In last week's column I hinted around the idea that I think this year's A-League champion will be one of the seven clubs playing in the Western Conference. It's also rather easy to see that I myself favor Minnesota in the title hunt. So call me biased if you will but I plan on presenting to you the evidence in the state's case that the West is indeed best this year.
First, we'd like to call the Minnesota Thunder to the stand. They return most of last year's team that came up two goals short in the championship match. They man-handled many that tried to get in their way last year and wound up unlucky to find themselves against a brick wall defense led by now departed Craig Demmin. With the shape that Rochester is in this season it only helps the calls for a championship run for the Thunder. There are few coaches at this level who are as good as Buzz Lagos in preparing a squad and if he can get some solid defensive play this season it's hard to bet against them.
The next witness to be called to the stand will be the Milwaukee Rampage. Needless to say this is the squad that Lagos and his men have been watching during this off-season and they'll likely be in intense competition for the top spot out of the West. With a midfield run by Digital and the offensive firepower they had last season it's hard not to think of them as possibly the second best team in the league. Barely second-best but still a bit behind the Thunder.
Third in the dock will be the Portland Timbers. No one has come into the league with as much to prove it seems than the upstart Timbers. By signing guys like Darren Sawatzky, Jeff Clarke, Greg Howes, and the most recent addition Mark Baena they have served notice to the rest of the conference, not to mention the league, that they mean business right out of the gates. With the right supporting cast one could easily see this club competing with the top teams in either of the other two divisions.
The character witnesses in this case would also give any of the better teams in the other two conferences quite a run for their money as well. Seattle and Vancouver are clubs who could struggle to make the playoffs if they get too beat up in their conference. San Diego and El Paso look to be the tough luck squads in this conference this season considering that the rest of the teams are so strong. El Paso and San Diego could both make a decent run at a playoff spot if they were in the Central division with some frequent meetings with the likes of Cincinnati, Indiana, Nashville, and newly promoted Charlotte. Now that's not meant to demean the talent of the teams in the other conferences, in fact, it's more a testament to just how good these clubs are.
The bottom line here is that, this season, to compete with the best you have to beat the best and it just so happens that, on paper, the best teams appear to reside in the cities of Minneapolis (or Blaine if you like), Milwaukee, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, San Diego, and El Paso. When taken as a collective whole this division easily stacks up as one of the most potent collections of talent we've seen in a long time. With the potential of even more players falling to the A-League who normally would've wound up on MLS benches the level of play will rise. At the moment, though, it appears that the clubs in the Central and Northern conferences have their collective bulls-eye aimed squarely at the top teams in the West. Either way it should be a wild ride that just may just find its terminus in the Greater Minneapolis area.
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