While they may have been few – honestly, nobody cares how lovely crucial goals are, there were some cracking strikes this weekend. A trio of nominees for the top billing and one bonus clip, not so much for the finish, as for the build-up.
In chronological order, up first is
Which will reign supreme?
A special nod to Baggio Husidic’s goal against DC United on Wednesday, capping off a 26-pass move from the Galaxy.
Back by popular demand (Cheers, Kingston), the review will resume regular service; on to the results:
Midweek Results in a Sentence (or Two)
A midweek teaser saw the Galaxy dominate United, scoring after 67 seconds and taking a three-goal lead into half-time, courtesy of Alan Gordon, Omar Gonzalez, and Baggio Husidic. DC would draw one back via a Leonardo own-goal, only for a bizarre penalty decision to hand LA their fourth, Landon Donovan converting from the spot.
Results in Brief
The weekend proper began with a tasty fixture on Friday night, as these two teams do not like each other one bit, following some raucous playoff meetings over the past few seasons.
Both sides were in need of the points, Sporting having conceded first-place in the East to DC after a surprise defeat last weekend, while Houston languished near the foot of the conference and have been simply woeful on the road, losing their last seven away from home; each entered having lost two of their last three.
The fireworks would be put on hold after seventeen minutes, as inclement weather – lightning in the vicinity – prompted a delay of over an hour before match could safely resume. It would be Houston who initiated the scoring, Will Bruin taking advantage of a poor Aurelien Collin touch to volley in a right-footer from the top of the box, beating Jon Kempin to the left-side of goal after Houston caught KC napping from a throw-in. Bruin picked up a knock on the play that saw him leave shortly after.
Kansas City would respond at the start of the second half, Dom Dwyer left-footing his deflected finish off the sliding block of Luis Garrido sending his finish looping over Tally Hall in the 54th minute, after Benny Feilhaber pounced on the loose ball and nutmegged Jermaine Taylor to break in to the right-side of the area before squaring to Dwyer. It was the Englishman’s seventeenth goal of the season, one shy of Preki’s club-record, set back in the inaugural season of MLS in 1996.
Houston would respond in short order, retaking the lead eight minutes later and sealing the result five minutes after that, each goal from a set-piece.
David Horst found himself unbelievably free from a left-sided Brad Davis free-kick in the 62nd minute, powering a header from the edge of the six past Kempin; Ricardo Clark was similarly open in the 67th minute to get on the end of a right-sided Davis delivery, flicking on the service towards the far, bottom-corner of the goal.
For the second-straight week, Kansas City would fall at home to Eastern Conference opponents, punished by a short-spell of madness: DC scored three in seven minutes, whereas Houston needed five to get their two.
With the 1-3 win, Houston keeps pace with the pack, while inching closer to the actual playoff spots – now five points shy of that final slot – after results elsewhere. Kansas City, on the other hand, fail to make up ground on conference leaders, DC, losing a second-straight at home and three of their last four.
Saturday began with an early Western Conference encounter between table-toppers Seattle and struggling Colorado. The Sounders, who had their own problems of late, made a statement last weekend with a rousing display away to Portland, while the Rapids entered riding a five-game losing streak, having conceded four-goals in each of their last two.
In the midst of an injury-crisis – shorn of two starting defenders in club-captain Drew Moor and Shane O’Neill, Colorado’s primary goal was to stay compact and difficult to beat; Seattle did indeed find it hard to play through the two banks of four that regularly confronted them through the first half.
Having reached half-time scoreless, Colorado will have been disappointed to concede shortly after the restart when Clint Dempsey broke free of his mark from a Marco Pappa right-sided, out-swinging corner kick, meeting the service with a flying right-shin that directed his finish high to the top, right-corner of the goal, past debutant keeper, Joe Nasco, who made his first MLS appearance at the age of 30.
