| Over the years I’ve scored fewer and fewer points on this thing, probably ’cause I keep going more and more out on a limb (read: silly) with the predictions. But what the heck- that’s the whole point of this bit. There are 100s of normal predictions out there. What’s the fun in that? |
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| So here they are, my annual fearless, and likely useless, predictions. |
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Twenty Fearless Predictions for 2008
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| (For recreational purposes only) |
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| 1 |
Halfway though the season with LA in the crapper, Beckham will give his “Him or Me” ultimatum demanding Alexi Lalas be fired and for the team to be built with a bunch of average talent and role players instead of three massive egos. AEG Honcho Tim Leiweke will have a “come to Jesus” meeting with Landon Donovan, Don Garber, and Quakes owner Lew Wolff to convince Landon to waive his no-trade clause “for the good of the league” so LA can send him to San Jose for a package of allocation and players. Gullit will be pissed off he wasn’t invited to the meeting and will quit LA for Willem II. |
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| 2 |
FC Dallas will hire a Technical Director and it will not be one of the two most likely candidates, Schellas Hyndman or Dave Dir. A TD is the trend in MLS and HSG will follow up their hire in Columbus with one in Dallas. The name the Hunts pull out of a hat is going to surprise many people, including me. |
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| 3 |
This summer Lee Nguyen will finally see the light and return home to sign with MLS (Benny Feilhaber, however, will not). Nguyen will want to come to FCD, but because FCD has no high ranking allocation he’ll go to RSL or LA. FC Dallas will trade Marcelo Saragosa, green card in hand, and an allocation to get Lee. |
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West Finish: Chivas USA, Houston, FC Dallas, Real Salt Lake, Los Angeles, Colorado, San Jose. Chivas USA will win the West as Houston starts slow and finishes second. FCD will also come out slow, a midseason signing rallying them into 3rd, passing RSL in the last month of the season. With San Jose in the west, RSL makes the playoffs, edging out LA, Colorado, and Chicago from the East. |
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| 5 |
East Finish: Kansas City, DC United, New York, New England, Chicago, Toronto FC, Columbus. I just got a feeling about KC this year; I love what they are doing there. DC is involved in too many other competitions and Gallardo is too selfish a player to get DC to the top of the table. Angel and Altidore are too good and once Osorio gets the defense right, they will start to peak in the second half. NE slumps this year- they’ve just lost too much- but still makes the playoffs. Chicago just misses out as Blanco is the most fouled player in MLS, TFC is still a mess, and the Crew is downright awful. |
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| 6 |
Chivas USA will be MLS Cup Champs. Dallas finally knocks out Houston in a shootout when Sala saves on Mulrooney’s 5th attempt, but then loses to Chivas USA out in LA. Red Bull upsets DC and then beats KC in KC to advance. Chivas, with the home ice, takes MLS Cup 2008. |
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FC Dallas will be US Open Cup Champions. Hitch is committed to buying those USOC home games and Morrow’s young team, led by resilient Cooper and Thompson, is good at knock-out games. |
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| 8 |
Chivas (Guadalajara) will win the SuperLiga. Their virtual home support throughout the tournament will carry them to the title as all the Mexican teams take the SperLiga even more seriously than last year. |
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| 9 |
Curt Onalfo is your MLS Coach of the Year. He leads KC to first place in the East, despite playing in a minor league stadium. |
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| 10 |
The Rookie of the Year will be Eric Brunner of the Red Bulls. It’s going to be a three-horse race between Brunner, Anthony Beltran in Salt Lake, and Chance Myers in KC. I’m giving Brunner the nod as he’s a natural fit for the LCB spot in the 3-man NY back line. He’ll also score a couple nice goals on headers. |
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| 11 |
Brian Ching will be Comeback Player of the Year for Houston. This is the year Ching finally stays healthy, and he’ll score 15 goals in all competitions. Ronnie O’Brien will finish second for CPotY and would win the award if San Jose’s front line was not so horrific. |
