And then there was…. silence.

When I arrived at DSGP for interviews Friday, surprise, there was Conor Casey in the parking lot. The now world-famous Conor Casey. So I asked him a really insightful question: did the noise bother you at the Honduras game? I remember he made a comment about the deafening drone of those plastic horns during the Confederations Cup games in South Africa. From his perspective, the noise in Honduras was more voices, less droning horns, and less noticeable. And then he scored. And then there was silence. He noticed the silence. As other articles since then have mentioned, the silence was almost disorienting, and he wondered if he’d really scored. As for his recent scoring drought in MLS play, he says the national team has a lot of other guys who can score, which spreads play out more, taking the defensive pressure off him. By contrast, MLS opponents are focusing almost entirely on Casey and Cummings. Regarding the upcoming Dallas game, pundits have been speculating all day that Casey will obviously be too tired, maybe even exhausted, for the Dallas game. Some of these people are the same brilliant soccer strategists who still don’t think Casey belongs on the national team. Hopefully we’ll hear more of that Casey-induced silence tomorrow from Dallas, which might help silence the geniuses in the blogosphere.

By the way, there’s a nice post-National Team game photo, with Casey, here.

I spoke briefly with Cory Gibbs, who is slated to return to play on Saturday. He said he’s excited to be back after 5 weeks, like “a kid in a candy store”. Baudet is sitting out this game for his red card, and Mehdi Ballouchy is out for yellow card accumulations.

A post-practice discussion of play off scenarios ensued. The Rapids, Dallas, Real Salt Lake, New England and several other teams are still in contention for playoff spots. The competition is that close. Gary Smith declared that, if the Rapids win, he’ll be smoking cigars and drinking brandy. But the concern is that Dallas is “high as a kite” right now, with 4 wins in 5 games, on home field, with a playoff spot on the line. It’s possible that a playoff spot could be clinched this weekend, and also possible that we still won’t know for sure one way or the other. It’s unfortunate that so much of the playoff race now depends on what other teams do, as much as what the Rapids do. If you want to give yourself a headache thinking about all the numerous scenarios for the remaining spots, you can read all about it, at least this week’s version.
And according to MLS commissioner Don Garber, this tight race is a good thing, and a direct result of MLS’s salary caps and spending limits. He argues that European leagues’ out-of-control-spending threatens financial stability, not to mention fairness. You can read about that here. When you get done reading all this stuff, it will be time for the Rapids vs. Dallas game. Go Rapids!