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MLS Week Eight Review

Goals Galore, Benny with a Blast, Fire Start to Heat Up

The Major League Soccer weekend that was featured all sorts of fireworks and a few eye-opening performances from franchises that had been struggling earlier in the season.
BY Brooke Tunstall Posted
April 27, 2015
7:25 PM

REMEMBER A FEW WEEKS BACK when we called out a weekend of Major League Soccer games for all its scoreless draws? Yeah, about that…

No such call-out this week! Nine games produced 28 goals with only two games featuring a 1-0 scoreline. Purists claim that there’s true beauty in a low-scoring soccer match, and many times they are correct. But goals sure are a whole lot of fun!

Besides the goals, the crème of the Eastern Conference continued to flex its muscle, Portland continued to be undone by defensive lapses, and the newcomers were reminded that being expansion teams is usually hard.

And don’t look now but Chicago and Columbus might be figuring things out.

The biggest goal-scoring fest was in Texas, where Sporting Kansas City and Houston traded blows in a match that would have made Dynamo co-owner Oscar de la Hoya proud. The slugfest ended in a 4-4 draw when Benny Feilhaber connected on this screamer deep into injury time.

A draw seems appropriate as both teams are now 2-4-2 and tied for fifth in the conference standings, leaving observers to wonder what each team is going to be like when it grows up later this season. Is Sporting still a contender for MLS Cup, which it lifted less than two seasons ago, or an aging team struggling to adjust to life in the rough-and-tumble Western Conference? Are the Dynamo more like the consistent playoff teams in Houston that have made the championship game four times since moving to Texas in 2006 or the confused team that missed the playoffs last year?

Both Houston and Kansas City seem too experienced to be still lacking consistency. This weekend each team played four players who are World Cup veterans and has several others who look like they could do so in the future. Fans of both teams should feel justified in expecting more.

Speaking of fans with great expectations, Sigi Schmid has reached a point where the only trophy the Seattle Sounders fans—and, we’re told, the ownership group—really care about is MLS Cup. After beating Portland thanks to a gaffe by Ghanaian international Adam Kwarasey, the Sounders are averaging the most points per game (1.86) of any team in the West. 

That doesn’t guarantee a successful postseason but the higher it finishes in the standings the more playoff games the Sounders can host at CenturyLink Field, which will obviously greatly enhance their chances.

Portland, meanwhile, is 2-3-3 and currently below the playoff line in the west. Despite the slow start and missing the playoffs last season, Timbers sources tell American Soccer Now that coach Caleb Porter’s job is not in jeopardy. 

“He’s got a really long rope,” said a member of the Timbers front office who asked not to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak for the club. “He could probably miss the playoffs this season this year and still be safe, that’s how much faith Merritt (Paulson, the Timbers owner) has in him. He likes the way the team plays under Caleb and what they’re building and understands that this is a team that is missing a lot of players to injury and will be much better when they’re healthy.”

Portland played Sunday without Best XI midfielders Diego Valeri and Will Johnson as well as Costa Rican international Rodney Wallace. “Take three of the four or five best attackers out of any lineup in MLS and see how they do,” said the Timbers source.

Another coach who doesn’t appear going anywhere is Toronto’s Greg Vanney, who helped his case with a 2-0 win at Orlando yesterday thanks to a Jozy Altidore brace.

That win snapped a four-game losing streak, a run that prompted rumors that Vanney, who was hired late last season, was already on the chopping block.

“That’s such bullshit,” said a Toronto source that also requested anonymity. “Tim (Leiweke, president of Maple Leaf Sports which owns TFC) wants to build a foundation and you don’t do that by constantly changing coaches. Greg’s going to get plenty of time to turn things around.”

WHO’S HOT

New York, New England, and D.C. United appear headed for a battle royale atop the east. The Red Bulls remain the league’s only unbeaten team after its 1-1 draw with the Los Angeles Galaxy yesterday. Word out of Harrison, N.J., is that it’s a much more relaxed atmosphere this year without the presence of Thierry Henry who, for all his talent—and we still think he’s the best player to have ever graced an MLS field—he was apparently a Debbie Downer at training and in the locker room. 

Whether that’s a good thing is up to debate. Henry had obviously high standards after his years at Arsenal, Barcelona, and the French national team. He had a right to push hard and expect more out of his teammates—and MLS as a whole. At the same time, the rank-and-file occasionally tired of his constant reminders that his exacting standards weren’t being met. 

The Red Bulls (3-0-3) have only allowed five goals despite 19-year-old center back Matt Miazga starting the past five games. Offensively the team has made up for the loss of Henry with a more well-rounded approach, and a bit of luck

The Red Bulls are averaging two points per game, tied for the most in MLS with D.C. after Ben Olsen’s gang of grinders went to Southwestern Canada and rallied for a 2-1 win. With only eight goals in seven games, United (4-1-2) ain’t winning pretty but no team has taken on the character of its coach quite like D.C. United has. And anyone who watched Olsen as a player knows that means this team doesn’t lack for effort and work rate.

