Tuesday, September 9, 2014

USA Wins, Sporting Struggles - Weekly Recap

USA 1 Czech Republic 0

Playing with a largely non-MLS roster, the U.S. began the road to World Cup 2018 with a 1-0 friendly win over the Czech Republic. Alejandro Bedoya scored off a rebound of an effort by Mix Diskerud for the only goal of the match as Brad Guzan and Nick Rimando, the only MLS player on the roster, combined for the shutout.

Philadelphia 1 Toronto FC 0

33 year-old Conor Casey scored the only goal of the match as the Union won their second match in a row defeating Toronto FC 1-0. Joe Bendik made 6 saves in a losing effort for Toronto who lost defender Ashtone Morgan to a red card in the 77th minute. Zac MacMath made 3 saves to earn his 4th shutout, and the 27th in his 4 year career despite being just 23 years old.

New England 3 Sporting KC 1

Sporting lost for the third straight match, conceding three goals each time, as they fell to Jermaine Jones and the Revolution 3-1. Making his first start, Jones' errant header resulted in a Sonny Saad goal to put Sporting up early, but Jones redeemed himself with an assist on Teal Bunbury's equalizer. Then it was the Lee Nguyen show as the club's leading scorer struck twice in the second half to propel New England to a big home win.

Seattle 4 Chivas USA 2

Obafemi Martins and Andy Rose each scored a pair of goals and Brad Evans provided three assists off of set pieces as Seattle cruised to a 4-2 win over Chivas USA. Evans had just 2 assists in his previous 18 matches for the Sounders. Chivas USA did snap a 6-game scoreless streak with the two goals, but are now winless in their last eight matches.

LA Galaxy 6 Colorado 0

Playing in honor of A.J. De la Garza's son who passed away this past week, the Galaxy cruised to a big win behind 2 goals apiece from Landon Donovan, Gyasi Zardes, and Baggio Husidic. Donovan now has 2 assists in each of his last three matches, and has 5 goals and 7 assists since August 20th. Not coincidentally, LA is 5-0 during that stretch and over their last four matches have outscored their opponents 15-1. Brian Rowe made his first start of the year in goal for the Galaxy and made 5 saves to earn the shutout win.

Philadelphia 2 Toronto FC 0

For the second time in a 4-day stretch, Philadelphia upended Toronto FC again getting the decisive goal from Conor Casey. Andrew Wenger scored the insurance goal and Zac MacMath earned his second shutout against Toronto this week. Raïs Mbolhi, the Algerian goalkeeper signed during transfer season by the Union, has appeared in just one match this year, a 4-2 win over San Jose on August 24th. The Union have won 3 straight following a 2-0 loss in Houston in mid-August.

New York 2 Sporting KC 1

Sporting's woes continued as they lost a fourth consecutive match, but at least this time they only gave up 2 goals. Thierry Henry and Bradley Wright-Phillips did the damage for New York giving the 29 year old Wright-Phillips 21 goals on the year while Henry moved to within one goal of fifty since joining the Red Bulls in 2010. Dom Dwyer, who missed the New England match due to a suspension, scored his 18th goal of the year for Sporting in a losing effort.

Houston 3 Montreal 2

The Dynamo relied on set pieces yet again and picked up back-to-back victories for the first time since early May. Brad Davis, who now has four assists in his last four matches, connected with Ricardo Clark for the winning strike off a corner kick. England's Giles Barnes scored Houston's other two goals giving him 7 goals on the season.

Real Salt Lake 2 FC Dallas 1

After a 10-game unbeaten streak, FC Dallas has now lost 2 in a row, falling on the road to Real Salt Lake, 2-1. Alvaro Saborio, playing in his first match since May 11th, came on as a late sub and immediately delivered the game winner. Saborio has now scored in his last four matches and has 7 goals in just 11 games this season. Robbie Findley also scored for Real Salt Lake.

Vancouver 0 DC United 0

Bill Hamid and David Ousted made 3 saves apiece as the Caps drew with DC 0-0. Hamid, tied a career high with his 8th shutout and now has three clean sheets in his last four matches for DC. It was shutout number 8 for David Ousted as well, but his 3rd 0-0 draw since July 30th and fifth of the year. Vancouver hasn't scored in a league match since August 10th.

Columbus 3 Chivas USA 0

Chivas USA extended their winless streak to 9 matches getting shut out for the seventh time during that stretch, this time 3-0 by the Columbus Crew. 25 year-old Justin Meram scored a pair of goals giving him 5 in 5 matches for the Crew who have won 3 of 4.

Portland 3 San Jose 3

San Jose lost leads of 2-0 and 3-2 and they settled for a draw with the Timbers thereby negating another memorable match from Chris Wondolowski. The 31-year old Wondolowski scored twice giving him 7 goals since his return from the World Cup in Brazil, but Kalif Alhassan's late equalizer denied the Quakes of a badly needed win. Alvas Powell and Liam Ridgewell also scored for the Timbers who generated 32 shots while San Jose's Jon Busch made 10 saves.

New England 2 Chicago 1

Jermaine Jones' second assist in as many games gave the Revs a 2-1 win over the team that just missed out on Jones' services. Two weeks after getting assigned to New England over Chicago, Jones set up Charlie Davies with the game winner. Davies, a former National Teamer, has 3 goals and 2 assists since July 30th.

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