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| 12 |
Jozy Altidore will be sold for $10 million to AC Milan. Altidore will be one of three players AC Milan buys with the money they get for selling Kaka to Real Madrid. |
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| 13 |
Taylor Twellman will win the Budweiser Golden Boot for the Revs. He’s pissed he didn’t get sold and will come out firing on all cylinders to get that transfer. |
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| 14 |
Ante Razov will be MLS MVP. Like Emilio last year over Angel, the best player for the best team usually gets the nod. Twellman will score more, but Chivas will be better than the Revs and Razov will add all those assists. |
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| 15 |
Jimmy Conrad will be Defender of the Year for the City. The Wizards will be very tough to score on this year and Conrad is in the prime form of his career. |
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| 16 |
Chivas USA will win the Supporters’ Shield. Razov and Galindo will do it again and lead Chivas USA to the regular season title. Having San Jose in the West to help pad the point total doesn’t hurt either. |
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| 17 |
Brek Shea will start 10 regular season games for FCD, mostly in the latter half of the season. He’ll get time at left wing and left wingback; including USOC play, he’ll score four goals. |
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| 18 |
With time running out on the season, Morrow will talk HSG into signing a DP in the second transfer window, Australian target striker Mark Viduka. Keegan will be signing players right and left for the Magpies, thus Viduka will be surplus to requirements at Newcastle. Morrow, tired of watching Cooper, Ricardinho, and Alvarez play anywhere but in the box will not be able to resist the massive target striker. |
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| 19 |
Halfway through the MLS season, right about the time Schelotto vanishes, Brian Bliss and Sigi Schmid will begin referring to each other as “the coach” and “the director” in the media. Bliss will start looking for a new coach and will name himself interim coach when Sigi is fired late in the year. |
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| 20 |
There will be no expansion announcement this year. I wanted to predict St Louis and NY2 would make the 17th and 18th teams, but we’re still two years from Philly entering the league, so it will take a few years for those other two locations to land teams. Hell, the Mets have to get their stadium in place first. |
Wait, doesn’t Kaka play for AC Milan? How is Barcelona going to sell him to Real Madrid? Did you mean to type Ronaldinho?
Otherwise, great article, should be an interesting MLS season.
Craziest one is FCD making the playoffs now that’s a loooong shot.
Keith, cause I did that one last minute and brain farted all over the page. Obvisouly AC Milan, not Barcelona.
I wouldnt mind Viduka but its not gonna happen. As always the predictions are a good read
Viduka would be mighty nice. Adding him and Lee would change the look of the team for sure, addding a right wing who can create and a forward who actually wants to play forward. If only Buzz…if only.
Lee would be a better pickup at this point than Viduka. That would seem to me like we would just be settling. Buzz, its actually Anthony Beltran, not Adrian. Your still the man.
good lord, I just chock full or little errors today.
$10 million for Altidore? Now that’s a bold prediction. US players never seem to fetch what they are valued or rumored to be valued at (e.g. Freddy Adu, Eddie Johnson). We may be a couple of years away from a 8 figure US player.
I like your predictions! I just hope that your prediction for FCD’s 3rd place finish is somewhat close. Rewally, I’d be happy with the following:
1) FCD makes the playoffs (in whatever position — I think they will be inconsistent this season) and gets past the first round.
2) That Houston loses in the first round. I TIRED of them being so good!
3) That the LAG do not make the playoffs — having 3 DP’s on the roster is CRAZY and just doesn’t seem fair to the other players.
P.S. spelling correction — REALLY ( not “rewally” I’m not Elmer Fudd!)
The three amigos (Martek, mr3d, and playtherapy) at the Nutmegged Blogspot http://nutmegging.blogspot.com/ have decided to host the 1st Invitational MFLS Fantasy League Bloggoff- using Mark Wheeler’s excellent MFLS system.
