Quick Recap: Portland started a mix of the first XI and the game day 18 players but it wasn't enough to keep Valencia from getting the first goal. At the half the subs all came in and the young guns got their chance to show what they can do but they could not find the back of the net despite having some good opportunities.

Good afternoon! It's matchday @The Cathedral of Football, Red Bull Arena (built by Makita)! In tonight's installment, our glorious Red Bulls take on Western Conference powerhouse Chivas USA (7:00pm ET, MSG+, match notes here). This could be a history-making fixture, so let's see how both teams come into this one.

NOTE: Click on each of the charts below for bigger (more readable) versions.

Thanks to all who followed the survey link and submitted player ratings for the Houston match. We had another week with over 100 responses. Here is the distribution of your player ratings...

The rest of the charts are after the jump.

In my preview for the game last night against Montreal, I said that there were two ways that KC was likely to come out, either they'd comes out a little flat and deflated from the week off and the loss in Portland, or the loss to Portland would have them stewing for 2 weeks and they'd come out and totally destroy Montreal.

I was at work during the Timbers match up against Montreal this weekend and after hearing all the reactions to the game, I was not looking forward to it. Finally, two days later, I hunkered down and began to watch.

It wasn't the worst performance ever. The pitch caused some issues, as did the ref.

The Philadelphia Union face Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center tonight, at 10:30 p.m. EST, marking their first time in Los Angeles during the 2012 MLS regular season. Coming off of the team's first win of the year, a 1-0 victory against the Columbus Crew, Philadelphia looks to start a winning streak to pull itself out of the Eastern Conference's cellar.

Salt Lake 1-0 Montreal An early goal from the penalty spot kept the Montreal Impact winless in their first MLS season while Real Salt Lake earned their third shutout. In the 12th minute Will Johnson sent a header towards goal, but the shot struck the arm of Justin Braun, who was whistled for a handball [.

Real Salt Lake beat Montreal on Wednesday night from the penalty spot, with Paulo Junior converting in the 13th minute. Montreal's Justin Braun was called for a hand ball in the box to setup the penalty. Two RSL players were injured during the game, Ned Grabavoy (ribs) and Javier Morales (hamstring).

I was able to catch the reserve match in San Jose this morning, and I decided to do a short write up.

Timbers: Bendik; Casal, Taylor, Purdy, Kawulok, Richards, Braun, Chabala - C, Renken, Rincon (Zizzo), Dike

Bendik - Extremely vocal and active. He played well, and had great control of the pitch

Casal - Seemed to be forcing it a little bit, but showed good strength and speed at times.

Hold on to your butts, Fire fans... the season is about to start. Line-ups after the break.

FIRE XI: Tornaghi; Gargan, Gibbs, Anibaba, Segares; Pause (C.), Pardo, Pappa; Grazzini; Nyarko, Oduro

FIRE subs: Nolly, Jumper, Bone, Paladini, Barouch, Robayo, Puppo

Impact XI: Ricketts; Brovsky, Ferrari, Wahl, Gardner; Arnaud, Felipe, Bernier, Mapp; Nyassi Braun

Impact subs: Sutton, Corradi, Mallace, Neagle, Thomas, Warner, Wenger

The Dynamo open their 2012 campaign where is ended in November. It won't be the Galaxy hosting though, instead Dominic Kinnear will look to win a season opener for the first time since 2006 against Chivas USA.

This is the only meeting in the league between the Dynamo and Chivas USA in 2011.

Coaching changes, personnel moves and the addition of an expansion franchise are about to be relegated to the land of off-season action as Major League Soccer kicks off the 2012 season this weekend.

In anticipation of the season start, here is a look at the league's now 19 teams. We start with the Eastern Conference, we follow with the Western Conference and finish with a preview of the Colorado Rapids.

Another pre-season game, and another result that we really don't want to see. There was a slight difference between last night's game and Monday's game, however, in that last night the Timbers were forced to come back from down a goal. That's not to say they were worse than Monday (when they actually scored twice.

The Portland Timbers braved the elements today as they prepare to face Chivas USA tomorrow. The practice was a closed one with only the warm-ups and post-practice workouts available to the press.

Rodney Wallace, Steve Purdy, and Futty Danso were all away on international duty today and will be returning tomorrow, with Purdy the most likely to take part in the game.

Do y'all realize it snowed this morning? Crazy. Actually, as a Minnesota native, I would have preferred snow to 38 degrees and windy rain. But there's soccer to be practiced, and practice to be reported on. That's the sacrifice I make.

It was a closed practice today, so oregonlive's Kip Kesgard and I talked over the news and absences before hanging out in the conference room for an hour.

The Timbers practice today was an uneventful one on the field but saw several developments on the sidelines. Once again Jose Adolfo Valencia was missing from practice which was yet again explained as being further fitness testing. John Spencer went on to say that as soon as he was done testing we would see him back on the field.

The draft is over and next Friday players report to Portland and the Portland Timbers are hinting they are not done adding to their roster. Rumors are swirling as to who and what position said player plays. All of these leaves us fans in what seems like an internal state of nervous energy.

So lets take a look at what the roster looks like and what we can piece together from tweets and quotes over the last few weeks.

Thursday's SuperDraft will be here before we know it. I'll be fairly busy with the day job over the next day and a half but I did want to get this up today. With one final day of the Combine, teams are hoping to fill as many holes in this draft as they possibly can. Some teams will only get one shot at it (FC Dallas) while others have a few chances to add depth (Toronto).

Among the Montreal Impact's expansion draft selections last Wednesday was defender James Riley from the Seattle Sounders. The Impact then traded him to Chivas USA for for forward Justin Braun and midfielder Gerson Mayen. Mayen had been on loan to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers for part of the season playing 9 games and scoring one [.

That five thoughts on the expansion draft post seemed to work pretty well yesterday, so with time short and you (maybe? hopefully?) interested, here are five more on how the Montreal Impact might be the new evil geniuses of Major League Soccer.

And they might just be that. Because right now Montreal looks evil, re: Brian Ching, and they look like geniuses, re: Justin Braun.

The Montreal Impact started the 2011 expansion draft with a controversial move, selecting Houston Dynamo forward Brian Ching over the player's objections. Ching let it be known before the draft that he planned to retire rather than leave Houston. In the only trade move, Montreal drafted Seattle's James Riley and sent him to Chivas USA for Gerson Mayen and Justin Braun.

Goat guy: former Sounders favorite James Riley will bring experience and a winning attitude next season to Chivas USA's back four, which badly needed strengthening, after arriving via a trade today with Montreal (AP Photo).

Perhaps the most surprising thing to me about today's now-completed Expansion Draft - no players from the MLS champion Galaxy were among the 10 selected by the Montreal Impact.

Would the Special One have taken his Braun to the mohawk? The president of Brazilian side Santos has revealed he convinced star youngster Neymar to stay at the club by claiming Jose Mourinho was planning to make him cut his distinctive hair once he signed for Real Madrid. The Brazil star was widely tipped to [.