BPFL: Gameweek 26, League Cup First Round

Co-commissioner Our Man at the Valley is back from the slopes with your BPFL weekly wrap, covering the first round of the League Cup, the top performer, and the unluckiest loser:

 

The first round of the Backpost League Cup threw up only a couple of mild surprises. FluffyBunnies and YourAdHere both punched above their weight class and knocked out Escobar’sRevenge and DHDPhotography, respectively.

Here are the results in full:

Bertie Wooster FC  32-43  Useful Shot, That

ChaiceBrosMakeAllLea  14-42 tranungkite

Taeguk Warriors   35-62  Joakimovo stado

Sleeping Giant   41-51  Gunters

Tango   49-43  The Rihno’s

RayDomPsychicAdvisor   51-39  Team Fortress 4

The Losers  38-54  Abes Army

Stemmy    38-48   Chelsea Chris

DHD Photography   30-45  YourAdHere

Escobar’s Revenge    34-40  Fluffy Bunnies

League Cup Second Round Draw Former Charlton manager AlanCurbishley took some time out from saying no to the head position at Wolves to conduct the draw for the second round, with matches taking place this coming week, Gameweek 27.

The marquee matchup pits the top two teams in our league, coloradokeeper and Dynasty of FC Hammer. The draw is as follows:

Gunters v EPL Quakes

Fluffy Bunnies v LildWeaver

Kimo’s v Ahmad Haziq Hashim

Disgruntled Numpties v YourAdHere

Herk City v Joakimovo Stado

Old27M v Mudheads

Socr_maniac v Serbian zbornaja

thissiteblows@pmike v Average

Dynasty of FC Hammer v Coloradokeeper

Abe’s Army v tranungkite

United SUV v I am Liverpool

Afrikan Letsatsi v Chelsea Chris

RayDomPsychicAdvisor v Bryan 04 Leverkusen

Useful Shot, That v Giorgio Chinaglia

The Xerex’s Team v Tango

Sunshine FC v El Nino

Back in the league, the Coloradokeeper’s lead at the top  grew to a certainly insurmountable eight points as the Rocky Mountain boys beat slumping Giorgio Chinaglia 52-46, and second-place Dynasty of FC Hammer, playing without a goalkeeper, lost to Mudheads 47-46.

Performance of the Week Our top team this week was Joakimovo Stado, who netted 62 points after a 4-point  deduction for making an extra transfer. He, too, played without a keeper (Michael Vorm’s illness left many of us needing backup), but picked up 24 points from his Arsenal midfield duo of Alex Song and Theo Walcott.

Unlucky Loser  The award was shared this week between the aforementioned Giorgio Chinaglia and Dynastyof FC Hammer.

With Wednesday’s international fixtures out of the way (congrats U.S.! good try, England!), we’re back to the regularly scheduled EPL programming. The next Gameweek starts on Saturday.

Thanks OMATV. As always, don’t forget to set your lineups.

Rising in the East: New York

Given the team’s unsteady history, there should probably be a question mark instead of a colon in the header above. But the Red Bulls did add some intriguing signings to their already talented roster this offseason, and they, like most of the rest of the Eastern Conference, believe they have the players to contend for it all in 2012.

And we mean literally contend for it all: Here’s coach Hans Backe on a recent conference call with reporters, as relayed by MLSsoccer.com: “I say we should go for it all: the Open Cup, the [Supporters’] Shield, the MLS Cup. We have a very good squad this year.”

And so they do. But they had a very talented squad last year, and barely scraped their way into the playoffs. They’ve had some talented teams peppered through their 16-year history, and yet the franchise doesn’t have a single trophy to show for it. Not one. (Unless you count the 2011 ‘Emirates Cup,’ which you probably shouldn’t.)

The problem with New York (well, the main one) is that the team has never had an identity. From the get-go in 1996, they’ve lacked personality, continuity, and stability. The team has had 12 coaches in 16 years, and cycled through a phone book’s worth of players.

The Backe era, now entering its third season, hasn’t been much different. Last season, on the all-too-appropriate date of April 1 (considering what followed), the team traded promising midfielder Tony Tchani, defender Danleigh Borman, and a draft pick to acquire Toronto FC attacker Dwayne De Rosario.

Thirteen games later, though, New York shipped De Rosario to DC United straight-up for midfielder Dax McCarty—and De Ro promptly went on a tear, finishing the season with 16 goals, 12 assists, and the league MVP award.

The upshot was that they’d cut loose two useful bench players, a draft pick, and the MVP of the league, for … Dax McCarty. It was not an efficient piece of front-office maneuvering, and it reminded fans of the bad old days they’d hoped had been left behind when Backe and GM Erik Soler took over after the 2009 season.

This offseason, though, has produced reasons for cautious (very cautious) optimism among those shell-shocked fans: The team lost central defender Tim Ream, an unheralded 2010 draft pick who played his way onto the U.S. national team, but they replaced him with Markus Holgersson, a 26-year-old fresh from winning a treble in his native Sweden and earning his first international call-up.

The 6-3 Holgersson will most likely partner with 6-2 Wilman Conde, a 29-year-old Colombian who was an MLS Best XI selection with Chicago in 2009.

If Conde is 80% the player he was in 2009, and if Holgersson is a genuine international-caliber centerback, then New York will have upgraded its backline significantly. The height of the two new defenders should also help the team get better in the air on set pieces—a glaring weakness last season, both offensively and defensively.

In midfield, the team added Icelandic U-21 player Victor Palsson, whose signing was announced today. He’ll add depth in the center of the park, where the team relied too heavily on Teemu Tainio last season.

The most curious acquisition was that of former Portland and FC Dallas striker Kenny Cooper. It’s hard to imagine him and Thierry Henry on the field together, as their styles seem too similar to mesh well. But if the team is going after three trophies, as Backe says they are, they’ll need depth—and if Cooper, who’s still only 27, can recapture something like his 2008 form, when he scored 18 goals in 30 games for Dallas, he’ll be a solid pickup.

The Red Bulls also have five players trialing with them in preseason at the moment, and Backe told the MLS website that he would like to sign them all if he can fit them under the salary cap.

Now if they can just solve their goalkeeping problem….

Rising In the East: Chicago

As we said yesterday, the 2012 edition of Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference appears poised to put a dent in the Western Conference’s recent dominance (last three MLS champs, five of last six MLS Cup finalists).

There are a number of teams in the East with lofty goals and the ability to achieve them this year. We’re not saying the Western dominance will be reversed, but don’t be surprised if there’s a noticeable shift in conference power this year.

Today, we look at the Chicago Fire.

Chicago closed last season as one of the hottest teams in the league, going 7-2-1 down the stretch. But as torrid as their closing run was, it couldn’t make up for their frigid start: The Fire won just once in their first 13 games under coach Carlos de los Cobos. He was dismissed in late May, and after new coach Frank Klopas acquired midfielders Pavel Pardo (148 caps for Mexico) and Sebastian Grazzini (an Argentine who had five goals in 11 appearances last year), the Fire became a very tough out.

They finished 9-9-16, with those 16 ties being both an MLS record (tied—appropriately—with New York) and an indication of what might have been.

This season, with Pardo and Grazzini in the fold at the start, Chicago is aiming high. “We feel we can reach the playoffs,” Klopas told MLSsoccer.com in January. “The [US] Open Cup, the Supporters’ Shield, [those are] things we think we can win. It’s great that we’re setting those goals early on.”

They’ll have their two influential midfielders for the entire season this year, but the Fire did not stand pat during the offseason. They acquired experienced Colombian midfielder Rafael Robayo, 27, from Millonarios, where he was captain and helped lead the club to the 2011 Copa Colombia title.

They picked up goalkeeper Jay Nolly, formerly of Vancouver, to spell Sean Johnson, and they added depth up top with Zimbabwean speedster Kheli Dube. He’ll start on the bench behind new signing Federico Puppo, a 25-year-old Uruguayan who has two goals in three appearances for his nation’s U-22 side, and should make for some interesting announcing sequences when he combines with Fire midfielder Marco Pappa this season.

