Four candidates take centre-stage for consideration. In chronological order, up first from Friday night is
Which takes the cake?
On to the matches…
Results in Brief
The weekend began on Friday with the third-match of the annual Rocky Mountain Cup series between Salt Lake and Colorado. Having won the previous two meetings, the bragging rights that accompany the trophy were already Salt Lake’s, but points and pride remained on the line.
Not so long ago Colorado looked destined to be a factor in the Western race, but a seven-game losing streak put an end to such hopes; the Rapids would face their rivals having ended the losing, but still winless in eight. Salt Lake, on the other hand, were looking to rebound from a loss in Seattle, solidly in third in the West.
Against all odds and the run of play, it was Colorado who struck first with Jose Mari latching on to a blocked Carlos Alvarez shot that fell to him some distance from goal. Mari positioned himself over the ball, lashing a well-sculpted shot low towards the left-side of goal, bending the surprise finish past a flat-footed Nick Rimando in the 21st minute.
It only served to awaken and anger Salt Lake, who would respond eleven minutes later, piling on four goals through the next thirteen minutes to take over the match.
Joao Plata got the first, smashing his right-footer into the top corner of the goal after receiving a neat back-heeled pass from Ned Grabavoy. The second, scored a minute later, was attributed to Javier Morales, bending a left-sided, in-swinging corner kick towards the near-post. Designated player Sebastian Jaime, in the midst of his first start, made the run, as too did Colorado defender Thomas Piermayr; the service appeared to take a touch off one or the other, though Morales would be credited with the goal, straight from the corner.
Four minutes after that in the 37th another Salt Lake set-piece would prove Colorado’s undoing as Morales’ free-kick was mishandled by keeper Joe Nasco, who could not catch the service, dropping it at the feet of Chris Schuler who literally thrust it over the line.
The misery was all but complete in the final minute of the first half, when some textbook Salt Lake build-up allowed Morales to send a low ball into the heart of the Colorado box from the left. A sliding Marc Burch tried to cut it out, sending his clearing attempt caroming off keeper Nasco and into the Colorado goal.
Nasco would make amends for his error, repeatedly preventing Salt Lake from adding further damage through the opening phase of the second half, but another spilled delivery would prove his undoing in the 63rd minute. The keeper dropped another Morales delivery (a corner kick from the right), falling to the foot of Carlos Salcedo, who forced a right-footer through a crowd to score his first in MLS and Salt Lake’s fifth of the evening.
The 5-1 finish would prove the most-lopsided result in the history of the contest, as Salt Lake swept the season series, becoming the first club to do so, ensuring they could celebrate their seventh Rocky Mountain Cup of the last eight seasons in style, while keeping the pressure on the two clubs ahead of them in the standings. Colorado’s hopes of making a late climb into the playoffs took a further dent, stretching that winless run to nine matches and falling to an eighth loss over that spell. They have been outscored thirteen-four in their last three matches – averaging four-plus goals against is not a great way to turn around one’s struggles.
Saturday began early with a tasty appetizer that saw Pacific Northwest foes Portland and Vancouver take to the pitch, dueling over the fifth and final spot in the Western Conference. Separated by just a single point, with Vancouver clinging ahead, the winner of this match would put themselves into the driver’s seat, at least temporarily, as this looks to be one of the many hot spots to keep an eye on over the closing weeks.
A physical encounter that saw the Timbers take the match to the Whitecaps, who picked up two bookings inside the opening 25 minutes, was burst open in the 28th minute when Diego Valeri got on the end of a left-sided Jorge Villafana cross, powering his finish past David Ousted. Valeri had done well to get forward and find a channel of space between the Vancouver defenders, who were caught napping by a quickly taken free-kick.
The match settled into an even contest for the next half-hour, spanning half time, before Portland added to their lead in the 66th minute. Valeri again was at the heart of the move, stripping Matias Laba deep in the Vancouver half before slipping in Fanendo Adi, who tucked a neat right-footer past Ousted after out-pacing Steven Beitashour en route to the Whitecaps goal.
Three minutes later Adi would add his second and Portland’s third, all but ending the contest. Diego Chara played up-field to Darlington Nagbe, who threaded Adi in down the left-side of the area. The big striker deftly snuck a finish under the moving Ousted, slotting a left-footer past the keeper, much to the chagrin of the shocked Whitecaps.
