The playoffs as seen from my couch Thank God for the LA-SJ match yesterday. Otherwise, one would have been lead to believe that all playoff matches were boring. I watched 180 minutes of playoff footie on Saturday night and if it weren't for Amando Guvera's strike from no where, I wouldn't have seen a single goal all evening.

How much of a mess was the game at the Meadowlands. It's bad enough playing on the plastic...but with that rain...

Anyway, we got to see how closely matched teams were. Everyone was more afraid to lose than anything else. Nervous midfield battles were the result. I'm guessing the Chicago/DC game on Friday was much the same. It's bad when the big news of the weekend was Adu's suspension. Heck that story got more press in my local rag than the local team's 0-0 draw.

So, we've got a pair of 0-0 draws in the #2 vs #3 battles and a #4 seed leading a #1 seed 1-0...but then there was the California Classic.

Has Steve Sampson seen the light? Probably not. But his lineup is starting to look more like what Sigi Schmid would have had. LA--probably with memories of "that game" in their head--took it to San Jose from the start. The entire 90 minutes we saw what LA should have looked like all season. I loved the fact that after scoring the first goal, Herculez didn't want to celebrate. He knew one goal wasn't enough and ran back to the half-way line ready to get another goal. Landon is now Mr. Playoffs in my book. Where's he been this season? Why does it seem like Sampson let go of the leash and let the guys play for once.

Ok, well, at least a quarter of the matches this weekend were entertaining...let's hope for more next weekend. Oh, and I'm still not getting my hopes up too high after yesterdays win over San Jose, but wouldn't it be amusing to see both #4 seeds play at PHP on Nov 13? We won't but it would be a smack in the face of the whole playoff system.  ¶ 1:56 PM