MLS Week in Review - Round 1 - 24th Minute

The first weekend of MLS has come and gone, nine matches spread over two days featuring some entertaining contests. There was a bit of rust on display, the occasional errant pass, glaring miss, or heavy breathing.

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Before we breakdown the results, Canadian Soccer News’ ‘Goal of the Round’ is awarded to Columbus defender Josh Williams, who earns the plaudits with his audacious flick against Chivas in Los Angeles. Williams was dangerous from set pieces all last season, but seemed snake bit, at least twice having legitimate goals ruled out with incorrect offside calls. He made amends with style on Saturday.

Results in Brief

Philadelphia 1 - Kansas City 3

The Union dominated the first half, Sebastien Le Toux scored his first goal of the season, back in front of the home crowd that so adored him for previous exploits, controlling a Keon Daniel cross and squeezing a shot past Jimmy Nielsen, though he later squandered an opportunity to put his side ahead by two.

Kansas City showed their class in the second with three unanswered replies from Graham Zusi – smashing the rebound from a Benny Feilhaber attempt after Claudio Bieler had knocked down a Bobby Convey cross, Oriol Rosell – a flicked header from a Zusi free-kick, and designated player, Bieler on his debut, on a tidy cut-back from Chance Myers after Zusi cross found the right-back on the far-side of the box.

Vancouver 1 – Toronto 0

Though Toronto fought valiantly in the first half, they could not stem the tide of the Vancouver surge at the start of the second, precipitated by the inclusion of Nigel Reo-Coker. Gershon Koffie scored the lone goal after some brilliant ball movement involving six different Whitecaps ended with his lashing a right-footed shot past TFC keeper Joe Bendik.

Houston 2 – DC United 0

Houston continued their dominant home form – now unbeaten in twenty-six straight – with a win over DC United. The first refereeing gaff of the season saw Baldomero Toldeo award a penalty kick for a Chris Korb tackle on Ricardo Clark that was clearly outside the box and likely should have instead been a red card.

Brad Davis’ attempt was saved by Bill Hamid, who made an outstanding double save from a corner kick at the end of the first half, but was helpless when in the second half, a Davis corner landed on the head of DC defender James Riley to open the scoring.

Clark capped the night in the final minute of regulation with a short-angled blast after some fine work from Warren Creavalle to keep the ball in play on the end-line and cut a pass back to his teammate above the near-post area.

Dallas 1 – Colorado 0

A rematch of the 2010 MLS Cup, played in Toronto, featured two teams barely recognizable from that final a little more than two years earlier.

A dreadful error from second-string Colorado keeper Stewart Ceus led to the only goal of the game. The Haitian misread the bounce of a floating David Ferreira ball, from inside his own half no less, charged out only to run out of box, pulled his hands down and watch in agony as it bound over his head, where Jackson collected and slotted it into the unguarded net.

Rapids captain, Pablo Mastroeni returned from nearly a year on the sidelines due to concussion symptoms to lead his side, shorn of four would-be starters, in a losing effort.

Seattle 0 – Montreal 1

Montreal survived six minutes of stoppage time and their inability to hold possession as the clock ticked down, aided by some lenient refereeing from Silviu Petrescu, to survive a late barrage from Seattle and pick up their first road win of the season. Results away from home were a primary focus of the club having only collected two wins and a meager nine points on their travels last year.

Davy Arnaud latched onto a ball over the top from Felipe, instinctively looping his finish over the towering but stranded Michael Gspurning, before putting a later header off the bar. Brad Evans and Eddie Johnson struck the woodwork themselves, but could not breach the Impact goal.

Chivas 0 – Columbus 3

Chivas’ Latin Revolution under El Chelis stalled in the second half when Federico Higuain. Spotted in space above the arc by strike-mate, Jairo Arrieta, the Argentine opened the scoring with a sweetly-struck right-footed effort from range, it caromed off the inside of the right-post past a helpless Chivas keeper, Dan Kennedy.

