For All The Cards ...MLS Cup preview

Sometimes a team looks so good on paper ... er, um ... cardboard - that the odds are being favorite to win are overwhelming. A Chicago vs. Los Angeles matchup for the MLS Final would have been great. But if the NFL had thought that about a franchise in Wisconsin as we do about Real Salt Lake - the Packers would have been sent packing ...

The Utah soccer club are upstarts - not quite the David to Goliath (actually David vs. Kyle), but they are led by a very young coach in Jason Kreis (above) who finished his career at RSL and was the first player in MLS to score 100 career goals.

His counterpart, veteran coach Bruce Arena, (former US National Team) has World Cup experience. He has also solidfied a club that was dead last - last season. Bringing in World Cup veteran Greg Berhalter (2006 Panini card above) and Jamaican international goalkeeper Donivan Ricketts was part of the deed.

But the man with the edge between the pipes has to be Nick Rimando - MLS vet and one MLS Championship ring better.

In the Midfield match up of Beckham vs. Beckerman (David vs. Kyle), and Mathis vs. Donovan - the edge goes to Los Angeles. Kyle Beckerman has had a banner year and former SI cover boy Clint Mathis is in his golden years. Clint got his start with the Galaxy (1999 Upper Deck rookie card below right)

The wild card has to go to the new generation - Real has two up and coming strikers in Yuri Moysisian and Robbie Finley. And a wild card in Fabian Espindola.

This should be interesting going up against the Galaxy's top draft pick defenders Omar Gonzales and Sean Franklin -back to back rookies of the year in 2008 and 2009.

Seattle will be the venue - a great one at that. The weather will be .. well, as usual, rainy and cold - as it has been since the first MLS Cup in New England back in 1996.

Prediction: 2:1 to the upstart Real Salt Lake.

Rimando the Magnificent ...

Experience, experience, experience ... and then some awesome goalkeeping by Nick Rimando turned the 2009 MLS Playoffs upside down.

The dream final of Los Angeles vs. Chicago came to an end last night at the Fire's home stadium - Toyota Park.

No Beckham vs. Blanco ... no Galaxy vs. Fire ... no Hollywood vs. the Windy City ... instead it's the upstart Cinderella REAL SALT LAKE going to the final in Seattle.

While Chicago's veterans - Brian McBride and Cuautemouc Blanco played the entire 120 long minutes into extra time - RLS' no name players stood firm shutting down the home team FIRE.

Nick Rimando, winner of MLS Cup 2004 - then with DC UNITED, faced seven penalty kicks in the shootout - because the pressure looked to get to both Fire and RSL takers - each team missing two in the appointed round of five kicks. But Nick Rimando had different plans.

When it looked bleakest - after the first miss by Salt Lake's Javier Morales, Nick was the first to run up to him and seemed to say "don't worry, I'll win it". He was spot on correct.

Amazingly, Rimando guessed correctly ALL 7 times which way the Chicago penalty kicks went. He got close on several occasions and in doing so saved a whopping 3 of the PK's ! (like his fantastic GOAL GUARDS card above)

REAL SALT LAKE will appear in their first MLS Cup final and take on the stars of the Galaxy - at least the ones in Los Angeles.

On a card note - MLS has original photos available (with hologram) on line. I just happened to find one that was used for Nick Rimando's 2008 Upper Deck card. How cool is that ?

NEXT UP: MLS Cup reviews.