Major League Soccer, Week 7: Chris Pontius Hat Trick Leads DC United Past Red Bulls

It was a rough and rowdy week in Major League Soccer. We saw plenty of goals over the weekend -- 24 to be exact -- and also plenty of red cards that caused quite a stir.

Tressor Moreno also finally got back onto the pitch for Yallop. In his second game he showed how dangerous he can be by spraying balls into good spots for Wondolowski and guys like Stephen Lenhart.

Despite still not having won consecutive games since 2009, United ran their unbeaten streak to six matches. This win jumped them over the Red Bulls and into second place in the Eastern Conference with 12 points.

Of course, there was no reason to really celebrate as this day clearly belonged to Pontius.

But that was not enough for Nowak. As tempers began to flare, he inserted himself into the scrum of players and even appears to get in a shove or two of his own. Unsurprisingly, Nowak was kicked off the field.

You have to imagine there’s going to be a suspension coming to both Nowak and Farfan. For Farfan, an additional game or two would fit previous precedence. It’s less clear cut with Nowak. Coaches can’t be allowed to come onto the field in a situation like this as the possibility for escalation goes up significantly. A 2-3 game ban would send that message.

Ryan Smith did put the Union defense under pressure a couple times, getting down the flank and crossing, but rarely was there anyone in the box to do anything with his crosses. Philadelphia weren’t much more inventive, struggling to break down the Goats’ defense outside of their one goal, but it didn’t matter.

The first half progressed just like you’d have predicted, if you were predicting a boring game in which absolutely nothing happened. Sporting were clearly tired and stymied by their hosts’ resolute defending, while the Timbers were looking threatening on the break but lacked the requisite touch on their passing to get the final ball to one of their own players. Fortunately for Portland, that turned out not to matter a whole lot.

The defender looked utterly mortified by this chain of events, but it was such a good finish it was almost worth celebrating. Embrace the absurdity, Chance. That may well be the best goal you’ll ever score.

The lone goal of the match was all Camilo’s doing. The ball found him on the right as Lee Young-Pyo fed him and while the Korean did get credit for an assist, he didn’t do much to earn it. Camilo gathered the ball, danced to put the Dallas defense on their heels then cut in before blistering a shot at the far post. It squeezed just inside the post and BC Place erupted as the Whitecaps grabbed a 1-0 11th minute lead.

After a long argument that say almost the entire Galaxy team circling Hernandez, Cummings attempted a stutter-step approach on the penalty. But Saunders guessed correctly, diving to his left, and had no problem stopping Cummings’ weak effort.

Cummings was able to breathe some life into the Rapids, though. The struggling forward bagged his third goal of the season on a brilliant run that saw him streak past several defenders and then beat Saunders with a perfectly placed shot in the upper-90.

There used to be this fun debate, “who is the best team in MLS?” People would argue and argue and argue about it. Is it the Galaxy? Maybe RSL? How about the Sounders? Wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s Sporting, who have won all seven of their matches this season and have ended any discussion as to who might be the best team in the league.

Now, there is the super fun discussion about who is the second best team in MLS. It’s all of the above teams, except for the Galaxy, plus maybe the surprising Earthquakes and resurgent Red Bulls. Who’s number two!?