Next 5 Games Could Give Bulls a Leg Up

It's no secret the East is weak this season.

The West has a superteam in the LA Galaxy, a much improved sids in the Vancouver Whitecaps, and the always-good Real Salt Lake. Not to mention the Seattle Sounders, FC Dallas and Colorado Rapids.

The East has...Sporting Kansas City.

With the new playoff rules, the Red Bulls should have no issue contending for the top spot along with the Sporks if they play to potential, but the rest of the conference is weak, and making the playoffs shouldn't be much of an issue. But with this club, you never know. And that's why the Red Bulls can do themselves a huge favor over the next few weeks with a few victories.

After Saturday's game against the Montreal Impact, the Red Bulls have ties with the Columbus Crew, San Jose Earthquakes, D.C. United and the New England Revolution. That's five teams with 14 points between them.

None of these games are going to be easy. Montreal is going to be a hungry club when they come out to Harrison this weekend. Columbus is always pesky. San Jose's by far and away the best of the bunch. It's always a rough trip to RFK and the Revolution might not be as awful as they were last year (and even if they are, the best the Red Bulls could pull off on the road was a draw). The flip side to this is Columbus' first win was against Montreal, who's best result this season was a draw in front of a massive crowd at the Olympic Stadium. The Quakes beat New England, but couldn't hold up their end of the bargain against the Houston Dynamo at AT&T; Park. United haven't scored one goal in three games. And New England, while they beat the Portland Timbers at home still look to be in flux.

If the Red Bulls can come away with eight points in these next five games they should be in a pretty good place come their cross-country 1% Derby match-up with the Galaxy May 5.