Monday, May 18, 2015

MLS Weekly Recap - Week 11

Talk about your crazy weeks. The last seven days featured the Montreal Impact pulling off another improbable tournament victory as they scored a late goal to knock off heavily favored Toronto FC on the away goals tiebreaker in the Canadian Championship semifinals. They also watched Edmonton FC play the Whitecaps to a 1-1 tie in the other semifinal which means with a little luck, the Impact could face a lower-tier opponent in their quest to return to the Champions League. In other action, top picks Cyle Larin and Khiry Shelton combined for 3 goals with Larin's OCSC throttling the defending champion Galaxy 4-0 and Shelton's City rallying from a 2-0 deficit against the Chicago Fire despite being a man down. RSL's Nick Rimando let in 4 goals as the Impact won for the first time this season, and Bill Hamid was out-dueled by Philadelphia's Brian Sylvestre as the Union won for just the second time, 1-0. Here's a rundown of all the action:

RESULTS

WEDNESDAY

Toronto FC 3 Montreal Impact 2 (Canadian Championship Semifinals, Leg 2), Montreal Wins 2-0 on Away Goals Tie-Breaker
Vancouver Whitecaps 1 FC Edmonton 1 (Canadian Championship Semifinals, Leg 1)
DC United 2 Orlando City SC 1

FRIDAY

New York City FC 2 Chicago Fire 2
FC Dallas 0 New York Red Bulls 0

SATURDAY

Montreal Impact 4 Real Salt Lake 1
Seattle Sounders 2 Vancouver Whitecaps 0
New England Revolution 1 Toronto FC 1
Houston Dynamo 3 Portland Timbers 1
San Jose Earthquakes 2 Columbus Crew 0

SUNDAY

Orlando City SC 4 LA Galaxy 0
Philadelphia Union 1 DC United 0

NOTABLE GOALS

Gershon Koffie (Vancouver) - Playing the role of captain in Vancouver's Canadian Championship Semifinal first leg match against Edmonton FC (NASL), Koffie also played the role of hero when his 87th minute equalizer spared the Caps humiliation and allowed them to settle for a draw. 

Kenny Cooper (Montreal) - Kenny Cooper made his Impact debut in style as he scored the Impact's first goal of the match in their Canadian Championship showdown against Toronto, but was immediately forced out of the match with an injury.

Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC) - Altidore tallied a goal and two assists against Montreal to deliver Toronto a win, but it wasn't enough to advance them to the Canadian Championship Finals. Keeping with the injury theme, Altidore left Saturday's match against New England with a hamstring injury.

Dominic Oduro (Montreal) - Oduro's 84th minute goal against Toronto didn't change the match result, but it leveled the aggregate score sending the Impact through to the Canadian Championship Finals on the away goals tiebreaker.

Cyle Larin (Orlando City) - Larin scored twice this week, once against Bill Hamid and DC United, and once in Orlando's 4-0 rout of the Galaxy. Larin's 4 goals lead all members of the 2015 MLS SuperDraft class.

Răzvan Cociș (Chicago) - Cociș, making his first start of 2015, scored his first MLS goal in Chicago's draw with NYCFC. Cociș has 50 CAPs for the Romanian National Team.

Khiry Shelton (NYCFC) - Shelton's first MLS goal was a big one as it came in stoppage time in a 2-1 game against the Chicago Fire helping salvage a point despite playing over an hour of the match with ten men.

Andrés Romero (Montreal) - Romero's brace against Real Salt Lake helped the Impact become the last team to get their first this win this season.

Laurent Ciman (Montreal) - The Belgian center back scored the match's opening goal for Montreal against Real Salt Lake. Ciman has appeared 9 times for the Belgian National Team, and was a member of their 2014 World Cup squad, though he went unused in the tournament.

Chad Barrett (Seattle) - The Seattle offense didn't miss a beat despite the absence of Obafemi Martins thanks to Barrett's heroics. The veteran striker accounted for both goals in Seattle's 2-0 win over Vancouver.

Michael Bradley (Toronto) - Bradley's first goal of 2015 was one of few bright spots for Toronto this week as they saw their Canadian Championship hopes dashed and lost striker Jozy Altidore to an injury.

Will Bruin (Houston) - Will Bruin scored twice against the Timbers giving him three goals in his last two matches, both Dynamo wins. Bruin needs just one more goal to reach 40 for his career.

Chris Wondolowski (San Jose) - With the game winning strike against Columbus on Saturday, Chris Wondolowski now needs just one more goal to reach 100 in his career. Wondo has six goals this year in 11 matches.

Kaká (Orlando City SC) - Kaká converted a penalty against the Galaxy to give him four goals on the season.

Zach Pfeffer (Philadelphia) - Pfeffer's late heroics against DC United gave the Union a much needed win. The 20 year-old homegrown player, in his fifth season with the club, has two goals on the season, and three in his career.

SHUTOUTS BY:

Luis Robles (NYRB) - Robles made a pair of saves to preserve a 0-0 tie between the Red Bulls and FC Dallas. Robles has 3 shutouts this season and 22 in his career.

Dan Kennedy (FC Dallas) - Kennedy's shutout of the Red Bulls was his first since joining FC Dallas. He has yet to allow more than one goal in any of the four matches he's started this season.

Stefan Frei (Seattle) - Frei's shutout of Vancouver was his fifth of the season and marked the third straight match in which he's made at least five saves.

David Bingham (San Jose) - Bingham made five saves against the Crew as he picked up his third shutout of the season and helped the Quakes stay unbeaten over their last four.

Tally Hall (Orlando City SC) - Playing for the first time since rupturing his ACL last August, Hall needed to make just one save and watched his club rout the LA Galaxy 4-0. Hall had seven shutouts last season for Houston.

Brian Sylvestre (Philadelphia) - The 22 year-old Sylvestre helped the Union get a much-needed win as he kept DC United off the scoreboard and earned his first MLS shutout.

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