Right-back Josh Williams added a second with an acrobatic side-volley on an Eddie Gaven corner kick before Dominic Oduro rounded out the scoring in the final seconds. An individual effort by the Ghanaian having collected a failed Chivas free-kick atop his own box, he then exploded with a lung-busting run the length of the pitch, before rounding the keeper and slotting in the third.

Los Angeles 4 – Chicago 0

Los Angeles, having celebrated their MLS Cup win last December with the presentation of rings and a Championship banner, put on a show against a surprisingly poor Chicago side shorn of two experienced defenders, Arne Friedrich and Logan Pause, absent through injury.

Mike Magee scored the first three, all with his left boot. First, when a Steven Kinney clearance deflected off Todd Dunivant to fall kindly for a volley, then collecting a diagonal through-ball from Robbie Keane and placing a shot across Sean Johnson in the Chicago goal, before finishing the trick by controlling the rebound from a Keane shot on his chest and volleying into the net.

Keane rounded out the scoring with a strike of his own in the final ten minutes, swiveling sharply after a short corner led to a Michael Stephens cross to the back-post that was headed down by Omar Gonzalez.

Portland 3 - New York 3

An early miscommunication between Portland’s Donovan Ricketts and Mikael Silvestre - the French defender laid a back-pass to his keeper, who was rushing out to collect - led to a loose ball, which Fabian Espindola turned into the open net. Diego Valeri leveled with a sublime individual sequence, collecting a pass from Kalif Alhassan, juggling past Jamison Olave and stabbing a finish past Luis Robles in the New York goal.

Silvestre’s tough debut continued when he whiffed on a harmless Kosuke Kimura long ball, allowing Espindola in alone for a tidy finish across the keeper. Olave made it three for New York minutes later forcing a goalmouth cross from Heath Pearce over the line at the back-post.

Portland came out of halftime a determined side, Darlington Nagbe got the first back, pouncing on the rebound from a rasping Valeri shot, before Olave was charged with an own goal, when Jose Adolfo Valencia’s low cross into the box, struck his leg and snuck into the goal to tie the match at threes. Ryan Johnson, former Toronto FC striker, nearly made a dream debut with a speculative bicycle kick in the final throes of the affair, but his attempt went agonizingly wide.

San Jose 0 - Salt Lake 2

The two marquee sides met in the final match of the round, each depleted by a multitude of injuries. Chris Wondolowski, 2012 Golden Boot winner, unaccompanied by either Steven Lenhart or Alan Gordon, squandered several chances throughout the match, allowing Salt Lake to hang until the night turned with the inclusion of the diminutive Joao Plata.

Plata broke the deadlock with a pinpoint looping ball into the path of the streaking Alvaro Saborio who calmly finished past San Jose’s Jon Busch. Kyle Beckerman, making his three-hundredth league appearance, created some insurance when he poked a pass into the box with five minutes remaining for Saborio, The Costa Rican striker turned and fired across the keeper to seal the result.

Canadian Content

Montreal’s Patrice Bernier put in an excellent match stationed in front of the back-line. He was conservative in getting forward, but moved the ball well and helped his side to a well-earned road victory.

Will Johnson captained Portland in their dramatic six-goal thriller against New York. Paired with Diego Chara in the centre of midfield, he faced a troublesome trio of Juninho, Tim Cahill, and Dax McCarty, not to mention Thierry Henry and Espindola. Johnson did an admirable job of tightening up the match after they fell behind, while getting forward to urge his side back from a two-goal deficit.

DC centre-back Dejan Jakovic put in a solid ninety minutes in a losing effort; an excellent, well-timed scything tackle on Giles Barnes just inside the DC box helped keep the score at zero before Houston finally broke the deadlock.

Third-overall draft pick Kyle Bekker made a promising debut in Toronto’s loss to Vancouver. At times he looked timid, such as when he was talked off a free kick by Robert Earnshaw, but he handled himself competently, navigating his first ninety as a professional.

Ashtone Morgan also went the entire match in Vancouver playing a conservative match, presumably under coach’s orders.

