This year in MLS has been, in my humble opinion, the best one yet.  The combination of having more teams in the league than ever before, the success of the expansion side, the resurgence of the two bottom teams towards the end of the year, the raised level of play, and the nail-bitter of a playoff race all combined to make this the most enjoyable season to watch (personally) since the league began.  We have definitely had some great debates during the course of the year that can only be healthy for the future of a league, and we have learned some lessons this year that we can apply in the future.

Back on March 1st my co-contributor and I wrote some predictions for the MLS season, and given that the regular season has come to a close and the playoffs are set to start I felt it was time to go back and hold myself accountable for my errors, as well as give myself credit for the few things I guessed right.

A quick recap of my picks to refresh our memories (or you can go to the full article):

Most Likely To Succeed: Columbus, Chicago, Toronto

Needs Improvement: Los Angeles, San Jose, Dallas

Sleeper Pick: Chivas, Seattle

The Rest To Make The Playoffs: Houston, New York, New England, Kansas City

The Rest To Miss The Playoffs: DC, Salt Lake, Colorado

The track record is there, unedited, to be picked over.  So, what was I wrong about?  Well the most glaring errors are my Toronto and L.A. Galaxy picks.  It appears I had a wire crossed when I categorized them.  Toronto may only be in it’s third year, but it’s performance-to-talent ratio is baffling to those of us who were excited about that team at the start of the season.  As for the Galaxy, well, they pulled off all of the crazy things I said they’d need to to be competitive, and then some.  Bruce Arena ran a very tight ship, they did indeed find their diamonds in the ruff (Omar Gonzalez and Donovan Ricketts, anyone?), and Beckham came back and actually proved he had dedication to spare for the Galaxy.  They look a dangerous team poised to make a deep playoff run.  Two other rather obvious errors were saying that New York could carry on the momentum of last year and make the playoffs and calling Kansas City for a playoff run.  In my own defense I said that New York would be in trouble if Juan Pablo Angel went down for any length of time, and although he didn’t have a serious injury, he did have his lowest MLS goal total and several scoring droughts.  I also pointed out Kansas City as an extremely inconsistent team, which they were, but I didn’t think it would stop them from making the playoffs.  And although I was wrong about Salt Lake missing the playoffs, I don’t consider that as big an error as the others considering their limping fashion through the second half of the year.

Of course, there were some picks I’d say have made good on my confidence in them (or at least where they’d finish).  Columbus started slow, but now looks like a real contender; Seattle has looks like a solid sleeper pick to challenge; Houston and New England both made the playoffs, and DC and Colorado both missed the playoffs.  Don’t be fooled by Columbus losing to New England on the last day, they really are the strongest team right now in terms of challenging for the MLS Cup, but I’m also riding high in Seattle’s bandwagon and their momentum.  These two teams are the ones that I’m most interested in following.  I’m proud of my Revs for making it in, but they are hurting big time and made it in on piss and vinegar, and the shoulders of Shalrie Joseph, alone.  I’ll be cheering them on none the less and praying for a miracle, but I’m not overly optimistic about a real run.

I’ll admit that I had a few other questionable calls, like having Chicago listed as one of the more successful teams, and Chivas as a sleeper to make a deep run, but I think they’re border line enough that I don’t need to chastise myself for those.

In the spirit of making predictions that I can later catch flack for I’m going to make the following first-round playoff predictions:

Columbus tops Real Salt Lake 3-1 on aggregate (1-1 @ Rio Tinto and 2-0 @ Crew Stadium)

Chicago tops New England 2-1 on aggregate (1-0 @ Gillette and 2-0 @ Toyota Park…please let me be wrong)

Seattle tops Houston 3-1 on aggregate (2-0 @ Qwest and 1-1 @ Robertson)

Los Angeles tops Chivas 4-1 on aggregate (2-0 and 2-1)