Forced to open up in search of the equalizer, Colorado were regularly carved open by a rampant Seattle, Nasco regularly came up big to keep the Rapids in the match, denying Obafemi Martins on several occasions after the big forward’s left-footer caromed off the bar in the 58th minute.
The 1-0 win was enough for the Sounders to assert their primacy atop the West, sitting on 48 points after 25 games, while extending their winning and unbeaten runs to two and three, respectively. Colorado would inch towards history, tying the club’s all-time worst losing streak with a sixth-straight, but more importantly would drop one point further away from that final spot in the West by the end of the round.
The action would swap over to the East for the next two matches, each with ramifications on the standings; up first, was Toronto against New England.
Having carved a niche for themselves below the top two in the conference, a poor run of form that included three wins from their last twelve matches, had Toronto at risk of being drawn back into the crowded Eastern-race. New England, who themselves once enjoyed such a lofty perch, had finally come out of their summer coma, responding to the long losing streak with results in three of their last four.
When the two last met, the opening goal came when Lee Nguyen intercepted a poor Doneil Henry pass to feed Patrick Mullins down the middle, the rookie finishing high past Julio Cesar. This time, it was another Toronto defender who provided the turnover and Nguyen himself who scored the goal, though a healthy dollop of blame should go Michael Bradley’s way as well. Mark Bloom’s pass to Bradley skipped past the midfielder into the path of Nguyen in the second minute of play; Nguyen walked through the middle of the pitch unhurried, to hit a perfectly-placed right-footer to the bottom, left-corner of the Toronto goal.
New England would grab their second, again from a TFC turnover, in the 21st minute, when Bradley Orr’s ball to Dominic Oduro was picked off by Kelyn Rowe, who played a one-two with Nguyen, then ghosted past a half-hearted challenge from Bradley, before finding space to unleash a venomous right-footed drive from thirty yards that eluded Joe Bendik in the Toronto goal.
Toronto would collect themselves, somewhat, to see out the rest of the half without conceding again, only to fall apart abysmally in the 58th minute leading to New England’s third of the afternoon. It was really rather comical; the play began when Bradley’s pass struck the back of the referee, falling to Rowe on the left, who blew past Collen Warner to lay Charlie Davies down the left-side of the box. Henry tried to collapse on the striker, but Davies alertly squared a ball to the open side, where Teal Bunbury, of course, touched into the gaping net with a simple right-footed finish. Disparagingly, it did not even seem as though Toronto bothered to chase back.
The result secured, the Revolution would hand an MLS debut to recent-signing and American International, Jermaine Jones, who entered in the 65th minute to gain match-fitness and see out the result.
With the 0-3 win, New England collect a second-straight three points and their third win in their last five matches to climb level with Toronto and Columbus for that third spot in the East on 33 points. The fall out for Toronto would come in quick succession, as now former-coach, Ryan Nelsen, criticized General Manager Tim Bezbatchenko’s media-meddling in his post-match comments and paid with his job on Sunday.
Given Toronto’s stumble and an away match to league-basement dwellers Montreal, Columbus could be forgiven for putting the cart before the horse, especially considering the fine form in which they entered: riding a two-game winning streak, having scored three goals in each, as well as their recent record against Montreal, having won the last three encounters.
But as is often the case, this match turned into a trap, as the Crew were held off the score-sheet and Impact newcomer, Ignacio Piatti scored his first two goals in MLS to see the hosts to the 2-0 win.
His first would come in the 40th minute on a strong solo run up the left-channel, cutting inside to draw the attention of three defenders, before swiftly cutting back onto his left-foot with a deft fake to place a low shot across Crew keeper, Steve Clark, into the far-side of goal.
The Impact would seal up defensively, riding the waves of pressure and looking to inflict further damage on the counterattack. They would have to wait until deep in stoppage-time to breathe easy; Piatti adding his second in the 95th minute after a Marco Di Vaio attack was snuffed out, only for the rebound to fall to the Argentine of the right-side of the box, he right-footed an emphatic finish past Clark.
