Major League Soccer 2012, Week 3: Red Bulls Take Down Rapids, 4-1

It is safe to say that Week 3 in Major League Soccer was one that the Soccer Gods looked down on all of us and said “you know nothing.” Results we expected didn’t come through and one team we thought was on the brink of disaster showed that they may be just fine here.

But those results may not be the biggest shocker of the weekend.

Sporting KC continued to control possession and create chances, but they failed to get shots on target between the penalty and the eventual winner. Kamara and Zusi both had golden opportunities in similar fashion in the second half, with clear one-on-one chances after an attack down the right and a near post cross, but their misses on those clear chances made it feel like Kansas City would never find a goal from open play.

It eventually came in the 88th minute in the manner that almost all of their chances were created. Myers put a low cross into the box, aimed at the near post from the right flank. Kamara got on the end of it, and on this occasion, applied a great finish to give his team the three points they should have earned in a much simpler fashion, much earlier in the game.

Things began to even out after the opening minutes, but Henry made sure that Colorado knew they had no chance after the halftime break. The Rapids defense fell asleep on a free kick so Marquez chipped the ball over the top of the back line perfectly into the run of Henry. The Frenchman’s finish was not easy as he had to open his hips all the way up to go back across to the far post, but he did it expertly and the Red Bulls were on cruise control.

How many weeks will it be before Peter Nowak says, “You know what? I ruined this team and it’s all my fault.”

While MLS has never punished a player for something he said on the field, other leagues in other sports have definitely taken action against players for similar incidents. The most famous of these incidents was probably Michael Vick being fined for flipping off fans while he was a quarterback with the Atlanta Falcons.

It certainly works in Clark’s favor that he wasted little time in apologizing and, to his credit, sounded sincere in doing so. But given the circumstances of the incident -- a fan-generated and MLS-approved protest against racism and homophobia was staged on the same day and it was audible on national TV -- the league is almost forced to take some kind of action. A fine is probably the best Clark can hope for, but a short suspension -- one game, similar to a red card -- would not be shocking.

MLS really needs to help its fans out. For the first two weeks of the season, we could get over there being a dearth of interesting matches because of the early season excitement. “There are no good matches? Whatever. I’m just excited to have MLS back!”

Well, that is over.