Monday, April 13, 2015

MLS Weekly Recap, Week 6

What a week. It started with Montreal's historic clinching of a berth in the CONCACAF Champions League Finals. How rare is that? It's the first appearance ever for a Canadian club, and the first appearance for an MLS side since Real Salt Lake in 2011. Meanwhile, in regular season action, Colorado scored their first four goals of the season against FC Dallas, the Union pulled off their first win of the year thanks to a stoppage time goal against NYCFC, San Jose stunned red hot Vancouver 1-0, Jermaine Jones returned to New England's lineup, the Galaxy got their first win in over a month, and both the Red Bulls and Real Salt Lake remained unbeaten. Here's a rundown of all the week's action:

RESULTS

TUESDAY

Alajuelense (Costa Rica) 4 Montreal Impact 2 - Champions League Semis, Leg 2, 4-4 aggregate, Montreal advances on away goals tiebreaker (2-0)

WEDNESDAY

Vancouver Whitecaps 2 Columbus Crew 2

FRIDAY

Colorado Rapids 4 FC Dallas 0

SATURDAY

New England Revolution 0 Columbus Crew 0
Philadelphia Union 2 New York City FC 1
New York Red Bulls 2 DC United 2
Houston Dynamo 3 Montreal Impact 0
Sporting Kansas City 0 Real Salt Lake 0
San Jose Earthquakes 1 Vancouver Whitecaps 0

SUNDAY

Orlando City SC 2 Portland Timbers 0
LA Galaxy 1 Seattle Sounders 0

NOTABLE GOALS

Jack McInerney (Montreal) - Jack McInerney scored his second goal of the Champions League to give Montreal an early 1-0 lead against Alajuelense. Every point would count in this one as Alajuelense rallied for 4 second half goals, but Montreal emerged victorious thanks to the away goals tie breaker.

Andrés Romero (Montreal) - Romero entered Montreal's Champions League match as a substitute, and his goal helped the Impact become the first Canadian club ever to reach the CONCACAF Champions League Finals.

Octavio Rivero (Vancouver) - Rivero continued his sensational play to start the season by scoring his league leading 5th goal against the Crew on Wednesday night.

Kei Kamara (Columbus) - Kamara notched a brace against the Caps on Wednesday night, halting their winning streak at four. Kamara now has 55 goals in his MLS career.

Dominique Badji (Colorado) - After four consecutive shutouts, Badji needed less than two minutes to get Colorado on the board against Dallas giving the club their first goal of 2015. Badji, drafted 67th in this year's SuperDraft, became the second member of his draft class to score this season after San Jose's Fatai Alashe.

David Villa (NYCFC) - Villa scored his second goal of the season against Philadelphia on Saturday, but it wasn't enough as the Union rallied for a stoppage time win.

Vincent Nogueira (Philadelphia) - 2015 has been a frustrating one for the Union, but a week after giving up a pair of late goals in a loss to Sporting KC, Nogueira tallied a late winner against NYCFC. The goal was Nogueira's first of the season, and third in his brief MLS career.

Perry Kitchen (DC United) - Kitchen scored twice against the Red Bulls on Saturday, once with his head, and once with his feet. It was the first two-goal game of his career, and has led to another USMNT call-up for him as he was a late add for the upcoming match against Mexico.

Lloyd Sam (NYRB) - After scoring just four goals in 32 matches last year, Sam made it three goals in four matches to start 2015 bagging a late equalizer against DC United to steal a point from their rivals.

Damien Perrinelle (NYRB) - The 31 year-old Frenchman logged just 7 minutes during last year's regular season, but has established himself as a starter this year, and now has his first MLS goal.

Rob Lovejoy (Houston) - Lovejoy came on as a substitute against Montreal this weekend and made an immediate impact tallying an assist right away and then adding a rocket into the top corner from outside the box off the break to seal a 3-0 win. Lovejoy became the third member of the 2015 SuperDraft to score this season.

Cyle Larin (OCSC) - Making his first career MLS start, Larin scored the game winner against the Portland Timbers for his first MLS goal.

Kaká (OCSC) - Kaká saw his initial penalty attempt denied by Adam Kwarasey, but due to encroachment was given a second opportunity which he converted to clinch a 2-0 win for City over Portland. The Brazilian now has three goals on the season.

SHUTOUTS BY:

Clint Irwin (Colorado) - Irwin's fourth shutout of 2015 contributed to Colorado's first win of the season. He's allowed just two goals in five matches and if Colorado keeps scoring like they did against Dallas on Friday night, the Rapids are going to cause teams issues.

Bobby Shuttleworth (New England) - Shuttleworth went untested against Columbus as the Crew failed to put a shot on net in a 0-0 draw. Shuttleworth now has three shutouts in his last four starts.

Steve Clark (Columbus) - Clark earned his second shutout of the season in the Crew's scoreless draw with New England.

Tyler Deric (Houston) - Deric tied a career high set last year with his third shutout of the young season. Deric has not allowed more than one goal in any of his six starts this season.

Luis Marín (Sporting KC) - Marín also has three shutouts in four starts after holding Real Salt Lake scoreless on Saturday.

Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake) - Rimando has only been scored on in one of his three starts this season, a big reason RSL is still unbeaten. The USMNT keeper made just one save in shutting out Sporting on Saturday and padded his all-time record with shutout number 118.

David Bingham (San Jose) - Bingham recorded his first career shutout as the Quakes stopped the red hot Whitecaps, 1-0.

Donovan Ricketts (Orlando City SC) - Ricketts earned his second shutout of the season and 55th of his career to move within seven of Tony Meola and 8th place on the MLS All-Time Shutout List.

Jaime Penedo (LA Galaxy) - Penedo played the hero Sunday night making 10 saves as the Galaxy hung on for a 1-0 victory over the Sounders and snapped a four game winless streak. It was Penedo's first shutout of the season.

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