The Fire also locked in promising striker Orr Barouch on a permanent transfer after he’d been on loan from Tigres of the Mexican top flight, and they picked up some interesting prospects in the SuperDraft, including potential Name Hall of Famers Lucky Mkosana (Dartmouth) and Hunter Jumper (UVA).

Yes, things are looking up at Toyota Park, and if the team stays healthy, it could be looking down at much of the Eastern Conference table come October.

Tomorrow: New York.

Rising In the East: DC United

For the past several seasons Major League Soccer’s Western Conference has been markedly more competitive than its Eastern counterpart.

The last three league champions, and the last five MLS Cup finalists, have come from the Western conference—with the lone East representative in that span, Houston, being a transplanted Western team.

The top four teams in the West last season all had higher regular-season point totals than the 2011 Eastern Conference champion, Sporting Kansas City.

But as we ramp up toward opening day of the 2012 season, slightly more than a month away, the winds of change could be blowing through the East.

We’re not saying the Western dominance will be reversed, but don’t be surprised if there’s a noticeable shift in the power (im)balance in 2012.

We’ll start with last year’s seventh-place team in the East, DC United. They narrowly missed the 2011 playoffs, battling Chicago and New York for the final berth right down to the last week of the season (NY claimed it), and in the offseason they’ve both gotten healthier and made some significant acquisitions.

In the health department, talented young attacker Chris Pontius will be back after breaking his tibia down the stretch last season. Defender Dejan Jakovic, a Croatian-born Canadian international, should be fully fit after an injury marred 2011.

Finally, and probably most importantly, designated player Branko Boskovic (top right) will be 100% after a knee injury that caused him to miss most of last season and, apparently, he’s fully motivated. He’s a skillful, experienced midfielder who could form a lethal partnership with reigning league MVP Dwayne De Rosario (top left).

On the acquisitions front, DC did very well this offseason. They picked up steady veteran outside back Robbie Russell, who won an MLS Cup with Real Salt Lake in 2009. They acquired towering Argentine center-back Emiliano Dudar from the Swiss top flight, and added 30-year-old Brazilian defensive midfielder Marcelo Saragosa, who has played in MLS before and is a solid, proven commodity who’ll add depth behind Perry Kitchen.

The Black-and-Red also traded for athletic former Houston Dynamo winger Danny Cruz, and signed Brazilian forward Maicon Santos, who has shown flashes of brilliance in MLS. Speaking to the Washington Post about the former Chivas USA, FC Dallas, and Toronto FC man, DC coach Ben Olsen said, “I don’t think he’s been at the right team. I think he’s at the right team now.”

Lastly, and again, most crucially, DC nabbed Albanian striker Hamdi Salihi (top, center) as their second designated player. Salihi is a 28-year-old international with an incredible strike rate in several mid-tier European leagues (ie., leagues roughly equivalent to MLS). He bagged 36 goals in 67 appearances for Rapid Vienna of the Austrian top flight, including 11 in 15 matches this season.

He and Boskovic were teammates at Rapid Vienna.

Also studding DC’s 2012 roster are 2010 Rookie of the Year Andy Najar, and a pair of solid American defenders in Chris Korb and Daniel Woolard.

On paper, the Black-and-Red have made a solid bid to return to the glory years of the franchise. If they can translate it to the field, they’ll rise well above last year’s seventh-place finish.

Tomorrow: Chicago.

U.S.–France Preview: Gooch to Sit Out with Injury

The U.S. national team takes on France at the Stade de France in Paris this afternoon (3:00 ET, ESPN2), and centerback Oguchi Onyewu has been ruled out of the match with a minor injury.

He is not in the 18-man gameday roster, which looks like this:

Starting XI: Tim Howard; Steve Cherundolo, Clarence Goodson, Carlos Bocanegra, Timothy Chandler; Kyle Beckerman; Danny Williams, Maurice Edu, Brek Shea; Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore

Bench: Bill Hamid, Michael Orozco Fiscal, Michael Bradley, Fabian Johnson, Jermaine Jones, DaMarcus Beasley, Edson Buddle.

Here is the U.S. Federation’s match preview:

Enjoy the game, folks.

MLS Awards Season

Hey there, folks. We were on the IR for about a week or so, but we’re back now, and there’s much to catch up on, so let’s get right to it.

