— Prepared By Drunken_Economist —

Saturday 22nd October



Toronto FC 2-2 New England Revolution

The bottom of the Eastern conference offered a game of surprisingly good open play and unsurprisingly poor defense. Danny Koevermans took advantage of a gap in the New England back four and found Nick Soolsma wrapping nicely around the defender for the opening goal in the 21st minute. Sollsma very nearly doubled up after a defensive mistake by NE found him all alone with keeper Bobby Shuttleworth, who made a beautiful reflexive save. New England equalised just before the half when a Feilhaber corner found Monsef Zerka, who had been allowed in front of his man on the near post four minutes from half-time.

In the 46th, the Revolution found the back of the net again when Eric Avila’s misplaced pass was collected by Feilhaber, who crossed low to Milton Caraglio for the goal. Toronto showed why they are still a team to fear in the 82nd minute when Danny Koevermans brought it to level-pegging, assisted by a headed pass from Gianluca Zavarise. Chris Tierney (NE) picked up his second yellow card in the 93rd minute by booting away the ball after the whistle. As it is the team’s last game of the season, he will most likely be fine in lieu of suspension.

Sunday 23rd October



Vancouver Whitecaps 1-2 Colorado Rapids

The defending MLS champs were in danger of losing the second wild-card play-off position (and home-field advantage in Thursday’s match) to Houston, but the win secures their berth. The first half showed the skill of both goalkeepers, with Joe Cannon (VAN) and Matt Pickens (COL) denying the opposition sure goal-scoring opportunities.

Pickens let his concentration lapse in the 49th when Alain Rochat’s free kick floated over the scrum in the box and into the goal on the bounce. Forced to wait on a possible header, the veteran stopper was unable to cover his post in time. Jeff Larenowitz breathed life into the Rapids’ hopes of home-field advantage when he blasted a free kick under the jumping wall and past Cannon in the 58th. Colorado kept the pressure on, but the Whitecaps’ strong defense refused to break again. It would take a long, curling shot by Wells Thompson in the 83rd to secure the victory. If you have a chance, look this goal up. An absolute gem of a shot.

Colorado hosts Columbus Crew on 27 Oct at 10pm ET

DC United 0-1 Sporting Kansas City

DC had nothing at stake in the match, but 15,000 DC fans came out to possibly see Dwayne De Rosario win his first Golden Boot. Though he was unable to score in the match, he collected the Golden Boot on a tiebreaker over last year’s winner, Chris Wondolowski of the San Jose Earthquakes.

DeRo almost had his 17th goal of the season from the edge of the box, but his lobbed shot went just over the bar. Jimmy Nielson (SKC) made several fantastic saves in the match, including 1-on-1 stops against Steven King and De Rosario

Nine minutes into the start of the second half, Kamara knocked a corner off the post. The loose ball was collected by SKC defender Matt Besler and blasted into the opposite corner to clinch first place in the Eastern conference for Sporting Kansas City. In the 92nd, subsitute Josh Wolffe nearly spoiled Kansas City’s night when his header bounced off the woodwork seconds before the final whistle.

Sporting Kansas City faces FC Dallas/Columbus Crew/Colorado Rapids next weekend

Chicago Fire 3-2 Columbus Crew

A win for Columbus would have meant a top-three seed in the MLS playoffs. A win for Chicago means a chance to play spoilsport.

Pavel Pardo’s lofted pass found the head of a diving Jalil Anibaba in the 11th minute to put the Fire up early. The rookie defender doubled up in the 30th minute with a long header past Columbus keeper William Hessner. Andres Mendoza saw his strike late in the half knock off the post and his team go into the half down 2-0.

Columbus saw daylight again in the 72nd, courtesy of an acrobatic finish by Emilio Renteria. Six minutes later, midfielder Dilly Duka collected a botch clearance by Anibaba and blazed it past Sean Johnson for his second-ever MLS goal.

The draw was short-lived though, as Chicago’s forwards Diego Chavez and Dominic Oduro found themselves all alone on a breakaway. Columbus’s Hessner did well to stop Oduro’s effort, but Chavez cleane up the rebound to put the Fire ahead for good in the 80th.

Columbus face Colorado Rapids on 27 Oct at 10pm ET

Real Salt Lake 1-1 Portland Timbers

Portland was playing for their pride tonight, but woe on anyone who underestimates the pride of this young club.