The 3-0 win, their second by such a score-line over Vancouver, was enough to see Portland leapfrog Vancouver into possession of that fifth spot, now ahead by two points and riding a four-game unbeaten streak. Vancouver have had plenty of chances to secure their position over the last two months; with only two wins in their last thirteen matches, stretching all the way back to June, should they miss out it will be entirely of their own doing.
The round continued with an Eastern Conference clash, as two teams currently riding unbeaten streaks, but still on the outside looking in, took to the pitch in Philadelphia. Level on points with Columbus, behind on tie-breakers, the Union, unbeaten in four overall and seven at home, were hoping to rebound from the disappointment of losing out on the US Open Cup to Seattle on Tuesday – the Sounders won 1-3 in extra-time to hoist their fourth Open Cup in the last six years. Houston, themselves unbeaten in three, sat a little further back, five points adrift of that final spot, but with a game in hand; a win would help them take another step in their on-again, off-again post-season push.
It was a tight match that saw neither side willing to open themselves up in search of a goal. That said, each did see plenty of chances in a close-fought opening half. Conor Casey sent an early effort over the bar, while Omar Cummings drew a fine stop from Rais M’Bolhi, who returned to the Philadelphia nets having returned from international duty – the flag negated the need for the stop, but still, it was made.
David Horst did just enough to get a piece of a later Casey effort, then Carlos Valdes did the same at the other end, preventing a Ricardo Clark blast from troubling the keeper. Houston keeper Tyler Deric came up big in the open seconds of the second half, getting a big paw on yet another Casey shot.
With time ticking down, Philadelphia looked to have found the spot of luck that often decides such close encounters when Vincent Nogueira cutback on Houston defender AJ Cochran, who stuck out a leg, upending the attacker in the area, but much to the displeasure of the visitors, no call was forthcoming.
Impressive rookie Pedro Ribeiro would hit the outside of the post from a tight angle deep in stoppage-time, but in the end, the score-less draw was a fair enough result. Both sides would remain unbeaten, but, given results to come, would fall further behind – Philadelphia two points and Houston seven – by Monday’s tally.
Hot on the heels of the start in Philadelphia were three more simultaneous matches each heavy with implications for the Eastern Conference, as Montreal hosted San Jose, New York Seattle, and Columbus New England.
With playoff positioning in both conferences coming down to the wire, fans have been blessed by an absence of dead rubbers in MLS this season. This was perhaps the first.
Granted, at kickoff both teams were still mathematically viable, with Montreal sitting deep in the East basement with 21 points from 28 matches - sixteen points shy of the playoffs and San Jose a full nine points off the pace in the West, needing to make up that ground in the seven matches remaining.
Playing without pressure and buoyed by the Champions League result that saw them take the advantage over New York in their CONCACAF group, the Impact took the match to the Earthquakes, playing with a freedom and flair that, had it been there all season, would undoubtedly have led to a better points haul.
San Jose keeper Jon Busch was tested early and often, forced to rush off his line as early as the third minute and required to be on his toes throughout the first half, especially when Ignacio Piatti attempted to chip him in the 37th minute, necessitating a touch over the bar.
The Earthquakes, who handed a debut to recently-signed right-back Pablo Pintos and saw the return of Matias Perez Garcia from a month-long injury spell, found some looks in the second half, most notably when Shea Salinas made space on the left to swing a lovely cross into the box. Atiba Harris got on the end with a free-header, but could not direct his effort on goal.
Montreal would make pay for such wastefulness in the 81st minute, when Jack McInerney broke the deadlock, ending his own long, goal-less stretch (dating back to June), walking the rebound from a stinging Marco Di Vaio shot in at the far-post. A throw-in from the left to the Italian had caught San Jose napping, forcing a rushed save out of Busch, who could only push the rebound into McInerney, who bundled it over the line.
Seven minutes later, Dilly Duka would pad the advantage, shimmying inside on Sam Cronin to find the space to send a right-footed shot to the far-side of the Earthquakes goal from the left-side of the area.
The 2-0 win, their sixth of the season, would end a three-match winless run, but was not enough to stave off elimination, as results elsewhere would officially make the Impact the first side eliminated from the chase for the 2014 MLS Cup. The loss was the latest blow to a San Jose who are headed in the wrong direction, stretching their winless run to nine matches at the worst possible time, extending their deficit to eleven points from the playoff line, with one less game to play.
If Montreal have found a certain freedom in their situation, their CONCACAF opponents, New York, have risen to the challenge, securing their place above the fated line in the East, particularly on the strength of their home form, where they have won their last five and are unbeaten in seven.
