State of the States | May, 2011

Welcome back to another roundup of the goings-on at the top levels of American men's soccer. Next month our attention will turn towards the US National Team and the Gold Cup, but this month all the buzz is about Major League Soccer.

Coming Around The First Bend

The majority of MLS teams have either crossed the quarter-stage point or are nosing up to it. So let's take a look at the standings, shall we? MLS HQ is bound to be drooling at having the two marquee franchises, New York and LA, sitting atop their respective conferences, though Real Salt Lake is only a point shy of LA's mark in the West with four, count them, four games in hand, so the standings are perhaps a little misleading. Nevertheless, this past weekend saw said "superclubs" clash as New York and LA, in what I'm sure league executives are hoping was a preview of MLS Cup, took a point apiece in a 1-1 affair.

In fact, only one of the seven league matches on Saturday didn't end in a draw, raising the specter of that rash of deadlocks we saw in 2010. But draws are pretty much to be expected in a league like MLS, aren't  they, where parity dominates, teams are roughly level on talent, and results are hard to predict? On any given week, it's not difficult to find head-scratching results. Small wonder then that the top half of the league finds itself within four points of each other.

That said, there are a couple of names in that top half that don't seem to belong. Expansion Portland, despite being winless away, has won all four of their home matches, while the Philadelphia Union have hit the ground running in their second campaign, being two points off the top of the East with a game in hand. On the other end of the table, it's two league originals, San Jose and KC, that are scraping the bottom of the barrel (all right, one has rebranded, and the other has been rebranded, shipped to another city, then re-founded since the league's inception, but still ... originals).

Continuing Trend of Violence

As I mentioned earlier, there was much wringing of hands about the number of draws last season, but thus far, the story of MLS 2011 has been the plague of red cards, ostensibly a symptom of the league sending a message by cracking down on the general level of thuggishness in the league. Sadly, that message doesn't seem to be getting through as the last couple of weeks have seen some brutal tackles remove highly skilled players from action for big chunks of, if not the entire, season. Steve Zakuani, David Ferreira, Branko Boskovic, and Javier Morales, all high-flair, attacking players, have been the subject of rough play involving varying degrees of violence. Brian Mullan's awful "challenge" (the quotes indicate how loosely that word applies to what was a petulant and violent reaction on Mullan's part) is without a doubt the sickening centerpiece of the thuggery.

While it's true that such tackles are not uncommon in say, the English game (witness Gareth Bale this past weekend, Stu Holden closer to home, any number of Arsenal players, et al), is that really the standard MLS wants to emulate? Zakuani's injury was horrifying for any who had the stomach to watch it (or who, like me, watched it happen — the snap of bones audible even over a crappy web feed), but I wonder if there will be anything more than lip service paid to cracking down more severely on violent play until the victim is Henry, Beckham, or Donovan.

Failure At The Last Hurdle

And finally we turn to the great disappointment of this past month for fans of MLS. After gaining an excellent 2-2 result in Mexico, Real Salt Lake fell at the final hurdle in the CONCACAF Champions' League, going down 1-0 at home to Monterrey despite battering on the door for the single goal that would have seen them carry the MLS banner to the World Club Championships. The difference? A single moment of quality from the Mexican side — a moment that RSL just couldn't find an answer to. The US national team may have a slight edge in the regional power struggle (though this summer's Gold Cup may swing the balance), but MLS still plays second fiddle in the CONCACAF club game.

Looking Forward

The Gold Cup looms large when we set our sights on the months to come. But it's not the only story to keep your eye on ...

• The Gold Cup kicks off in early June after a high-profile warm up against Spain, the reigning world champions. Bob Bradley will be fielding his A team in order to qualify for the Confederations Cup with a victory, but there's still room for young blood to be included, particularly with the U-20's crashing out before the big dance this summer.

• Speaking of that last bit, I wondered in last month's column if Rongen would be ousted after this latest failure, an event which just came to pass last week. Tab Ramos is the interim U-20 boss, but who gets the long-term call?

• Does the march of red cards and serious injuries continue in MLS?

• There's a big, condensed pack atop MLS, but does anybody make an early break from the peloton? A Supporters' Shield challenge can be established in the first quarter, but it's MLS Cup that really matters, and Cup runs in MLS are all about form over the last quarter of the season.

We'll see you on the far side of May as we prep for a full summer of soccer in the States. Thanks for reading.

Michael S. Hund is the creator of the Fullback Files, a blog covering DC United, the US National Team, and Major League Soccer.