Minnesota's officially back, the Blast nearly beat the reigning champs, Seattle finally lost at home, Montreal went Jekyll and Hyde by beating Toronto soundly after getting shutout by the Riverhounds, and a score of other clubs booked their playoffs spots. Yes, it was an interesting week around the A-League. Heck, even Dan Barnes found a way to get on the field!
Seriously, though, we are running out of games and there are only a select number of playoff slots left for teams to try and grab. In the East, Montreal, Atlanta, Charleston, Richmond, and Rochester have already sealed up their playoff positions leaving one spot on their side of the ledger. In the West, Minnesota, Milwaukee, and Seattle have completed half of the field out there. This leaves us with three spots left over there as we head into this weekend's action.
Needless to say, though, that the Rampage will still have much to play for this weekend as they'll face the Kansas City Wizards of MLS in the last of the Open Cup quarterfinals. Hopefully this match will go over a little smoother than Kansas City's last visit to an A-League park. The Rampage will be looking to continue their impressive run in this competition and I for one am going to be rooting for this last of A-League entrants in the Open Cup. Let's hope the Wizards can somehow manage to keep their composure against those mean, nasty A-League fans and players.
Back in the playoff picture Cincinnati only has academic hopes to make the playoffs standing 12 points out of the final playoff spot after last Sunday. This would wind up giving us a near sweep for the Pacific Division who will wind up sending at least three of their five to the playoffs with an extremely likely fourth. The only team left out in the cold from the Pacific: Calgary.
In the East, Toronto holds a commanding lead over Charlotte as they come down the stretch for the final playoff spot in that conference. The Eagles have been thoroughly unfortunate to wind up being this far out of the playoffs at this point in the season but they've lost a lot of close games that maybe they should've won. Either way the Lynx are in the driver's seat for the last spot and should have it secured after this weekend. You've got to give credit to their stout defense, the scoring of Nick Budalic, the acquisition of Lucas from Cincinnati (long story behind that I'll bet!), and generally recovering from the disappointment of last season.
Elsewhere around the league the rumor mills are beginning to hum into life again and it probably won't be too much longer before the rumors of expansion and our own peculiar A-League version of contraction talks heat up again. There will also likely be discussions of teams being "promoted" from lower divisions if they can fit the necessary criteria. Let's hope no rash decisions are made or we could be in for another bunch of terrifying positions not entirely different from what we saw this season in Hampton Roads and Vancouver.
Speaking of Hampton Roads let's take a minute to give a standing ovation to Mike Field and his crew's effort to bring the Mariners back into prominence. Field is showing a willingness to lend an ear to the fans' concerns and has already publicly stated that the club will compete next year after filing the necessary paperwork with the league office. He's been one of the most transparent operators in the league and for that he should be given some extra credit. Here's hoping fans new and old come back to the Sportsplex in droves next season and the boys on the field give them a bit more to cheer about. It really appears that this franchise is on the right track.
Now that that particular bit of ranting is done I have to add a little bit more for all the fans out there. If you have the ability to get away and traipse down to your nearest A-League park this weekend or in the near future please do. Give your team one last set of applause before the final curtain draws on several teams so that they can have another slight moment in the limelight before the long, long off-season. Trust me, it will mean a lot to them.
Send your comments to the author or
Join us to discuss this article at usldiscussions.com