Major League Soccer started handing out its awards for the 2011 season this week, and will continue doling out honors until Nov 18, when the MVP is announced. Here’s a breakdown:

Rookie of the Year Candidates:

Michael Farfan, Philadelphia—He had a fine first season, lining up as a defender, midfielder, and striker at various points, and scoring a golazo winner against DC in late September.

Perry Kitchen, DC United—The 19-year-old No. 3 draft pick improved steadily as the season went on, playing right back, central defender, and holding midfielder for the Black-and-Red.

CJ Sapong, Sporting Kansas City—The surprise No. 10 pick of the 2011 draft out of James Madison University, Sapong has repaid KC’s faith in him, and then some. Racked up five goals and five assists to lead all rookies.

Winner: Sapong, and rightfully so. In addition to his regular-season goals—which included the historic first tally at Livestrong Sporting Park—Sapong scored three in US Open Cup play and one in the playoffs. He’s extremely athletic, technical with the ball in tight spaces, and a complete handful for defenders. If Klinsmann doesn’t call him in to the January USMNT camp, we will be surprised. Sapong was so good this year, we’re willing to overlook this.

Defender of the Year Candidates:

Nat Borchers, Real Salt Lake—Another quality season for the former Denver Pioneer, but RSL’s heavy load, and early start, this season took a toll on him down the stretch.

Omar Gonzalez, Los Angeles Galaxy—The 2009 Rookie of the Year anchored the league’s best defense (0.82 goals-against average, MLS-record 17 shutouts), alongside a rotating cast of centerback partners, including Leonardo, Gregg Berhalter, and AJ DeLaGarza.

Jamison Olave, Real Salt Lake—The hulking Colombian won the award last year, and showed his class in the All-Star Game vs Manchester United—until he got hurt, which would be a theme for him in 2011.

Winner: Gonzalez, who at 23, becomes the youngest player ever to win the award. Now will he get a look from Klinsmann? Probably, yes.

Coach of the Year Candidates (winner to be announced on Nov 14):

Bruce Arena, Los Angeles Galaxy—The Bruce won the Supporters’ Shield and got the Galaxy back to the MLS Cup final, despite a raft of injuries, international absences, and pressure to reach a title game being played at his home stadium.

Sigi Schmid, Seattle Sounders FC—The horrific early-season injury to Steve Zakuani might have derailed a lot of teams, but Schmid kept his side on track, all the way to the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals, and a third straight US Open Cup championship.

Peter Vermes, Sporting Kansas City—His team was handed a 10-game road trip to start the season while their  brand-new stadium was completed, and they went a disastrous 1-6-3. Yet Vermes not only got them out of that hole, he also led them to the Eastern Conference title.

Who should win? It’s a very tough call between Vermes and Arena, but we give a slight edge to The Bruce.

Comeback Player of the Year Candidates (winner to be announced on Nov 14):

David Beckham, Los Angeles Galaxy—Interesting choice here as it acknowledges a comeback was required from the league’s most famous player. Still, 15 assists and plenty of defensive effort and team leadership add up to GB’s best season with LA—and yes, a comeback of sorts.

Charlie Davies, DC United—The sentimental choice, and his opening-day performance was pure storybook stuff. But he faded down the stretch.

Dominic Oduro, Chicago Fire—The Ghanian striker has always had rocket-fuel speed, but he’s never been tidy with his final touch. He changed that this year with 12 goals.

Who should win? We say Oduro. The league will probably say Beckham.

Goalkeeper of the Year Candidates (winner to be announced on Nov 15):

Kevin Hartman, FC Dallas—In our view, Hartman was the most deserving candidate last season, when LA’s Donovan Ricketts won the award. He had another quality season this year, pulling off many acrobatic saves and producing a 1.06 goals-against average, second-highest in the league among keepers with at least 1500 minutes played.

Kasey Keller, Seattle Sounders FC—His save percentage of 76 is tied for highest in the league, and despite a gaffe here and there, he had an excellent final season.

