MLS Week in Review – Round 07 - 24th Minute

The seventh round of MLS took place over the Easter Weekend – chocolate and soccer, does it get any better than that?

Leaving aside the midweek fixture for a moment, nine matches were played through the weekend, resulting in five draws (including a pair of scoreless ones) and the return of a sense of normalcy with just one away win.

Goals were again at a premium with a mere nineteen tallied, including two from the spot – though Chicago fluffed the third, another glorious chance for a winner at the death – and another own-goal, this one off the head of Montreal’s Callum Mallace.

Though some were reluctant to make the tough calls this round, the referees found another way to insert themselves into matches with 28 yellow cards and some six reds - four straight and a pair of double-yellows – most of which were controversial, raising the ire of coaches around the league.

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

Plenty of solid candidates, but nothing really comes close to Kekuta Manneh’s late equalizer in Vancouver:

That should earn him a starting position soon enough.

Hardly a stunning finish, but the pass that Harrison Shipp plays to free Quincy Amarikwa for the opener in Chicago was spectacular:

Shipp has a firm grasp on the short-list for rookie of the year through the early goings.

And finally, too often the set-up man does not get the credit he deserves, but the work done by Wil Trapp on Hector Jimenez’ late-equalizer was alone worthy of nomination – and the finish wasn’t half bad either:

On to the games…

Midweek Result in a Sentence (or Two)

New York 2 – Philadelphia 1

Mike Petke’s New York finally found their first win of the season in their seventh time of asking on second half goals from Thierry Henry and Lloyd Sam. Sebastien Le Toux would pull one back from the Union in the 80th minute on a penalty kick after Ibrahim Sekagya was dismissed for handling a Mo Edu shot on the line, but John Hackworth would still be left bemused as his side went winless through a fifth-straight match despite some strong play.

Results in Brief

Chicago 1 – New England 1

For a second consecutive home match, Chicago wasted a glorious opportunity to end their winless start to the season when Juan Luis Anangono’s 91st minute penalty kick was saved by Bobby Shuttleworth after Quincy Amarikwa and Lee Nguyen exchanged goals in the first half.

Amarikwa opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Jeff Larentowicz forced a turnover in the midfield and fed Harrison Shipp. The impressive homegrown rookie threaded a lovely ball inside the New England right-back to spring Amarikwa, who held off two recovering defenders and dragged a left-footed touch between the legs of the on-rushing keeper – it was his fourth goal of the season, continuing to repay the faith shown in him by Frank Yallop.

Fifteen minutes later, however, the Revolution would claw back level from the penalty spot when Nguyen beat Sean Johnson after Patrick Nyarko was found guilty of clipping the heels of Kevin Alston as the full-back surged into the left-side of the box.

Desperate for a win, Chicago pressed forward and were handed the aforementioned chance from the spot after a scramble in the box that saw Alston dismissed for handling a Victor Pineda shot, more-or-less, on the line. Mike Magee’s initial shot struck the base of the post, Anangono saw his attempt from the rebound blocked, before it fell to Pineda who had his follow-up blocked by Alston.

But Anangono, like Magee before him, would see his poor attempt saved, dooming Yallop’s Chicago to an MLS record-equalizing sixth-straight draw. Yallop was proud of the fight in his side, but had some harsh words at the decision to send off Amarikwa in the 73rd for a second bookable offense – a raised boot on Andy Dorman after seeing yellow for a debatable ‘dive’ in the first half. Jay Heaps meanwhile was happy with the point on the road, as his side has struggled to find results away from home through the opening month of play.

Philadelphia 0 – Houston 0

Playing their third match in eight days, Philadelphia could not compete with the energy of a hungry Houston side, though neither could find that crucial goal as the match would end in a score-less draw.

Wednesday’s loss in New York stung and heavy legs prevented the Union from truly threatening – they did not have a single shot of target through the match – and saw their winless run stretch to a sixth-straight match.

Houston, riding a three-game losing streak themselves, were glad to collect a road point from an in-conference opponent, ending that streak – though they remain without a win in four, but felt particularly aggrieved at the decision to send off Kofi Sarkodie in the 82nd minute for supposed time-wasting, with the match scoreless.

Neither John Hackworth, who claimed that this match did not represented who they were and how they wanted to play, nor Dominic Kinnear, who was perplexed by the sending off, would be satisfied by the result.

Colorado 0 – San Jose 0

Similarly, Colorado and San Jose played out a scoreless draw, after a lively start was dulled by the wind and rain that moved in fifteen minutes or so after kickoff.

The match started very brightly for San Jose, who nearly scored within the first minute when Alan Gordon met a Shea Salinas corner kick, only to see it carom off the bar. The Earthquakes, who are still searching for their first win of the season, had tweaked their formation, solidifying the midfield with Sam Cronin anchoring, JJ Koval roaming ahead of him, and Chris Wondolowski dropping a little off the front to be more difficult to play through.

