MLS Week 11
Jozy no more
So the Red Bulls who have struggled to score this season were facing a match against red hot Chivas, and they would not have Jozy Altidore in the line up due to an injury, but they won’t see Jozy in the line anymore as his transfer to Villarreal. The match was really dominated by Chivas who attacked the NY defense but could not crack one of the best defenses in MLS this season. It all came down to a great ball played in by Dane Richards in the 75th minute that found the head of Juan Pablo Angel, who put it past Guzan. Red Bulls win this one 1-0.
New England stretch their lead in the East
Playing on Friday night, the Revolution played host to FC Dallas, and they were not exactly kind hosts as they started hot getting a Cristman goal in the 5th minute. New England was the better team and they played a solid match, while Dallas panicked and threw everything but the kitchen sink at New England, Dallas took 21 shots, which is 10 more than the Rev’s. Dallas also lead in shots on goal 11 to 8, but the play of Matt Reis one of the best keepers in MLS history was more than enough to prove the Dallas attack to be a vain effort. New England got a second goal in the 23rd minute on a cheeky PK from Steve Ralston which was given after an elbow was thrown in the box by Moor on a corner kick. Dallas tried to get something going and put in a great effort to get back in the match, Oduro continues to show that he will be a player teams will have to deal with in the future. All the Hoops efforts finally resulted in a goal in extra time, but the Alvarez goal was too little, too late as the Rev’s walk away with a 2-1 win and sole possession of first place in the East.
Weekend of Red Cards
So the Saturday action in MLS saw seven red cards issued in three matches, in fact the RSL vs. KC match is the only one that did not have at least two players tossed out. I have to believe the seven red’s are some kind of record for one weekend in MLS. Let’s take a look at the action:
Crew continue to struggle
After starting 6-1 in their first seven matches, the Crew have gone cold with two losses and a draw in their last three, but they got to face expansion side San Jose at home, so I am sure their confidence was high heading into the match. San Jose took early advantage of a mistake by the Columbus defense, and in the 10th minute Ryan Johnson put away a ball played in by O’Brien after the Crew failed to clear it out of their defensive third. The Crew and Quakes battled, and the first half ended with a 1-0 San Jose lead, despite Columbus owning an advantage in both shots and corner kicks taken. The second half saw the Crew continue to control the match but not the scoreboard. In the 60th minute O’Brien again played in a great ball from a free kick just outside the box that found the head of Corrales and then the back of the net to give the Quakes a 2-0 lead with 30 minutes to go. The match got very cheeky from this point on with 7 cards issued, 2 yellow and a straight red to the Crew (Brad Evans), and the on the Quake side it was 4 yellow cards, but one of them went to James Riley who already had a yellow, so he earned himself a red card, as the match ended with each team playing with 10 players. Despite taking more shots (16-7), having more shots on goal (4-2), and more than double the number of corner kicks (12-5), the Crew found themselves on the losing end 2-0 as San Jose pulls off a upset in Columbus.
Shorthanded United pull out a miracle
The Fire have been one of the best teams in MLS this season, they have the best defense in the league and the second best offense, but they have struggled more at home than they have on the road. DC United, well they simply have struggled everywhere and against everyone they have faced, so this one should have been an easy three points for the Fire. It looked that way as Blanco feed the ball to Barrett who put it in the back of the net in the 27th minute, and many would have thought this was going to be another on of “those” nights for DC United, but Fred seemed like nothing would keep him down as he had super shots in minute 34, and minute 39 that both were kept out of the back of the net by even better saves by Jon Busch. The first half ended with the Fire up 1-0, but United really seemed the better side. In the second half a quick red card given to Gallardo, who suffered a missed foul and retaliated by head butting Prideaux, who was also shown a red card, but I have no idea what for since he was the one fouled, but both sides are down a man for the last 35 minutes of the match. In the 63rd minute a good shot by Emilio is again saved by Busch, but he doesn’t control the ball and Moreno puts it into the back of the net to tie the match up at 1-1. Blanco sells a weak foul by Namoff into a yellow card, which actually will impact the match a couple minutes later as Namoff gets his second yellow in the 88th minute, which results in DC United having to finish the match with just 9 men. In extra time Emilio plays around two defenders to put a shot just inside the reach of Busch to give United a 2-1 lead and the eventual win on the road. In addition to the cards mentioned above each side received 3 other yellow cards, for a total of 10 cards in this match.