Faryd Mondragon, Philadelphia Union—Brought in, along with centerback Carlos Valdes, to help stabilize the Philly D, Mondragon did exactly that, inspiring confidence and producing a 1.09 gaa.

Who should win? We’d vote for Chivas USA’s Dan Kennedy or LA’s Josh Saunders, but since neither are nominated, we’ll say Mondragon.

Newcomer of the Year Candidates (winner to be announced on Nov 15):

Eric Hassli, Vancouver Whitecaps FC—The big (6-4) Frenchman scored 10 goals in 21 starts, including the potential Goal of the Year.

Luke Rodgers, New York Red Bulls—The pugnacious Englishman produced nine goals and three assists in 20 starts, and proved surprisingly valuable to his team, which went 9-4-7 with him and 1-4-9 without.

Mauro Rosales, Seattle Sounders FC—An Argentine with a resume that includes stops at Ajax and Riverplate, along with 10 caps for his country, Rosales was an absolute steal for Seattle. They got him for the league minimum and he led the team in assists (13) while scoring five goals.

Who should win? Another tough call. Rosales by a nose.

Most Valuable Player (winner to be announced on Nov 18):

Brad Davis, Houston—Davis led the league in assists (16), and provided veteran leadership for the MLS Cup finalists.

Dwayne De Rosario, DC United—He was shunted from Toronto to New York to DC this year, but caught fire in his last stop, producing 13 goals and seven assists in 18 games to bring his season totals to 16 goals and 12 assists.

Brek Shea, FC Dallas—A breakout year for the lanky Hoops winger, who stepped up in David Ferreira’s absence to rack up 11 goals and four assists. He also established himself on the USMNT.

Who should win? Gotta be De Ro. The numbers are too impressive to ignore.

Can the Red Bulls Recreate 2008?

There’s been an acute outbreak of Playoff Fever at the BP HQ. The 2011 MLS postseason kicks off tonight in Frisco, Texas, with a match between FC Dallas and our beloved, beleaguered New York Red Bulls (9:00 ET, Fox Soccer).

We profiled Dallas’s excellent coach Schellas Hyndman for the league site yesterday; please give it a read. Chances are he’ll have his side ready to go tonight, even if they stumbled a bit down the stretch as the games and the injuries piled up. Between the CONCACAF Champions League, the US Open Cup, and the MLS season, Dallas has played 47 games this season. Last year, they played 34, “MLS Cup final included,” Hyndman told us.

The Hoops rested just about every starter (including wingers Marvin Chavez and Brek Shea, Hernandez, goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, defender Zach Loyd and midfielders Daniel Cruz and Ricardo Villar) in the season finale against San Jose this past Saturday, so the core of the team should have their legs back for tonight.

The Red Bulls will have everyone available except striker Luke Rodgers, the pugnacious Englishman who has been surprisingly important to the team this year. In a stat that coach Hans Backe called “frightening,” New York is 9-4-7 with 32 goals scored when Rodgers starts, and 1-4-9 with 18 goals scored when he’s not in the lineup. He won’t be in the lineup tonight as he has knee swelling and didn’t even make the trip to Texas.

So what can we expect from New York tonight? Let’s take stock:

After a bright start to the season, the Red Bulls struggled for most of the summer, racking up a record 16 ties and generally laboring to stay above .500. There were epic collapses at big moments, an embarrassing locker room controversy, an equally embarrassing goalkeeping crisis, misbehavior from a superstar, and a sophomore slump from their promising young centerback.

Yet they bounced back somewhat down the stretch, piecing together enough wins and clutch performances to edge into the playoffs.

And now … well, it’s a brand new season. They certainly have the talent to beat any team in the league, and are capable of making a run. Considering the players they have, it wouldn’t be as surprising as their 2008 playoff odyssey, when New York went 10-11-9 during the season, squeaked into the playoffs as the eighth and final seed, then knocked off Houston and Real Salt Lake to reach the championship game.

They ended up losing that game, 3-1 to Columbus, but the team had a pronounced just-happy-to-be-here attitude back then. If this group somehow gets to the final, you can bet they’ll smell blood in the water.

Of course, they have a long way to go to get there—longer than in 2008, when there were only eight teams in the playoffs.

