MLS Weekly Recap, Week 23

Here's this week's recap:

Johan Venegas made his Montreal Impact debut, but the Costa Rican International was not enough to propel the Impact to a victory over their Eastern Conference rivals. Lloyd Sam equalized early in the second half and then the Impact fought to preserve a draw after Laurent Ciman's ejection in the 79th minute... Sebastian Giovinco's hat trick was more than enough for Toronto FC to dispatch Orlando City despite playing without Michael Bradley. Orlando's Cyle Larin was held scoreless after scoring five goals in his previous two matches... Adam Kwarasey earned his league leading 10th shutout as the Timbers earned their 10th win of the season in a 1-0 victory over the Chicago Fire. Fanendo Adi scored the only goal of the match, his 10th of the season... Michael Bradley returned to the Toronto lineup on Saturday, and while he scored his third goal of the season, the Reds were no match for Sporting Kansas City as Sporting got another goal and an assist from Benny Feilhaber... Tranquillo Barnetta made his first start for the Union, but defense was the story between Orlando City and Philadelphia as the two sides played to a 0-0 draw... DC United was outshot by Montreal 25-1, but thanks to the return of Bill Hamid, DC United somehow pulled out a 1-0 victory. Hamid made eight saves in the match... DaMarcus Beasley's first MLS goal since 2003 helped propel the Houston Dynamo to a 2-1 win over the San Jose Earthquakes. San Jose played a man down for the final 30 minutes after rookie Fatai Alashe picked up his second yellow card of the match... Kei Kamara scored twice in the second half as Columbus rallied from a 1-0 deficit to defeat the Colorado Rapids 2-1... Vancouver matched DC United at 13 wins with a 4-0 rout of Real Salt Lake. Jeff Attinella allowed 4 more goals as Real Salt Lake has been outscored 10-4 in their last two MLS matches... Giovani dos Santos's MLS debut was a huge success as the Mexican striker tallied a goal and an assist in just 69 minutes of play and the Galaxy defeated the Sounders 3-1 despite falling behind in the opening minute. Seattle, who played the match without Clint Dempsey or Obafemi Martins, also lost Chad Barrett to an injury minutes into the match and has lost five in a row and 8 of 9... The Red Bulls swept the subway series with New York City FC thanks to a 2-0 win on Sunday night highlighted by goals Bradley Wright-Phillips and Felipe. City is now 0-2-0 in the Frank Lampard era.

RESULTS

TUESDAY

Real Salt Lake 1 Municipal (Guatemala) 0 - CCL, Group G
Querétaro (Mexico) 2 San Francisco (Panama) 0 - CCL, Group C
Santos Laguna (Mexico) 4 W Connection FC (Trinidad & Tobago) - CCL, Group A

WEDNESDAY

New York Red Bulls 1 Montreal Impact 1
Toronto FC 4 Orlando City SC 1
Vancouver Whitecaps 1 Seattle Sounders 1 - CCL, Group F
Club América (Mexico) 4 Motagua (Honduras) 0 - CCL, Group E
Árabe Unido (Panama) 3 Montego Bay United (Jamaica) 0 - CCL, Group H

THURSDAY

LA Galaxy 5 Central FC (Trinidad and Tobago) 1 - CCL, Group D
Herediano (Costa Rica) 3 Isidro Metapán (El Salvador) 0 - CCL, Group B

FRIDAY

Portland Timbers 1 Chicago Fire 0

SATURDAY

Sporting Kansas City 3 Toronto FC 1
Philadelphia Union 0 Orlando City SC 0
DC United 1 Montreal Impact 0
Houston Dynamo 2 San Jose Earthquakes 1
Columbus Crew 2 Colorado Rapids 1
Vancouver Whitecaps 4 Real Salt Lake 0

SUNDAY

LA Galaxy 3 Seattle Sounders 1
New York Red Bulls 2 New York City FC 0

NOTABLE GOALS

Joao Plata (Real Salt Lake) - Joao Plata scored less than two minutes into Real Salt Lake's Champions League Opener against Municipal (Guatemala) and that was all they'd need as they hung on for the 1-0 win for three big points on the road.

Sebastian Giovinco (Toronto FC) - Playing without Michael Bradley or Jozy Alitdore, Sebastian Giovinco stole the show in Toronto's 4-1 win over Orlando City. Giovinco scored three times, his second hat trick and fourth multi-goal effort of the season, and the Italian international now has 16 goals on the year.

Tim Parker (Vancouver) - Parker, the 13th overall pick in this year's draft, scored the opening goal in Vancouver's Champions League showdown with the Seattle Sounders. The 6'2" center back has made 5 regular season starts for the Caps this year.

