| The Good, the bad, and the very, very ugly. |
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| …And now the season has come and gone, so how’d I do? |
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| 5 and 1/2 points, but it will be 6 when De Rosario is traded to Toronto. |
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| The 2006 season is upon us, and that means it’s prediction time. Maybe this year I will get more than 6 points. So without further adieu, here are the 2006 3rd Degree predictions. |
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| (For recreational purposes only) Results and scoring in red. |
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| 1 | West Finish: Houston, FC Dallas, Los Angeles, Chivas USA, Colorado, Real Salt Lake. Houston will start slow again but will still manage to win the west. A revitalized Chivas USA finishes 4th when they beat RSL on the final day of the season to top Colorado by 2 points. |
| | I got Houston one rank too high, and missed on LA, otherwise I got it right so am taking a… 1/2 point. |
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| 2 | East Finish: New England, Columbus, DC United, Chicago, Kansas City, New York. Despite some setbacks this summer, NE still wins the west. Chicago holds onto 4th almost be default. |
| | Wow, was I off on Columbus. NE and DC are flipped, as are KC and NY… although they did play for the last spot on the final day. Close, but not close enough tough. 0 point. |
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| 3 | Houston Dynamo will be MLS Cup Champs. Dynamo handle Chivas with ease in the playoffs, then beat FCD in Houston before advancing to knock off Columbus in the MLS Cup at Pizza Hut Park. |
| | Bingo… a prediction 9 months in the making, only part I missed with them beating Col in the West Final instead of Dallas. 1 point. |
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| 4 | Los Angeles will be USOC Champs. Yes Again. As long as you can buy home field advantage they will be in the finals. |
| | They got to the final again with lots of home field help, Chicago shocked them on the road. I’m taking a 1/2 point. |
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| 5 | Matt Reis will be Goalkeeper of the Year. 13 shutouts will do that for you. |
| | 10 shutouts in the regular season… Revs MVP… Perkins won more, but he’s on the better team. Reis had a better GAA, more shutouts, and almost 40 more saves behind what is a worse NE defense. It should have been Reis. Including playoffs Reis had 11 shutouts, 2 off my prediction. No points for me, but Reis got hosed. 0 points. |
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| 6 | MLS will stun everyone and announce Oakland Athletics are being granted an expansion team for 2007 to come into the league with the Toronto Blues. Oakland Athletic is you prefer your names Euro style. Frank Yallop will be named the coach of the Toronto team and will retain his job with the Canadian Federation. |
| | No Bay Area team, Yallop took the LA job. 0 points. |
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| 7 | When the US is eliminated from the World Cup, AEG will fire Dave Sarachan and announce Bruce Arena as the new coach of the Chicago Fire. Sigi will be one of the 3 finalists to replace Bruce Arena at National Team Coach along with Bob Bradley and Steve Nicol. John Harkes will clamor to be interviewed for the post. |
| | Sarachan saved his job. Red Bull fired Mo instead and Arena went to New York instead. Sigi, Bradley and Nicol all got mentioned for the US job. 1/2 point. |
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| 8 | Carlos Llamosa will be Comeback player of the Year. Believe it or not, Bradley does know what he is doing. |
| | Llamosa got hurt, again. 0 points. |
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| 9 | Clint Dempsey will make the US World Cup team and then demand MLS accept Tottenham Hotspur’s $2 million bid for him afterward. Dempsey will play only 8 games for the Revolution this season. None after May. |
| | Made US team and got the offer from West Ham rather than Spurs. But MLS turned it down and Dempsey played 21 games. 1/2 point. |
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| 10 | Carlos Ruiz will win the Budweiser Golden Boot when he scores 18 goals for FCD Dallas. |
| | 13 goals, 4th in league table. 0 points |
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| 11 | Dwayne De Rosario will be MVP and get the award he deserved last year. After the season DrRo will demand to be traded to the Toronto Blues team. |
| | De Rosario was a finalist and TFC is working as hard as they can to get him. 0 points, but if he gets traded I will be taking a 1/2. |
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| 12 | Tyrone Marshall will be defender of the year for Los Angeles. Marshall deserves more respect than he gets. |
| | Nope, Bobby Boswell in DC. 0 points. |
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| 13 | New England will win the Supporters Shield. But they drop the East Final to Columbus after the Crew, Cbus will go to extra time in the second playoff game to beat DC. |
| | Revs were just a mess all year and never got on the roll I thought. Crew stink. 0 points. |
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| 14 | Alexi Lalas will be named Los Angeles Galaxy General Manager. Red Bull will appoint someone over Alexi Lalas in New York to “supervise,” Lalas will last two weeks then resign in anger, then move to LA to take over the Galaxy GM job. If you don’t see this one coming you are not paying attention. |
| | Done, crystal ball working that day. 1 point |
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| 15 | LA will decide Steve Cronin is ready to play and start him over Kevin Hartman; then trade Hartman to FC Dallas for a second round draft pick in a move to dump salary to make a big signing post World Cup. Hartman will solidify the Dallas defense which let’s them rally to finish second in the West. |
| | Hartmann had an outstanding year for LA, FCD signed Hislop instead of trading for a keeper. 0 points. |
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| 16 | Sigi Schmid will be Coach of the Year after leading the Crew to 2nd in the East. You may not be aware but this guy is a hell of a coach. |
| | This may have been one of the worst coaching runs in Sigi’s history, but I still think he’s a heck of a coach. 0 points. |
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| 17 | Sacha Kljestan will be Rookie of the Year after starting the majority of the season for the much improved Chivas USA. Brian Plotkin in Chicago will run a close second with 5 goals and 5 assists in 15 starts most of which will come after the coaching change. |
| | Kljestan will finish second to his teammate Bronstein. I deserve a 1/2 point, but he didn’t win, so I don’t win… 0 points. |
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| 18 | Non-US Players at the World Cup will get so tired of talking about what team they will move to afterward, they will start saying MLS when asked. As many as 25 players will cite MLS by name including David Beckhman, Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo, Raul, Andrea Shevchenko, Pavel Nedved, and Thierry Henry. |
| | Well not 25 but Figo, Roberto Carols, David Beckham, Ronaldo, Hernan Crespo, Paolo Maldini and Zinedine Zidane have been mentioned. I’m taking it. 1 point. |
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| 19 | In an effort to spark media attention in New York, Red Bull will trade Eddie Gavin and an allocation to Colorado for Clint Mathis. One week after the trade Mathis will get in a fight with Mo Johnston in training after Mo, in a misguided attempt to motivate Clint, tells him he is not on the World Cup team cause he is fat. |
| | Gavin traded to Columbus instead for Edson Buddle.. so Gavin trade for a forward… hum…. 1/2 point |
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| 20 | The New York Mets will get their stadium deal done in Queens, Anschutz and MLS will be announced as small partners. MLS will then announce a second New York team will be awarded to AEG to play in 2009. MLS will transfer the history of the MetroStars back to AEG, allowing the new team to be named New York Metro SC, leaving Red Bull with their clean slate and stadium in Harrison, NJ. |
| | Oh well. Maybe some day. Garber sure is talking up that second NY team by 09… maybe I deserve something… ok no, but it’s coming. 0 points. |