The 2-0 win was Montreal’s second win in their last three matches (but just their third in their last eleven); they sit thirteen points off the pace with nine matches remaining, too late for a push?
Columbus meanwhile, pass up the chance to take sole possession of third in the East, instead crammed into a three-way tie with New England and Toronto.
The race in the East would get even tighter after the next match, with Chicago pulling out a 1-0 win over a Dallas side to stay in stride with the rest of the conference.
FC Dallas entered in good form, unbeaten in their last ten, riding a four-game winning streak, but with heavy hearts, as a well-loved academy player passed away midweek; they struggled to create any clear chances against a stingy Chicago defense.
The Fire would have the best early look, Raul Fernandez getting down quick to parry a Lovell Palmer striker from distance and Dallas were perhaps fortunate that Matt Hedges’ tangle with Razvan Cocis did not result in a penalty, after the midfielder touched over the defender, who budged him to the ground.
Sean Johnson would again come up big for his side, denying red-hot Fabian Castillo with a fine foot save before half-time and as the second half wore on, the match looked set for yet another draw.
Chicago lead the league in draws, one shy of the all-time MLS single-season record, with fourteen already to their name, but recent-acquisition, Robert Earnshaw, who entered the match in the 63rd minute soon made his presence known.
A right-sided corner kick was met at the back-post by Jeff Larentowicz, but his weak header was blocked by Hedges. Larentowicz would chase down the rebound, drifting wide to the left, hitting a shallow cross back into the middle, where Earnshaw popped up between a pair of defenders, flicking his header inside the far-post for the match’s only goal in the 83rd minute – it was his second is as many appearances for the club; two goals in 52 minutes on the pitch, not a bad reintroduction to the league.
Earnshaw should perhaps have added another in the closing minutes, missing two good chances, but it mattered not, as Chicago saw out the 1-0 win to take their third-straight Brimstone Cup, the two-team trophy awarded to the winner of the season series, while moving one point closer to the final playoff spot.
Dallas, who failed to find the back of the net for the first time in seven matches, fell to their first loss since May 31, dropping one spot in the West and further off the pace set by conference leaders, Seattle.
Play switched over to the Western Conference with a pair of matches to close out Saturday night; up first was a Cascadia Cup affair between Vancouver and Portland.
Both sides were coming off tough defeats last week, with Vancouver having lost at Los Angeles and Portland getting humbled at home against Seattle; more importantly, the two were separated by just two points, scrapping over the fifth and final playoff spot in the West.
Neither could find an opener through a hard-fought first half; that would come six minutes after the restart, with Portland full-back Alvas Powell breaking the deadlock with a downward header at the near-post. Pa Modou Kah played up to Fanendo Adi, who swung the ball out wide to DiegoValeri on the right to hit a dangerous ball that Powell nodded home.
Portland would double their lead in the 75th minute, when Michael Harrington blew past Matias Laba down the right and found Max Urruti with a low ball to the top of the area. The Argentine turned, smashing a right-footer from high at the near-post in off the underside of the bar.
Rodney Wallace would add a third four minutes later, sneaking a left-footed finish under David Ousted after Darlington Nagbe poked a through-ball down the left-side of the box to spring his teammate on goal.
The 0-3 win saw the Timbers leapfrog over the Whitecaps into that playoff spot, ahead by a single point, but having played one further match. Vancouver, who fell to a second-straight loss, have won just twice in their last ten matches.
Saturday’s night cap provided the round’s only draw; a result that neither side would be pleased with, but for different reasons. San Jose entered sitting in eighth in the West, some eight points off the pace, and winless in their last four matches. Salt Lake had seen their unbeaten run ended last weekend in Dallas and were eager to make up ground on the three teams ahead of them in the conference.