Colorado, who were coming off a pair of fine road victories on their Canadian road trip - to Vancouver and then Toronto, looked a little toothless when confronted by a team that forced them to take the initiative and find space to mount attacks – the absence of the influential Jose Mari did not help either.

San Jose may even have looked to press the play a little with the introduction of Yannick Djalo in the 70th minute, but a hamstring concern limited the Portuguese trickster to just eighteen minutes. An 87th minute red card for Adam Jahn after a late challenge on Jared Watts, catching the rookie with a flailing chicken-wing pretty much sealed the chances of late game heroics from the Earthquakes.

Mark Watson will take minor solace from the keeping of a clean-sheet – their first of the season through five matches – but knows that they have some ground to make up having gone winless through five.

Pablo Mastroeni will have wanted to extend the hot streak, but may just consider a point against a bogey team (San Jose had won their last three trips to Colorado and five of the last seven meetings) a solid result.

Vancouver 2 – Los Angeles 2

Fresh off a meeting last weekend in LA, the Galaxy twice took the lead, through Stefan Ishizaki and Robbie Keane, only for Vancouver to strike back each time, via Darren Mattocks and Kekuta Manneh, respectively.

Andy O’Brien declared the home side’s intentions inside the first minute, clattering into Keane from behind and Vancouver would see the better of the early chances come their way. But, as so often happens, Los Angeles would open the scoring, far too easily too, before half-time.

Right-back Dan Gargan was unleashed into acres of space down the flank to chip a cross to the back-post, playing towards the end-line for Baggio Husidic, who nodded back into the middle for the untracked arrival of Ishizaki to snap a header down and past Jordan Harvey attempting to cover at the near-post in the 38th minute.

Carl Robinson would ring in the changes at half-time, replacing Russell Teibert and O’Brien with Manneh and Johnny Leveron respectively, but it was Mattocks, who near-single-handedly clawed the Whitecaps back into the game in the 67th minute.

A long Steven Beitashour-ball up the right was poked towards goal by Erik Hurtado. LA keeper Jaime Penedo was a little slow out, as centre-back Leonardo sought to shield any pressure, but Mattocks did not give up, getting a foot on the ball, touching away from the Galaxy duo as they got in each other’s way, freeing Mattocks to face an empty net alone.

Though the angle was tight, the Jamaican finished, leveling the match at ones.

Ten minutes later LA would reinstate their lead, when Omar Gonzalez picked out Rob Friend with a long ball put back into the box and Friend knocked it down for Keane at the right-post. His attempt to settle the quick-arrival was less-than-smooth, but he still managed to get a left-foot the bouncing ball and past David Ousted – his fourth goal of the season and second in as many games against Vancouver.

But the hustle and unselfishness – yes that is correct – of Mattocks would again play a role when Vancouver responded in the 86th minute. Beitashour again provided the initial service, hitting a cross-field ball from the right that found the Jamaican on the left-side of the box. Faced with a pair of defenders, Mattocks pulled the ball back to Manneh outside the box, who placed a wonderful, dipping right-footed shot beyond the outstretched dive of Penedo and into the bottom right-corner of goal.

Robinson would praise the fighting spirit of his side and will value the point, while Bruce Arena and his charges will be concerned at twice relinquishing leads, especially in the final fifteen minutes of a match – a problem that plagued them last season.

Columbus 1 – DC 1

Red-hot DC United – hyperbole, but two wins in a row ain’t bad – nearly took their winning form on the road after Fabian Espindola handed them a lead, but Hector Jimenez, with a hearty thanks to Wil Trapp, had other ideas leveling in the final minute of regulation time.

Three weeks ago United finally ended a winless run that lasted some fifteen matches, stretching back to last August – and since, a pair of home wins, over New England and New York, have sparked a bit of confidence in the once-down-trodden outfit.

Riding that high, Espindola would capitalize on an unforeseen error to open the scoring in the 31st minute.

Nick DeLeon pounced on a shockingly poor touch from Federico Higuain in his own half and ran at goal to expose the massive gap in-between the Crew centre-backs. Their recovery opened up far too much space out wide, and DeLeon found Espindola streaking down the left. Despite the tight angle, Espindola blasted a left-footed finish past a helpless Steve Clark to give DC the lead they desired.

And perhaps they should have been allowed to kill off the match in the 73rd minute, when Giancarlo Gonzalez wrapped his arms around Eddie Johnson, who was breaking in alone – but the officials decided a yellow would suffice.

