Saturday at Sporting Park, Sporting KC will look to end two streaks, the first, their own goalless drought, which now stands at 193 minutes after two 0-0 draws with Chicago and New England. The second streak they'll look to end is Montreal's perfect start to the season. They're the last remaining team in the league to have a perfect record, that currently stands at 4-0.
While others have struggled out of the starting gates, the Montreal Impact have taken a wide open lead, after winning their third straight match last Saturday, 2-1 over Toronto FC.
Battling against father time, a squad of veterans including as Davy Arnaud, Marco Di Vaio, Patrice Bernier, and Alessandro Nesta have combined with the youth of Felipe Martins, Andres Romero, and Jeb Brovsky has created a lethal combination.
In a game where Montreal and Toronto traded suspect penalties, Marco Di Vaio proved to be the difference as the Impact held off their Canadian rivals for a 2-1 victory.
Di Vaio was played the role of a quintessential center forward, providing a target for an Impact attack that used the long ball with laser like precision and was continuously hunting for the final touch.
The Montreal Impact stunned the Seattle Sounders on Saturday with a 1-0 victory at CenturyLink Field. The Sounders dominated most of the match with nearly 60 percent of the possession and 15 attempts on goal, but one brilliant play from [...]
The LA Galaxy won at FC Dallas, Houston moved within a point of TFC, and Columbus surprised
Sporting KC in Major League Soccer on July 28, 2012. Overall, there were seven matches in MLS on
Saturday with most of the away teams getting victories.
Toronto FC 0-2 Houston Dynamo
A 44th minute Calen Carr and 85th minute Brian Ching goal were more than enough for Houston to
get their third away win of the season.
The Montreal Impact continue their Jeckyll and Hyde ways, looking terrible on the road but
extremely solid at home.
The Impact were at home in Montreal on Saturday night and tore apart a New York Red Bulls
defense that came in on a strong run of form. You wouldn't know it on Saturday as the Impact rolled
to a 3-1 victory.
After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of
the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5
average, 10 perfection). This week Sean Donahue and Julian Cardillo contributed ratings for theÂ
New England Revolution's 2-1 loss to the Montreal Impact.
Last night in Montreal wasn't the prettiest game that KC has ever played, on the other hand it
wasn't the worst one either. KC played poorly in the first half, performed better in the second
half, and for the first time in what seems like a long while, KC got some close calls to actually
go their way as referee Sorin Stoica gave KC two PKs for fouls in the box by the Impact.
Saturday's match in Quebec will be the opener of Stade Saputo's MLS era. The Montreal Impact are
in many ways similar to the Sounders, not just because of the players, but the number of
connections they maintained to their USL & A-League past. They haven't been awful this year. The
3-7-3 record this year isn't in the horrid levels that most expansion teams experience.
In a home match the Colorado Rapids could ill afford to lose the team got a 3-2 win over the
expansion Montreal Impact thanks to a Southern wind and atrocious officiating on Saturday
night.
Tied at 2 and down a man with the 61st minute ejection of Tyrone Marshall, the Rapids got the
victory off an 83rd minute free kick that a strong wind kept the ball dancing along the crossbar
until Jaime Castrillon headed it into the back of the net.
Another set of stats for you, this one for the Red Bulls. The Red Bulls are the only team of the original MLS teams still around that Kansas City has never met in a competition outside of league play. They've never met in the playoffs, Open Cup, or any other competition, so the league and all competitions will be the same.
Here's a look at the appearances and minutes played against the Houston Dynamo. This list will have a lot more current players on it due to Houston's recent move to the East.
First, league appearances.
1. Michael Harrington - 11 2. Davy Arnaud - 10 Jack Jewsbury - 10 4.
Next on the list of appearances and minutes is FC Dallas/Dallas Burn. Another of the original teams in the league, KC had plenty of games to face off against Dallas when they were in the Western Conference. Less so recently, so the appearances drop off for current players.
Continuing the stats for appearances and minuts against each team, today it is Colorado. Being one of the original teams in the league with KC, these two have played a number of times. Less so in recent seasons since KC's move to the East. So the top players on this list are players from KC's early years.
Some new stats that I'm starting. A look at the players who have played the most games and minutes for Kansas City and in the season series with each MLS team. With 20 teams to go through I'm going to go through each team one at a time. In alphabetical order, starting with the Chicago Fire.
More stats, here's the goal scorers in all competitions through the end of the 2012 season. One new player joins the list this year. First here are the previous years.
To start off my look at player stats for the offseason. First a look at the 10,000 minute club.
In league play, no new players joined the club this year. Like last year, Matt Besler is the closest one to join this list, just over 1,000 minutes away from the mark. Jimmy Nielsen at 8,437 also has a very good shot at making the mark in the 2013 season.
The opening week of the 2013 MLS season delivered some quality goals, and it wasn't easy to pick the best one, but ultimately it was the debut goal from one of the weekend's most impressive newcomers that stood out the most.
