Week 13 Recap

By: travis | June 24th, 2008

It wasn’t a good week for those on the road. Well, depends if you fancy drawing on the road, as some teams do. None of the away teams could muster more than a point this weekend – a trend that started earlier this season only to have vanished recently. What was it a good week for? DC and RSL, to say the least, who are each enjoying a nice unbeaten streak.

Chivas 2-0 Chicago
Whats wrong with the Fire? Their once seemingly unbeatable aura has vanished, leaving them with one win from their last six games. Seems like once a team gets near the top, they have no desire to stay there. Lucky for Chicago, their next opponent is San Jose. That should help them turn it around. A critical win for Chivas, who was beginning to struggle and found themselves near the bottom of the table. I have a feeling that the West is going to be a real slug-fest.

Toronto 0-0 Kansas City
Wizards can’t find a way to win. Although this weekend they were on their heels most of the time, with Kevin Hartman stepping up to preserve the scoreless draw. Hartman is now tied with Matt Reis for most shutouts this season with five. Now if they can only find the net. Scott Sealy missed the net while unmarked in the box. Toronto must consider themselves a bit unlucky as they thought they had a match winner in extra time, but the linesman flagged Danny Dichio for being offsides. It did look like a good call, although you’d think Dichio could have timed his run better.

New York 1-0 Dallas
It’ll be sweet when the Red Bull move out of Giants Stadium. I get tired of watching soccer played with football lines. That rant aside, who is Sinisa Ubiparipovic (Dave, I’m asking you)? He had a great volley denied by an even better Dario Sala save, and then set up Kevin Goldthwaite for the lone goal of the game. A disappointing performance from Dallas in their first game under new head coach Schellas Hyndman – so disappointing in fact, that I won’t say anything else about them.

Colorado 0-0 Houston
Surprisingly enough, the Rapids actually drew a match. In another 0-0 draw that featured a goal disallowed (Ching with a handball), this was a game that seemed like each team thought hitting the woodwork got them a goal. The stat book tells the story on how many shots they mustered on goal: Colorado had 15 shots with only one going on goal. The Dynamo were only one better, getting just two on goal from nine shots. Not exactly a clinical display of finishing going on here.

Real Salt Lake 2-1 New England
Don’t look now but Real is in second place in the West. They’re two points off pace with Los Angeles – although LA has a game in hand. They’re home dominance continues, as they’ve yet to lose there still. In fact they haven’t lost in five games. Pretty good for a team that was struggling just a few weeks ago. They fell behind early, as confusion between Nick Rimando and Nat Borchers gave Revolution keeper Adam Cristman a chance to head the ball into an empty net. An own goal from Jay Heaps and then Tino Nunez gave RSL the win. Are they for real? Their five game unbeaten streak is a club record too. Pretty good stuff. And if you haven’t seen the beauty of MLSnet, check out this headline: Pass the Salt – they’re for Real. That’s very clever.

Los Angeles 3-3 Columbus
It was a wild one out west as the Crew came back twice to snatch a point on the road against the Galaxy. Some shoddy goalkeeping was on display as both Will Hesmer and Steve Cronin made errors that cost their team a goal apiece. The Galaxy defense was there to remind people that yes, they are quite bad. However, Landon Donovan was once again displaying his attacking prowess to bail out the backline. Do I dare ask if he is going to attempt to go overseas again? For a player who just earned his 100th cap, he’s quite young, having turned 26 this year. Might he have another crack at Europe? I’d support it. And just for fun, I support Edson Buddle to get a call up for the World Cup qualifiers.

DC United 3-1 San Jose
A similar theme continued for United this week: they won, Zach Wells can’t get a shutout. Yes, their backline has been far from stellar this season. And now that the goals are starting to pour in (14 in five games – more than SJ and KC have all season) it slips your mind. Wells had an absolute howler that let the Quakes get on the board. While DC is definitely back on the warpath, heading towards the postseason, unless Wells steps his game up, they’ll be toast eventually. Oh, and as for the Earthquakes, at least they didn’t get shutout again.

Goal of the week
Pretty easy. Gonzalo Martinez. If you haven’t seen it, watch here, then vote: