MLS Recap: Week 14

By: travis | June 22nd, 2009

Not as much to glean over on a Monday morning after a light serving of play on Saturday. The Superliga provided some quality entertainment on the side, especially with Brian McBride’s scintillating finish for the Fire.

Surveying the rest of league play, a couple of draws, maddening red cards and poor defending returned to mar the weekend. Both goals in the New York-Seattle game were marked by some atrocious decision-making at the back.

The cluttered schedule found a victim—D.C. United. Their performance out in Colorado was by far their worst of the season as they failed to get on the scoreboard. This was following their entertaining 3-3 draw out in Seattle that had fans clamoring for more.

All this and more on this week’s recap.

San Jose 2-1 Los Angeles
The confidence of an 11-game unbeaten streak has vanished as the Galaxy suffer their second defeat in a row. With Landon Donovan toiling in South Africa, the going has become all the more difficult as San Jose exposed the Galaxy’s old age. Pablo Campos, who had been as quiet as a mouse for the first three months of the season emerged with a goal and an assist in the victory. He took on Gregg Berhalter to win a penalty in the sixth minute and finished it himself. He then played a hand in Ryan Johnson’s eventual game winner. A Jovan Kirovski goal in the 65th minute would go on to mean very little as Bruce Arena counts down the days till the Beckham circus returns.

New York 1-1 Seattle
Best way to sum up these two goals? Calamitous defending. Whether you’re Tyrone Marshall or Jeremy Hall, this one could have ended in a 0-0 draw if not for their errors. Young keeper Danny Cepero continues to shine in goal, perhaps backing up the notion that he wasn’t a one-hit wonder back in 2008. The resurgence of Fredy Montero has played a big part in Seattle’s solid play, though their defense has been far from convincing as compared to the beginning of the year.

Houston 1-1 Real Salt Lake
It took a thunderous Brian Ching header to ensure a draw for the Dynamo at Robertson Stadium. A bit surprising because of the rampage that Houston had been on, and to the timid way Real has played on the road so far. Real took the lead on a Fabian Espindola goal in the 28th minute. Another Jamison Olave red card further prevented the potential three points. However, it’s still a good result on the road for RSL.

Dallas 2-1 Columbus
Eric Avila’s goal was the much-needed boost for FC Dallas in their come from behind win over the Crew. This set the table for David Ferreira’s dive late in the game, winning the penalty that Kenny Cooper slotted home. A massive win for Dallas if they are to rest in any hope of turning around their disastrous season. Columbus, on the other hand, is still only four games behind United with two games in hand. Plenty of time for the Crew, who still have looked solid of late.

Colorado 3-0 D.C. United
Omar Cummings took advantage of some shambolic D.C. defending to net two goals and a brace. The Rapids put in a solid effort, taking advantages of some miscues at the back. United came out in with four in the back for the second time all year — mainly because Dejan Jakovic will soon be called into Gold Cup duty — and yielded an early goal to Cummings. The speedy Jamaican had two nice finishes past Josh Wicks, then set up the third goal of the game. D.C. will gladly take these two weeks off to rest and recover.

Goal of the Week
The long range strike off the boot of Eric Avila turned things around for FC Dallas, not to mention it was a beautiful debut goal for the young midfielder.