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Playoffs Begin

© Corey Arnold

The MLS 2001 playoffs have begun, but I don't know that very many of us have been able to follow it much.

For some reason, only 2 of the potential 12 quarterfinal matchups are available on national television. And those two matches have already come and gone.

And we are one game away from guaranteeing that we will have a new champion in 2001. Kansas City traveled to Miami on Saturday to take on the top seed Fusion and came away with a 2-0 loss. In the 28th minute Diego Serna put the Fusion on the board when a ball somehow worked its way across the Wizards penalty area until it found Serna wide open. Serna immediately buried a shot in the net. In the 53rd minute Preki and Alex Pineda Chacon put in the insurance goal when Preki drove toward the Kansas City defense at the top of the penalty area and then cut to the right causing two Wizard defenders to trip over each other. He then placed a gentle pass to Pineda Chacon who easily scored on a one touch shot.

Previously in the week on Thursday, Dallas traveled to Chicago to take on the Fire and also came away with a 2-0 loss. The scoring began in the 40th minute when Eric Wynalda swung a free kick into the box. Carlos Bocanegra out-jumped his defender in order to be able to get his head on the ball and score the opening goal. The second goal came in stoppage time in a somewhat unlikely fashion. Dallas netminder Matt Jordan had gone forward to add a body to a Dallas corner kick. But Chicago got hold of the ball and Peter Nowak send a long pass to Evan Whitfield who outran everyone to the Burn goal, including Jordan, and calmly put the ball in the net.

In the second of the mandatory two-game series on Sunday, Dallas was able to come back and earn a 1-1 draw and force a game three. The scoring was opened by Dallas when Chad Deering carried the ball into the Chicago penalty area in the 27th minute and placed a perfect shot just outside the reach of Zach Thornton. In the 84th minute took a wide open shot at Matt Jordan in the Dallas nets, which Jordan deflected. but Jamar Beasley was there for the rebound and volleyed home the equalizer. In MLS playoff rules, a team does not win its series until it has 5 points. With the tie Chicago has 4 points in the series. The teams will now return to Chicago on the 26th to see if the Fire can wrap it up.