Battle for the West
The Rapids travel west to face the Galaxy who were seeking revenge for their 0-4 drubbing at Colorado on opening day. Within the first minute Alan Gordon is face down on the pitch having taken a shot to the nose from a ball being played out of the Rapids end of the pitch, would it be a sign of things to come? Well just a couple minutes later in 4th minute LA puts their first on the board on a free kick played into the box by Becks’s it bounces around and Alvaro Pires (who the hell is he?) puts it past Burpo and the Galaxy have a early lead in this one. In the first ten minutes of the match, players have spent almost as much time down injured as there has been actual playing. Credit the toughness of Colin Clark, he has been beat down twice in the early going, but he toughs it out and plays on. This match is interesting as each team is getting some good attacking chances, but for once the LA Galaxy defense look like they are up to the task and have really kept the Rapids from getting many real decent chances. In the 32nd minute a ball played in by Xavier from very long distance is finished off as Buddle beats Burpo far post, and LA goes up 2-0. Just as the first half was ending Erpen and Gordon go up for a long ball and as Gordon knocks Erpen to the ground his legs fly and he catches Gordon in the groin (it doesn’t appear to me to have been intentional), but Gordon then stomps on Erpen and out comes a red card, which is well deserved. I am not sure who convinces Kevin Stott, but he pulls a second red card out for Erpen who is also sent off; I am going to say this again that Kevin Stott should not be allowed to officiate in MLS. He is a known fan of the Galaxy and made horrible calls in their favor just a couple weeks ago against RSL, the league has to step in and if not get rid of him, at least keep him out of Galaxy games, too many fishy calls. So instead of the Rapids being a man up, both sides will go with 10 men for the rest of the match. The half ends with the Galaxy holding on to their 2-0 lead and also leading in almost every offensive category.
Colorado starts the second half playing more aggressively and attacking both via the long ball up the wings and trying to work inside and attack that way, as they have more early attacks. A bad turnover in the midfield allows LA to counter and Buddle plays a good ball in as Ely Allen gets past the Rapids back line and puts in the third Galaxy goal. This one could get really ugly, unless the Rapids figure something out in a hurry, and they look like they want to get back into the match as they are attacking and getting shots on goal and doing a good job of making LA stay back in defense. I am surprise how well the LA defense is bending without breaking, something they have not been able to do in past matches, they have the second worst defense in MLS so far this season. LA has countered with a number of good chances, but it is Colorado that scores next as Clark beats Cronin after faking out Xavier, the match is now 3-1 with just over 15 minutes left. The Rapids are keeping the petal to the metal as they continue to get chances to score, and a number of shots just miss the goal. In the 82nd minute former Galaxy player Herculez gets a break as Cronin can’t hold onto the ball and he scores his first goal of the season as Colorado closes the gap to one with time left to get a result on the road. Well the Galaxy pull back almost everyone for the final minutes as they try to preserve their lead as the Rapids simply keep firing shots at goal, but the end result is that the Galaxy take over sole possession of first place in the west with a 3-2 win.
Just one man to beat
So RSL outplayed the Wizards in every aspect of the match, except for the efforts of one man Kevin Hartman, who simply was incredible in goal and had his best game of the 2008 MLS season. When RSL out shoots their opponent like they did KC 19-7, it usually results in 3 points in the standings, but this was not a typical match and while even the announcers from KC mentioned how RSL dominated the play, soccer is a fickle game and the better team does not always walk away with the win. I love the point made by Bruce Arena if you get an average of 2 points from each of your 15 home games (RSL is averaging exactly that having 12 points from 6 home matches) and if you can average 1 point from each of your 15 road games (RSL is not doing this and would need some real efforts to get caught up), then you end up with 45 points and that is enough to secure a playoff spot. I will have a more detailed review of this 0-0 draw on Monday as I watch the match one more time.
Another wild showdown
Well TFC is a very different team on the road and the first half against Houston showed it was not a good kind of different, as the attacks were almost all Houston as they fired off 9 shots and 5 of them on goal. While TFC had one shot and it was not on goal, but Sutton was able to make some great saves and kept Toronto in the match for the first 45 minutes, the problem is that at 45:30 DeRo finished off a chance by chipping the ball over Sutton to give Houston a 1-0 lead. To start the second half TFC has made a couple of early changes bringing in both Robert, and Marshall , but will it make a difference? Well it appears not as a defensive mistake by TFC results in DeRo feeding the ball to Ching in the box and he finishes and all of a sudden it is 2-0 Houston, with just under 40 minutes left. In the 69th minute yet another bad play by the TFC defense, allows Holden to get around a defender and cross a ball in that finds the head of Ching, who puts it past Sutton and the score is now 3-0 and TFC is losing all hope of getting any type of result in this one. Just as the clock hits 70 and the restart from the last Dynamo goal is getting going, Cunny pulls away from the defense and puts the ball past Onstad to give TFC their first goal of the match, and a little hope with 20 minutes to go. Houston however isn’t sitting back, they are continuing to attack and get another goal or two in this one.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
This entry was posted on June 8, 2008 at 11:26 pm and is filed under The soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.