Portland midfielder Diego Valeri's beautiful goal in Sunday's 3-3 draw vs.
Tomorrow's match against the Impact marks the beginning of the second dense stretch of games the
Sounders will have to play this season. If Seattle manages to make the US Open Cup semifinal by
beating the San Jose Earthquakes, they won't have a full week between games until after the July 18
friendly with Chelsea - a run of 10 matches in one month.
A fair result may be nil-nil. Fair results don't count for one amazing play. Davy Arnaud had one of those. Seattle Sounders FC had none. Montreal set themselves in a defensive posture, created a goal behind brilliant play and held onto win. There was a slight issue with marking on the winning play, but it is one of those moments that requires the tip of the cap.
In a much anticipated opener after the departure of defensive stalwart Jeff Parke, Fredy Montero and fellow Designated Player Christian Tiffert there were a lot of missing faces that have become familiar to the friendly confines of CenturyLink Field. In addition to the afforementioned players, Sounders were also missing Marc Burch & Osvaldo Alonso to suspension and David Estrada to injury.
Active without a club or unknown
Stephane Auvray
Chris Brunt
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Pablo Escobar
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Tom Gray
Willy Guadarrama
Santiago Hirsig
Aaron Hohlbein
Jonathan Leathers
Carlos Marinelli
Ryan McMahen
Anthony Noriega
Ryan Pore
Sergei Raad
Ofori Sarkodie
Luke Sassano
Sam Scales
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson
MLS Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Montreal's 3-1 win
over New York.
Another week of former SKC Wizards updates for you. Mike Jones was officially introduced by his
club in Denmark and their season kicks off in the near future. Here's the rest of this week's
update.
Active without a club or unknown
Stephane Auvray
Chris Brunt
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Pablo Escobar
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Tom Gray
Willy Guadarrama
Santiago Hirsig
Aaron Hohlbein
Jonathan Leathers
Carlos Marinelli
Ryan McMahen
Anthony Noriega
Ryan Pore
Sergei Raad
Ofori Sarkodie
Sam Scales
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson
MLS Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 88 minutes, scoring a goal and recording an
assist in Montreal's 4-2 win over Houston.
Lost in the madness of the U.S. men's national team's start of World Cup qualifying, the MLS
international break and Euro 2012 is the fact that MLS All-Star voting has begun and is in full
swing.Â
The MLS All-Stars will take on UEFA Champions League and FA Cup winner Chelsea at PPL Park in a
little more than a month with an eye on snapping a three-game losing streak after a loss to Everton
(in penalties) and two losses to Manchester United.
MLS has released their list of the top vote getters for the upcoming MLS AllStar game with EPL
side Chelsea. Here is the list of the top vote getters in the four categories.
Leaders in Fan Voting (as of June 18, 2012):
Top 10 in Text Voting
1Â Chris Wondolowski (SJ)
2Â Jimmy Nielsen (SKC)
3Â Eric Brunner (POR)
4Â Graham Zusi (SKC)
5Â Nat Borchers (RSL)
6Â Davy Arnaud (MTL)
7Â Steven Beitashour (SJ)
8Â Dan Kennedy (CHV)
9Â Aurelien Collin (SKC)
10Â Kei Kamara (SKC)
Top 5 Forwards
1Â Chris Wondolowski, F (SJ)
2Â Thierry Henry, F (NY)
3Â Fredy Montero, F (SEA)
4Â Kenny Cooper, F (NY)
5Â Robbie Keane, F (LA)
Top 7 Midfielders
1Â David Beckham, M (LA)
2Â Landon Donovan, M (LA)
3Â Dwayne De Rosario, M (DC)
4Â Kyle Beckerman, M (RSL)
5Â Brek Shea, M (DAL)
6Â Graham Zusi, M (SKC)
7Â Freddy Adu, M (PHI)
Fan voting for the First XI players to be named MLS All-Stars launched last Friday. After four
days of voting, Nick Rimando, Aurelien Collin, David Beckham and Chris Wondolowski lead at their
respective positions.
Twitter voting will occur June 21-22. Online and text voting concludes July 2 at 5 p.
Another week of former SKC Wizards updates. The foreign leagues are starting to wind down for the
season at this point. Here's the full update.
Active without a club or unknown
Stephane Auvray
Chris Brunt
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Pablo Escobar
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Tom Gray
Willy Guadarrama
Santiago Hirsig
Aaron Hohlbein
Mike Jones
Jonathan Leathers
Carlos Marinelli
Ryan McMahen
Anthony Noriega
Ryan Pore
Sergei Raad
Ofori Sarkodie
Sam Scales
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson
MLS Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Montreal's 1-1
draw with LA.
Herculez Gomez scored a brace this past week it what is the first week of the "new" former Wizards season. Each year I start the "season" when the MLS seasons starts, so Gomez is currently in the lead for the golden boot. Last season, Gomez finished 3rd in goals with 15 behind Eddie Johnson(19) and Yura Movsisyan (16).
