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Who do you think will win the MLS wild card matchups?

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The first two games of the MLS postseason are set for Wednesday and Thursday night, with the new wild card format meaning that for two teams it's win and advance, and for two others it's lose and go home.

New York and Dallas open the MLS playoffs Wednesday night at Pizza Hut Park in a meeting of two teams that had serious title aspirations entering the season. The Red Bulls will have to cope without the injured Luke Rodgers, but Thierry Henry & Co. get a new lease on life after sneaking into the postseason as the 10th and final seed. Brek Shea-led Dallas, meanwhile, is setting out to return to the MLS Cup final after coming up short in the title game a season ago.

Colorado and Columbus meet Thursday night at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference semifinals, which the Rapids took in penalties after the two played to a 2-2 aggregate draw over two legs. The Rapids used that series to launch themselves to the MLS Cup title, while Columbus revamped its roster in the offseason only to make a return to the playoffs. Both will have to overcome central midfield absences as Colorado captain Pablo Mastroeni (concussion) and Columbus' Emmanuel Ekpo (suspension) won't be available.

Who do you think will win the wild card matchups? Cast your vote after the jump:

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How did you vote? Who do you see winning the wildcard games? Do you think any of the wild card contenders has a shot at reaching MLS Cup?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Colorado has played a lot of matches and Cummings has been nicked all season. Folan has underachieved and Nyassi has cooled. With Pablo out, I see no reason why C-Bus cant steal this game.

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  2. You may both benefit from considering the info presented above.

    Or we can compare the same info re your teams. Let’s see, the Sounders & RSL were 3rd & 4th in the league this year in fouls committed, respectively. The Rapids again were 17th out of 18 teams in this category.

    And oh, look: RSL was 4th and Seattle was 5th in the league in out-fouling their opponents, too. Again the Rapids were 17th out of 18 teams in the league, in this category.

    Yellow cards: Seattle 2nd in the league with 62, 4 higher than the Rapids’ 58. RSL was just 2 lower than the Rapids with 56. RSL made up for that on reds, however, with 2 more than the Rapids garnered. Here finally Seattle came in last in a category you don’t want to lead.

    It was a very bad tackle from Mullan that day, obviously. The rest of the data points to the reverse of the CW on the Rapids, however. (Even a Seattle article pointed this stuff out halfway through the season, as I recall.)

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  3. This is pretty laughable, if you look at the hard data. Which is “attractive” and which is “hacking”: to be in the top 1/3 of the league in fouls committed this year, as NYRB were, or to commit the 2nd fewest fouls in the league, as the Rapids did? Or if you normalize for referee variation by going with the differential between fouls committed and suffered, is it attractive to be the 2nd best team in the league at out-fouling your opponents, as NYRB were with a whopping +57 (only Chicago was higher)? And by contrast, it’s more hacking to be the mirror image, having the 2nd lowest such differential, at -60, as the Rapids did? Bookings don’t corroborate your descriptions, either: NYRB had 56 yellow cards to the Rapids’ 58, and both teams had 5 reds.

    But again the CW tends to stray quite far from the facts when people comment on the Rapids in this regard…

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  4. Thank you for proving my point by mentioning Colorado. And while I cannot claim to have watched every RBNY match this season, I would say I can only think of one match where they played in the manner you described and that was before the all star break. If you think this season has been anything close to them playing to their potential I can’t help you. All I know is all of the major soccer leagues in the world reward the team that plays best throughout the season with the title of champion and that should be LA. Here we play a version of spin the bottle and give the team with the best record a pat on the back and a title reminiscent of a jock strap. It’s maddening.

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  5. People are still waiting and expecting for NY to get as good as they thought they would be.

    I don’t think they are. Where is NY better than Dallas ? forward maybe, goal, d and mid, coaching, no way.

    Maybe they think Dallas isn’t any good anymore ? After a season like NYs you would think they would think that about NY.

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  6. Playing like stale sh$t all season and hacking their way to the MLS cup was Colorado last year…. If you watched even one Red Bulls game this year, sure they couldn’t get the results, but the style of play was attractive and possession oriented. Let’s see if they can click and turn all those ties into wins this postseason.

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  7. it’s really got nothing to do with NY and everything to to do with dreading the prospect of a team that’s played like stale sh$t all season making a deep run into the playoff, once again enforcing the notion that the regular season really doesn’t amount to much.

    THAT is what I’m groaning about, you thick-headed knuckledragging dolt of a person.

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  8. Why do you and many other people think NY has wronged anybody? Can you not decipher between your own jealousy and some non existent vendetta? Grow, up. This hate stems from nowhere…

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  9. columbus will grind it out.
    NY will buckle under expectation (and because there is a God that believe in justice and fairness oh who am I kidding they are going to the final)

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  10. Ha, I know. But its actually snowing today in Colorado. It was 70 yesterday in the midwest. It might play a factor. Regardless of weather though, I think columbus will lose in colorado.

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  11. Both of last year’s MLS cup contenders show the league why they made it as far as they did last year and advance…

    Then promptly lose to SKC and LA in the conference Semi’s 🙂

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  12. I think when it gets down to the nitty gritty, the Crew back four are going to snuff out any semblance of a Rapids attack. The Crew’s big strong centerbacks are going to pummel the fast Rapid forwards. 1-0 Columbus on a penalty kick.

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  13. Can’t see columbus getting a win in snowy colorado. The dallas ny game is pretty even, depends on which team shows up for each side. If ny had rodgers I’d pick them for sure.

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