Seattle, riding a four-game winning streak of their own, but perhaps hung over from Open Cup celebrations, would rest several starters, with Clint Dempsey, Obafemi Martins, DeAndre Yedlin, Gonzalo Pineda, Brad Evans, and more left out of the starting eleven.
It would take just 29 seconds for that decision to back-fire, as the fit-again Bradley Wright-Phillips reacted quickest in the box, pouncing on the rebound from an Ambroise Oyongo drive to right-foot the opener past Stefan Frei. Wright-Phillips, who had been unselfish moments earlier, passing up a look after Lloyd Sam had found him from the right - instead playing on to Oyongo in space on the left, made no mistake when karma returned a chance to him.
Having begun like a shot, the match stabilized with each side tightening up and seeing only half chances go each way; that is until the second half and Wright-Phillips cracked it open again with a further pair of goals two minutes apart beginning in the 54th minute.
The first came from the penalty spot after Dylan Remick, starting in place of Leo Gonzalez, felled Sam with a lunging tackle from behind on the right-side of the Sounders box, after the speedy New York wide attacker had burst past him, beating him to the outside. Wright-Phillips would convert the penalty, right-footing his effort to Frei’s right; the keeper would go correctly, getting a hand to the effort, but could not keep it out.
His third of the match was a tidy right-footed finish high into the roof of the net at the back-post, getting on the end of a Roy Miller ball after a one-two with Thierry Henry allowed the Costa Rican full-back to surge into the left-side of the Seattle area. The hat-trick would bring Wright-Phillips up to 24 goals on the season, three shy of leveling the all-time, single-season mark shared by Roy Lassiter and Chris Wondolowski, with five games remaining.
Seattle would respond, soiling New York’s clean-sheet in the 62nd minute having brought on Dempsey and Martins. It was Dempsey who got on the end of a Lamar Neagle ball in space down the left-channel, left-footing a finish past Luis Robles, after an Osvaldo Alonso ball had put Neagle forward down the right.
Three minutes later, Red Bull would reinstate their three goal advantage, Tim Cahill banking a left-footer in off the base of the far-post after Oyongo’s cross from the left was cut out by Djimi Traore, falling to Cahill above the left-post.
The Sounders would look to respond immediately, but a fantastic double-save from Robles, first on a deflected Marco Pappa shot, then on Dempsey’s follow-up header, both in the 69th minute dispirited any hopes of a comeback.
With the 4-1 win, New York would ensure they held on to the fourth spot in the East, while awaiting other results to see whether they made up ground on New England ahead, or opened a further gap on Columbus behind. Spoiler alert – they would achieve the former, closing the gap on the Revolution from four points to one, while keeping ahead of Columbus by just a single point. Seattle, who became the first side to clinch their place in the post-season, saw their winning streak end, losing for the first time in six matches; allowing Los Angeles, who would host Dallas later that night, the chance to make up some ground in both the Supporters’ Shield and first place in the West.
As the above cross-conference clashes played out, an all Eastern affair was on the cards in Columbus, where the Crew hosted the Revolution with critical points on the line.
Columbus, who were unbeaten in their last two matches and winners of their last three at home, entered clinging to the fifth spot in the East, five points behind New England, whose fine run of five-straight wins had seen them climb into third in the conference, trailing only DC and Kansas City.
The two met twice at the end of last season, in a home-and-away series, that saw New England win both, securing their playoff spot, dooming Columbus to an early ending.
With so much on the line, it was no surprise that neither side could find the advantage in a highly-contested match that saw some five bookings throughout. Half-chances came to each early, with Aaron Schoenfeld sending a low drive inches wide of the left-post, while Lee Nguyen, in scintillating form, drew a fingertip save out of Columbus keeper, Steve Clark, in the 15th minute.
New England keeper Bobby Shuttleworth would come up with a similarly vital intervention, denying an Eric Gehrig header on the half-hour; Gehrig would rattle the woodwork on a Federico Higuain corner kick before the half-time whistle saw the sides pause score-less.
Three minutes after the restart, the breakthrough would finally come when Darius Barnes barged over Ethan Finlay, allowing Higuain a dangerous look at goal from 25 yards out, slightly to the right of centre. Higuain would stand over the dead-ball, sending an arcing right-footer sailing over the wall, curling into the top right-corner of the New England goal, beyond the diving reach of Shuttleworth.
