Breaking the Salt Lake jinx

On Monday I had to sit in the "business center" of the Hilton Garden Inn-Rancho Bernardo, watching the match feed for the Dynamo-RSL game (game guide) and reading the BigSoccer play-by-play on the hotel computer. Despite playing on fake turf and missing Ching, D-Ro, and of course Clark, we managed to eke out our first victory in Salt Lake. (Game recap.) I watched the taped match when I returned to Houston on Friday. It was indeed ugly in terms of play and in terms of aesthetics, both sins chiefly attributed to the playing surface. Lark had some great observations in his blog.

I had heard how Holden's goal was a blown cross deflected into the goal by a stubby Nick Rimando, but in watching the goal it look much more impressive than it sounded. I'm thinking that a young Stuart Holden will be one of the players we protect in the San Jose expansion in the off-season.

The worst part of the game was the fact that we've lost Cochrane (yellow card accumulation) AND Eddie Robinson (bogus red card) for the final regular season game versus Chivas. The winner takes the top spot for the Western Conference and maintains home field advantage throughout the playoffs. A tie gives Chivas the top spot. Can we beat Chivas on its home field, where it has lost only once this year? And do we want to beat them? We dominate at home, for sure; but we also seem to prosper when the cards are stacked against us. Regardless, wins are always good. Let's win the next 5 games: the Season finale, both Conference semis, the Conference final, and the MLS Cup...that'll do it.