the second half. I went to this match, but being that I was late, I was amazed to see that the Red Bulls were already up 2-1 in the middle of the first half. It may have been Beckham that teh crowd cameto see, but it was the home team Red Bulls that stole the show. While most of the peopel in the 66,237 in attendance hoped to see a perfect free kick from Beckham, it was another former English Premier League player that scored the game winner for the Red Bulls as Colombian international Juan Pablo Angel followed Clint Mathis' saved shot and pushed the ball in off Galaxy golaie Joe Cannon in the 88th minute for his second goal of the match. Angel was one of three players with a pair of goals on the night. Teammate Jozy Altidore also scored twice in the second half as the Red Bulls took a two-goal lead with 20 minutes left, snapping a 2-2 halftime tie. This may have been the most important match of the season for the Red Bulls increasing its New York/New Jersey area fan base and caused several regular season ticket packages to sell like crazy for the 2008 season after many, who were rather unfamiliar with soccer to begin with and were only their to catch a glimpse of Beckham,left the stadium in shoch at how good the Red Bulls actually played. The Red Bulls play their firsthome match of the playoffs this Saturday, a match that I will attend.
7. Chicago Fire, who finished the regular season at seventh place, have an important match ahead of them tonight against DC United. Even though Chicago earned the lowest seed in the Eastern Conference, they are currently one of the hottest teams in Major League Soccer just coming off an eight game unbeaten streak after defeating the Los Angeles Galaxy 1-0 and officially eliminating Beckham and the Galaxy from playoff contention. Chicago has also become known for defeating DC United, usually the higest seed in Major League Soccer, in the first round of the playoffs makign this an extremely tough match for the Supporters Shield winner. The first leg will be played tonight at 8:30 pm an dwill be televized on ESPN 2.
8. Kansas City Wizards rounded out the eight team playoff picture. The Wizards only scrapped qualifiaction after a last-gasp win over Dallas over the weekend.
The teams finishing ninth through thirteenth in the MLS standings did not qualify for the playoffs, but they are defitnely worth mentioning:
9. The Columbus Crew knew they were not going to qualify for the MLS Cup PLayoffs several weeks before the regular season ended, but that did not stop them from fighting for some last minute points. They were espeially impressive in their last two matches in which they defeated Supporters Shield winner DC United 3-2 as well as fourth place New England Revolution 3-2.
10. The Colorado Rapids had to wait until the last weekend to find out if they were to qualify for the MLS Cup playoffs. Even though they did not make it, they did make some big wind in their last few games this regular season. For eaxmple, they defeated Chivas USA 2-1 in their second to last game.
11. The Los Angeles Galaxy learned something this season--they leanred that David Beckham was extremely overrated. The only game that Los Angeles actually won with David Beckham on the field was against DC United in the Superliga semifinal, but this did not help them at all in their MLS regular season and as David Beckham was out of play due to various injuries, the US NAtional team Captain Landon Donvoan and his Los Angeles Galaxy teammate found themselves fighting for points. Before meeting Chiago Fire in a do or die match that Chciago eventually won with a last minute goal, the Galaxy was on a seven game unbeaten streak and unliek Chicago, who only neede a tie in order to qualify, the Galaxy need three points to punch a ticket for the post season. However, the Galaxy proved that they can play against the toughest opponents ewithout David Beckham on the field. They especially proved tyhis in this season's Superliga in which they made it to the final against Mexico's Pachuca, a club that has won atleast 3 or 4 BOrth American and South American titles within the last two years, including the 2007 CONCACAF Champion's Cup. LA Galaxy was losing in the Superliga final 1-0 up until the final minute when suddenly Galaxy player Troy Roberts made a beautiful and dramatic bicycle-kick goal to force the game into ovetime and eventually penalty kicks. They lost 4-3 in penalty kicks.
12. Real Salt Lake , despite not qualifying for the 2007 MLS Cup Playoffs, ended their season with a bang eliminating the Colorado Rapids from playoff contention and winning the 2007 Rocky Mountain Cup, a two team cup played between rivals Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake.
The Rocky Mountain Cup winner is simply the winner of the three game series that the two Eastern Conference teams must play against each other as a part of the regular season. Salt Lake won the Rocky Mountain Cup Trophy for the first time the cup was established in 2005, which also happened to be the first year of play for Real Salt Lake. 
13. Toronto FC which ended the 2007 MLS Regular Season in last place and a 6-17-7 record, did ave as terroble a seson as tehir record actually indicates. Being that this was their first year of play as part of Major League Soccer's expansion program, it is understandable taht they would not make it into the playoffs in their first year, but they have made some notable notable wins in their first MLS season despite losing their first four games of the season and not scoring their first goal until their fifth match, which was a 3-1 win against the Chicago Fire. Toronto FC proved to be the spoiler against many teams and delayed the clinching of many playoff spots for these teams. One of their biggest wins was against the New York Red Bulls in which they upset New York 2-1 in a game that could have given the Red Bulls an early shot at clinching the playoffs. They also sold out every game at their home stadium makimg it a successful inaugural season. In addition, Toronto FC's jersey was the second most sold MLS item this season after David Beckham's jersey.
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