Nguyen would attempt to respond with a free-kick of his own in the 67th, guiding his effort over the wall and on target, but Clark was equal to the task.
Columbus would be offered a glorious chance to seal the result in the 84th minute, when AJ Soares dove in on Justin Meram, tripping up the attacker as he cutback, but Higuain, who took the spot kick, would see his casual effort saved by Shuttleworth – it was a poor attempt, far too close to the keeper, marking the third time Higuain had wasted such a chance.
But the Crew would hold on, in part thanks to another fine save from Clark, tipping a Charlie Davies shot around the post.
With the 1-0 win, Columbus extended both their unbeaten run and their home winning streak, to put themselves two points ahead of Philadelphia, now in sole possession of fifth in the East, remaining a single point behind New York. New England passed up the chance to draw level with an idle Kansas City, while their leads over New York and Columbus would shrink to one and two points, respectively.
With a high-profile clash between Los Angeles and Dallas set to close out the night, a rollicking six-goal thriller in Chicago stole the show as the most entertaining match of Saturday.
The Fire, who entered the match seven points adrift, desperately needed the full points to continue to hang around on the fringes of the playoff race, sitting down in ninth place in the East. Conference leaders DC, who had been held score-less and winless through their last two matches, sat two points ahead of Kansas City and a full seven behind Seattle in the chase for the Supporters’ Shield.
It would take just sixteen minutes for the hosts to take the lead through Quincy Amarikwa, who cut inside on DC left-back Taylor Kemp to place a low left-footer curling to the far-side of goal after Harrison Shipp’s ball found the forward in space on the right.
Sixteen minutes on Chicago would double their lead from the penalty spot after Perry Kitchen was adjudged to have shoved Amarikwa over in the box. The Fire have struggled in converting penalties, missing four of the nine they have won, including one against Toronto last weekend that proved costly. Jeff Larentowicz, who had seen his effort saved against TFC, had apparently been practicing, dispatching the chance with a well-struck, perfectly-placed right-footer to Bill Hamid’s left; the DC keeper moved correctly, but could not reach.
DC would be awarded a kick of their own before half-time in controversial circumstances. Sean Johnson parried a Luis Silva free-kick, leading to a scramble in the box. Perhaps a little too eager, Johnson clattered into a group of players, sending Steve Birnbaum sprawling; whether the call was on the keeper or Chicago defender Bakary Soumare, was unclear, as was the reasoning for such a weak penalty. Nevertheless, Silva stepped to the spot, dispatching an unstoppable right-footer high to the keeper’s right. Johnson got a hand to the effort, but could not prevent it spinning up and over the line.
It would be Silva again, who leveled the match after the restart, curling a right-footed free-kick from 27 yards out, slightly to the right of centre, over the wall and into the top left-corner of the goal, beyond the reach of a scrambling Johnson in the 54th minute. A brilliant hit.
DC would use that momentum in their favour, scoring a third-straight goal to take the lead in the 68th minute, when Bobby Boswell followed up a goal-line clearance from Gonzalo Segares after the big centre-back had nodded a ball forward for Kitchen, who right-footed an effort on goal. It was unclear whether the initial ball crossed the line before it was cleared, a point rendered moot by Boswell’s undeniable right-footer.
But Chicago, draw masters that they are, would respond ten minutes later, through Matt Watson, who scored his first goal in MLS in his third season in the league. Amarikwa again was involved in the move, laying off to Watson outside the area on the right, from whence his deflected effort found the left-side of the goal past Hamid.
The entertaining 3-3 draw would see Chicago tie their own record (jointly held by New York) for the most draws in a single-season in MLS with their sixteenth of 2014; their hunt for the playoffs however, would suffer, falling a further two points adrift, now nine. DC would go winless through a third-straight match, picking up second draw in that spell, passing up the chance to open a wider lead on Kansas City and losing ground on the Supporters’ Shield.
Saturday would close with what should have been a clash between two of the West’s best, with Los Angeles hosting Dallas, only for Dallas coach, Oscar Pareja, to rest two key players – Fabian Castillo and Matt Hedges - with an eye on Wednesday’s home match against Seattle.
LA entered the match unbeaten in seven matches, having drawn their last two, after a five-game winning streak saw them assault the Western standings, surging to within three points of table-toppers Seattle at round’s start.
Dallas have seen their form drop off of late, a ten-match unbeaten run giving way to a pair of losses, before returning to winning ways last weekend against Vancouver.
