The Sounders still haven't learned their lesson from Real Salt Lake

In our pre-season previews we focused on the 2011 play-off series between Seattle and Real Salt Lake and noted that for all the pressure and forward momentum of the Sounders, it was RSL who kept their cool to put their chances away at key moments in the first game. The Sounders don't concede many (four this season, counting Saturday night's goal), but when they do it can be costly (the other Western frontrunners, San Jose, also came away from CenturyLink with a 1-0 win). Seattle pressured Salt Lake for much of the first half, but Espindola's well-taken goal (in the few minutes of domination, just after the half, that was all RSL needed) seemed to rob them of their belief. The Sounders kept coming forward, because that's what they do, but RSL used all their experience and nous to see the game out.

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Espindola's goal ended a 285 minute clean sheet shutout for Brian Meredith, since his debut, and halted the Sounders quest for a club record 6th consecutive win, as well as a potential league record-equalling 15 points in 15 days. As our weekend previewer Sam Chesneau stated - at times the Sounders look like the only team that can beat them is themselves and at their best they play like they haven't considered the alternatives to winning. Occasionally though, when faced with those alternatives they can look strangely bereft of conviction, for all their pretty movement and inventiveness. It's still a work in progress, though despite this loss the trend is upwards. Rosales is feeling his way back into the side and as we noted for their game against LA, he and Alonso have the ability to disrupt and control tempo as needed - perhaps they need to remind themselves of that potential variation. The Sounders won't worry unduly - they're still only four points back from RSL in the West, with three games in hand. But tonight was a reminder that there's more than one way to win a game and they need to keep their focus when a savvy opponent finds a way to score first.

RSL on the other hand have looked in trouble in several games this season (falling behind on opening day at the Galaxy; going into injury time behind at Portland and level with basement club Toronto) - only to dig out wins and points when not at their best. They've lost games they should have won (Chivas at home especially) but more often than not they've found ways to grind out points and stay in contention at the top of the West - their win took them into the lead in the Supporters Shield race at the start of Sunday's games (as SKC go on a mini-slide). With SKC, Seattle, San Jose (and even New York) getting the plaudits at different stages of this early season, Real's perennial doggedness has quietly kept them perfectly placed a third of the way into their season. GP

You never know which Revs (or Whitecaps) are going to show up

Being a Revs fan can be a thankless task - an unbeaten pre-season raised their hopes that they'd turned a corner after an awful 2011, only for the team to continue to look anonymous more often than not as they rattled aimlessly around Gillette Stadium. The especially frustrating thing is that on their day they can beat anybody - it's just that their day seems to be more of a monthly than a weekly occasion.

So few fair-minded neutrals could have begrudged New England, and their stand out player Lee Nguyen, their emphatic win over a Vancouver side who thought they'd turned a corner of their own last week, when Eric Hassli ended a 17 game goalless streak in the dying seconds of the clash against San Jose.

Hassli picked up where he'd left off in this game - scoring after just five minutes to give Vancouver the lead. With Vancouver's infamously stingy defense having seen them through a few games they'd surprisingly struggled to score in early season, the sight of Hassli in such ominous form must have looked like the final piece in the jigsaw. But just one moment later, a discarded piece of that jigsaw scored at the other end to set off an extraordinary personal performance.

Lee Nguyen was surplus to Martin Rennie's Whitecaps revolution, so pitched up at the New England Revolution instead at the start of this season, with the Revs fans cautiously optimistic that the Whitecaps had missed a trick. Yesterday showed what they were missing as Nguyen scored twice and assisted once to lead a spirited New England side to a 4-1 victory, where they outfought the Whitecaps, and as in their eyebrow-raising win at the Galaxy earlier this season, overwhelmed a side looking light at the heart of their defense.

Vancouver have half an eye on Champions League qualification this week and had left Camilo, DeMerit and Thorrington at home. The inventiveness of Camilo was missed up front, but just as crucially DeMerit was a missing anchor in the heart of defense for the Whitecaps, with Sene causing problems for them all day and getting what turned out to be the winner to confirm his own potential.

Martin Rennie was very gracious about the player he'd let go after the game, saying "if he plays like that every night he'll be an All-Star". His thoughts turn to a Canadian Championship Final first leg in midweek against Toronto. He'll hope the rather more swaggering version of the Whitecaps show up for that one. New England will hope that this version of the Revs (and Nguyen) shows up again next week...

GP

How to top a league (go 2-1 down to 10 men...)

As patient children and husbands everywhere waited for mom to finish watching the dénouement of the Premiership, and begin celebrating Mother's Day with them, ESPN were trying to tempt soccer lovers to stay with their coverage after Man City's once-in-a-generation, dramatic, title clincher. Those hardy souls who did so would be rewarded with the Philadelphia Union vs New York Red Bulls. As one wag put it on Twitter: "That's like Ali/Frazier as the undercard for rock'em-sock'em robots."

Well, not quite, but we did get a kind of karaoke tribute to City's game against QPR, as the Red Bulls went top of the Eastern conference following a 3-2 win over ten man Philadelphia Union, with the scoring following the same sequence as the EPL game earlier in the day, and with the match even featuring a contentious red card to a key player.

Freddy Adu had the Joey Barton role - though in his case he had a scintillating game, in between picking up a yellow early on for scything down Roy Miller, and another for simulation as he fell without contact in the box in the 44th minute. It was a frustrating end to the game for a player who finally looked like his trickery was about to correlate with meaningful production. His dribbling had confounded the creaking New York back line (whose makeshift nature was exposed today) throughout the first half, and his cross found Pajoy for the equalizer after Lindpere had opened the scoring against the run of play.

Immediately after the half Pajoy scored again, though his two goals did not tell the whole story of his contribution to a Union attack who had struggled for chances in previous games but had a barrel load in this game - many of which were wasted by Pajoy's poor final touch. The Red Bulls were on the back foot for much of the second half, but found renewed belief when Holgersson headed an equalizer from their only corner. Agudelo then went close with a spectacular bicycle kick fashioned from nothing, before Cooper rounded MacMath to score the winner.

There was still time for Philadelphia to miss a series of point-blank chances as they scrambled forward in search of an equalizer against a side they consider a hated rival. But New York held out for the first away win either side has scored against each other - and remarkably (given the personnel on display) New York's fourth straight win for the first time since 2003. It wasn't pretty - and when the makeshift defense was breached for the first time, the cracks in the dam instantly threatened to widen. McCarty, the tenacious scrapping hero of the previous three wins, had been pushed up to accommodate the return of Marquez in the deep midfield position, and he looked more anonymous as a result, though the decision was arguably vindicated by Marquez's sweet through ball to Cooper for the winner.

Improbable as it looked just a few short weeks ago, when Henry limped out of their game against New England, the Red Bulls have gone on a winning streak to overhaul the invincible looking Sporting KC side at the summit of the East. The FIFA break is coming closer and regardless of what happens between now and then they've exceeded an ambition, in the wake of that injury and others, of still being in touch by then. Philadelphia will be heartened by 21 attempts on goal, Pajoy's brace and the positive side of Adu's contribution - but dismayed not to have taken something from one of the few games they'll play this season with so many clear cut chances.

The game capped a good week for MLS as yet another great, soccer specific, stadium opened, this one in Houston (christened by a lovely goal from Brad Davis). No league in the world would want to stand comparison with the EPL on Sunday morning's evidence, but if City's triumph reminded us of one thing, it's that no empire stands for ever. MLS is a long way from perfect, but its day may come. For now it's ticking over nicely. GP

Everybody lie down on the floor and keep calm

Last week we said to fans of Sporting Kansas City, "It's not time to panic yet." Well revise that, maybe worrisome thoughts should start to creep in. Sporting's third straight loss, to Chicago on Saturday, was another occasion when KC didn't lose to a better team so much as find ways to beat themselves.

After their amazing seven straight wins to start the season, came the 0-1 loss to Portland via a Chance Meyers own goal. Next, Montreal gifted a penalty and missing several golden chances of their own.

Saturday's 1-2 defeat to the Fire left head coach Peter Vermes banging the side of KC's dugout in frustration. After taking a 31st minute lead through Bobby Convey -- his first for the club -- Sporting imploded during two minutes of madness around the hour mark. First, Dominic Oduro got in behind Aurelien Collin and for the second game running the Frenchman made a despairing lunge and a penalty that Sebastian Grazzini dispatched into the top corner. Then came the real turning point, as 60 seconds later Roger Espinoza threw KC into disarray. The combative central midfield typifies Sporting's spirit, as he buzzes around breaking up play, yet the only thing he came close to breaking in the 61st minute was Sebatian Grazzini's nose. The Honduran came in to win the ball, but drove his left forearm into the Chicago attackers face, in full view of the referee. Red card.

The nail in the coffin came in the 80th minute as Kei Kamara hesitated to clear Dan Gargan's looping delivery, Patrick Nyarko pounced to nick the ball off the KC's winger foot and found Oduro in the six-yard box, who bundled the ball home to make it 2-1. With Federico Puppo in more clinical form; the winning margin could have been greater. Frank Klopas' side capitalized on KC's errors to good effect. Chicago now have just one loss in their last five and are lurking outside the Eastern conference's top three, with games in hand.

Sporting need to kick their habit of self-destruction quickly. For the first hour against Chicago they looked in complete control. With surging New York recording their fourth straight win against Philadelphia and going top of the East in the process, (without a host of their starters in the lineup), KC need to snap out of their self-imposed funk. JPW

Success contagious in Montreal

A crowd of 60,860 inside the Olympic Stadium marked the record attendance for a professional soccer match in Canada.

Just as impressive as the raucous crowd at the Stade Olympique, has been the Impact's recent performances: a first ever MLS away win - in Kansas City – was followed by another strong outing as Montreal took the game to LA and were rewarded in the 8th minute, when Davy Arnaud anticipated Bernardo Corradi's flick-on from Nelson Rivas' long ball forward.

The record crowd - how much of it was due to the visit of Goldenballs? - showcased the love Montreal and the Province of Quebec has for soccer. With Saputo Stadium coming closer to completion, (the renovated venue is scheduled to open in mid-June with a capacity of around 20,000) Montreal will soon be home to the second-largest soccer specific stadium in Canada after Toronto's BMO Field.

Montreal's fans were dreaming of a third-straight league win after an early advantage but then David bent it like Beckham into the top corner for an equaliser.

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Ex-Galaxy keeper Donovan Ricketts preserved the home side's point with a

series of fine stops from Donovan, Keane, Beckham and Sarvas and stretched Montreal's unbeaten streak to four games.

Embracing the culture of Quebec and the city of Montreal has been a key mission since head coach Jesse Marsch rolled into town. The team's immersion into the local community has been persistently pursued by the players and staff and it's no coincidence that success on the pitch has been followed by loving support from the French-Canadians. Marsch is leading by example: taking French lessons in his spare time and urging his playing staff to do the same.

Says Marsch:

"As a group, we have a lot of people who have come up here to Montreal and now they understand that being here is different and that it's unique. They are attaching themselves to everything that this club is, that this city is. There are a bunch of guys here who are committed to doing this thing wholly."

JPW

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