Alan Gordon (LA Galaxy) - Alan Gordon started LA's Champions League Opener and delivered a goal and an assist in just 57 minutes against Central F.C. (Trinidad and Tobago).

Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy) - Zardes had a big week as he had a goal and an assist in LA's Champions League win on Thursday and then turned around to score again against Seattle on Sunday. Zardes has five goals for the Galaxy this season.

Giovani dos Santos (LA Galaxy) - Gio dos Santos has put the rest of the league on notice scoring and assisting off the bench in his Galaxy debut against Central and then producing the same results as a starter in LA's 3-1 win over Seattle.

Ignacio Maganto (LA Galaxy) - LA's top pick in this year's draft at #21 started their Champions League opener and produced the final goal in a 5-1 rout.

Fanendo Adi (Portland) - The 24 year-old Adi reached double digit goals with his game winner against Chicago on Friday night. Adi scored nine goals in his debut season a year ago.

Benny Feilhaber (Sporting KC) - Feilhaber's sensational season continued this week as he notched yet another goal and an assist in Sporting's 3-1 win over Toronto. Feilhaber has the same amount of goals in 21 matches this year that he scored in 87 matches over the previous three seasons (8).

Michael Bradley (Toronto FC) - Bradley returned to the Toronto lineup for the first time since June 27th, and while he scored his career-high third goal, Toronto came up short in a 3-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City.

Krisztián Németh (Sporting KC) - The Hungarian Hammer scored for the first time in over a month as Sporting cruised to a 3-1 win over Toronto FC. Németh has eight goals on the season.

Chris Rolfe (DC United) - Rolfe, now 32 years old, tied his career high for goals in a season when he scored the game winner in DC's 1-0 win over Montreal. Rolfe's only other nine-goal season came in 2008 with the Chicago Fire, but more remarkable was the fact that United was outshot 25-1 and still managed a win.

DaMarcus Beasley (Houston) - Run DMB scored his first MLS goal since 2003 when he was a 21 year-old member of the Chicago Fire. He now has 15 goals in his MLS career which dates back to 2000, and this one helped the Dynamo to a 2-1 win over San Jose.

Kei Kamara (Columbus) - Kamara scored twice in the Crew's 2-1 win over Colorado helping him retain the league's scoring lead with 17 goals in 24 matches. In his previous 48 MLS matches, Kamara scored just 18 goals. Kamara's next goal will be the 70th of his MLS career.

Octavio Rivero (Vancouver) - Rivero knocked in an early penalty helping set the tone early as Vancouver routed Real Salt Lake 4-0 on Saturday night. Rivero has nine goals on the season including four game winners.

Pa-Modou Kah (Vancouver) - After scoring one goal in his first 58 MLS matches, Kah now has three in his last two after tallying in Vancouver's 4-0 rout of Real Salt Lake.

Cristian Techera (Vancouver) - The 23 year-old Techera picked up his first MLS brace in Vancouver's 4-0 win over RSL. Techera now has 4 goals and 3 assists in his first MLS season.

Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy) - Keane made it goals in back-to-back matches and also added an assist in LA's 3-1 win over Seattle. The Galaxy now have four wins in their last five matches with Keane tallying eight goals during that stretch.

Bradley Wright-Phillips (NYRB) - BWP made it double-digit goals in back-to-back seasons after netting the game winner against New York City FC on Sunday night. Wright-Phillips has scored four goals in three matches against City this season, all Red Bulls wins.

SHUTOUTS BY:

Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake) - Rimando made three saves in Real Salt Lake's 1-0 Champions League win over Municipal (Guatemala).

Adam Kwarasey (Portland) - The league leader in shutouts became the first keeper to double digit clean sheets in 2015. The former Ghanaian National Team goalie has back-to-back shutouts for the Timbers.

Tally Hall (Orlando City) - Hall made four saves and earned his first shutout since June 24th as Orlando City played Philadelphia to a scoreless draw. Hall has four shutouts in 14 starts this season. He had a career high 12 shutouts with the Dynamo in 2012.

John McCarthy (Philadelphia) - McCarthy earned the first shutout of his career in Philadelphia's 0-0 draw with Orlando City. McCarthy made just one save while making the seventh start of his first MLS season.

Bill Hamid (DC United) - Hamid returned to action for the first time since the end of June and turned in an 8-save effort that helped United overcome a 25-1 shots disadvantage and turn it into three points.

David Ousted (Vancouver) - Ousted made it back-to-back shutouts and three straight wins for the Caps as they soundly beat Real Salt Lake on Saturday night. Ousted has nine shutouts on the year and leads the league with 13 wins.

Luis Robles (NYRB) - Robles equaled last season's shutout total by picking up his sixth of the year in New York's 2-0 win over their crosstown rivals. Robles has 25 shutouts in his MLS career.