Reyna's appointment a step in the right direction (cont.)

MLS weekend ahead

Saturday is a historic day in MLS. Not historic, perhaps, like a Led Zeppelin reunion tour. But historic like a Def Leppard reunion tour. Let's go with "historic-ish."

Eight games fill the bill, something that's never happened in MLS. It's the product of a 16-team league, or course, and of the weekly Spanish-language broadcasts moving from Sunday to Saturday. Whatever the reason, the idea of an actual, fully stocked match day in MLS is sweet symmetry.

What's more, the weekend includes several dandies.

More than 35,000 tickets have been sold for the Philadelphia Union's debut against D.C. United (at Lincoln Financial Field, which is subbing as Sons of Ben stomping grounds until they switch on the lights at PPL Park in June.) It's an important match for both sides. Yes, the Union is an expansion side and everyone preaches patience about expansion sides. But nobody ever really wants to be patient about expansion sides, and Peter Nowak's team looked a little overwhelmed in its initial roll-out, a loss to Seattle. Still, the pressure won't be on the Union they way it will be on D.C. United, which has zero points and zero goals in two matches.

Los Angeles will travel to battle spring humidity and a Houston side that remembers last year's conference final. The Dynamo fought L.A. and gremlins in the electricity grid out in Southern California, falling in extra time to the MLS Cup-bound Galaxy. Trouble is, the current Dynamo version is fighting with its weaker hand as Geoff Cameron gets his arms and feet around a new position and Brian Ching remains hamstrung with a bad hamstring. The Galaxy, too, are missing a big presence in David Beckham. But they have Landon Donovan. Actually, they have an in-form Donovan, and that counts for a lot.

Just north of there, FC Dallas plays its second home match of the young season, facing Columbus. Schellas Hyndman's team split the points with Houston to open matters. Generally speaking, if you get two home games to open the season and emerge with four points, everybody looks at you and says, "That's not too bad." If you stumble and bumble and emerge with one or two points, your season is already in a ditch. So it's a big weekend for Dallas.

After watching the Chicago Fire mostly hold its own over two weeks on the road, we now see what a Carlos de los Cobos team looks like at home. The Chicago Fire hosts San Jose, which had a week off to fill in all the potholes from Week 1.

Did we mention there were eight of these puppies? We can't talk about them all here, so we'll cut to the chase: the best match of the weekend is probably at Rio Tinto Stadium. Real Salt Lake players will get their championship rings and team officials will unveil a championship banner for the stadium's rafters and cheers and backslapping will fill the Utah night. Then the home side, guided by freshly re-signed Kyle Beckerman, hopes to round out a big evening by limiting a Seattle Sounders' offense that's like an antique car. It looks real cool and all, but it may not always get you where you need to go.