Continuing the series domination

I'm a bit late writing this due to numerous festivities that resulted from my sister-in-law's wedding this weekend, not the least of which included a couple of hangovers, so I'll keep my comments brief since several other smarter analysts, wittier writers, and merciless bloggers have already opined on the match.


1. Luciano Emilio scored a hat trick. Enough said? Lucigol is now finishing just about every good opportunity he gets.

2. Obviously Clyde Simms deserves recognition for a really well taken goal, but I also think he played a fantastic game in the midfield. Clearly he was more involved in the play than he normally is with Gallardo present.

3. In the twilight of his career, let me be the first to throw the name Jaime Moreno into the discussion of MVP candidates. Moreno is currently tied for 6th in the league in goals with 5, and 2nd in the league in assists with 6. This thought may be worthy of a post of its own in some midweek session in the future, but I guess the point that we all missed in the Gomez vs. Gallardo debate was how much Moreno's stats would actually benefit from the departure of Gomez.

4. With Emilio's resurgence, the excellent chemistry between him and Fred appears to also have resurged.


1. Honorable mention marks to Gonzalo Martinez and Marc Burch, both of whom had to play out of the position that they'd played most frequently this year. The defense overall was slightly above mediocre in this match, and I'm banishing all defenders from the Top Shelf category until we're able to earn at least one clean sheet.


I could search out players to blame for all of the opportunities New York had, but I'd rather just say None. As much as I've bashed Rod Dyachenko and Quavas Kirk at times this season, and though neither was very impressive, nor did either of them specifically put the team in danger of losing.

It's tough to say what we should take away from this victory. Do we rejoice in our continued dominance over a weak opponent who claims to be our rival? Or do we instead worry that this match could have gone much worse for us? That could have very easily been a 4-3 game had Angel and Altidore been playing. And maybe a 5-4 loss if we give that many chances to LA in two weeks. But regardless, my desire for no less than 7 points from this three-game homestand remains very much intact.