The Galaxy would boss much of the early play, but failed to craft any real chances. And it was Dallas who would take the lead in the 54th minute, against the run of play, when Blas Perez got on the end of an Andres Escobar cross at the back-post, sending a looping header sailing over Jaime Penedo, who returned victorious from his time with Costa Rica at the Copa Centroamericana, where he took the top goalkeeping honours.
A Dallas mistake would gift LA a way back into the match. Defensive midfielder Victor Ulloa, who has done so very well in the absence of Hendry Thomas, could not get a Dan Gargan cross from the right out of his feet in time, failing to make the required clearance, allowing Gyasi Zardes to poke to ball away and back to Robbie Keane lurking at the top of the area. The Irishman would right-foot the equalizer into the right-side of the Dallas goal past Raul Fernandez.
A chippy and chirpy match that saw six bookings would continue in that vein, requiring a bit of class and some late-magic to fracture the building draw. Landon Donovan played out wide to Keane on the left, who jinked and junked past Adam Moffat and lifted his head to send a pinpoint ball into a dangerous position, where Alan Gordon, no stranger to late goals, popped up to power a header down to the near-side.
The 2-1 win stretched LA’s unbeaten run to eight matches, but more importantly drew them level on 54 points with Seattle – the two will meet over consecutive weekends in a home-and-away series in the final two weeks of the season – while also clinching a playoff spot for the Galaxy, the second team to do so. The loss was Dallas’ third in their last four, though whether it was worth it to rest players for a home match will have to wait until Wednesday to be seen.
Sunday’s lone fixture pitted two of the league’s strugglers against one another as Chivas USA, losers of five-straight and winless in ten, travelled to Toronto to face a TFC side that had not won in six matches.
Chivas were all but officially eliminated, sitting at the bottom of the West, thirteen points off the pace at the start of the round. Toronto entered in seventh in the East, three points off of Columbus; results elsewhere had extended that deficit to six by kickoff.
Eager to see new manager Greg Vanney collect his first win, TFC took the match to Chivas from the off, but had to wait until the 23rd minute to find the breakthrough. Jonathan Osorio collected a bouncing ball on the right, playing up to Gilberto, who was attempting to break into the right-side of the box. The Brazilian neatly touched a ball back to countryman Jackson with a back-heel, setting up a left-footed shot that kicked up off of Eric Avila to find the left-side of the goal past a helpless Dan Kennedy.
Buoyed, Toronto would add a second before half-time when Luke Moore right-footed in a volley from a Michael Bradley corner kick that was cushioned down and sent back into the middle from the back-post by Nick Hagglund in the second minute of stoppage-time. Moore, who was denied by the crossbar a lovely finish earlier, would not pass up this chance, having got himself ball-side on Donny Toia.
TFC would add a third nine minutes into the second half, Gilberto this time getting on the end of another corner kick, sent in low by Daniel Lovitz to the near-post, where it was met by Bradley with a brilliant dragged-touch towards the back-post. Steven Caldwell, who returned from his long injury spell, wrestled with Bobby Burling, allowing Gilberto, lurking unmarked at the back-side, to right-foot his finish into the open net, and set off some raucous celebrations.
Each side would see a player sent off, when Chivas’ Nigel Reo-Coker and Toronto’s Jackson squared up to each other in the 66th minute, receiving red cards for their roles in a handbag session.
The 3-0 win, their first in seven matches, ends that long winless streak and breathes life into Toronto’s playoff chances, three points shy of fifth with a game in hand. The loss, their sixth-straight, extends their winless run to eleven matches and all but mathematically eliminated Chivas, who sit a full fifteen points shy of Portland in fifth in the West, with six matches remaining.
CanCon
As usual the extended Canadian Content review will be posted tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon. After last week’s bumper edition, just eight Canadians saw the pitch this weekend, six of whom were starters. The top three spots go to Jonathan Osorio, who returned from injury and helped spark a victory for Toronto; to Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé, who helped Montreal find a win from the left-back slot; and equal parts to Will Johnson and Russell Teibert, who met in a crucial Western Conference clash.
Overheard
A selection of some of the best quips of the week:
Colorado’s Pablo Mastroeni on his side’s 5-1 loss in Salt Lake: “I think we played we probably our best 25 minutes of the season, coupled with probably our worst 25 minutes of the season. I think anytime you’re gifting goals the way we did tonight, it’s impossible to win.” Gifting goals is bad.
