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.
On Wednesday, May 8th, Real Salt Lake defeated the New England Revolution 2-1 on a pair of late goals. The final result was disappointing for the Revs since Ryan Guy scored the game’s first goal and the defense was limiting RSL’s chances. An inability to stay focus and close out the game allowed the visitors to overturn momentum and capture three points.
Entering this week the Dynamo hadn’t won a regular season MLS match on the road since July 28, 2012. Looking at the trip they embarked on this week most Dynamo fans would have been happy with two, maybe 4 points. Not only did they finally break their road unbeaten streak but they won twice in four days on both coasts.
Believe this: the Portland Timbers are undefeated in their last seven matches, undefeated on the road in 2013, are fourth place in the Western Conference, have the sixth best points-per-game average, and also have the sixth best record in the MLS. This is not your cagey, defensive-minded, scattered-in-the-attack Spencer-era Timbers side that enters Dallas tonight.
On Thursday, May 1st, the New England Revolution (2-3-3) played the Portland Timbers (3-1-5) to a scoreless draw. In what has become customary for the Revs this season, the favorable result was driven by the team’s youth.
