With J Hutcherson -- The biggest game on Major League Soccer's schedule this week is only available locally, and now has the added feature of David Beckham's return. Somewhere in a room where it matters the words "flexible scheduling" are being used. Instead, Saturday's national games are New York - Colorado (4pm ET - TeleFutura) and Philadelphia - Chicago (5:30pm ET - FSC). With Chicago trying ever so hard to make sure they botch their schedule advantage, that leaves us with New York - Colorado.
New York's story is still about transition. We've seen glimpses of that dominance Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez were brought into provide. We've also had quotes from their head coach about next season. The Red Bulls are in position to make the playoffs as the 2nd-place team in the Eastern Conference, especially since none of the teams behind them seem able to put up much of a fight.
Toronto not losing on Wednesday night means they're 3rd, level on games played and trailing New York by nine points. Assuming they can prevent DC United from taking a point or three off of them at BMO, the real goal for New York is to make sure they're matching points with the team behind them. Three wins to the good and a lead on the first tiebreaker shortens their remaining schedule from seven games to four, meaning they could know they're making the playoffs by the first week of October.
In the other direction, the Red Bulls trail Columbus by seven points and the tiebreaker with both teams on 23 games played. Making that up is more difficult than Toronto, Kansas City, or Chicago closing in on 2nd simply because Columbus hasn't been as free with the mistakes that costs a team points.
A quirk of the scheduling means the Columbus - New York season series ended on July 17th. The Crew won both games, 3-1 at New York and 2-0 at Crew Stadium. Even though it was weeks ago and pre New York's Designated Player revamp, that gap in class remains.
New York's schedule has them spending all of September playing Western Conference teams. With three of those four games left, that's a major opportunity for them in the playoff table. 2nd in the East is an automatic playoff slot, but it's not an automatic seed. Right now, the Red Bulls are 5th in the playoff table, three points ahead of Colorado. But... should the Rapids win on Saturday they have the tiebreaker and would swap places with New York.
Yes, even though the top of the Conference tables currently have both leaders and 2nd-place in the West tied on 44 points, the playoff table remains dominated by the West. They have six of the eight slots, with Toronto, Kansas City, and Chicago all at least four points from needing a tiebreaker scenario to claim a spot.
So New York has the playoff table to worry about and it's very much in play. Consider this scenario. New York beats Colorado and San Jose becomes the team that ends Dallas's win streak by taking all three points at Buck Shaw Stadium.
That would setup next week's Dallas - New York game as an opportunity for the Red Bulls to move into 4th. Turn it around, and with a game in hand Dallas needs two more wins to put themselves in position to stage a strong challenge for the Conference and the Supporters' Shield against teams that have turned themselves into the lightweights of the Eastern Conference.
At this stage of the season, that should be the focus of the contenders. Especially when the would-be challengers in the Eastern Conference are playing themselves right out of any hope of the playoffs.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
