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Eight months after its start, Major League Soccer wraps up the 2008 campaign this Sunday as the Home Depot Center plays host to the MLS Cup championship game. This year's finale will feature a newly redesigned trophy and two unlikely competitors, Columbus Crew and New York Red Bulls. Both sides are making their first trip to the Final, having waited 13 years to reach the milestone.
Columbus, the heavy favorite, seemingly can do no wrong. The black-and-gold put in a great year, steadily improving, and ignoring the minor bump in the road they hit in early summer when they experienced three consecutive losses. Led by Argentine playmaker Guillermo Guille Barros Schelotto, the Crew closed out the regular season with 57 points and claimed the 2008 Supporters' Shield, awarded to the team with the best regular season record.
Guille's efforts would not go unrecognized and earlier this week, MLS awarded league MVP honors to the former Boca Juniors star, beating out the Galaxy's Landon Donovan and the Chicago Fire's Cuauhtémoc Blanco. Schelotto's play helped the Crew average 1.67 goals per game, and on the defensive side, Chad Marshall earned MLS Defender of the Year honors, who, along with long time U.S. National Team member Frankie Hejduk, helped anchor a defense that allowed only 1.2 goals per game.
The accolades didn't stop there. After awarding the top individual player honors to Columbus, MLS then tapped Crew head coach Sigi Schmid as the league's Coach of the Year. Schmid has, in some ways, come full circle. Cast off by the Galaxy in 2004, Schmid later returned to MLS in 2005 when he took over the reins in Columbus. Since then, he has gradually rebuilt the team into the championship caliber squad visiting Home Depot Center this weekend.
Schmid, who is still remembered in Carson, is likely to find more than a few supportive Galaxy fans on game day.
New York's story is dramatically different. The team had a tumultuous year, beginning with a coaching change that saw Colombian coach Juan Carlos Osorio abruptly move from Chicago to New York. On the field, the team was inconsistent throughout the year and suffered several losses that further complicated matters.
Claudio Reyna, the long time U.S. National Team midfielder, failed to perform on the field and spent most of his time with the team on the injury list. The string of injuries eventually lead to his retirement from professional soccer earlier in the season. The Bulls offense then took an additional blow when Spanish side Villareal struck a deal with MLS to have the up-and-coming Jozy Altidore join them in Europe.
Despite those hits, Colombian star Juan Pablo Angel extended his successes from his inaugural MLS campaign in 2007. Angel's 14 goals this year helped the Bulls hang on for a chance to qualify for the playoffs. New York would accomplish its goal on the final week of the regular season, qualifying as a wild card team with a -6 goal differential.
Although their road into the playoffs was much more problem prone than that of the Crew, the Bulls have asserted themselves in the playoffs, defying many observers that had predicted an early exit. Their playoff run has been highlighted by their elimination of back-to-back champions Houston Dynamo in a convincing 3 - 0 victory on the road.
Neither New York nor Columbus have ever reached the Final, and for players like Schelotto, Hejduk and Angel, the prospects of them reaching another final are slim, given they are reaching the final years of their careers. For soccer fans, seeing players of that caliber go at it in a do-or-die game is a treat and it is almost certain they won't be disappointed on Sunday.
Game details are below:
WHERE: Home Depot Center, Carson
WHEN: Sunday, November 23, 2008; 12:30 PM
TV: ABC, Telefutura
Photo by SamVincent via Flickr
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