I go on a blogging and news sabbatical, and the Crew moves up in the rankings. Figures! Actually, I am travelling right now and do not always have Internet access. I have no time to say more now, but I should be back to my blogging ways in 2 weeks! For now, goodbye from the land of the rising sun!

I am beginning to actually like the new Blogger format.

This Thursday or Friday will be my last day blogging for about three weeks. During that time, I will be travelling overseas and probably will be unable to keep up with MLS, but, never fear, your fearless blogger will be back to blogging before long.

MLS standings:

1. LA
2. Chicago
3. DC
3. Metrostars
3. San Jose
4. Dallas
4. KC
5. Colorado
6. Columbus
6. New England

Ergh...so far, I really dislike the new Blogger website, which has contributed to my blog-weariness. Anyways, I just had to log in to say this: the Crew actually won a match!!!!!

On a totally unrealted note...whoa! I came to Blogger in order to mess around with my blog some, and saw that the look had totally changed! I'm not yet sure what I think of the changes. Go take a look for yourself, if you so desire.

And to think I almost gave up hope that Columbus would score! Final score: 1-1.

YYYYYYYYYYYeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Columbus scored a PK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

OK, so the Crew did a pretty good recovery job in that potentially dangerous DC shot. DC had about three shots and rebounds in that attempt, but, thankfully, the Crew's defense was able to clear that threat.

I cannot believe how badly Columbus is playing this year! I just hope that this year will be a reversal of last year for them. (Last year they started out on top and ended up on bottom.) Still, in my slightly biased opinion, they are the best team in MLS to never have won the Cup. They have come so close so many times, but have never quite made it. One of these years that had better change! Go Crew!

Today's "soccer definition" is of a shutout! Yes, I know that it is probably nice for a casual viewer, but it is still funny!

It is now the half, with DC still in the lead 1-0.

Either DC is doing a great job of defense, or Columbus is doing a really bad job of offense. I'm not really sure which.

From what I've seen in the past 20 minutes, the Crew have a decent game going, but they really need to work on finishing their chances on goal.

Columbus is playing at DC right now, and, sadly, they (Columbus) are down 1-0. All I know is that the goal was scored sometime within the first 20 minutes. (I was not able to tune in to the match until the 19th or 20th minute, so that's how I know that.)

The Clean Sheet: A tangled web. Who stinking cares about sponsorship on MLS jerseys?????????? Seriously, who gives a rip? I know what you're thinking if you read the article - Tino Palace gives a rip. But other than him, who cares where the ads go?????????? There are more important things to focus on improving in MLS - you know, things like improving the quality of play, actually having the games broadcast on national TV...I know there have to be more things than that, but I guess that all my loathings were focused on the tie-breaking shooutouts and extra periods (or whatever they called them) for so long, that I haven't had much of a chance to critique other bad things in the league! Regarding Joey Franchino's Goal of the Week, if you haven't seen it, you really ought to. It is absolutely beautiful.

Eric Wynalda, Paul Caligiuri, and Michelle Akers have been elected to the Soccer Hall of Fame.
Kyle Marino's thoughts of the week
MLSnet.com has taken a nostalgic turn this week, with articles about Players and the year they dominated MLS and Wynalda's first MLS goal.
According to this article, Real Madrid will be playing the MLS all-stars this year!

Current standings (changes from last week are in parentheses: 0=same, -1=down one ranking, +1=plus one ranking, etc.):

1. Chicago (+2)
1. Dallas (+1)
1. LA (+3)
2. KC (+2)
2. Metrostars (0)
3. Colorado (0)
3. DC (+1)
3. San Jose (+1)
4. New England (+1)
5. Columbus (+1)

As you can see, I merely took into account the place they had pointwise. Columbus is still in last place, but since more teams are sharing rankings this week, they gained one.

Well, Columbus finally sort of broke their losing streak with a scoreless draw, which, of course, gives them one point. They're still last in the league, but at least they have a grand total of one point. (Too bad it's not golf!) Unfortunately, I was out tonight, and so didn't get to view the game. However, I will make an effort to see it later this week.

I haven't had a chance to blog the past couple days, but I did bookmark some pages that I wanted to blog on. Hopefully I will remember what I wanted to say!

Wynalda: Time will tell for Adu, Nowak. There's nothing really noteworthy in this article (sorry, Wynalda!), but it is somewhat interesting if you have spare time to read it. If you're short on time, the next two articles are way better.

View from the cheap seats: Motley Crew. Very interesting article about this year's Crew. Go read.

The Clean Sheet: It's in the cards. The article is subtitled: "MLS got it right, now FIFA wants to make changes." This is probably the best of the three articles I'm linking to in this post. I need to be studying or I'd comment more. I leave it at this: it is a must-read.