We’re told United’s ownership is keeping its wallet pocketed till a new stadium opens (supposedly in 2017). But United has a defense and chemistry that might be just a high-priced goal-scorer or playmaker away from winning it all. And it would be nice if the purse strings were loosened to allow the team to acquire one.

Meanwhile, New England continues to leave its slow start in the past and appears to be clicking on all cylinders now that Jermaine Jones is healthy. The Revolution didn’t score in its first three games, losing the first two and drawing the third. But since those two losses, the team is 4-0-2 including Saturday's 4-0 annhiliation of Real Salt Lake. The Revs have outscored opponents 10-2 and again look every bit like the team that blitzed its way down the stretch of last season, finishing 9-1-1.

This year’s team might be even more dangerous with the return of Juan Agudelo, who has formed a potent partnership with Charlie Davies.

New England is so loaded offensively that Diego Fagundez, who scored 13 goals as an 18-year-old in 2013, now comes off the bench.

But the biggest reason for hope in Boston is Andrew Farrell’s conversion to center back. When the Revs gave up five goals those first two weeks of the season, moving Farrell from right back, where he’d started every game the past two seasons, seemed like a fool’s errand. But Farrell has settled in and is commanding his area and anticipating plays and rarely seems out of position. He’s still a work in progress and can be exploited by wily forwards, but he’s getting the job done.   

While those three teams look like the class of the east, if any of them slip up Columbus and—somehow—Chicago might be poised to challenge them.

The Fire have missed the playoffs in four of the past five seasons and it looked like more of the same when it began this year with three straight losses and one goal. But after beating expansion New York City 1-0 with David Accam finally opening his Designated Player account, the Fire have now won three straight and that modest run is currently the longest winning streak in the league. 

Columbus, which finished strong last year before running into the Revolution buzz mill in the playoffs, has won two straight and stretched its unbeaten streak to four with a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Union. Kei Kamara and Ethan Finlay—who might be the best player in MLS no one ever talks about—each had a goal and an assist.

And that leads us to…

WHO’S NOT HOT?

Why, yes, the Union. After that drubbing by the Crew, Philadelphia is 1-5-3 and has allowed 17 goals. SEVENTEEN!!! 

Somewhere in Colorado, former starting goalkeeper Zac MacMath, who was shuttled this winter, is probably laughing. Meanwhile, Andre Blake, the Jamaican international goalkeeper whom the Union traded ­up to take first overall in the 2014 draft, has started one career MLS game—and that was last year.

While the Union’s defensive woes aren’t all on the goalkeepers, at some point team management needs to find out what it has in Blake. It certainly couldn’t be much worse. 

Also having gone cold are the expansion twins, New York City and Orlando City. NYCFC started 1-0-2 but has lost four of its last five with only a tie to show for its efforts after losing to the Fire. Spanish legend David Villa has missed the past two games and Slovakian international Adam Nemec, brought in to be his strike partner, has yet to score this season. Nemec limped off the field in the Fire game in the 34th minute.

Meanwhile, Orlando has lost three of its last four after falling 2-0 at home to Toronto, which hadn’t won since Opening Day. It’s the fourth time Orlando has been shut out and this last one came against a TFC defense which had allowed 10 goals in its past four games, all losses.

NATIONAL TEAM WATCH

Goals this week by Clint Dempsey, Altidore, and Agudelo will certainly help Jurgen Klinsmann sleep better at night. But it’s a player who has been out of his plans that continues to capture our attention.

As shown above, Benny Feilhaber still has plenty left in the tank. Besides the laser he scored Saturday, Feilhaber’s five assists currently lead MLS. This is where we point out that Feilhaber is still just 30 and is a World Cup veteran and has lots of overseas experience and won an MLS Cup.

He’s also a playmaker capable of helping a team hold possession and create chances. Yes, central midfield is a deep position for the U.S. but is a player with Feilhaber’s skillset in form really surplus to need?

FUTURE NATIONAL TEAMERS

The Galaxy’s 18-year-old forward Bradford Jamieson IV scored his first MLS goal Saturday, collecting a ball near midfield, running at Red Bull right back Chris Duvall, cut right, then left to get past Duvall and giving him enough space to beat Luis Robles near-post with a low, left-footed blast.

It was a goal that required equal parts skill and chutzpa and Jamieson appears to have plenty of both. Despite that, Galaxy coach Bruce Arena cautioned U.S. fans—and, ahem, media—to not get too carried away with the young attacker quite yet.

“He's doing well. Let's wait a while. Let's not get crazy like everybody does every time a young player does something right. This is a long haul in becoming a player," Arena told the media after yesterday’s game.

“He's many years away from being where we would like him to be and where he's going to be so let's just be patient and see what happens down the road."

Brooke Tunstall is an American Soccer Now contributing editor and ASN 100 panelist. Follow him on Twitter.

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