The Wayback Machine Part 2

Thank You
Welcome back to Advantage Played and the MLS year in review. I’ve got to start today by sending out a huge thanks to du Nord for the big shout-out. I feel fortunate to have such support for a blog that now has had only two updates.

MLS 2008: A Year in Review (May and June)
May and June. When fortunes fickle head swung back and forth guiding our emotions all over the spectrograph. Both May and June brought us big scoring games with some great goals that you probably forgot about. Well so did I, but looted the treasure chest of my memory and came up with an old roach and some great high scoring games.

Yes there were 1-1, 1-0, and 0-0 games. I’m just choosing not to show them to you. More goals means more excitement right? Right? Right? Ok maybe it means sloppy like your mom defending.

MAY
Top News
-Everyone was speculating about where Altidore was going to end up
-DC United gets Volkswagen as their shirt sponsor and is obligated to have a used car lot behind the goals
-I’m just going to put this up once (it counts for every month) so pay attention. The William Conde drama train was/is chugging along at 5 mph on a million mile journey and therefore will never reach its final destination.
-Fulham makes a great escape
-Steve Morrow gets fired from FC Dallas before he can put his “masterplan” into action
-Manchester United won some sort of obscure tournament

May 3rd
-Chicago vs. New England: CHI 3, NE 0
Way back on May the 3rd we got a look at a future playoff game. Chicago dominated and came out on top.
Watch Chicago vs. New England

-LA Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake: LA 2, RSL 2
Beckham scores twice and looks like the player and showman everyone expected.


May 17th
-D.C. United vs. Chivas USA: CHV 3, DC 1
Chivas remind us why there were so great last season and come to life the last few minutes of the game.


May 18th
-LA Galaxy vs. FC Dallas: LA 5, DAL 1
Adrian Serioux got thrown out on his ass for a premeditated attack on Beckman.


May 25th
-Chicago vs. New York: CHI 5, NY 1
After this Chicago felt invincible and then immediately stopped winning.


Advantage Played: May’s Best and Worse
Feeling the Best:
-Chicago Fire: “Yes Blanco is a God. He will power us through the whole season and give Mapp a haircut at the same time!”

Feeling the Worst:
-Real Salt Lake: “Just wait to we get our own stadium and start taking the sports enhancer we advertise.”

JUNE
Top News
-Toronto wanted all they could get for McBride
-Altidore is sold to Villarreal for 10 million
-Throwing streamers: eXtremely controversial, Big Soccer posters throw a hissy fit
-FC Dallas gets Hyndman
-The DP blogs were running a high dollar excitement building ad campaign
-Josh Wolff returns to the KC Wizards and promises not to get injured every again

June 4th
-Houston vs. D.C. United: Match postponed
That was a lot of rain. Wait till it starts raining wherever you live, then go outside and think about this post if you want highlights.

June 7th
-San Jose vs. Columbus: SJ 2, CLB 0
San Jose shows fight and get themselves an away win at Columbus.


June 14th
-Columbus vs. Kansas City: CLB 3, KC 0
Columbus break their losing streak against the Wizards to my personal horror.
Watch Columbus vs. KC

June 21st
-Columbus vs. LA Galaxy: CLB 3, LA 3
The Galaxy give it up again and allow Columbus to dramatically come from behind.


June 29th
-LA Galaxy vs. D.C. United: DC 4, LA 1
DC put on an impressive scoring display and continue to put LA in its place.


Advantage Played: June’s Best and Worse
Feeling the Best:
-New England: “Twellman is back! I can’t wait to stare at his tight fitting shirts!”

Feeling the Worst:
-KC Wizards: “The road goes ever on, over rock and under tree, then turns at last to home afar.”
-San Jose: “We need a savior or steroids. Let’s get the Red Bulls to do some taste testing for us.”

Feeling Crazy:
LA Galaxy: “I’m having so many mood swings I feel like I’m Beckham listening to Tom Cruise talk about Scientology.”

Next time on Advantage Played
We will have a jolly good time reviewing July and August. And I promise to have fewer LA highlights but not jokes. Important games coming up you want me to cover? Email away (up top yo).