Monday, August 17, 2015

MLS Weekly Recap, Week 24

Here's this week's recap:

Montreal battled back from a 2-0 deficit in the first leg of the Canadian Championship Final and salvaged a 2-2 home draw against Vancouver. Justin Mapp returned to action for the first time since his injury in week 1 and assisted on the equalizer. The second leg will be played on August 26th... Sébastien Le Toux, the U.S. Open Cup's all-time leading goal scorer was at it again scoring the game winner in the 74th minute as the Union advanced to the Finals for the second year in a row. Chicago not only lost the match, but watched newly acquired designated player Gilberto leave with an injury 20 minutes in... Benny Feilhaber helped rally Sporting past hated rivals Real Salt Lake by assisting on the equalizer and then scoring the game winner as Sporting advanced to the U.S. Open Cup Finals for the first time since winning the tournament in 2012... New York City FC rallied from a 1-0 deficit to beat Bill Hamid three times and win despite playing without the injured Frank Lampard. Andrea Pirlo earned his first career MLS assist in the second half... Making his first appearance since leaving with an injury against Vancouver in late July, Clarence Goodson headed in his second goal of the season off a cross from Quincy Amarikwa moments after Dillon Powers' effort slammed off the crossbar for the Rapids. Goodson and the Quakes hung on for their first win since late June... The Red Bulls spoiled Herculez Gomez's return to MLS with a 3-0 defeat of Toronto FC on Saturday. New York's newly signed designated player Gonzalo Verón came off the bench in the second half and scored his first MLS goal in stoppage time... Even inclement weather wasn't enough to stop the Revs from extending their unbeaten streak on Saturday. Despite lengthy delays, New England scored twice in the second half as the Revs beat Houston 2-0. Jermaine Jones made his first start for the Revs since May... Sporting rallied from deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 scoring three times after the 80th minute to stun the Whitecaps 4-3 in a high scoring affair. Paulo Nagamura, who had scored just once all season, scored both the equalizer and the game winner for Sporting... Robbie Keane scored twice in the second half to rally the Galaxy to a 2-1 win over FC Dallas. Dallas has now lost two in a row after winning five straight... Nat Borchers shocked his former team with a 95th minute header as the Timbers stunned Real Salt Lake 1-0. Adam Kwarasey earned his third consecutive shutout and leads the league with 11 on the year... Seattle unveiled some of its new toys (Nelson Valdez and Román Torres), and brought back one of its old ones in Obafemi Martins, and looked like a whole different team as they routed Orlando City 4-0. Martins scored twice in his first action since injuring himself during the U.S. Open Cup... After playing a 1-0 game in the U.S. Open Cup in midweek action, Chicago and Philadelphia played a wild 3-3 affair on Sunday night. Kennedy Igboananike scored twice including the stoppage time equalizer and added an assist for Chicago while Cristian Maidana assisted on all three Union goals.

RESULTS

WEDNESDAY

Philadelphia Union 1 Chicago Fire 0 - US Open Cup Semifinals
Sporting Kansas City 3 Real Salt Lake 1 - US Open Cup Semifinals
Vancouver Whitecaps 2 Montreal Impact 2 - Canadian Championship Final, Leg 1

THURSDAY

New York City FC 3 DC United 1

FRIDAY

San Jose Earthquakes 1 Colorado Rapids 0

SATURDAY

New York Red Bulls 3 Toronto FC 0
New England Revolution 2 Houston Dynamo 0
Sporting Kansas City 4 Vancouver Whitecaps 3
LA Galaxy 2 FC Dallas 1
Portland Timbers 1 Real Salt Lake 0

SUNDAY

Seattle Sounders 4 Orlando City SC 0
Philadelphia Union 3 Chicago Fire 3

NOTABLE GOALS

Sébastien Le Toux (Philadelphia) - Sébastien Le Toux scored his 15th U.S. Open Cup goal, the most in the tournament's history, as Philadelphia advanced to their second consecutive Open Cup Final. Le Toux added his 5th goal of the regular season in Philadelphia's 3-3 tie on Sunday.

Soni Mustivar (Sporting KC) - Mustivar scored his first goal since joining Sporting Kansas City from Petrolul Ploiești in Romania and made it count as it leveled the score in Sporting's semifinal tilt with Real Salt Lake setting the stage for a trip to the Open Cup Finals.

Benny Feilhaber (Sporting KC) - Feilhaber continued his sensational run of good form with an assist on Mustivar's equalizer as well as the game winning goal, his second of the tournament, in Sporting's 3-1 win over Real Salt Lake.

