by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Mar 9, 2015

By Paul Kennedy

Jermain Defoe

Kekuta Manneh

Michael Bradley

Jozy Altidore

Greg Vanney

MLS:

Sebastian Giovinco

Damien Perquis

Benoit Cheyrou

Robbie Findley

Robin Fraser

Week 1: Three goals you must watch



1. CLINT DEMPSEY vs. New England.

Marco Pappa

Obafemi Martins

2. JOZY ALTIDORE vs. Vancouver.

Sebastian Giovinco

Jonathan Osorio

3. LLOYD SAM vs. Sporting KC.

What Worked in Week 1 ...

1. EVANS AT CB.

Brad Evans

Sigi Schmid

Kelyn Rowe

Chad Marshall

2. DERIC IN GOAL.

Tyler Deric

3. SHELTON SUB.

Jason Kreis

Khiry Shelton

David Villa

Mix Diskerud

What Didn't Work in Week 1 ...

1. BINGHAM LEAVES LINE.

David Bingham

Victor Ulloa

Victor Bernandez

Moises Hernandez,

Blas Perez

Dominic Kinnear

2.

KAH

AT CB.

Pa-Modou Kah

Carl Robinson

Diego Rodriguez

Kendall Waston

3. PHILLY 4-4-2.

Jim Curtin

Bobby Burling

Axel Sjoberg

Cristian Maidana

C.J. Sapong

Peach of a start for Villarreal





Jurgen Klinsmann

Andreas Herzog

Tab Ramos

Jose Villarreal

Bruce Arena

Robbie Keane

Bradford Jamieson IV

Steve Gerrard

Jordan Allen

Erik Palmer-Brown

Zach Pfeffer

National Team Watch





U.S. U-23s IN ACTION:

Starters:

Subs:

U.S. U-20s IN ACTION:

Subs:

Trivia

Alan Kelly

Brek Shea

Kevin Molino

Carlos Rivas

Long-suffering Toronto FC fans saw it happen last season, so they aren't getting too excited yet.An opening day win. In the Pacific Northwest. Two goals by their new star brought over from England.Everything looked so promising for Toronto last season: a 3-1-0 start, 6-4-1 at the World Cup break. Then the collapse. Inevitably. And an eighth straight year without a playoff berth.The ninth year just might be different. The 3-1 win over the Whitecaps bore little resemblance to the 2-1 win at Seattle in the 2014. Last year, Toronto jumped out to a 2-0 lead after 24 minutes on a pair of goals by, then held on for dear life. On Saturday, it struggled with the pace offor the first 30 minutes, then played well the rest of the way. Very well, in fact.“Early on," said Toronto captaintold reporters afterwards, "they caused us trouble with their speed, athleticism and mobility. But I thought once we got a grip on that we handled the game pretty professionally and pretty well."After that,took over, scoring two goals to match his total in 70 EPL games with Hull City and Sunderland in England.“I thought Jozy played like a monster," said TFC coach. "He showed you what he could do, so anyone who questions whether he can score goals, I think he proved something today."Toronto has spent big money before. It signed Bradley and Defoe last season. This year, Altidore and. The difference is that Toronto has added other pieces around its stars.In 2014, Bradley had to try to do it all himself. This year, he has, a French defender who represented Poland internationally, and Frenchman, a three-time Ligue Best XI pick with Marseille, to share some of the defensive responsibilities. In front of Bradley there's not only Giovinco and Altidore but, whom Vanney and assistant coachknew from their days working at Real Salt Lake and picked up in the Re-Entry Draft.In years past, steals were players MLS clubs snatched away from Toronto. This year, steals like Findley, who scored the winning goal, could get the Reds into the playoffs.Dempsey punctuated Seattle's total dominance of New England by walking the ball into the goal after as good a passing sequence as you'll ever see in MLS amongand himself.All the attention was on's pin-point pass that fed Altidore for Toronto FC's tying goal in its 3-1 win at the Whitecaps, but it followed tremendous buildup work involving both TFC outside backs, Bradley (of course) andSam demonstrated that he can do more than just take on players, scoring with a great individual goal to earn the Red Bulls a share of the points in Kansas City., Seattle's jack of all trades, has a new position in 2015: center back. Left in doubt was his availability against the Revs after spending most of the week in Washington at the CBA talks, representing the MLSPU as an executive board member. Seattle coachleft it up to his captain to decide whether he wanted to play, and except for a bad pass that gaveone of New England's few chances, Evans looked very comfortable next toStarting to open the season for the first time with just 14 starts in six MLS seasons,came up big in Houston's 1-0 win over Columbus. The Crew dominated much of the match, but Deric made six saves -- including a point-blank stop on Kei Kamara -- to earn the shutout.New York City FC showed little in its opener at Orlando until Coachbrought onin the 62nd minute. The No. 2 pick in the 2015 SuperDraft brought some much needed energy to the NYCFC attack and opened up play forandto combine for the game's opening goal.The one rule of goalkeeping is that if you leave your line, you better get the ball. Installed as the San Jose starter and playing just his sixth MLS game in five seasons,was on the verge of earning what would have been a deserved scoreless draw for the Earthquakes at FC Dallas when he raced to the top of the area in an attempt to snag's long ball. Unfortunately, he collided with his own defender,, and failed to catch the ball or punch it away.The ball came towhose shot was redirected byinto the empty net. Will San Jose stick with Bingham in goal? "Why wouldn't I be?" responded San Jose coach. "He's starting. I'm comfortable with him tonight. I'm comfortable with him for the rest of the season."'s inconsistent play at center back was a problem for Portland in 2014, and he went unclaimed after his option wasn't picked by the Timbers following the season. Vancouver took a shot on the Gambian-born Norwegian international, but his propensity for making bad mistakes continued as he took down Altidore for the penalty that sealed Toronto FC's win. Whitecaps fans better hopegets first-year Uruguayanready to move in alongsideat center back.After experimenting late in preseason,abandoned the Philadelphia Union's 4-2-3-1 formation it used most of last season for a 4-4-2. The goal was to put pressure on Colorado's new center-back pairing of giants(6-foot-4) and(6-foot-7). The Union coach admitted it was a risk, and it produced little in the first half. The Union switched back to a 4-2-3-1 with Argentine playmakercoming on after strikerwas hurt, and it had to settle for a 0-0 draw.can't bash MLS after his starting forwards, Altidore and Dempsey, both moved into the MLS scoring lead with a pair of goals in Week 1., the U-23 national team coach, and, the under-20 coach, will both also take some positives away from the opening weekend of MLS play., one of the most promising players on Ramos' 2013 U.S. U-20 World Cup team, took a step backwards in 2014 -- "a little bit of a wasted year" is the way Galaxy coach termed it -- when he went on loan to Cruz Azul in Mexico but never made the first team.Back with the Galaxy after finishing up last season at Galaxy II, Villarreal won the starting job on the left side for the season opener and scored on a ball "left like a peach" by the Chicago defense for the first goal of the MLS season in the 2-0 win over the Fire.Arena says Villarreal's best position is as the second forward, but withahead of him, Villarreal will have to fight withfor playing time on the left side untilarrives in July. His play should earn him a recall to Herzog's U-23s, who will take part in Olympic qualifying in October.Three of the four U.S. U-20-eligible players who played in Week 1 were players who missed the Concacaf qualifying tournament because of injuries.andshould all get consideration for the trip Ramos is planning to take the U-20s on to England at the end of March.*Dia, Gil, Serna, Trapp, Villarreal.*Alashe, *Kovar, Okoli, O'Neill, *Polster, *Porter, *Roldan, *Shelton, Zimmerman.*Made MLS debuts.Allen, Miazga, Palmer-Brown, Pfeffer.Note: Palmer-Brown is also eligible for the U-18s.In 2014, five teams received two yellow cards in a game for diving. In its first game in MLS, Orlando City was handed three yellow cards for diving. Irish refereeearned the wrath of Orlando fans for cardingand