Photo courtesy TFCpics.com

Must Win.

It’s a phrase that gets thrown around far too often in sports, especially in today’s world of instant gratification. It’s one that I am loathe to use very often, but in the case of Saturday’s TFC match versus Real Salt Lake, I’m saying it.

It’s a must win game.

Sure, if the Reds don’t get full points at BMO Field on the weekend, there is still the entirety of September and October for the team to get hot and pick up the requisite number of points to get into the playoffs, so a loss wouldn’t be devastating from a mathematical point of view. But the points would definitely help, and the game is a must win for other reasons.

For starters, Toronto is coming off two very demoralizing losses over the past week. Both were in different competitions, and both were very different defeats. The end game was the same for each though, with Toronto having dropped three very claimable points against unremarkable opposition.

So in that vein, TFC needs at home win on Saturday to pick the team’s collective spirit up and wash away the memories of the previous two matches.

Secondly, the opponent is RSL, as side that Toronto will become intimately familiar with over the next month, to the tune of three matches against the Utah club between Saturday and September 28. It would be incredibly advantageous if the Reds could kick off the first of those matches on the right foot and stamp their home authority over the Salt Lake crew.

Speaking of home authority, TFC just lost hold of a BMO Field unbeaten mark that lasted over a full year in all competitions when they got thrashed by the New York Red Bulls last weekend. Toronto thrives on the home field advantage — one could say that the entire season depends on it given the atrocious road record — so a win over a very good RSL side on the Lakeshore will send the message that the Red Bulls loss was an anamoly rather than an emerging trend.

Finally, Toronto needs to win on the weekend for the simplest reason of them all, and one that I alluded to above — points. TFC, after having sat in a playoff position the entire season, is now on the outside looking in where post-season rankings are concerned. Toronto is once again in a dog fight for the playoff table scraps, and every single point from here on out will help the Reds in that fight.

Win, TFC. That’s all there is to it.

Posted by Rudi Schuller

The Galaxy won their series by a single goal, courtesy of a successful Landon Donovan penalty kick in the 73rd minute of the Galaxy home leg. The 1-0 scoreline in the second leg was a complete reversal compared to the relative goalfest (a sloppy 2-2 draw) that was the Goats’ home leg a week previous.

Team Beckham now faces off against perennial contenders (and often champion) Houston Dynamo, who finally figured out how to score in the 126th minute of a 120-minute series. Slump-ridden Brian Ching, who has looked a shell of his former self in recent months not only for his orange-clad MLS club but also for the US nationals, rediscovered his scoring touch in extra time after Houston and the upstart Seattle Sounders couldn’t tally a single goal between them over the course of two regulation matches.

Ching figured the best way to break out of a scoring slump was in dramatic fashion, spinning nearly 180 degrees to volley a bullet past Seattle keeper Kasey Keller, off the inside of the nearest post, and into the goal. Houston then held on for dear life for the following 24 minutes as Freddie Ljungberg and company tried their damnedest to continue the expansion side’s Cinderella story for at least a few more days. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, but Sounders fans can still hold their heads high as their side just completed  arguably the most successful expansion launch in MLS history (yes, I’m including Chicago in that statement, who won the Cup in a much less competitive MLS back in ’98).

Speaking of the Fire, Chicago dispatched New England from their seemingly annual playoff matchup, winning 2-0 at home after spotting the Revs a 3-2 lead in the New England leg. Old Man Blanco continues to defy time itself, having tallied the second of Chicago’s goals and thereby clinching the series with one kick of his well-travelled foot.

The Fire now play host the Salt Lake, who flipped confrerences in MLS’ CFL-inspired playoff crossover format as the eighth and final seed. The Utah side gave downtodden TFC fans a small reason to smile by expelling defending champion (and two-time Supporters Shield winner) Columbus Crew.

Columbus inexplicably rested reigning league MVP Guillermo Barros Schellotto in the first leg in Utah, and paid for the foolish mistake by going down 1-0. Upon his return to the lineup, Schellotto did his best to revive the Crew’s chances in their home leg by notching two goals and putting his side ahead in the aggregate with little more than a half of soccer to be played, but Columbus seemed determined to falter, allowing Salt Lake to score three unanswered goals in what was not-too-long-ago an inpentrable Crew Stadium. One has to wonder what impact Schellotto would have had in the first leg of the series, but it’ll never be known.

So the MLS Cup semis are set, with LA hosting Houston and RSL visiting Chicago. If I were a predictions kind of guy, I’d say LA takes the West while Chicago keeps the East crown within the actual Eastern Conference, leading to a star-studded Cup Final in which The Beckham Experiment finally achieves the ultimate success on the field with an LA Galaxy MLS Cup Championship.

But since I’m not a predictions kind of guy, I will not make such proclamations. Unless I’m proven correct, in which case I’ll point back to this piece as evidence of my superior prognostication skills.

Posted by Rudi Schuller