San Jose would strike first after fourteen minutes, when Chris Wondolowski pressured an unexpected turnover out of Kyle Beckerman off a lazy throw-in to break in down the left-side of the box. Wondolowski picked out Sam Cronin above the near-post with a neat pull-back and Cronin made no mistake, settling the ball before beating Nick Rimando with a low, left-footer across to the far-side of goal.
Salt Lake would respond before half-time, though they were lucky to do so, as the penalty decision was frankly astonishing: Jordan Stewart was called for a mystery foul on Olmes Garcia when the forward flung himself towards a Abdoulie Mansally ball from the right he would not win. Morales, who began the play, would dispatch the spot-kick adroitly, sending Jon Busch moving early to his left with a slight hesitation, before tucking his right-footer to the keeper’s right in the 36th minute.
Atiba Harris nearly reinstated the lead shortly thereafter, but Rimando made a miraculous save, clawing off the line, much to the Earthquakes chagrin.
Neither side would find the winner and the match ended in a 1-1 draw, satisfying no one, as San Jose’s winless streak extends to five. Salt Lake did move up one spot, thanks to Dallas’ loss, but failed to make up ground on the top two.
Sunday began with a classic MLS encounter, an Atlantic Cup match between DC and New York; again, vital points in the East were at stake for both sides.
Having presented and honoured the 2004 Championship winning side pre-match, DC nearly got off to a wonderful start with Davy Arnaud playing in Fabian Espindola down the right inside of three minutes, but his low shot was denied by Luis Robles. New York would have taken the lead on the half-hour, were it not for some much-needed heroics from Bill Hamid, getting a strong hand on a Bradley Wright-Phillips header.
In a tight match with a plethora of half-chances, strong goalkeeping and weak finishing conspired to keep both sides scoreless until a route one play from United would put the hosts in front. Hamid, having kept his side in the match, punted a long boot up-field, which Espindola flicked on for Luis Silva to chase. Ibrahim Sekagya halted his pursuit, incorrectly assuming Robles would win the footrace, but Silva got the touch to move past the on-rushing keeper and right-foot into the open net in the 57th minute.
From then on, DC looked very dangerous on the counter; Eddie Johnson wasted one good chance with a horrible misplayed pass that left a wide-open Espindola frustrated, then Jamison Olave prevented Johnson from breaking in alone with an excellent tackle – Ben Olsen was convinced it was a foul (it was not); but Johnson would find his goal in the 91st minute, when Perry Kitchen sprung the offside trap with a long ball over the top and Johnson raced in on goal before popping a right-footed chipped-finish over Robles. The keeper got a touch, but not enough to prevent the ball finding the back of the net.
With the 2-0 win – and Kansas City’s loss, DC stretch their lead atop the East to four points, drawing within two of league leaders Seattle, but having played one game more in the Supporters Shield chase, while responding to a disappointing midweek performance with their third win in their last four. New York, who lost their second in three matches, fell out of the final spot in the East to rest in sixth, two points behind Columbus.
The weekend would close with an LA derby, Chivas playing host to the Galaxy at the ground they both call home.
Los Ameri-Goats entered in woeful form, without a win in six matches, having not scored in over 450 minutes of action. LA, on the other hand, were in scintillating mood, winners of their last three and pushing hard for the top of the West and the league.
Handing debuts to recent acquisitions Nigel Reo-Coker and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Chivas were solid through the first half-hour, though the Galaxy’s quality was on display, with Dan Kennedy repeatedly called upon to make saves.
The Galaxy would find their breakthrough in the 41st minute on a quick break after Alan Gordon held up on the left, before dishing to Landon Donovan, who broke up-field curling his run into the middle. Donovan would find Gyasi Zardes lurking on the left-side of the area, alertly drifting off the outside of the Chivas defenders to create space and the striker would do the rest, right-footing a first-time finish across Kennedy to the far-side of goal.
LA had the ball in the back of the net again before half-time, but Gordon, who knocked down the Donovan free-kick for Omar Gonzalez was offside.
