I was right about the MetroStars. I wrote a couple weeks ago of my great confidence that the MetroStars will choke whenever the choking time comes. I thought that time was back in the final game of the season against CD Chivas USA, but in that I was mistaken. The choking time was last night on a snowy field in New England.

(I don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough soccer in the snow. That’d be the best thing about MLS going winter-league. But my, oh, my it must have been miserable in the stands.)

I knew as soon as the Metros obtained that two goal aggregate lead that the day of the beatdown cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the MetroStars desolate. The wrath of god? No, it’s the Curse of Caricola. (For those unfamiliar, it’s #10. They’ve sucked ever since.) I don’t mean to take anything away from New England. They deserved the win, and they’re a worthy team for the Eastern Conference final. Still, they did have that curse working in their favor.

I can’t believe Colorado made it to the Western Conference final. Colorado? A team that with a little luck either Real Salt Lake or CD Chivas USA could have caught and surpassed in the standings at various points this season? Fernando Clavijo’s team? I’m postive this is all as big a surprise to the Rapids fans as it is to me.

And wasn’t Dallas a team that seemed unstoppable earlier this season? Weren’t they a team that for a time featured the fearsome threesome of Carlos Ruiz, Eddie Johnson and Ronnie O’Brien? Now they’ve been bumped from cup contention. I suppose the guys over at MLS headquarters are delighted about that one. So much for that MLS Cup sellout. I can’t help but think what Dallas really needed last night was a Grown-Ass Man.

By the way, I believe (and correct me if I’m wrong) Colorado is the first team under the league’s current playoff system to advance to the conference final without winning a single playoff game.

Hey, San Jose Earthquakes! How’s that home-field advantage treating you? Sure they came back from an even more dire predicament a couple years ago in a game that many still believe was the best MLS game ever played. But games like that don’t happen very often. This time the deficit was just too much for the Earthquakes to overcome.

Do the Galaxy deserve to move onto the conference final? It’s a moot question. They won the series. That’s all you can really say. But there’s something distasteful about the regular season champion getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs. It reflects badly on the worth of the regular season, and it reflects badly on the merit of the playoffs.

Enough about last night.

Let’s not forget the big event is still to come. Yes, sir, there remains the ESPN2 extravaganza on Sunday afternoon. The media will be there en masse, all with the same question in mind. You know the one. It’s been gnawing at you for over a week: Will Freddy Adu play, or will Nowak keep him on the bench just to spite him?

Oh, right. I suppose the result of that game will be of some consequence also. Sure. That too.