Seattle’s Djimi Traore on a poor outing in New York: “I feel ashamed. It was an awful performance from us. We came in with a lot of expectations and we didn’t perform well. They have good players and today they all performed well. If we don’t perform at that level, we get punished and that’s what they’ve done to us.” He went so far as to apologize on Twitter.
Chicago’s Frank Yallop, who last week commented on Toronto’s disallowed goal, saying he too was baffled by the decision, had some issues of his own this week: “If you look at the first goal for them, I don’t see the call, and their second goal is not a foul. The free-kick is fantastic, take nothing away from the kid, but those things change games. I thought we played well tonight, I thought we deserved to win, but we didn’t.”
Continuing, “We deserved to win that, because two calls go against us in the match that cost us the game. Momentum is everything. We’re 2-0 up, he gives a phantom penalty-kick, I don’t know what the call is, so they go to 2-1 and they’ve got life. He gives them another foul that was not a foul, Razvan wins the ball, pokes it away and he gives the foul to a good player in a good spot. It was a great free-kick area for a great finisher like Silva is.” What goes around comes around? It all evens out in the end? Seeing how Chicago benefitted from a call against Toronto and then DC reaped the rewards of that ‘re-balance’ it is hard to believe.
Quincy Amarikwa, who was asked what he spoke to the referee about after the phantom penalty decision, was a tad more diplomatic: “I had a discussion with him. I wanted to know if he was calling the penalty on Sean [Johnson] for coming out and being strong in the box or if he calling it on something he saw that Baky [soumare] did. It’s a tough gig being a ref, you can never be right and everyone’s mad at you. I would have liked things to go our way, but what can you do? He said from his first impression that, that he thought Baky came in with his elbow a bit high. It was pretty crowded in the box there, the only way to know for sure is to go back and look at the tape.”
See It Live
A selection of the best saves from the round:
Hands down, the best of the lot was Luis Robles spectacular double-save on Seattle duo Marco Pappa and Clint Dempsey.
David Horst’s block on Conor Casey; Carlos Valdes’ block on Ricardo Clark; Tyler Deric denies Casey in that same match; Jon Busch scrambles to touch Ignacio Piatti’s chip over; Bobby Shuttleworth denies Federico Higuain’s weak penalty attempt; Steve Clark on Charlie Davies; Bill Hamid on Harrison Shipp’s free-kick – neat routine from Chicago; Sean Johnson denies both Luis Silva and Michael Seaton.
Salt Lake’s
New England’s Jermaine Jones has yet to become accustom to MLS officiating, blowing his top when Tony Tchani’s rather obvious pullback was not called, despite a fist-full of shirt and arm.
Lovel Palmer was denied a second goal is as many weeks by his own teammate, Bakary Soumare.
And Luke Moore’s glorious finish would have been one for the scrapbook, were it not for that pesky crossbar.
Controversy
Marc Burch was perhaps lucky to only see yellow when he hauled down Salt Lake’s Robbie Findley on a break, while Columbus’ Justin Meram and Dallas’ Victor Ulloa were equally fortunate to only see yellow for their fouls on Kelyn Rowe and Juninho, respectively. Vancouver’s Kendall Watson escaped any punishment for catching Fanendo Adi with a flailing arm.
Philadelphia felt hard done by when the referee waived away this foul by Houston’s AJ Cochran on Vincent Nogueira in the waning minutes. DC’s Perry Kitchen was penalized for a shove on Quincy Amarikwa, while the decision at the other end that gave DC a penalty was just plain baffling. Makeup call?
A minor point, but
Upcoming Fixtures
The Champions League continues with Kansas City hosting Real Esteli and Portland welcoming Alpha United on Tuesday, while Wednesday sees DC at home against Tauro FC and New York down in El Salvador against CD FAS.
A single midweek fixture, the aforementioned Dallas-Seattle tangle, makes way to a full slate of weekend matches with one on Friday, six on Saturday, and a pair on Sunday.
Wednesday: Dallas-Seattle. Friday: Kansas City-New England. Saturday: Toronto-Portland; DC-Philadelphia; Seattle-Chivas; Vancouver-Salt Lake; Columbus-Montreal; Colorado-San Jose. Sunday: Houston-Chicago; Los Angeles-New York.
Some very tasty fixtures beginning with that midweek meeting in the West and an encounter between two of the better ball-playing sides in the league on Friday. Sunday’s LA-New York clash could be good, but will likely end one-sided.
All video & 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