Colorado has been an underrated team for a long time. I’m cheering for the Rapids.

This has just been a really entertaining playoffs, and I’ve enjoyed them thoroughly. Even though the season’s not over, I can’t wait for next season! To see who we’ll draft. To see who we’ll pick up. To see Vancouver and Portland enter the league and what that Pacific Northwest corridor rivalry will be like. I love this league.

I want either FC Dallas or Colorado to win. Just because the Galaxy and the Earthquakes each have two MLS Cups already, and we don’t need anybody getting closer to our total before we can pad our lead. Seeing how few people come out for their games even when they’re in the playoffs is a little disheartening though.

LA is completely out. Over the full length of DC’s history, they’re our 2nd most heated rivals. It’s not just the big games and being the 2 most successful teams; it’s stuff like how the DMV Salvadoran fans largely adopted the Galaxy once we traded away Diaz Arce (LA had Cienfuegos) and made DC-LA games at RFK feel a lot like how United’s Superliga games felt more recently. Other more recent offenses include the Rodney Wallace non-handball last year (Klein’s supposed to be a good Christian, but he totally bought that call by waving his hand for a PK that he knew was not legit) and the fact that Donovan scores 2 goals against us every time they come to RFK. Remembering these incidents has actually made me a little mad.

Arena’s cool, Gonzalez and DeLaGarza are Terps, and I admire Donovan and Beckham for their obvious skills, but there’s still plenty of room to hate the Galaxy. Superclub my ass.

Moving on, San Jose and Colorado don’t seem too villainous. I don’t really like McDonald after he headbutted Jaime Moreno in our second-to-last home game. Leitch and Hernandez are both ex-NYRB, so I’m inclined to dislike them as well. Really, though, it’s more that both teams are unabashedly trying to be English in their approach. It’s all about wingers, speed, and big guys. Where’s the clever interplay or desire to possess the ball for long stretches? Aesthetically, I’d prefer to see them do something else. Omar Cummings is pretty awesome though.

My LA hate and my indifference towards the other two leaves me with Dallas. They play the best soccer of the group, and I only hate 2 of their players: Ihemelu for breaking Domenic Mediate’s leg, and Hernandez for his being a total goon back in the day with the Revs and Metrostars. Hyndman is an appealingly weird dude (that jacket, the martial arts expertise, being born in Macau…who the hell else can you name that was born in Macau?) and is always frank and honest in the press. You also don’t see him whining about something (for example, you’d never hear him making the complaint that Sigi Schmid did about the side Beckham took his corner from in LA last weekend) to cover for his team. His players have to be able to handle that level of honesty, and I like that. I hope DCU’s new coach has a similarly blunt way about such things.