Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Weekly Recap, Week 2

While defenses ruled week 1, the offenses started to break out in week 2. Nine different teams scored at least two goals highlighted by a wild 3-3 draw between Real Salt Lake and Philadelphia. This week was also one for the history books as expansion clubs Orlando City and New York City FC each picked up their first MLS wins. Here's a quick rundown of all the action:

RESULTS

FRIDAY

Orlando City SC 1 Houston Dynamo 0

SATURDAY

Vancouver Whitecaps 1 Chicago Fire 0
Columbus Crew 2 Toronto FC 0
FC Dallas 3 Sporting Kansas City 1
Real Salt Lake 3 Philadelphia Union 3
San Jose Earthquakes 3 Seattle Sounders 2

SUNDAY

New York City FC 2 New England Revolution 0
Portland Timbers 2 LA Galaxy 2

NOTABLE GOALS

Octavio Rivero (Vancouver) - Rivero made it two goals in two weeks for the Caps as he led Vancouver to their first win of 2015.

Blas Perez (Dallas) - Perez turned 34 this week, but showed no signs of slowing down netting a pair of goals in a 3-1 win over Sporting Kansas City. Perez now has three goals on the year. He didn't score his third goal of 2014 until April 19th.

Clint Dempsey (Seattle) - Dempsey needed just 18 seconds to score the opener against San Jose and joined Perez as the first two players to reach three goals this season.

Obafemi Martins (Seattle) - The 2014 MVP candidate continued his solid start to the season scoring for the second consecutive match. The 30 year old Nigerian now has 27 goals in his career in just 53 matches.

Chris Wondolowski (San Jose) - Wondo took advantage of Seattle's defensive miscues scoring twice in San Jose's upset win of the Sounders. Wondo is now five goals from 100 for his MLS career.

Innocent Emeghara (San Jose) - Making his first start for the Quakes, Emeghara turned in a nifty individual effort to score his first MLS goal. If Emeghara becomes a regular contributor, watch out for San Jose.

Fernando Aristeguieta (Philadelphia) - The Venezuelan international on loan from Alejandro Bedoya's Nantes club in France scored his first two MLS goals, twice beating U.S. National Team keeper Nick Rimando in a wild 3-3 draw.

David Villa (NYCFC) - The Spanish legend scored his first MLS goal and if not for some sensational goalkeeping by New England's Bobby Shuttleworth, could have easily had three or four.

Patrick Mullins (NYCFC) - Mullins, playing against his former club for the first time, was only on the field for six minutes, but made it count as he scored his first goal of 2015. Mullins was drafted 11th overall in 2014 by New England.

Fanendo Adi (Portland) - Adi nearly played hero for Portland has he scored the go-ahead goal, his second of the match, in the 90th minute versus LA only to have Alan Gordon play spoiler in stoppage time. Adi's goals were the 10th and 11th of his brief MLS career.

Gyasi Zardes (LA) - Zardes, looking to show that his 2014 breakout campaign was no fluke, scored his first goal of 2015 against the Timbers. He already has 21 MLS goals in his 3 year career.

Alan Gordon (LA) - The super sub's 92nd minute header bailed out the Galaxy against Portland. Gordon scored four goals as a sub for LA last season.

SHUTOUTS BY:

Donovan Ricketts (Orlando) - Ricketts took sole possession of 9th place on the all-time MLS shutouts list notching the 54th shutout of his 7 year career against Houston on Friday night. More importantly, he brought Orlando their first win in franchise history.

David Ousted (Vancouver) - Last year's leader in shutouts with 13, Ousted bounced back from a rough outing against Toronto making four saves against Chicago to earn his first shutout of 2015.

Steve Clark (Columbus) - The 28 year old Clark stifled the Toronto attack making three saves to bring the Crew their first win of 2015. It was Clark's 9th career shutout in 36 appearances.

Josh Saunders (NYCFC) - After winning an NASL title in 2014 with the San Antonio Scorpions, Saunders is back between the pipes in MLS. He made just one save against New England on Sunday, but that was enough to bring City their first MLS win.

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