Krisztián Németh (Sporting KC) - Németh added an insurance goal in Sporting's semifinal win over Real Salt Lake, and with four goals in the tournament, he trails teammate Dom Dwyer by just one for the Golden Boot.

Anthony Jackson-Hamel (Montreal) - 22 year-old homegrown player Anthony Jackson-Hamel scored his first professional goal to help Montreal salvage a draw in the Canadian Championship Finals. Jackson-Hamel has appeared in just 10 MLS matches in his 2 year career and has yet to score during the regular season.

David Villa (NYCFC) - Villa beat Bill Hamid in the second half of City's 3-1 win giving him 14 goals on the season and his fourth game winner.

Kwadwo Poku (NYCFC) - Poku made his first start since his 3-assist performance against Orlando City on July 26th and once again delivered picking up his second goal of the season and adding his seventh assist.

Clarence Goodson (San Jose) - Goodson's header helped propel the Quakes to their first win since June. The former U.S. National Teamer tied his career high for goals in a season with two and now has five goals in his MLS career.

Bradley Wright-Phillips (NYRB) - BWP scored his 11th goal of the season as New York won for the fifth time during its six game unbeaten streak. Wright-Phillips' next goal will be the 40th of his MLS career.

Gonzalo Verón (NYRB) - New York's newly acquired designated player scored his first MLS goal against Toronto on Saturday. The 25 year-old Argentine signed on August 5th.

Juan Agudelo (New England) - Agudelo scored his first goal since May adding an insurance goal in New England's 2-0 win over Houston. Agudelo has been relegated to a bench-role starting just once in the Revs' last seven games.

Kekuta Manneh (Vancouver) - Manneh scored twice in the first half against Sporting, but Vancouver couldn't hold leads of 2-0 or 3-1 and fell 4-3. Manneh has six goals on the season tying his career high set back in 2013.

Dom Dwyer (Sporting KC) - Dwyer helped spark Sporting's comeback against Vancouver with his eighth goal of the season. Dwyer now has 30 goals in the last two seasons.

Paulo Nagamura (Sporting KC) - Making just his seventh start of the season, Nagamura scored twice after the 87th minute helping propel Sporting to an improbable 4-3 win over Vancouver. Nagamura has three goals on the season and just 15 in 233 career matches dating back to 2005.

Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy) - With a brace against Dallas on Saturday night, Keane now has 13 goals on the season including ten in his last six starts. The Irish international now has 66 goals in 100 career MLS appearances, good for 25th on the all-time scoring list.

Nat Borchers (Portland) - Defensive stalwart Borchers scored his third goal of the season against the team for whom he played from 2008-2014. Borchers has 15 goals in his MLS career.

Obafemi Martins (Seattle) - Playing in his first MLS match since June, Martins delivered a pair of goals and helped Seattle snap a 5-game losing streak. Martins has nine goals on the year despite playing in just 12 matches.

Nelson Valdez (Seattle) - World Cup veteran Nelson Valdez made his MLS debut and scored Seattle's second goal in its 4-0 rout of Orlando City. Valdez has 68 CAPS for Paraguay's national team scoring 13 times including one against Argentina in this year's Copa América.

Kennedy Igboananike (Chicago) - Igboananike scored a pair of goals and assisted on a third as he accounted for all of Chicago's offense in their 3-3 draw with Philadelphia. Igboananike had just two goals and an assist on the year entering the match.

Fernando Aristeguieta (Philadelphia) - Aristeguieta scored his first goal since April 5th as he made his first start since early June for the Union.

SHUTOUTS BY:

John McCarthy (Philadelphia) - McCarthy made two saves as the Union advanced to the U.S. Open Cup Finals for the second year in a row. McCarthy earned his first career MLS shutout last Saturday against Orlando City.

David Bingham (San Jose) - Bingham made a pair of saves as San Jose earned their first win since June. The San Jose netminder has seven saves on the year.

Luis Robles (NYRB) - New York won for the seventh time in nine games as Robles earned his seventh shutout of the season. Robles had only six shutouts in 34 starts in 2014.

Bobby Shuttleworth (New England) - Shuttleworth earned his first shutout since June as the Revs extended their unbeaten run to four games with a 2-0 win over Houston. Shuttleworth has six shutouts on the year.

Adam Kwarasey (Portland) - Kwarasey made five saves as Portland held off Real Salt Lake for their third consecutive shutout. Kwarasey hasn't been scored upon in the month of August and leads MLS with 11 shutouts this season.

Stefan Frei (Seattle) - Frei matches his career high with his 9th shutout in Seattle's blowout win over Orlando City. The shutout was Frei's first since Seattle beat Dallas 3-0 on June 13th.

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