Terry Dunfield returned home with Toronto, picked up a yellow card before leaving the pitch with a quarter-hour remaining. Dunfield displayed his usual determination and boundless energy with a dash of veteran gamesmanship, attempting to slow down the match after the tables had turned and Vancouver was in the ascendency, but to no avail.

Kyle Porter replaced Marcelo Saragosa with seven minutes remaining to make his debut for DC United. He brought good energy to the side, but had little time to make an impact.

Emory Welshman made his professional debut for Toronto, replacing Robert Earnshaw with five minutes to play; he made one penetrative run and did not look out of place.

Jonathan Osorio nearly came on in the final few seconds of Toronto’s match, but time ran out before he could be included, or so the broadcast stated.

Quillan Roberts (Toronto), Drew Beckie (Columbus) and Nana Attakora (San Jose) were all left on bench for their respective sides.

See It Live

Colorado’s Ceus rushing off his line but completely missing the ball was undoubtedly the gaff of the weekend, but clips of that abound, however, not readily available was Montreal’s Sanna Nyassi running into the back of Silviu Petrescu, blocked off by the posterior of the referee, he crumbled to the ground in a mixture of shock and embarrassment.

Honourable mentions: Will Johnson’s face in a behind-the-goal angled replay when New York scored their third goal within the opening half hour, it could cut diamonds, and NBC lingering on a banner in Portland that read ‘MLS Cascadia Cup’ stamped with ‘Cancelled’ across it, was a touch controversial, if only a bit of banter.

Overheard

Of interest, with what one can only assume to be typical Viennese hilarity, Seattle’s Austrian goalkeeper Gspurning requested a white goalkeeping kit “because it is the colour of clean sheets”. He’s actually from Graz; there was no demonym for people from Graz readily available.

But the best quip of the round goes to FC Dallas coach, Schellas Hyndman, who remarked “They can have 95 percent possession; if we win 1-0, we’ll take it.”

Then there was the announcer who insisted on recounting every available stat for each player on the pitch, as a professional and in college; perhaps it is a good thing that they don’t keep score in house league, lest future audiences be subjected to a recounting of those figures as well.

Upcoming Matches

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

Three notable omissions from next weekend’s program are Houston – who host Club Santos Laguna on Tuesday, Seattle – who travel to Tigres UANL on Wednesday, and Los Angeles – who make the journey to Costa Rica to face C.S. Herediano.

Santos Laguna has struggled in both the completed Torneo Apertura - failing to make the Liguilla (playoffs) - and the on-going Torneo Clausera, while fellow Mexican club Tigres currently lead the standings in that same Clausera. Herediano lost the finals of the Torneo de Invierno to L.D. Alajuelense and currently sit fifth in the Torneo de Verano.

With three MLS representatives taking part in the first legs of their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal ties midweek, is this the year that another MLS club goes deep into the competition?

Parting Thoughts

Does Montreal’s newfound toughness on the road carryover to Portland? Can Vancouver make it two in a row against Columbus? Will another week give Ryan Nelsen the time to start sorting out some of the problems facing Toronto before facing Kansas City on Saturday?

The last time Columbus missed the playoffs they won the MLS Cup the following season; was the three-goal performance against Chivas a portent of things to come? Graham Zusi stepped up to ensure Kansas City did not miss a beat despite the departures of Roger Espinoza and Kei Kamara, can he keep up this pace all season? Chivas, Toronto, Colorado, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Chicago all struggled out of the gate, with the race to the bottom underway, who will earn the wooden spoon? Los Angeles, however, looked imperious, are they destined for a third-straight MLS Cup title? What to make of the barn-burner between New York and Portland in the Pacific Northwest; entertaining or atrocious? And finally, given what was a lacklustre closing match – at least until Joao Plata took to the pitch - between San Jose and Salt Lake, two of the more heralded sides in the league, are the comeback kids set up for a fall this year and can Jason Kreis’ rebuilt Salt Lake reach the heights of the previous incarnation?

So many questions, in a mere ten months all the answers will become clear.

What were the surprises for you during the opening round of the 2013 MLS season?

This is the debut of a new feature and writer on CSN. Each week James will take 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 1

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