Philadelphia Union join race to the bottom in the East

Midway through the second half of Sporting Kansas City’s entertaining mess of a match on Sunday night against Jim Curtin’s disunited Philadelphia Union, Fox1 urged viewers to “stay tuned for [the post-game show] Garbage Time!”, though in truth viewers needn’t have waited. Though it would be difficult to boil the game down to a single, defining moment amid the disallowed goals, Sporting KC’s two late goals, the headshot fouls, the cartoonish misses, Philly managed to choreograph a sequence that may go down as the essential metaphor for their 2015 season.

It came in the 88th minute with the Union somehow still 1-2 up after a pair of first-half set piece goals (including one that may not have even crossed the line). Fernando Aristeguieta nearly beat Roger Espinoza in the slowest footrace the game has ever seen, only to collapse in a heap facing away from goal. Sebastien Le Toux looked guaranteed to net the follow-up, until his curled shot bounced off the far post. As if that wasn’t enough, Michael Lahoud found the rebound with the net at his mercy, only to sidefoot the shot a mile over. This all took place minutes before SKC, who have problems of their own (not least the form of Benny Feilhaber and an otherwise anonymous midfield), scored two set-piece goals in stoppage time to win the match.

Then there was the saga of Union’s expensive Algerian keeper Rais M’bolhi, whose form in 2015 suggests a man intent on wiping out the legacy of his star turn in goal for Algeria at the 2014 World Cup. Or how Union coach Jim Curtin was forced into the late substitution of a cramped Fabinho for MLS SuperDraft pick No71 Raymond Lee, a homegrown player whose debut was marked by what may or may not have been a stoppage time OG “winner” (Krisztian Németh was credited for the goal). Not that he, or indeed any single Union player including M’bolhi, is solely responsible for the loss. A club in shambles, tied for last place in the East, the Union appears in need of major retooling only five games into the season. RW

Tissues and issues for Caleb Porter

At the end of Portland’s 3-1 victory over FC Dallas on Saturday night, the Timbers coach Caleb Porter strode over to shake hands with his opposite number, Oscar Pareja, only to be handed what he claimed was a tissue Pareja had just held to his nose.

Porter threw the offering aside with a look of disdain and later claimed, “I’ve never had a coach come up and disrespect me like that.”

Perhaps Pareja should have held on to his tissues, after the Timbers cheerfully disrespected the 2015 MLS frontrunners with some incisive counter-attacking to hand them their first defeat of the season. In truth though, there wasn’t a lot for the Dallas coach to cry about – his team were undone by basic errors rather than any injustice in Portland.

First Nat Borchers was allowed to roam free in the Dallas box to head Portland ahead. Then with the Timbers having recovered the lead in the second half through a smart Maximiliano Urruti flick, and with the Texans pushing for a late equalizer, the Timbers killed off the game through a counter-attack that started on a simple Dallas error.

That mistake, a poor touch by Michael Barrios seconds after entering the game, saw Diego Chara race free to make it 3-1 right as Dallas looked to have stretched Portland to breaking point — a moment earlier Adam Kwarasey had to improvise a save that looped off the Timbers crossbar, as Dallas tried to recover the game.

Had that gone in we’d perhaps have been talking about a repeat of last season for both teams, with a fast Dallas start and Portland struggling to put points on the board. And while Pareja, when he cools down, may see this result, and the climactic sequence that confirmed it, as a cost of doing business as an attack-minded team who take calculated risks, Porter will be glad to end the early season winless streak quicker than he did in 2014.

It’s easy to say the playoffs aren’t decided in April, but last year’s start had left Portland with too much to do late in the season, and an even more competitive Western Conference in 2015 has left little room for maneuver. The message that the Timbers were better than their results suggested, would have been strained had they let Saturday’s lead slip.

So this was an important victory for Portland, and hard-won. Liam Ridgewell in particular put his body on the line a number of times – in fact the disciplinary committee may yet decide his body was put on the line by his opponents when they review some of the footage from Portland. He left the field wincing but happy – no need for a tissue. GP

Colorado rapidly setting a record for futility

Since the Rocky Mountain teams traded back-to-back MLS titles in 2009 and 2010, Colorado Rapids have been routinely overshadowed by the formidably consistent Real Salt Lake. But on Saturday night the Rapids managed to finally match at least one RSL record that dates back to the 2004-2005 campaigns.

Unfortunately for Colorado the record was for futility, with the Rapids winless streak now stretching to 18 games, after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to New England. The Rapids have not won a game since August and while this was their first loss of the season, it also extended another alarming streak – four games in, the team have yet to score a goal.

If anything they were playing the right team to break that streak, or at least to empathize with. Until last week’s victory over San Jose, New England were winless and goalless themselves, but having found the win, they looked better again up front, and a sublime Juan Agudelo finish helped them home.

The Revs are also a team who a few seasons ago were banking on a young core of players to come through a testing time and become the long-term basis of a successful side. Last year’s MLS Cup appearance, on the back of a Jermaine Jones inspired run, built on that blueprint, and it’s the principle that the Rapids have been banking on too.

As of now though, they’re still waiting the spark of, if not an inspiring signing like Jones, at least an inspiring win. Saturday night was actually not atypical in that they outshot their opponents, hit the woodwork three times, and could not put the ball in the net.

Since replacing Oscar Pareja as coach, and picking up the reins of the youth project Pareja had outlined, Pablo Mastroeni has stuck to the broad project without always seeming to show the type of flexibility that his predecessor demonstrated last season.

And while the Rapids’ message is that this is a new season, and a new group and that last year’s late run is not relevant, it’s hard to accept how young players being shaped around a principle of continuity is not somehow defined, at this point at least, by the poor results of that continuity. The kids need to grow up. GP



DC and Orlando becoming late show specialists

As William Yarbrough was running out to replace Nick Rimando in the US goal against Switzerland last week, you might have wondered how Bill Hamid, DC United’s goalkeeper and notional long-term prospect for the national team, was feeling if he was watching at home.

Hamid was a central part of DC’s turnaround last season yet is still one of a rotating cast of understudies jostling for position with the national team during Tim Howard’s extended sabbatical. After his latest US omission, and judging by his performance against Orlando on Friday night, Hamid may respectfully feel he deserves closer consideration.

Hamid was in formidable form against an Orlando team who were intent on proving that the sucker punch that saw them lose their last home game to Vancouver in injury time was an aberration.

Make that a trend – a Luis Silva free kick sent Orlando to another injury time defeat, and for that matter gave DC another injury-time victory to go with the one they secured over LA Galaxy last time out.

More than the dropped points however, Orlando will perhaps be most worried by the moment early on that saw Pedro Ribeiro pull up clutching his hamstring. Ribeiro’s partnership with Kaká has shown promise in his team’s opening games – indeed it’s had to, since Orlando have not thus far shown a great deal of decisive variety in attack beyond those two.

Not that Orlando didn’t have their chances against DC, even after Ribeiro went off, but they were unlucky enough to come up against Hamid in such form, and a United side who, as a whole, look to have reacted exactly as Ben Olsen would have hoped to their spiritless road loss to the Red Bulls a couple of weeks ago. They too still face questions over where the goals are going to come from, but while the points continue to pile up early and Hamid stays solid they’ll be happy enough.

Orlando meanwhile have yet to win in their three home games, following Kaká’s late equalizer in the home debut with the two late losses to the Whitecaps and now DC.

It’s a worrying run for an expansion team – teams who tend to rely on home form to get through their opening seasons. Orlando need to find goals and guile from somewhere – and sooner rather than later. GP

The Whitecaps have staked their claim in the West

There was a brief spell when the match looked like it would veer off into a more palatable course for Bruce Arena’s slightly slumping LA Galaxy. After a first half in which the Vancouver Whitecaps ran roughshod over their opponents in midfield – down the left via the pace of Kekuta Manneh and down the right via the guile of Octavio Rivero – LA started the second 45 minutes far more assuredly. Passes in the midfield were quick and meaningful, Robbie Rogers enjoyed a short stint as an attacking anchor out on the left flank, and LA’s spell of possession managed to quiet down the 21,000 fans at BC Place, many of whom were likely rueing the Whitecaps’ profligacy in the previous half.

That hope however lasted a full 11 minutes until Vancouver ran up the other end and scored. After spending most of the game dominating their opponents through careful, clever build-up play, a single errant pass to the feet of Russell Teibert in front of his own 18 yard box was all Carl Robinson’s side needed to cut through the centre of the Galaxy. Teibert found Morales out wide, who sent a quick-witted through-ball along to Manneh whose low shot easily – too easily – beat Jaime Penedo for the opener. Rivero would double Vancouver lead 10 minutes later, a 2-0 victory in which the home side outshot the 2014 MLS champions 18 to 6. It’s hard to remember when the ‘Caps (and their bench) so dominated an opponent of this calibre in every aspect of play, including appearing to win almost every crucial take-on, every 50-50 challenge, every run down the wings.

Nevertheless it’s far too early to write paeans to the 2015 ‘Caps. LA, though tough opponents for any side in MLS, are clearly having a morale issue, struggling on the road and perhaps stunned by DC United’s late winner last weekend. Meanwhile, save for the Galaxy, Vancouver’s opponents so far have been a pair of so-so sides from the East and a very uneven Portland Timbers at home. Time will no doubt tell. However, if we trace the team’s current form back to the end of 2014 when the Whitecaps’ shored up defense worked to support a blossoming attack to see Vancouver through to the playoffs, it’s clear that Robinson is doing something right. RW