This year, if they get by Dallas, New York will meet Los Angeles in a home-and-home total-goals series (second game at LA). If they get past that stage, it would be on to the conference final, a do-or-die single game, at either Seattle or Real Salt Lake.

A victory there would put them in the MLS Cup against either Colorado or a team from the East. It would also mean they had earned their berth in the final, having defeated three of the top four teams in the league, all on the road.

But that’s getting way ahead of ourselves. It starts tonight, on the road at FCD. If New York is going to get by the first round, they’ll have to be sound defensively, and look to their big guns to snatch a goal or two.

As for the defensive part of the equation, the backline will know when they’ve slipped up, because keeper Frank Rost will revert to his native German. As Tim Ream told The Wall Street Journal, “That’s like your mom calling you by your first, middle and last name all at once. If he slips into German, everybody’s a little on edge.”

Here’s hoping Rost sticks to English all game long, and that striker Juan Agudelo gets a run—you know the 18 year old will be fired up to make a mark if given the chance in a big game like this.

CCL: Toronto Advances; Colorado, LA, Up Next

Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki was in the house at Pizza Hut Park last night, tweeting earlier in the day that he wanted to see “Brek Shea before he goes to the Bundesliga.” But it was Toronto FC’s Joao Plata, not Shea, who shined brightest in the pivotal CONCACAF Champions League clash between the Hoops and the Reds.

The diminutive Ecuadorian set up Danny Koevermans for the game’s first goal in the 28th minute, then added strikes of his own in the 69th and 81st minutes to ice the match and salvage TFC’s season, sending them to the CCL quarterfinals with a 3-0 win after the club had been eliminated from MLS playoff contention on Oct 1.

Here are the highlights:

FC Dallas—which opened the CCL group-stage by becoming the first MLS club ever to win in Mexico, downing Pumas 1-0 in Mexico City—needed only a draw last night to advance to the quarters. They got some promising forays from Nowitzki’s boy Shea, as well as from Jackson, and Honduran speedster Marvin Chavez, but it was Toronto’s, and Plata’s, night.

TFC joins MLS side Seattle Sounders FC in the CCL quarterfinals, which begin next March.

The Colorado Rapids face Santos Laguna in Mexico tonight (8:00 pm ET, Fox Soccer) with a chance of advancing, and the Los Angeles Galaxy take on Motagua in Honduras on Thursday (10:00 pm ET, Fox Soccer). Wins for both U.S. clubs would put four MLS sides in the CCL quarterfinals.

The Rapids are sending a mixture of reserves and starters to Santos Laguna, a club that routed Colorado 4-1 in their previous CCL meeting.

Midfielders Pablo Mastroeni, Jamie Smith, and Brian Mullan will miss the match, along with defender Tyrone Marshall and first-choice keeper Matt Pickens. Mastroeni (concussion) and Smith (calf) are injured; the other three are being rested for the Rapids’ MLS season finale against Vancouver on Saturday.

Los Angeles’s opponent, Motagua, is already eliminated from the competition, having lost all five of their group-stage games. The Galaxy are sending both David Beckham and Landon Donovan down to Honduras for the game (Robbie Keane is out with a groin strain)—though Donovan (quadriceps) said it will be a gametime decision for him as to whether to play or not.

US–Ecuador Preview

The Yanks produced a landmark victory and a decent effort against Honduras on Saturday night, but they will have to take better care of the ball and play tighter defense if they want to win tonight’s game against Ecuador (7:00 pm ET, ESPN2).

Fresh from a 2-0 win over Venezuela in 2014 World Cup qualifying play, Ecuador will probably offer a tougher challenge at Red Bull Arena than Los Catrochos did in Miami.

Ecuador

They’re bringing an experienced side led by Manchester United winger Antonio Valencia, Club America striker Christian Benitez (who scored 20 goals for Santos Laguna last season) and Pachuca forward Jaime Ayovi.

Benitez and Ayovi scored the goals against Venezuela, and together have scored seven in La Tri’s past three games.

Ayovi’s cousin, Walter Ayovi, a winger who helped Monterrey win the CONCACAF Champions League last spring, is also on the roster, along with Deportivo Quito striker Juan Carlos Paredes, and World Cup veterans Segundo Castillo (Pachuca) and Edison Mendez (Emelec).

