Rodney Wallace, Diego Valeri, and Will Johnson all scored Sunday night extending Portland’s unbeaten streak to 9 games. The Timbers dominated Chiva from the start, attempting their first shot in the second minute and first corner in the fifth. This was followed a Diego Valeri header saved by Chivas GK Patrick McLain in the 10th minute. Portland sustained this pressure all game preventing Chivas from ever taking control.
The New England Revolution and the Houston Dynamo are set to renew their rivalry on Saturday, May 18th when the two clubs have their first meeting of 2013. The bad blood began in 2006 when the Dynamo defeated the Revs in penalty kicks to win the MLS Cup in their inaugural year. The following season saw an MLS Cup rematch with Houston once again reigning supreme. The Revs did earn some redemption in 2008 when they defeated their nemesis to win SuperLiga. While there is no championship on the line on Saturday, both teams will want a win as a way of negating recent results.
Is this how DC United's season is going to go and if so, who is to blame? Numerous questions are arising in the DC United camp and whether or not changes will be made soon, remains to be seen. Currently undergoing an eight game winless streak, Ben Olsen now looks to the entire organization to take upon the accountability for the poor performances. As RFK was once a fortress, has been anything but that this season after a 0-4 mauling to the Houston Dynamo on May 8th.
Last night news broke that Chivas USA could be on its last legs. Rumours surfaced that the club was about to be sold to either Carlos Slim or back to MLS and in both cases the future did not look good for the Goats. They are of course still rumours, however in either scenario there is not a lot of hope that Slim or MLS want to see Chivas USA have a future...well not as "Chivas USA anyway. However, even before all the drama and conjecture fans were not happy.
On Saturday, May 11th, the New England Revolution (2-4-4) ended their two-game home stand with a 1-1 draw against the New York Red Bulls (6-4-3). The game’s most important moments occurred within the 54th minute with both Diego Fagaundez and Sam Lloyd finding the back of the net. While the Revs will be disappointed with losing a lead for the second time this week, they did get a strong performance from an unexpected player: Dimitry Imbongo.
After being humbled by Sporting Kansas City last week, Chivas USA went back on the road to try and redeem themselves on Saturday with a match against the Portland Timbers. Hopes were once high amongst the support that this would be the type of game that Chivas could take all three points from, and mount a serious challenge for the playoffs. Despite their good run, Portland were fellow Western strugglers last year and probably our direct competition for a playoff spot this year. But once again, the Goats failed to turn up and played out a second road game with a heavy defeat. Conceding three goals against the Timbers without reply left fans scratching their heads at what was not so long ago exciting times for the Rojiblancos.
The Portland Timbers and Chivas USA began the 2013 season the same way. Both teams hired new head coaches with no MLS management experience: Caleb Porter for the Timbers and José Luis Sánchez Solá, or Chelis, for Chivas. Since then, their paths have forked.
The New York Red Bulls (6-4-2) finish off their consecutive Eastern Conference clashes with a trip north up I-95 to take on the struggling New England Revolution (2-4-3). The Red Bulls look to take nine points out of three games in a week and look to extend their winning streak to five games in the meantime.
The Whitecaps will look to beat the odds on Saturday when they take on two time reigning MLS champions LA Galaxy at BC Place. The Caps have recently been enduring some of the worst form they have ever experienced in two years. Martin Rennie has to get his side back in shape soon or playoffs will slowly become more and more unlikely and his time as manager might be nearing its end.
Sporting Kansas City went into Wednesday night’s game against the Seattle Sounders knowing they would have to face, arguably, two of their three fiercest rivals in the same week. With the Houston Dynamo on deck Sunday, Sporting wanted to finally be able to break that stranglehold Seattle has on Sporting at Sporting Park. Even though Sporting KC won the 2012 US Open Cup Final against Seattle, they had to go into penalties after a 1-1 draw. Sporting still has never beaten Seattle at home and only won once in Seattle in 2009. Most of those games, especially the ones taking place at Sporting Park, Seattle won due to a late goal usually in stoppage time. The Sounders have a thing for the dramatics when they play in Kansas City and Sporting very much wanted to close it out early. But to make a bit of a tweak to a quote by Gerald Ford, our long national nightmare continues.
