Cocky. That's what we were. We committed the cardinal Survivor sin last week: Never pick a team that is playing in a rivalry match. So, in taking FC Dallas to win last week -- yep, you guessed it -- the "Survivor Experts" have now been eliminated from their own game.
But that's not going to stop us from advising you on some picks throughout the remainder of the regular season. It's the last week in September and the playoff races are at full boil. With that said, there are at least three matches this week that garner Survivor attention.
1. D.C. United vs. Toronto FC -- This game should be a total mismatch. After a slow start to the season, D.C. United have been rolling through opponents, both international and domestic. TFC, on the other hand, has the worst goal differential in the league (-20) and is currently at the bottom of the playoff table. There's only three reasons you would not pick D.C. United -- you've already used them, you're afraid of using a team that's played twice in the same week or you think Bobby Boswell's blog is taking away from his overall game. Pick: D.C. United.
2. New York Red Bulls vs. Real Salt Lake -- The reason for this pick is simple. The Red Bulls want to lock in a postseason berth in front of their home fans, while RSL is basically playing out the string. It's going to take more than a new GM to get RSL over the hump in this one. The thing we want to know is how is Alecko Eskandarian received in his home state of New Jersey. C'mon Esky, try to keep up with your good buddy Bobby in blog posts. Pick: New York Red Bulls.
3. Kansas City Wizards vs. Los Angeles Galaxy -- While some people may think New England at home vs. Colorado is a better match, we're going with this one based on what the Galaxy do not have vs. what the Wizards do have. Head coach Frank Yallop should consider putting together Galaxy version of "Sueno MLS" just to field a full roster of healthy players. While the Wizards are 3-5-2 in their last 10 matches, they should be able to take advantage of a short-handed Galaxy squad. Pick: Kansas City Wizards.
Since we're eliminated, we'll leave it up to you to decide the Pick of the Week.
(Pssst ... take D.C.!)