Five-a-side: What's hot around the league

MLS Five-a-side:The skinny on five things that matter this week in Major League Soccer:

1. Can Pescadito reverse two trends?: Carlos Ruiz might be the goal-getter Toronto has so desperately lacked in its brief history, as the Canadian club mounts a playoff push over the next two months.

Ruiz certainly has the reputation as a former league MVP, former MLS Cup MVP and former league scoring champion.

But here's the reality: He'll have to reverse a worrying trend to be a difference maker at Exhibition Place. Ruiz's ratio of goals to games dropped fairly steadily since his amazingly productive 2002 season, when he struck for 24 goals in 26 matches.

The strike rate fell a bit in 2003, to 15 goals in 26 matches for the Los Angeles Galaxy. That's still a prodigious ratio; strikers who can produce, essentially, once every two matches will always find themselves in demand.

By his second season in Dallas, 2006, Ruiz hit for 13 goals in 27 matches, or a ratio of just less than once every two contests.

His third and final year at Pizza Hut Park saw the Guatemalan sniper score seven times in 22 matches. So he was scoring at a clip of just below once every three matches.

This year, in his second Galaxy go-round, Ruiz has one goal in 10 appearances. Even if you take his sum of 2008 minutes and divide by 90 -- providing some benefit of the doubt and looking to land on a simulated amount of "matches" played, Ruiz has played in the equivalent of 4.3 games. So, with just one lonely goal, his production has still fallen off the table.

It's up to TFC manager John Carver to incorporate Ruiz into the Toronto lineup. The first chance comes Saturday against New England as the BMO bunch begins a critical stretch with three of four at home.

2. What year is this again?: The Dynamo 2008 campaign at Robertson is playing out in almost eerily similar fashion to 2007.

Slow start? Check.

Trouble scoring goals in the early going? Check.

Pick up Nate Jaqua to augment the offense? Check. Sign one other, quick-footed striker to support and balance what Jaqua and Brian Ching bring? Check.

All the while, keep things steady in the back, begin getting the attack together in midseason and then start delivering a series of 4-0 messages? Check, check and check-a-roony!

Only difference is that last year Dominic Kinnear's side didn't wait so long to get things moving in the right direction. In 2007, Houston announced its aim at a resolute title defense in June and July, delivering 4-0 thumpings to Chivas USA and the New York Red Bulls (in nationally televised midweek matches).

This year, the Dynamo needed a bit more time to put the plan in action, apparently. But the end product is about the same. Houston has won three in a row and is riding a seven-match unbeaten streak in league contests. The latest hammering: a 4-0 midweek message delivered to Chivas USA.

Sound familiar?

Wednesday's triumph allowed Kinnear's team, with a weekend match at New York up next, to put a little distance on second-place Real Salt Lake. And the Dynamo have clawed their way to second in terms of defense, with 22 goals allowed in 20 matches.

3. First changes sighted on Victoria Street: Bruce Arena's first contest in charge of the Galaxy revealed some interesting choices -- and you get the feeling others are forthcoming -- as the former national team boss attempts to put things right in Carson. His first tinkering was all about the right side. Arena moved Chris Klein back to his old midfield home and shifted young Sean Franklin, the steadiest L.A. presence along the back line this year, out wide, away from his central post.

Klein had been almost exclusively a midfielder for club and country throughout his career, launched in Kansas City in 1998, until he arrived at The Home Depot Center 15 months ago. He did play right back a couple of times for Arena on the national team. But Klein moved into that slot along the back for good -- or so it seemed -- when the Galaxy picked him up early last year, filling the hole left vacant by Chris Albright's departure.

So it will be interesting to see if the Klein shift was more of a stop-gap in David Beckham's absence or was an effort to get another natural defender situated along the back line? We won't know for sure until L.A. gets back on the field in a week's time at New England.

It's also interesting that Franklin was selected to fill the right back role in Klein's place. Franklin has been an L.A. constant in 2008, always at center back, whether partnered with Abel Xavier, Greg Vanney or Troy Roberts.

But it was Roberts and Vanney in the middle on Thursday along Victoria Street. That might have had something to do with Chicago Fire aerial specialist Brian McBride, and the Galaxy need to match a little more size against the former U.S. national team target man; Roberts has an inch in height and about 25 pounds on Franklin.

4: Home records can tell the tale: Thursday's loss for L.A. in the ESPN2 Primetime Thursday match dropped the Galaxy's home record to 4-4-3. And there can be no getting around this: If the Galaxy can't improve at home, the club will almost certainly miss the playoffs for a third consecutive year.

Teams that don't win at home -- barring implausible success on the road -- can almost certainly not qualify for the postseason now that MLS has grown and the percentage of playoff qualifiers has shrank.

Back in the shootout days you could possibly sneak into the playoffs with a sub-.500 home mark. Or, back when MLS existed as a 10-team operation, a couple of sides did back into the postseason carrying losing records at home.

But as soon as MLS grew past a dozen, those days were surely over. Two clubs (Dallas and Kansas City) got in last year with a 7-5-3 home record, the lowest among qualifiers. A year before that, Chivas USA's 7-2-7 record at The Home Depot Center and the Fire's 8-4-4 mark in Chicago (both of which totaled 28 points) were the most modest home records among playoff qualifiers.

5: The bench press: Fixture congestion and club-vs.-country conundrums are a part of the domestic soccer landscape. Nothing is going to change that anytime soon.

So the best clubs can do is build depth, adapt and overcome.

The clubs with real talent in reserve are making it pay right now as Major League Soccer's fiercest playoff fight yet is unfolding. (An all-time high six teams will be left out of the postseason "tournament" this year. It will only get worse, as seven teams will be left behind in 2009 and then, in 2010, barring an unforeseen format alteration, only half the 16-team field will be granted playoff admission.)

No team has Houston's depth, a fact laid bare in force during Wednesday's four-goal win over injury-depleted Chivas USA. The Dynamo's top two scores, Brian Ching and Dwayne De Rosario, the heart of the attack, were with their national teams. So, too, was steady starting goalkeeper Pat Onstad.

No problem. It was 4-0 by the 35th minute in a wildly efficient Dynamo performance.

Thursday at The Home Depot Center, Chicago's clearly superior ability to plug important holes ruled the night.

Both clubs were light on difference makers, all of whom had played the day before in World Cup qualifiers or important friendlies. Chicago was without Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Marco Pappa and Gonzalo Segares, who can make a claim as the league's top defender this year. L.A. had to make do without Beckham, Landon Donovan and just-acquired Eddie Lewis.

But Chicago has enough depth at the moment that Justin Mapp, despite all the Fire absences, started Thursday's match on the bench. When Patrick Nyarko, who was having an outstanding contest, left in the 22nd minute, manager Denis Hamlett was able to introduce Mapp.

John Thorrington, who hasn't been able to get on the field at times this year for Chicago, nailed the huge game-winner for his team. FYI, check out Thorrington's stunning proficiency: He has 15 shots this year, including seven on goal. Five of those went in -- not bad at all for a fellow with 14 starts in 21 league matches.

This weekend's premier depth-tester might be at RFK, where United meets Colorado without starters Gonzalo Peralta (hamstring), Marcelo Gallardo (sports hernia), Fred (hamstring) and Marc Burch (suspension).