October 16, 2006

Heading into this past weekend's action, it was 6 of the 8 teams that would battle to get to MLS Cup 2006 on November 12th at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas were already known. But, that didn't mean that there wasn't a boatload of drama in the battle for the final playoff spots in the East and West.

The best showdown of the weekend was a head to head match up of the two teams that were alive for the fourth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot when the Kansas City Wizards traveled to Giants Stadium to take on the NY Red Bulls. Kansas City needed a tie or a win to get in and the Red Bulls needed to get the win or this would be Yourri Djorkaeff's last professional game in all likelihood.

With Eddie Johnson suspended, Kansas City went ahead early as Dave van den Bergh getting his 3rd goal of the season in the 23rd minute by putting away a rebound that came to him in the Red Bulls six yard box.

Then the game turned into the Amado Guevara show as the Red Bulls captain converted on not one, but two penalties and then scored on a left footed worm burning from about 25 yards out that may have deflected off of a Wizards defender.

Kansas City was able to pull within a goal in the 83rd minute when Sasha Victorine found Scott Sealy alone in the Red Bulls area and he easily beat Conway for his tenth goal of the season.

However, that was as close as the Wizards would come and the Red Bulls would live to face DC United in the first round of the playoffs. The Chicago Fire will take on the New England Revolution in the other first round match up.

Out West, the Colorado Rapids gained the last playoff spot thanks to a 3-3 draw in Houston. Colorado came back to tie the game three times, the last coming in the 88th minute off of the head of Jacob Peterson.

Colorado will face FC Dallas in the first round of the playoffs, while the Houston Dynamo will take on Chivas USA.

Carlos Valderamma to join the USL family

USLSoccer.com

Colombian National Team and MLS icon Carlos Valderamma will be joining the USL family as the technical director for the Super Y-League's newest member, Clearwater International FC.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.