Eight minutes later Columbus would indeed be reduced to ten when Bernardo Anor lunged into a sliding challenge on Perry Kitchen, but that only served to wake up the Crew, as in the final minute of play, Trapp stopped an Espindola attack in its tracks and charged up-field before picking out Jimenez on the left with a long, raking cross.

Jimenez cut inside onto his right-foot, abusing Alex Caskey in the process and placing his effort across the keeper, inside the far-post to level the match.

Gregg Berhalter was elated with the equalizer – unintentionally screaming into the camera – though that covered what was an underwhelming, even lucky, performance. Ben Olsen will take the point, continuing their turnaround, but knows there was more to be had from the match.

Dallas 2 – Toronto 1

Toronto would take the lead against the run of play through Issey Nakajima-Farran, but Matt Hedges would level shortly thereafter before Blas Perez muscled in a late-winner to hand Dallas a well-earned victory at home.

Both sides, highly-thought of through the first six rounds, were coming off losses and eyes around the league were curious how they would respond to the setback.

Toronto, riddled with injuries to such a degree that Ryan Nelsen dressed two keepers to fill his bench, would take the lead in the 21st minute by sustaining pressure after a Kyle Bekker free-kick.

Bekker cut a short-corner back to the high, near-post for Michael Bradley to flick towards goal with the bouncing ball eventually blocked and rebounding outside the area. Jackson would beat David Texeira to that loose ball and feed Issey down the left.

His first attempt was blocked, but ricocheted right back for a second whack that this time redirected off the shin of Je-Vaughan Watson and past Chris Seitz to open the scoring.

Dallas may have been largely stifled through the midfield, but Toronto was conceding corner kicks at an alarming rate – the sixteen won would set a new club record for Dallas – and in the 37th minute Hedges made them pay by rising highest at the near-post to get a flick on the latest Michel delivery to beat Julio Cesar with a sharp header.

Dallas would draw several fine saves out of the Brazilian keeper, with Michel testing his fellow countryman with a laser from distance that was tipped over before the Hedges equalizer and three minutes after squaring the match, Texeira was denied the go-ahead by another fine save.

Toronto would bunker and perhaps should have been given a chance for a winner from the spot when Gilberto was shoved in the back by Kelyn Acosta, but the referee waived play on and Jackson sent the follow-up wide.

Then in the 88th minute another Michel set-piece proved troublesome as Stephen Keel helped it on and Hedges again won a header, popping it up high in the box, prompting a mad scramble. The ball would fall to Perez, who managed to whack a right-footer past Cesar to win the match for the home side.

Oscar Pareja’s side, with their fifth win of the season, strengthen their grasp on the top of the table, three points ahead of Seattle, while Nelsen was left fuming at the non-call, thankful that his side now has two weeks to recover and regroup.

Kansas City 4 – Montreal 0

It took an own-goal from Callum Mallace to open the scoring and then nearly forty minutes for the damn to burst as Kansas City added three more through a Dom Dwyer brace after an Aurelien Collin strike in the final twenty minutes to hand Montreal a soul-sapping loss.

The Impact would navigate the first half-hour of a tricky fixture, including Marco Di Vaio scuffing a good chance to put Montreal in the lead when his weak shot was blocked on the line by Collin inside fifteen minutes, before being undone by that most fretful of weapons: the long throw.

Matt Besler, purveyor of such mayhem, launched towards the near-post for Colliin, but Mallace rose up with him, only to see his backwards header loop up and find the far-side of the goal in the 31st minute.

Collin celebrated as though it were his own – it was not, but forty minutes later he had something worth celebrating when another long Besler throw bobbled around the box. Andres Romero looked to be shepherding it clear, but Lawrence Olum poked it away, back to Collin atop the area, who hit a low left-footer than beat an unsighted Troy Perkins, sneaking into the bottom left-corner in the 71st minute.

The rout was on and three minutes later Dwyer sealed the result. Graham Zusi played a long, cross-field ball for Jacob Peterson, who let it sail over him into the right corner. Having retrieved the ball, Peterson hit a low cross to the near-post, where Collin sagely dummied, leaving it to the trailing Dwyer, arriving for a right-footed finish across Perkins.

Dwyer would add his second and KC’s fourth in the 86th minute when Alex Martinez was allowed to work up the left side of the field and dish off to Zusi, who picked out Dwyer with a lovely cross to the back-post for a fade away header down past Perkins once more.

With the win, Peter Vermes’ charges stretch their unbeaten run to five matches and take a share of the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Frank Klopas’ Montreal, on the other hand, are now winless through seven matches to start the season, and have just one victory in their last fifteen league matches – a troubling sign, though not all that should rest at the feet of the newly-installed Klopas.

Salt Lake 1 – Portland 0

The premier fixture of the weekend proved to be a tight affair, decided by a single-goal as Ned Grabavoy exploited a gap in the Portland defenses in the 78th minute to decide the outcome in Salt Lake’s favour.