Robbie Keane, who began the match on the bench, would add the second in the 68th minute with a sumptuous chipped finish after receiving a ball from Marcelo Sarvas in the middle, nutmegging his way past Hurtado to beat Kennedy with a right-footer from the top of the arc.
And Zardes would complete his brace three minutes later, right-footing into an open net on the end of a lovely LA build-up. Baggio Husidic played a ball across the top of the box, which Donovan dummied allowing it to fall to Keane, who fed a ball down the right-side of the box for Donovan’s run. Unselfishly, Landon squared to a wide open Zardes on the left for a simple finish.
The 0-3 win was LA’s fourth-straight, marching up the conference to sit within two points of Seattle. Chivas fall to a second-straight defeat, their sixth in their last seven matches, stretching their winless run to seven, while extending their goal-drought to some 546 minutes.
CanCon
The extended review of the Canadian performances this round will have to be pushed to Wednesday, as Toronto FC’s midweek match has the author crunched for time – there is a preview to be written. It will feature strong performances from the usual suspects, with Will Johnson, Patrice Bernier, and Dwayne De Rosario topping the list, as well as a cameo from Sam Adekugbe in Vancouver.
Overheard
MLS is a tight-knit community; with inter-league trade under the single-entity structure the order of the day many players have friends and former teammates spread throughout, not to mention the national team ties between competitors.
As such, when the story of AJ DeLaGarza’s yet-to-be-born son emerged last week, the league was collectively reminded that while it is loved, this is merely a game. DeLaGarza took to the pitch on Wednesday with a lot on his mind and put in a wonderful performance, playing the final pass on LA’s 26-pass sequence goal and his teammates offered their support, revealing ‘Luca Knows Heart’ shirts with each goal.
Afterwards he commented: “When I step on the field, everything is forgotten off the field just for 90 minutes. Today, obviously I got reminded when people scored goals and came up to me, which was a nice touch and a nice gesture for everyone that has a part in it.”
DeLaGarza continued, “It was emotional. It was a good touch and class from not only this team and my teammates, but the League and allowing us to do it and Marcelo [sarvas] and [Juninho] for thinking of the idea.”
It was a classy move from the league to set aside the silly ‘excessive celebration’ card for revealing the messaged undershirts.
Luca was born the following day; send some well wishes their way.
As a defender, Peter Vermes was not pleased with the two set-piece goals that his side conceded on Friday, noting: “I'll be turning 48 here in a couple of months. If you give me the same situation that Horst had, where I'm standing in front of the goal and I'm by myself, and the ball gets served in on the inside of the 6-yard box, I'm going to put it in the back of the net. Anybody can do that.”
Things had been too quiet in mad-hat TFC-land; that came to an end on Saturday as after their loss to New England, Ryan Nelsen let loose on Tim Bezbatchenko’s meddling-encouragement, calling on his side to step up in the absence of several starters – interestingly, the MLSsoccer.com post proclaiming the comments did not appear on the TFC site, nor were they included in the club’s post-game press release
Quote Nelsen: “The guys came out stiff, they looked a wee bit aggravated mentally I think, and they felt like it this was way more of a pressure game than actually it was.” When asked whether Bezbatchenko’s comments were helpful, Nelsen responded: “Not at all. Absolutely not.”
He continued, “There were 11 games left in the season, with two games in hand and in third position. I’ve won this league, played in it for four years, been in the Premier League for 10 years, played in a World Cup, Olympics, played in some pretty hot, pressured games, and the one thing that I do know is this was not one of them. It affected the guys. What we do at Toronto FC is we keep it in house. Everything we do we keep inside the four walls. The players, coaching staff, everything, stays in the four walls. So if you are going to criticize anybody today, it’s me. I picked the team; I tried to play a certain style; criticize me and leave the players out of it.”
"But unfortunately, things happen. It didn’t help, and as you saw at the start of the game, I think the guys were very, very, let’s just say, aggravated, when it’s not even a pressure game.” He ended, clearly keeping it in house.
He would be relieved of his duties on Sunday, with Bezbatchenko flexing his muscles, to be replaced by Greg Vanney.
See It Live
Plenty of must-see moments from the round:
There was the usual bevy of beauty saves, most notably Bill Hamid on Gyasi Zardes; Sean Johnson on Fabian Castillo; Nick Rimando on Atiba Harris; and Hamid again, this time on Bradley Wright-Phillips.
There were some handbags in Kansas City, as shoves between Benny Feilhaber and Kofi Sarkodie drew a crowd, resulting in yellow cards for the initial combatants – unsurprisingly, Aurelien Collin was in the centre of the escalation.
Some fine defensive plays were on display – Thomas Piermayr’s block on Clint Dempsey was excellent; Jamison Olave’s tackle on Eddie Johnson was superb, despite what Ben Olsen though.
Vancouver fans were provided a glimpse of what could be the most exciting duo for the run in, with Pedro Morales and Mauro Rosales getting acquainted with each other. Morales’ flick to Rosales was amazing, and Rosales returned the favour with this excellent cross. Morales has been a revelation for the Whitecaps and with another intelligent attacking footballer in his midst, it is possible he will only get better.
Jon Busch’s face of incredulity at the penalty decision can be seen below, while Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi took out his frustration with the official by punting the ball away in anger – he was whistled for a high boot on Joao Plata, which is an oxymoron of sorts.
Controversy
The referees kept themselves on the periphery this round, more or less, with fewer penalty kicks and red cards than most other rounds, but still, they could not help from inserting themselves a little.
There were two phantom penalty kicks: this one in LA, where Steve Birnbaum ‘hauled’ Omar Gonzalez to the ground; at least it had little impact on the result. The same could not be said of the decision in San Jose, where Jordan Stewart (or Jason Hernandez, it wasn’t exactly clear) was called for ‘fouling’ Olmes Garcia, allowing Javier Morales to equalize.
Seattle’s Zach Scott was perhaps lucky to only see yellow for this challenge of Nick LaBrocca – given that Portland’s Norberto Paparotto was suspended for a similar incident on Chard Marshall last weekend (one that had Sigi Schmid livid on the touch-lines), Scott may be hearing from the DisCo.
There was a trio of possible calls in Toronto: first, Teal Bunbury high boot into the chest of Collen Warner that only saw a yellow, then AJ Soares fierce clearance that caught Doneil Henry in the face – no foul was called on the play), and finally, the
Montreal’s Felipe let loose a weak dive as did Luis Silva, though neither was punished – yet; and there perhaps could have been a penalty awarded for Chicago when Matt Hedges was bamboozled by Razvan Cocis’ touch over him – the two tangled to the ground as the Fire attacker tried to ghost past the defender.
Upcoming Fixtures
The calendar turns to September and MLS inches closer to the playoffs; nine weeks remain in the regular season.
Round 26 sees a trio of midweek matches before a full slate of weekend fixtures. The home-and-away series between Philadelphia and Toronto should be good – these two have had some fierce scraps in the past, while Houston and Montreal have had bad blood since the Brian Ching-Expansion Draft affair. The Salt Lake-Dallas rematch could be crucial to the West, as should New England-Chicago on Sunday, while double-game weeks for Kansas City and Chivas will definitely see movement on the table.
Wednesday: Philadelphia-Toronto; New England-Kansas City; Chivas-Seattle. Friday: Los Angeles-Colorado. Saturday: Toronto-Philadelphia; New York-Kansas City; Houston-Montreal; Salt Lake-Dallas; Vancouver-DC. Sunday: Columbus-Chivas; Portland-San Jose; New England-Chicago.
All video & quotes courtesy of MLSsoccer.com
Each week James takes a look at the league as a whole.
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