La Tri outscored Costa Rica by a combined score of 6-0 in home-and-away friendlies this past summer, sandwiched around a 5-2 drubbing of Jamaica.

United States

U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who told Yahoo Sports he was unhappy with the Saturday-Tuesday turnaround for this pair of friendlies, will almost certainly make changes to the lineup that started against Honduras.

First to go will probably be Michael Orozco-Fiscal, who, like Edgar Castillo before him, will not be able to say Klinsmann didn’t give him a shot. But based on three less-than-impressive starts, and his shaky outing against Honduras (and the fact that he was taken off at halftime), we’d say the audition is over … and he’s not getting the role.

Oguchi Onyewu, who looked good in 45 minutes on Saturday, will probably take Orozco-Fiscal’s place. Hard to say who will line up next to him in central defense, but it could be Tim Ream, who has yet to see the field in the Klinsmann era. He may get his shot in Red Bull Arena, his home stadium.

If Ream doesn’t get the nod, veteran Carlos Bocanegra seems likely, but the truth is, with either one of them alongside Gooch, the U.S. has a centerback duo that lacks speed. Maybe it’s time to try Jonathan Spector in the middle.

Timmy Chandler is likely to start at left back again, and he will be matched up against Man U’s Valencia—a battle to watch.

We hope German-American import Danny Williams gets another start, and if there is any change in midfield, we’d guess it involves a Michael Bradley-for-Kyle Beckerman swap.

Up top, the Jozy Altidore–Clint Dempsey pairing looked great against Honduras, but we would love to get at least a glimpse of the Teal Bunbury–Juan Agudelo partnership, which memorably sparked the U.S. in friendlies against South Africa and Chile last January, and gave the world this:

Red Bulls vs Galaxy: What a Difference Five Months Makes

When last they met, on May 7 at the Home Depot Center, New York and Los Angeles were the top two teams in Major League Soccer. The Red Bulls were 4-1-2 (with, according to Will Kuhns of the league office, 10 goals for and just two against) and the Galaxy were 4-1-3 (with 10 GF, 7 GA).

The game ended in a 1-1 tie, with both teams coming close to nabbing a winner: Landon Donovan rounded New York keeper Bouna Coundoul and sent the ball rolling toward the open net … only to see Tim Ream charge back and make a sliding clearance at the goal line; and the Red Bulls’ Dane Richards hit the post late in the second half.

Now, a few hours before their second game of 2011, tonight at Red Bull Arena (8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2), Los Angeles is 18-3-10 and one win away from locking up the Supporters’ Shield, while New York is 8-7-16 and holding on for dear life to the 10th and final playoff berth.

So what the hell happened? That’s a question that’s been plaguing New York fans since 1996 early summer, and it’s another blog post in and of itself.

But one thing is for certain, the Red Bulls can’t claim injuries derailed their season. In fact, LA has bitten much harder by the injury bug than New York, losing players here and there all season long. Tonight, for example, Galaxy defenders Sean Franklin (knee), Gregg Berhalter (foot), and Leonardo (knee) are all out, while goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts (quadriceps), midfielder Chris Birchall (hamstring) and striker Landon Donovan (quadriceps) are questionable (and striker Robbie Keane is away on international duty).

The Galaxy has produced the league’s best record despite all of the injuries because they’ve gotten contributions from everyone on their roster. Bruce Arena’s system has worked, it seems, no matter who gets plugged into it. He’s trusted his bench to perform, and his bench players have rewarded that trust.

New York coach Hans Backe, on the other hand, has been famous for his limited rotation, and the team traded away much of its depth this season, shipping out players like Tony Tchani, Danleigh Borman and Austin da Luz.

Despite the teams’ paths in opposite directions since their May 7 matchup, New York has to like their chances tonight: They should—should—be highly motivated, they’re at home, the Galaxy is missing the above-mentioned players, and this will be LA’s fourth game in 10 days.

Here’s a glimpse of the highlights and postgame comments from New York after the first meeting. It was a simpler time, and we were so much younger: