MLS Week in Review – Round 01 - 24th Minute

After a brief, but eventful, off-season, sixteen teams took to the pitch as the 19th season of MLS kicked off with eight matches (seven on Saturday and a lone Sunday fixture) spread over this past weekend.

Seven sides would win (just two of those away) while only a single match would be drawn, though many appeared to be heading in that direction before last-minute heroics changed the tide of history.

26 goals were scored, including four from the penalty spot (a further attempt was denied), while nine came in the final fifteen minutes of the match, four of those in stoppage time, as heavy, early season legs played a factor in the results.

36 yellow cards were shown and not a single red, though perhaps a few may have been warranted.

Plenty of players made their debuts, as did a number of coaches with the MLS carousel in full swing post-2013, but the last-minute decision to lock out the referees in the midst of the current labour disputes was certainly a central theme and may even have played a role in some results.

Before those results, the goals of the round:[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

A trio of beauties for one’s viewing pleasure – in chronological order, up first is Vancouver’s Sebastian Fernandez and his thunderous right-footed strike against New York.

Tough to image a better means of introducing oneself to a new league.

Next, Dallas’ Argentine maestro Mauro Diaz with this unstoppable free-kick against Montreal.

Over the wall and back down from such distance, wonderous.

And finally, Joao Plata’s game-winner against LA, not so much for the finish, as for the seeing eye pass from Kyle Beckerman and the sharp play of Alvaro Saborio to leave it.

On to the matches.

Results in Brief

Seattle 1 – Kansas City 0

The season began, somewhat fittingly, with the defending champions Kansas City away to Seattle and their voluminous crowd of some forty thousand spectators. MLS resumed pretty much where it left off – Peter Vermes yelling, Aurelien Collin fouling, getting booked, and then appearing surprised, only to risk further punishment with another foul minutes later, and so on.

With neither side at full strength - Seattle without Clint Dempsey to start, who only just returned from his ill-fated loan to Fulham, and Kansas City nursing a few injuries (full-backs Seth Sinovic and Chance Myers), while keeping an eye on the upcoming Champions League exploits - and each still shaking off the rust of winter, it was a pretty uneventful match that seemed destined to end Scoreless (in Seattle, as some Twitter jokesters christened it at half-time).

That is until the 86th-minute introduction of homegrown Sounders signing, Sean Okoli, who immediately sparked life into the match, spurring on the eventual breakthrough in the fourth minute of second half stoppage time.

Osvaldo Alonso surged through the middle of the park before playing up to Dempsey, who swung the ball out wide right to Okoli. His cross towards the near-post was popped up in the air by Matt Besler, falling to Dempsey, whose headed attempt clanged off the bar.

Dempsey managed to force the ball towards goal on the follow up, despite two KC defenders collapsing on him and Chad Barrett, who was on hand, neatly swiveled a right-footed effort in from two yards to win the match in the dying seconds.

Sigi Schmid’s Seattle carry their strong pre-season and near-complete dominance of Kansas City forward, with a late, home victory on opening day, while Peter Vermes’ KC begin their title defense on the back-foot, with a daunting five-matches in the first fifteen days of the campaign.

DC 0 – Columbus 3

While it took an entire match to weasel a goal out of the opener, the day’s second match required much less patience.

DC, who racked up a handful of worst-ever records in 2013, were hoping to put such failures behind them with a dramatically revamped side for the new season; Columbus too saw their year end in disappointment, failing to make the playoffs for a second-straight season, prompting a change in management, as well as several new player acquisitions.

But it was a few familiar faces who turned the tide in this one, as Jairo Arrieta and Federico Higuain provided the scoring in Columbus’ 3-0 romp in DC.

Arrieta struck first after 18 minutes, capping off an incisive bit of passing from the Crew. Centre-back Giancarlo Gonzalez played from the back to Hector Jimenez in the attacking third. The former LA midfielder immediately helped the ball on for Josh Williams down the right, taking advantage of space provided by a miscommunication between Nick DeLeon and Cristian Fernandez. Williams hit an early ball beyond the reach of a sliding Bobby Boswell for Arrieta to right-foot past Bill Hamid, into the DC goal.

Less than nine minutes later it was another defensive miscue from DC that offered Columbus a second chance at goal, this time from the penalty spot. Perry Kitchen grappled with Michael Parkhurst on a Columbus free-kick and the replacement official (more on that later), having overlooked a similar infraction previously, pointed to the spot. Higuain stepped up confidently and lashed his effort past Hamid to firmly put the Crew in front.

Higuain would find his second and Columbus’ third in the final minute of regulation, touching a low cutback from Justin Meram into the bottom corner of the goal after Tony Tchani and Waylon Francis combined to lay Meram in on the left.

For Ben Olsen and DC United, it was a rude start to the season, reminding that despite all the changes, there is still much work to be done, while Gregg Berhalter, Columbus’ new manager, picked up his first win in style after an impressive pre-season.

Vancouver 4 – New York 1

The goals kept coming as the third, fourth, and fifth matches of the evening followed in quick succession.

A half-hour after DC-Columbus kicked off on the Atlantic coast, Vancouver and New York got underway on the shores of the Pacific.

Like DC, Vancouver too underwent significant shuffling in the off-season: gone is former coach, Martin Rennie, while the Camilo-saga saw the Brazilian take most of the club’s goal-scoring with him to Mexico. Unlike DC, however, their renovations produced immediately, playing a hand (or, more appropriately, a foot) in each of their goals.

Old-head Kenny Miller notched the first after 34 minutes from the penalty spot, after Matias Laba’s fierce strike struck the outstretched arm of former teammate, Richard Eckersley. Newcomer, Sebastian Fernandez added a second four minutes after the restart with a screamer from outside the box that will turn heads in the goal of the week nominations.

Miller added his second in the 77th minute, lobbing Red Bull keeper, Luis Robles, after another new acquisition, Pedro Morales, deftly picked out his run to surgically splice open the New York defense. And Morales himself tallied their fourth in the 89th, placing a right-footer from Nigel Reo-Coker’s squared pass neatly into the bottom corner of the goal.

Celebrations were somewhat muted, and the clean-sheet ruined, by a momentary lapse that allowed Lloyd Sam to pick out Bradley Wright-Phillips with a cross from the left, flicking a finish over David Ousted from the edge of the six, as the two went up to challenge in the first minute of stoppage-time.

Carl Robinson, who was eventually named manager after the executive panel vacillated over the possible candidates, sees his era start out with a bang - against one of his former clubs no less, though the absence of Thierry Henry, who does not play on turf, was likely a factor; Mike Petke, having last year led the club to their first major trophy, the Supporters’ Shield, heaped the blame on himself post-match.

Dallas 3 – Montreal 2

Meanwhile in Texas, another five-goal outing had begun.

Dallas too responded to last season’s disappointment with a front office shake up, luring club legend and in situ Colorado Rapids coach, Oscar Pareja back to his former abode; as did Montreal – there is a theme building here – replacing the fiery Marco Schallibaum with Frank Klopas.

The Impact would strike first after just ten minutes when Justin Mapp sliced through three defenders having collected a weak goal kick on the right touchline, weaving inside Jair Benitez, past Hendry Thomas, and by Moises Hernandez before lofting an inviting ball to the back-post where Sanna Nyassi guided a right-footer beyond the reach of Chris Seitz in goal.

Fabian Castillo responded six minutes later, somewhat fortunately, when Benitez’s cross from the right found Je-Vaughan Watson, who whiffed on his first attempt, then poked forward, banking off the back of Blas Perez and into the path of Castillo, who calmly touched across Troy Perkins to level the score.

Dallas found a second in the 24th minute from the penalty spot after Jeb Brovsky was deemed to have fouled – however softly – Mauro Diaz, as the young Argentine strode towards goal on the right-side of the box. Perez would roof his right-footed conversion, leaving Perkins little hope to deny.

Diaz, who will take prominence in the centre of the pitch with one-time MLS MVP David Ferreira having moved on, showed his quality two minutes after half-time, curling a wonderful free-kick from just outside the box into the top right corner of goal.

Montreal, with three players (Marco Di Vaio, Andres Romero, and Nelson Rivas) suspended after that meltdown in Houston in last season’s playoff play-in match and newly-minted captain, Patrice Bernier, nursing an injury, could only muster half of the required response. Andrew Wenger darted in front of Hernandez to win the header from a left-sided Felipe cross, flicking the ball down to the right-side of goal from the near-post area.

Pareja’s Dallas, who led the league through the first half of last year only to crumble through the summer, earned a well-played victory on his debut, while Klopas’ Montreal showed well, but were undone by a little misfortune and the little Argentine in the end.

Houston 4 – New England 0

Simultaneously in another part of Texas, Houston put New England to the sword with a four-goal romp over their Eastern Conference rivals.

Some 64 seconds was all that was required for Will Bruin to catalyze the mauling, as Houston’s ball movement effortlessly carved through the middle of the New England defenses before coming to the foot of right-back, Kofi Sarkodie. His cross picked out Bruin just inside the box, above the near-post, and forced an uncharacteristic error out of Jose Goncalves. Bruin’s first touch popped the delivery into the air, while his second came in the form of a swiveling, right-footed half-volley that beat Bobby Shuttleworth to the far-side of goal.

Bruin would mark a second in the 13th minute, after left-back Corey Ashe intercepted a weak Scott Caldwell pass and curled a ball to the back-post, via a sliding right-footed touch. Ten minutes on, Oscar Boniek Garcia would get in on the act, from a Tally Hall goal-kick that found Brad Davis on the left, he played into Bruin, who in turn poked to a streaking Garcia to right-foot high into the net.

Omar Cummings, who came to life in last season’s playoff campaign after an injury-plagued season, was a menace after joining the fray in the 78th minute, but needed a stroke of luck to add the fourth. Having been denied on several half-chances, a Ricardo Clark shot deflected off his face to handcuff Shuttleworth and close out the match in jovial style.

Dominic Kinnear and his Houston side are never to be underestimated and if opening day is an indication, they will once more be a factor; Jay Heaps’ Revolution, stocked with young talent, must put this woeful result to the back of their mind, should they hope to return to the post-season this year.

Portland 1 – Philadelphia 1

Opening day closed out with a pair of West Coast matches, up first were Portland and Philadelphia.

Portland, who so impressed last season under then first-year coach, Caleb Porter, had selectively reinforced, while Philadelphia underwent extensive reconstruction with several high-profile acquisitions in the form of Maurice Edu, Christian Maidana, Vincent Nogueira, and Austin Berry, to name a few.

It took over an hour, before either side found a breakthrough, and two of Philadelphia’s newcomers proved instrumental in its creation. Maidana swung a useful corner kick in from the right, Edu rose up to meet it at the near-post, flicking towards the middle of goal, where Jack McInerney was, as usual, perfectly placed and unmarked to nod past Donovan Ricketts in goal.

Portland pressed for an equalizer that would not come… that is until they had a right-sided corner kick of their own in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Will Johnson’s rushed service was absently flicked by Brian Carroll at the near-post and fell kindly to Gaston Fernandez at the back-post to head in the last-ditch equalizer.

While hardly an impressive outing, Portland reveled in hard-fought points last season, and this one, though not three, will feel like a victory, setting up Porter’s charges for a strong year; John Hackworth’s Union, however, did impress, entering a daunting atmosphere and taking the game to the home side.

Los Angeles 0 – Salt Lake 1

Further down the coast, the headline fixture of the opening round pitted LA against Salt Lake in a rematch of so many intriguing clashes over the past several seasons, most recently, last season’s Western Conference Semifinals.

The home side took the match to their opponents and looked certain to open the scoring through a strong first half, but several stops from Nick Rimando and a little help from the post, kept LA off the board.

Salt Lake slowed to life with the second half and appeared to have scored in the 76th minute, when substitute Luke Mulholland tucked in the loose ball after a goalmouth scramble, only for an unusual offside call to rob them of the goal.

Four minutes later they had their opener, when a slow-rolling Kyle Beckerman through-ball was left by Alvaro Saborio and found Joao Plata behind the defense, shattering the offside trap and finishing through Jaime Penedo with a sweeping right-foot.

The Galaxy were given a glorious chance to equalize in the third minute of added time, when Tony Beltran was adjudged to have barged into Rob Friend in the box and the referee pointed to the spot for a penalty kick. Robbie Keane stepped up to the challenge, but his attempt was parried by Rimando, once-more keeping the points safe for his side.

Bruce Arena will no doubt be furious at another late concession costing his side further points after their quest for a third-straight MLS Cup last season was foiled by such an inadequacy; Jeff Cassar, who replaced the departed Jason Kreis in the off-season, continued Salt Lake’s winning ways in his debut as coach, the first Salt Lake boss to see victory in his first match in their history.

Chivas 3 – Chicago 2

A lone Sunday fixture closed out the opening weekend as Chivas USA and Chicago met in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

One of the stories of the off-season was the re-acquisition of the struggling Chivas-branded club by MLS, who will play out one last year under this moniker as the league looks for investors with a cogent plan. What their future holds is hard to foresee at this point, but enough speculation – this saga will no doubt unfold throughout the year – there was a match to be played.

Having burned through El Chelis and Jose Luis Real last season, Chivas looked to bring in someone with a little more MLS experience, ultimately going with then Colorado assistant coach, Wilmer Cabrera; Chicago called time on Klopas’ tenure, replacing him with Frank Yallop, who left San Jose midseason last year.

Playing in front of the ghosts of the 25 thousand fans who attended the Galaxy game the previous night and a few thousand (hundred) spectators, the game struggled to find its rhythm.

It was jolted to life in the 56th minute, when Cubo Torres, still on loan from Chivas de Guadalajara, worked in alone, only for Gonzalo Segares to drag him down in the box. Torres would calmly place a right-footer to the keeper’s left, having sent Sean Johnson diving the opposite way.

Three minutes on and hair-style afficiando/SuperDraft pick, Thomas McNamara opened his account as a professional, scoring on debut after Mauro Rosales played Leandro Barrera down the left and his cross to the near-post was deftly cushion in by the rookie.

Chicago went to their bench for reinforcements and Benji Joya, acquired from Santos Laguna in a league lottery, nabbed his first seconds after being introduced, tapping in the rebound from an Alex shot that was pushed wide by Dan Kennedy after Quincy Amarikwa played in the Brazilian with a stabbed ball.

Six minutes later, Amarikwa himself leveled, collecting a poor clearance atop the box, making space for and curling a dipping shot beyond the reach of the Chivas keeper into the bottom right corner of goal.

The minutes ticked away as both looked to have settled for the draw, until an 88th minute corner kick proved decisive. Rosales hit a curling out-swinger from the right that sailed invitingly to the edge of the six yard box, where Bobby Burling, a hulking Chivas centre-back, locked eyes on the ball and decided it was his.

Towering over – and through – the crowd, Burling out leapt a stationary Bakary Soumare to power in the game-winner, much to the delight of himself, his teammates, and those few in attendance.

Cabrera begins what should be a fascinating season with a well-earned win; while Yallop’s Chicago begin their season with another disappointment in LA (they lost 4-0 to the Galaxy on opening day last season, thanks, in part, to a Mike Magee hat-trick).

CanCon

As with last season, the expanded Canadian Content section will be posted midday on Tuesday’s – the first week’s offerings were a little slim, but Rob Friend, a recent addition to the league, made his debut for Los Angeles, while Will Johnson and Russell Teibert continued the impressive play that earned them such plaudits last season, plus there was an energetic cameo from Kyle Porter for DC.

All that, and a bit more, due out tomorrow.

Overheard

A pair of dueling quotes in contest for the line of the round, as Chad Barrett quipped, “I couldn’t even hear myself scream. I’m pretty sure I was screaming or I’m going through puberty. It has to be one of the two. It’s just an unbelievable feeling, especially with all 40,000 people staying until the very end”, while Jay Heaps commented on the dispiriting loss in Houston thusly, “Some days you get your nose rubbed in it, and we certainly got our nose rubbed in it today and it didn’t smell too good.”

Not quite sure what Barrett was getting at, but Heaps’ thoughts were clear as day.

See It Live

Plenty of little gems spread throughout the weekend:

; David Ousted hitting the BC Place scoreboard with a goal-kick, to much mirth; Omar Gonzalez’s hand-shove to the face of Alvaro Saborio; Robbie Keane striking what appeared to be a sure-goal off the inside of the post – optical illusion; and the return to the pitch of Sair Sene after the devastating injury suffered in Montreal at the end of last year.

Tifos were in full effect, as

and

, as usual, out did the rest, while the Chivas fans unveiled banners reading, “Keep our team in LA, the passion is here.’

Controversy

A smattering of controversial incidents: a couple of dicey penalty calls, in DC, in Vancouver, and Dallas; a few rusty horror tackles that may have warranted more than a mere yellow cards, Lewis Neal and Armando; and at least one mysteriously ruled out goal.

Opinion Poll

Much of the weekend’s chatter revolved around the replacement referees with MLS and PRO opting to ensure the games went ahead by locking out the union refs. Did the replacement referees adequately carry themselves through the weekend or was there noticeable difference?

Upcoming Fixtures

Saturday: Philadelphia-New England; New York-Colorado; Seattle-Toronto; Kansas City-Dallas; Houston-Montreal; San Jose-Salt Lake Sunday: Portland-Chicago; Chivas-Vancouver

The CONCACAF Champions League resumes at the quarterfinal stage midweek with three MLS clubs figuring in the action. San Jose host Toluca on Tuesday, while Kansas City welcome high-flyers Cruz Azul to Sporting Park and LA face Tijuana in a much-anticipated border clash.

All video and quotes courtesy of MLSsoccer.com.

Each week James takes a look at the league as a whole.

You can follow James on twitter @grawsee or read more of his writing at Partially Obstructed View

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MLS Week in Review – Round 01

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