Two of the better foot-balling sides in the league met to produce a rather thrilling contest, though, as the score-line indicates, goals were hard to come by.

The return from injury of Nick Rimando carried good portents for Salt Lake and he was repeatedly called upon to make the big save - denying Darlington Nagbe, then Max Urruti, before a huge toe save on Alvas Powell, and finally Sebastian Fernandez with a stunning finger-tipper after a rare Kyle Beckerman midfield turnover.

Both sides would strike the woodwork, with Urruti’s blast caroming off the bar and Javier Morales beating Donovan Ricketts but not the post with a low shot.

As he often does, Grabavoy found himself overlooked in the shuffle.

He received a square ball from Sebastian Velasquez on the left and charged into a gap in the Timber’s defenses. Nagbe tried to track his run, but a subtle burst of pace earned the space for a shot and Grabavoy’s low left-footer found the bottom right-corner of the goal for what turned out to be the game-winner.

For Jeff Cassar, the win extends their unbeaten run to seven matches as they remain the only side in the league to have yet tasted defeat. Caleb Porter’s Timbers must confront the opposite, that through seven matches they are still winless – plenty of games to still be played, but not how they had hoped to start the season.

Chivas 1 – Seattle 2

And finally, Erick Torres may have continued his goal-scoring feats, but he alone could not overpower the surging Sounders, who struck through Lamar Neagle and Obafemi Martins to take the only road win of the round.

It took just five minutes for the hosts to open the scoring.

A poor touch from Ossie Alonso – this weekend’s theme of unexpected poor touches proving costly continues – allowed Leandro Barrera to pounce, nipping it away as the Cuban defensive midfielder lunged in on the edge of the area, bringing down the Argentine and prompting the referee to point to the spot.

Torres would step to the challenge; coolly slotting a right-footer to Stefan Frei’s left having eyed the keeper the other way – it was his sixth goal of the season and third from the spot.

Then in the 24th minute, another unforced error would level the match. Victor Pineda swung in a free-kick from the left that Dan Kennedy rushed out to collect, only to bobble the ball, which fell to Clint Dempsey, whose poked effort bounced off Chad Marshall and fell to Neagle to smash in with a left-footer - an unfortunate mistake from such a solid keeper.

Chivas would suffer further from such a rush of blood, when Marky Delgado, making his first start of the season, lunged in on Pineda and was sent off for his troubles, reducing Chivas to ten men in the 73rd minute.

And Seattle would again punish the error when eight minutes later Pineda played up to Martins, who touched in-field to Dempsey and then made a diagonal run into the space that Delgado had covered to receive a return ball and chip his left-footed finish over Kennedy for the winner.

With the loss, Wilmer Cabrera’s Chivas slump to six matches without a win, stretching back to opening day and the questionable red card was too much for the manager, who decried such decisions as scandalous.

Sigi Schmid’s Seattle take a second-straight win from the road and maintain their dominance over Chivas, having won the last five and gone unbeaten through twelve.

CanCon

As always, the extended Canadian review will be posted tomorrow (Tuesday) – those featured include Will Johnson in the return to his old stomping grounds; Issey Nakajima-Farran for notching his second goal of the season; Rob Friend, who made an impact from the subs bench; the return of Jonathan Osorio and the Montreal trio of Patrice Bernier, Karl Ouimette, and Maxim Tissot, who made his first appearance of the season.

Due to time constraints, the Overheard and See it Live sections will remain unused on the bench this review.

Controversy

A litany of complaints all around the league this weekend:

Non-calls – Columbus’ Giancarlo Gonzalez evades a red card for taking down Eddie Johnson, while Kelyn Acosta shoves Toronto’s Gilberto in the box (no video, check Simon Borg’s Instant Replay.

Second Yellows – Quincy Amarikwa saw his first yellow for this ‘dive’ and Kofi Sarkodie was shown a second for ‘time-wasting’.

Red Cards – Marky Delgado’s tackle on Victor Pineda sounded bad, but did it warrant a red? What about Bernardo Anor’s on Perry Kitchen? Adam Jahn probably earned his for barging into Jared Watts, even if it could be seen as a little harsh.

Penalty Kicks – Did Oswaldo Alonso make contact on Leandro Barrera inside or outside the box?

Upcoming Fixtures

Another midweek match featuring New York is set for Wednesday, while with the weekend another hectic flurry of eight matches, with seven on Saturday and a sole Sunday fixture.

Wednesday: New York-Houston. Saturday: Seattle-Colorado; Montreal-Philadelphia; DC-Dallas; New England-Kansas City; Columbus-New York; Salt Lake-Vancouver; San Jose-Chivas. Sunday: Houston-Portland.

All videos 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 07

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