Friendlies, friendlies, friendlies. Those are what rules the week in Major League Soccer as the World Football Challenge and other midseason friendlies scattered the schedules this past week. But for the 11 league matches we did see there was plenty to go by as a couple teams made noise while a couple other teams failed to impress.
Major League Soccer Week 19: What We Learned
Lots of a goals and a little bit of controversy highlighted the week’s action.
Getty Images for New York Red Bu
I won’t go into the friendlies, believe me, I’ll spare you from that as I like the midseason friendlies for MLS clubs as much as I like 100-degree weather. It’s not bad at first but the longer it goes on the more annoying it gets.
Thankfully the 11 matches this week pushed the envelope a bit with a burst of goals, heroics, and some frustrated keepers. Week 19 saw two hat-tricks and six two-goal performances. The best part about the week was the lack of the scoreless draw too.
Red Bull Worry
Not a good week for the New York Red Bulls. First they get blasted in Denver by the Colorado Rapids and Sanna Nyassi's hat trick. Then on Saturday they nearly cough up a game to FC Dallas before Thierry Henry sent in his league-leading 11th goal to tie it up. Even with the draw it was a disappointment to have to come back in this game after dominating the first half.
What do we get instead from the Red Bulls? Excuses, and a lot of them. Long road trips, (pointless) friendlies in London ahead, the All-Star game to deal with. You name it and it was probably listed as an excuse.
Fact of the matter is this Red Bull team has the talent to do damage in this league but we’re starting to see the issues with the coaching here. Hans Backe refusing to even deal with his lack of depth by not subbing late in the game against Dallas shows something is not working there. On a day where your club is down a goal and then down a man, in 100+ degree weather where the humidity was likely making it a swamp out there and you don’t sub in more than one player? Come on Hans, take a risk and do something with your bench.
Thankfully for Red Bull fans out there, their star player Henry is showing his worth. His 11th goal of the season was an absolute beauty.
Golazo! Thierry Henry (New York Red Bulls) v FC Dallas (via 101goalsfanboy)
Four point swing for Dallas
Most FC Dallas fans will tell you that this road trip to Toronto and then New York (not to mention to El Salvador later this week) scared them when the month of July started. Yet here we are, with the worst likely over for now and the club comes out of it with four vital road points. The win against Toronto FC was likely expected. Toronto was employing a roster full of changes and as Schellas Hyndman put it after the 1-0 win, they looked desperate at times.
Brek Shea’s goal was, simply brillant. There’s nothing more than you can say about it.
Shea scores a rocket shot at BMO Field (via mls)
As for the New York game, the Toros probably got the result most of their fans were hoping for. It was a tale of two halves though for Dallas. In the first half they got out played by a talented New York squad but give credit to Hyndman for making the proper changes at the half to turn the game around for them.
Refocus In Salt Lake
It took some help from the center official but Real Salt Lake go what they needed dearly against the San Jose Earthquakes, a tough 4-0 win. Things looked like this game was headed to a low scoring affair when Alvaro Saborio took a nice pass from Will Johnson into the penalty box. Saborio was "hip checked" by Quakes defender Bobby Burling but replays show that it was possible more of an embellishment than anything else by the Costa Rican striker. Burling was issued a red card for the challenge and Saborio quickly buried the penalty.
From then on it was all RSL. San Jose's issues with injuries were more noticeable with the club playing a man-down for the final half hour. The Quakes depth was exposed and RSL made sure to make them pay as they put three more by Jon Busch who vented his frustrations after the game at RSL manager Jason Kreis.
A Sporting Chance
The start of a long home stand for Sporting Kansas City started this past weekend and the club made the absolute most of it with braces from Kei Kamara and Omar Bravo. KC took advantage of Toronto FC's leaky defense as they blew open the scoreline to go up 3-0 at one point before holding on to win 4-2.
The goals were pretty from KC as they finally saw their offense come alive for the first time in a month. A big reason for the offense seeing some light was due to the new addition of Designated Player Jeferson. His addition to the midfield opened up the game for KC. The defense looked good at times but got exposed late by Toronto's new additions of Ryan Johnson and Designated Player Danny Koevermans.
Golazo! Kei Kamara (Sporting Kansas City) v Toronto (via 101goalsfanboy)
KC has a huge chance here in the next couple months to do some damage at home. At 26 points, they're only five back of the Eastern Conference leading Philadelphia Union and Columbus Crew. With the New York Red Bulls dropping points at home this weekend and both the Houston Dynamo and DC United not making a play.
Chivas Making It Interesting
It seems like each week we think Chivas USA is down and out of it but then something special takes place. Either it is All-Star Nick LaBrocca making a special goal or it's Justin Braun scoring a hat trick for the second time this season. Chivas and Braun dominated Houston Saturday evening, in a game that saw two teams in the playoff zone, battling for position.
The 3-0 win pushed Chivas into 9th in the overall table, or sixth in the crowded Western Conference. Believe it or not but if the playoffs began today, this Chivas club would be in it.
See More:
