Week Nine Recap

By: travis | May 26th, 2008

This was the week that snapped the streaks. As many as five teams all had consecutive unbeaten, winning, or losing streaks all broken. The Crew lost, San Jose won, Toronto lost, and so on and so forth. A recap of the action:

San Jose 2-1 Houston
This weekend marked the return of Houston to the city they abandoned a few years ago. And the people of San Jose had their revenge, with a victory over the Dynamo. Scoreless after an hour, San Jose scored first through Kei Kamara, as he got on the end of a flick on by Ned Grabavoy, controlled it, turned and fired in. Ryan Johnson played well for San Jose as he was involved in a lot of their attacking movements. It was actually his shot that Pat Onstad saved but couldn’t hang on to the rebound, and Ivan Guerrero poked home the rebound. Brian Ching pulled one back for Houston but by that time it was too little, too late. It was San Jose’s first win from four tries at home, and the Dynamo saw their brief two game winning streak snapped.

Columbus 0-1 New England
Matt Reis is a good, good goalkeeper. He didn’t singlehandedly win this game for the Revs, but his outstanding save on a shot from Eddie Gaven kept the score at 0-0. It set the stage for some late game heroics from Steve Ralston and Kheli Dube. With the game heading for a scoreless draw, Ezra Hendrickson fouled Ralson in the box. Shalrie Joseph’s penalty was save by Will Hesmer, but no one marked Dube close enough and he poked home the winner. Robbie Rogers again showed how dangerous he is becoming, drawing a number of fouls as the Revolution tried to contain him. The Crew had their share of chances, but Reis stood tall to the task.

DC United 3-2 Toronto
If United could play Toronto at home every game, they would be undefeated. Toronto can’t seem to shake the Demons at RFK. However, this 3-2 victory was hardly convincing. DC played hard, but conceded two goals to Danny Dichio, on just two shots total for Toronto. It was a more spirited display from United, although it looked like their losing streak was going to continue. That was until Santino Quaranta was brought down in the box in the 70th minute. Jaime Moreno stepped up to the spot and converted the subsequent PK, tying the score at 2. And just two minutes later, Greg Sutton couldn’t hold onto a shot from Quaranta and struggling forward Luciano Emilio was there to put the rebound away. United managed to hang on. Hard to say if they are going to turn a corner. They are a very talented team, and still have some time left to get things right.

Colorado 1-2 Chivas USA
Once again, the Rapids can’t build on a positive result from the week before – while Chivas is climbing out of the hole they dug for themselves early on in the season. After a nice save by Brad Guzan, of a Facundo Erpen header, Jesse Marsch was given way to much room in the box and smashed one past Bouna Coundoul close to halftime. Chivas was left with few chances during the game, but managed to make the most of what they had, scoring again in the 79th minute. Jorge Flores was left to roam on a free kick and headed the cross in from Carey Talley past Coundoul. The Rapids answered with a beautiful goal from Tom McManus in the 80th, but came up empty in the last ten minutes.

Dallas 2-1 Real Salt Lake
Salt Lake was so close to that first win on the road. Fabian Espindola gave RSL the lead in the 69th minute off a nice set up from Javier Morales. Real had been a man down since Ian Joy earned two quick yellow cards and was sent off in the 38th minute. Bobby Rhine was shown red just three minutes into the second half – something I had neglected. Dominic Orduro scored twice for Dallas in the last ten minutes to pull off the come from behind victory. They snapped their four game losing streak and sent Real back to Salt Lake City with yet another loss on the road.

Los Angeles 3-1 Kansas City
Everybody loves Beckham. Well, not everybody, but the buzz about his 70-yard “bomb”, and this article from ESPN liking it to his goal from the 90’s makes me irate at the Beckham hype. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great goal, but I can’t compare it to his more famous goal from 1996. However, this is neither the time nor the place. Claudio Lopez opened the scoring for the Wizards with – what I think – was a much nicer goal. The Wizards couldn’t match their first half performance and conceded, first through a Landon Donovan penalty, then next to Edson Buddle thanks to a quick defensive breakdown. The score, for all intensive purposes, was 2-1. Beckham’s goal was a result of Kevin Hartman up for a corner, trying to provide an extra man.

New York 1-5 Chicago
A total butt whooping. From the 7th minute when Chad Barrett scored his first goal for the Fire, this game was all Chicago. Cuauhtemoc Blanco was a monster and continues to work wonders, setting up three goals while taking one for himself. Jozy Altidore scored the lone goal for the Red Bull who will be dusting themselves off this week. Surprising to see such a one-sided scoring line, as this game was hyped as something more than that by Ives.

Goal of the week
As usual, a plethora of candidates to choose from. I definitely won’t choose Beckham’s goal because his wasn’t even the nicest scored in the game; and while Lopez’s individual effort was superb, I like Tom McManus as this week’s choice, mainly because he’s the least well-known of the three players.