Seattle Sounders, 9-6-10, 37pts
vs
Chivas de LA, 11-9-3, 36pts
Last meetings: 4/18/09 Chivas win 2-0, 6/6/09 Chivas win 1-0
Trends are funny things, trying to find patterns in events that happen once a week for only a few months. What’s in a trend, anyway?
Currently, the Sounders’ trend is to win away games against strong teams (LA, Houston, DC), while losing/tying at home to weaker ones (New England, Toronto). To add insult to injury, we haven’t scored at Qwest since July 11th.
We will put the trend to the test today, playing a strong team, Chivas, at home. Like the Sounders, Chivas are desperately holding onto a playoff spot. The Sounders in the number five spot and Chivas at number six. (For a completely mind-numbing number crunch of the stats, check out this site.)
To make matters worse, even though we are currently a point ahead of them in the playoff race, they have only played 23 games, while we’ve had 25. That means they have two more games to catch up with us. Ugh.
However, things look good for tonight. For only the 6th time in club history, everyone is available, no injuries or suspensions. And while Chivas has had two players suiting up for the Nats this year, neither seems to be a threat. Sash Kljestan did nothing against Brazil back in June in the opening round of the Confederation’s Cup and hasn’t been seen since. And Jonathan Bornstein did little against Trinidad last week, and I wonder why he has there and not Riley.
The one other trend I see: We win when we mix it up. Sigi’s used different lineups for the last four victories. I hope he realizes that and continues, like starting LeToux over Jaqua. Or Levesque over Jaqua. Or even Nyassi—we haven’t seen him in a while—instead of Jaqua. You get the point.
Nate Jaqua/Photo by Jack Hunter
Finally, I’ll be at the game tonight, and though I chickened out of being the intrepid reporter at Thursday’s practice, and chickened out the first time I was in the locker room after the Toronto game, I’m hoping to man up to the challenge this time. Anyone want to hold my hand and come up with some questions for me?