This competition will be comprised of a fantasy league and a prediction league. Bragging rights for the whole kit and kaboodle will mean having the most points combined from both competitions. Each blog can only have one team-though decisions can be made by a collective (as we will do).
1. Should you decide to join, go to http://www.mfls.com/, and create a team. Name the team after your Blog Site. When choosing players, printing off the spread sheet of players’ salaries and 2007 point totals is helpful.
2. Then pick the Division “Blogger MFLS Invitational Champs”. The password for joining our division is-
bloggy
Email me if you have any trouble. playtherapy@hotnmail.com
Results will be published at the Nutmegged Blog site but feel free to write about the competition on your own site.
Unless you count WV hooligan, there is no FC Dallas rep…
Cheers
Jeff (playtherapy)
I would LOVE to see Lee in hoops and I think it is a good possibility. He is one of my favorite players in the world mainly because went to the same High School and I watched him tear up high school soccer. If we could get Viduka that would be the best MLS signing ever the guy has skill. I could see AC Milan giving $10million for Altidore those guys are crazy. If we get Lee (very good possibility IMO) and Viduka (long shot but possible) We will be the best team in MLS.
Everything I’ve read has ManU and Chelsea as dueling for Jozy’s services this summer. But AC Milan will almost certainly be in the mix. And I think 10 million will be about right.
It’s Willem II, you IDIOT!!!!
[...] 3rd Degree(FC Dallas blog) has KC finishing first in the East. [...]
Some of these are really out there Buzz, even for you.
I predict that only two or three of these will actually happen and none of them will involve any of the current MLS teams or players. Only the managerial and league announcement predictions will be anywhere close to occurring.
Shea starting only 10 games? I’m almost ready to bet you that he plays significant minutes on Sunday! Fact is, the team may be looking at playing for the draw right out of the gate, especially if Davino is a no-show.
Ah Jason, what’s the fun in making safe easy picks.
I think that Dallas may pickup a DP this year, but from what I’ve seen so far regarding DPs, is that MLS is only interested in free agents/free transfers. Correct me if I’m wrong, but were any of the current or former DPs clubs paid transfer fees?
I predict that the Talent at the top of the LA roster will make those at the bottom of the roster better (rather then the bottom dragging down those at the top as most are predicting). Chivas and LA will be involved in an epic battle for the West this season and the Chivas V LA games will be the most watched games in MLS history and will catapult the league into prominence. The final Chivas/LA match of the season will be as important to MLS as the 1979 Daytona 500 was to the growth of NASCAR.
Buzz – I always appreciate your opinions, but aside from Claudio Lopez, what is there to be excited about in Kansas City? Kickball on the diamond?
Buzz, I’m disappointed this year. I don’t see any of your predictions coming true except Brek starting 10 games and maybe Chivas USA taking the West.
It’s a contract year for Twellman? I thought he just signed an extension.
Yes, I missed that Ed. I suck.
yes I think Chivas will win the whole thing too. That would be sooo great for Jozy if it came true.
seriously, what are the chances lee nguyen would play in the mls by summer? is this just wishful thinking, or did he indicate getting tired of collecting splinters at the end of the bench in europe?
He was traded from PSV to some no name club. He trained with FCD last year during the off season and odds are that he would be looked at more than he would be with where he is now. The kid has crazy skill with the ball.
Randers FC is the club Lee went to. I think Belgium but maybe Denmark.
Is there gonna be an FCD MLS Fantasy division this year?
[...] sites posted “bold predictions” – and I say, good for them! I liked what I read from 3rd Degree, but only got to the first couple on WVHooligan’s post before coming here. Gotta get the [...]
Chicago will be involved in a large fight/brawl, which will be news worthy enough to be played on ESPN.
[...] Buzz Carrick over at the FC Dallas’ 3rd Degree predicts that central defender and RBNY’s first round 2008 Superdraft pick Eric Brunner will [...]