Both teams showed strong midfields on the night, with few balls mishandled. Jack Jewsbury (POR) looked especially on form, putting several well-placed balls into the box, though none found the back of the net. In the first-half stoppage, RSL’s Fabian Espindola put a beatiful pass over the Portland back line for the on-rushing Alvero Saborio. Keeper Troy Perkins played the run well, but Saborio managed to put the ball over his outstretched arms on his first touch.

A handball in the 55th minute gave Portland a chance to equalise, but the normally automatic Jack Jewsbury bounced his effort off the crossbar. Real Salt Lake floundered several more chances late in the second half, but looked set to collect their victory.

In the 91st minute, Portland produced a true teamwork goal with great passing play capped off by defender Futty Danso’s goal. RSL fans showed let displeasure at the result known with resounding boos as the ref blew for full time.

Real Salt Lake face Seattle Sounders on 29 Oct at 10pm ET

Chivas USA 1-3 Seattle Sounders FC

This big story of the match is the fifth-minute injury to Seattle midfielder Mauro Rosales. Team physio Micheal Morris calls it a “small tear of the right MCL” and expects the Argentinian to miss four weeks. That estimate, however, may be overly optimistic – the captain has just returned from an injury to that MCL. Ben Zemanski received a yellow for the tackle, and Seattle skipper Sigi Schmidt vocalised his unhappiness with the referee’s perceived leniency, referring to Zemanski as a “thug”.

Neither team created many chances in the first half, but Chivas substitute defender Andrew Boyen had a graceful backheel into the net. Unfortunately for him, it was his own net. Poor luck seems drawn to this Chivas squad in the 2011 season. Seattle went up 2-0 when Alvero Fernandez finessed a ball into the upper corner after a great through pass by Brad Evans. The Sounders brilliant finishing wasn’t done for the night, though. Streaking down the right side, Freddy Montero curled a long ball toward the far post, which somehow found the head of the diving Sammy Ochoa. The ball squeezed through the legs of Kennedy to put the visitors up 3-0.

Kasey Keller would not keep a clean sheet in his last regular season match, though. In the 83rd minute, Mariano Trujillo’s cross into the box carried too far, but Boyen was there to head it back in front of the net for Victor Estupinan, who headed the ball into the open net.

Seattle Sounders face Real Salt Lake on 29 Oct at 10pm ET

San Jose Earthquake 4-2 FC Dallas

Chris Wondowski missed capturing the Golden Boot by the narrowest of margins, losing on the tiebreaker (assists) to DC United’s Dwayne De Rosario. Wondo did, however, net his 16th goal of the season as part of a 12 minute-stretch that saw 4 goals for San Jose.

Simon Dawkins took a ball unassisted and beat Dallas’s backup stopper, Chris Seitz, in the 26th minute. A minute later, a Steven Beitashour cross went untouched across the box for rookie Rafeal Baca, who claimed his first MLS goal. After a hard tackle in the box by Benitez, Wondo powered a penalty past Chirs Seitz in the 34th to put the hosts up 3-0. Dawkins would make it 4-0 in the 38th after tapping in a loose ball in the box for his second goal of the night.

George John put Dallas on the board with header in stoppage time of the first half to send his team to the locker room down 4-1. After the break, San Jose continued to feed Wondo, who put a ball off the crossbar in the 55th minute after Seitz deflected it. Seitz would deny the striker two more very good goal-scoring chances before the end of the match. In the 90th minute, Rubin Luna picked up a deflected ball in the box and put it home to set up the final scoreline of 4-2.

FC Dallas play Sporting Kansas City on 29 Oct at 7:30p ET

Monday 24th October



Houston Dynamo 3-1 LA Galaxy

Houston Dynamo downed Supporters’ Shield winners LA Galaxy to clinched a second-place berth in the MLS playoffs. The visitors, having already secured the Shield, were resting all of their regulars except goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts.

Adam Moffat drew first blood for the Dynamo in the 27th minute with a strike for 38 yards (I know this because Robertson Stadium still had the yard markings from the University of Houston football game). Defender Bobby Boswell kicked a slow dribbler past Ricketts, who doesn’t move at all for the ball. Ricketts was upset about being screened by Ching, who was in an offside position, but his protests fell on deaf ears. Carlo Costly made it 3-0 in 75th minute with a header into the corner of the goal. Chad Barrett set up 16-year-old Jack McBean for his first MLS goal to bring the scoreline to 3-1 in the 88th minute.

Houston face Philadelphia Union on 3 Nov 8:30p ET

LA host Colorado Rapids/Columbus Crew/New York Red Bulls on 3 Nov at 11p ET