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MLS Weekend Review

Squandered Chances and a Ridiculous Giovinco Goal

The underdogs ruled the weekend in Major League Soccer, as Orlando City crushed the Red Bulls, New York City FC held off Vancouver, and some well-positioned teams missed opportunities.
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
September 28, 2015
7:30 PM

PLAYOFF HOPEFULS ENJOYED a productive weekend in Major League Soccer as a number of marginal teams secured results that kept their playoff hopes alive. The Supporters’ Shield race, meanwhile, is a different story: Six teams still have a legitimate shot at the silverware.

Indeed, the top story to emerge is how the Red Bulls, Crew, Revolution, FC Dallas, and the Whitecaps all squandered their chances to take control of their respective conferences. A shocking number of teams, in short, failed to rise to the occasion.

Team of the Week: Portland Timbers

No team had its back against the wall more than the Portland Timbers entering the weekend. Without a win in its past four games, Portland was on the verge of falling out of the playoff zone, as Salt Lake, San Jose, and Houston were all within striking distance.

Portland had the difficult assignment of attempting to right the ship on the road against a surging Columbus Crew team in front of a hostile sold out crowd. Credit to the Timbers, as Caleb Porter’s squad responded well and earned a 2-1 victory to tighten its grip on the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Clunker of the Week: Red Bulls

This was not an easy selection. The Crew and Revolution each blew golden chances to climb to the top of the Eastern Conference table. The Whitecaps lost at home to New York City FC.  D.C. United continued its tailspin into the playoffs with yet another loss, this time against Montreal.

But the Red Bulls took "top honors" with its 5-2 home loss to Orlando City. A win would have put RBNY in the driver’s seat for the Supporters’ Shield. Instead, New York came out with an incredibly poor game plan that fell on head coach Jesse Marsch: Orlando abused diminutive Red Bulls full back Connor Lade and exposed the hosts’ weakness on the counter attack.

“They did well to get out of tight spots at different moments,” Marsch said of the Lions. “Credit to them—I thought Orlando played very well tonight. We were a little bit late on our shifting and sliding in dealing with things, and they're good on the ball, and then we lose some balls in bad spots and maybe we over-commit, and then all of a sudden we're on our heels.

"Combined with that, it's a night where you feel like everything that can go wrong does. You have nights like this; we're not immune to it. I feel strongly that we're a good team, but there's going to be nights where everything seems to go against you.”

For a franchise that has been prone to disappointment for two decades, Friday was more of the same.

Player of the Week: Didier Drogba

Orlando City’s Cyle Larin made a strong case for this with his hat trick against the Red Bulls. Sebastian Giovinco gave another stellar performance as he coasts toward the MVP trophy.

There is just no denying, though, how Didier Drogba has changed the entire complexion of the Eastern Conference. Montreal has had some strong players this season, including the likely MLS defender of the year in Laurent Ciman. But the addition of Drogba has turned the Impact into a team nobody wants to play. He is, quite simply, on another level.

The Ivory Coast legend scored twice inside the first 10 minutes Saturday against D.C. United, giving him seven goals in his first 401 minutes in MLS. Such a stunning conversion rate can’t help but make you wonder what might have been if he had joined Montreal from the start of the season (and the CONCACAF Champions League final).

Drogba, 37, has transformed Montreal from a merely good team into a legitimate contender, and Saturday’s two-goal effort was only further evidence. It doesn’t matter where Montreal finishes in the regular-season standings; given the team's current form, it should not surprise anyone to see them lift the Cup come December.

Goal of the Week: Sebastian Giovinco

While Giovinco wasn’t initially given credit for his world-class goal Saturday—with statisticians first ruling that Jonathan Osorio had the ball skim across a hair or two on his head—the Atomic Ant got the recognition he deserved with a reversal on Sunday. The goal-of-the-year candidate came on an outside-of-the-boot, impossible-angle floater into the far side netting.

By game’s end, Giovinco had broken the single-season MLS points record, too—all just in his first season.

Save of the week: Nick Rimando

Before the Real Salt Lake game, it seemed likely that no one was going to have a nicer save than Sporting Kansas City keeper Jon Kempin’s on Clint Dempsey. Well, Nick Rimando changed that with this spectacular save on fellow U.S. international Chris Wondolowski:

Unfortunately for the third-string national-team keeper, Real Salt Lake had an otherwise abysmal performance against San Jose, losing, 1-0.

Young Player of the Week: Cyle Larin

The Canadian forward has been a standout performer for Orlando City since being taken with the first overall pick in the 2015 SuperDraft. Larin is a shoo-in for the Rookie of the Year award, and his hat trick against the Red Bulls in a 5-2 win both gave him a staggering 14 goals on the season—and helped keep his club’s slim playoff hopes alive.

Fortunately for the United States’ U-23 side, which opens Olympic qualifying against Canada on Tuesday night, Larin said he will likely be with Canada’s senior team instead of the U-23s. Especially with entrenched starter Shane O’Neill out, Larin’s absence is a big break for the United States’ defense.

While Larin was stellar, Sporting Kansas City left back Amadou Dia also had an exceptional second half against Seattle in a 1-1 draw. The French-born American assisted on Dom Dwyer’s late equalizer and was strong on both sides of the ball.

And yet, like Larin, Dia will not be in Kansas City for Olympic qualifying, but the reasons in his case are harder to parse through. Despite the fact that a lack of natural fullbacks is perhaps the team’s biggest weakness, Dia simply went selected by U.S. U-23 head coach Andi Herzog.

Galaxy regain form, Shield lead

Entering Sunday night, the Galaxy were coming off a goalless streak that had reached a staggering 279 minutes. Just minutes into its high-profile matchup against FC Dallas, Bruce Arena’s team sent an early message that it had figured things out.

“We scored,” Arena said. “There’s been nothing wrong with us. I know you guys all look at the score line and lead off that. Our team has been scoring goals.” 

In the 11th minute, the Galaxy showcased its superior talent when Giovani Dos Santos fed Robbie Keane, who fed Zardes, who fed Dos Santos, who backheeled it home for a quick 1-0 lead. Just minutes later Keane doubled the lead. With the score 2-1 in the 53rd minute, Omar Gonzalez had his corner-kick shot saved, and Steven Gerrard roofed home the rebound to bring about the 3-1 final.

For the Galaxy, the stars all seemed to align for a romp over a fellow Supporters’ Shield contender.

“I think the first 15 minutes we looked really sharp and really dangerous and we got ourselves two goals in front, but we let them get back in the game just before halftime,” Gerrard told reporters. “But now as the game is finished, as I said, it’s all about maximum points. Performances come second at this stage of the season. It’s all about doing everything we can to get the [Supporters’ Shield].”

On Sunday the Galaxy moved ahead on points with 50 but it only has three games remaining. The Red Bulls and Whitecaps each have 48 points, but New York has five games remaining and Vancouver has four.

“Who knows, with everything in this league right now?” Arena said on the Supporters' Shield knowing other teams still have games in hand. “There’s one team with 50 points and that’s us. We got 50 in the bank; somebody else has to get that. That’s the most important thing.”

Brian Sciaretta is an American Soccer Now columnist and an ASN 100 panelist. Follow him on Twitter. 

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