Whether you like cross-country clashes, or tense reunions, this weekend's MLS schedule has something for you.
This weekend in Major League Soccer will be headlined by a battle of East vs. West as five intra-conference match-ups line the schedule. Perhaps more intriguing than those match-ups are the reunions Sigi Schmid will have with former club Columbus and Dwayne DeRosario will have with former club Houston.
Chicago already topped Chivas USA in the battle of conference leaders on Thursday, so it will be up to Houston (playing host to Toronto FC) and Seattle (playing host to Columbus) to regain some respect for the West.
You can find this weekend's full schedule of matches after the jump, along with the Best XI individual match-ups to watch:
This weekend's MLS Schedule
Saturday
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Colorado Rapids at New York Red Bulls, 7:30pm (MSG)
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D.C. United at New England Revolution, 7:30pm (Direct Kick)
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Toronto FC at Houston Dynamo, 8:30pm (Direct Kick)
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Columbus Crew at Seattle Sounders, 10:3pm (FSC)
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Kansas City Wizards at Los Angeles Galaxy, 10:30pm (Direct Kick)
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Real Salt Lake at San Jose Earthquakes, 10:30pm (Direct Kick)
SUNDAY
- FC Dallas at Chicago Fire, 3pm (Telefutura)
Best XI Match-ups to Watch
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Jimmy Conrad vs. Landon Donovan
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Chad Marshall vs. Freddy Montero
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Guillermo Barros Schelotto vs. Jhon Kennedy Hurtado
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Amado Guevara vs. Ricardo Clark
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Marvell Wynne vs. Brad Davis
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Dwayne DeRosario vs. Bobby Boswell
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Kenny Cooper vs. Bakary Soumare
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Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace vs. Darrius Barnes and Kevin Alston
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Stuart Holden vs. Carl Robinson
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Conor Casey vs. Kevin Goldthwaite
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Dave Van Den Bergh vs. Tim Ward
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Which match are you most looking forward to seeing? Which individual match-up do you consider the one to watch?
If you will be watching this weekend's action then make this your place to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below (except for the Rapids/Red Bulls match, which I will provide live commentary for).
Enjoy the action.
Anyone watch Houston vs. Toronto? LOL! Funny stuff!
What a surprise from Chicago today, the entire team looked awful. Somehow Tim Ward managed to be not only the Fire’s best defender, but also their most dangerous player in the attack, too. Never a good sign…
I would guess that DC fans are furious about that penalty, BUT… Wick really escaped a red card for his actions: elbows to Twellman’s head do not constitute good goalkeeping. I think both teams could agree that the reffing was awful, but this Revs fan is thrilled that karma really exists.
Posted by: cammiev | May 31, 2009 at 09:46 AM
You say that like Twellman didn’t have it coming for being such a douche…
In all seriousness, I have to agree. Though I did spend several minutes rewinding me DVR, watching that play over and over and over and over and over. Nothing beats a good ol’ punch in the face in the middle of a sporting event for quality family entertainment. I have never laughed so hard while watching a soccer game before in my life.
Kudos to Wicks. If he’s gonna do that to every douchebag in the league, he gets my vote for starting keeper until he retires. Between looking like he’s permanently baked and punching TT in the face, he’s swiftly earning the title of Goofiest Player to Ever Play for United.
It’s quite an honor.
Ummm, that is assuming they don’t give up 3 goals in the next 6+ min.
Wow!!! Not only a win for FCD, but a romp at that. Who’d have thought? Not me.
2-0 Dallas over Fire at the Half
I don’t remember that many boos for the O’Rourk injury but I’ll take your word for it. I thought the Ekpo booing was deserved. He went down right in front of my seat both times and as soon as play moved on and the cameras weren’t on him he completely dropped the limp both times.
One thing that drives me mad about some of my fellow sounders fans is how much we whine about the refs. I have no idea how anyone watching that game could come away with the impression that the refs “stole” another game from us. But it seems like a lot of people managed to think that.
Anybody watching the Fire-Dallas game? Prideaux got run over by his his man to let in the first goal on a corner kick and then on the 2nd corner kick (in the 18th or 19th minute) totally lost the shortest (or at least close to it) guy on the field (Dax McCarthy) and allowed him a free header, which was fortunately right at Jon Busch. He’s such a liability on those corner/free kicks.
As I said, I was talking about O’Rourke getting injured. He was taken out of the game, and Columbus had to play a man down for several minutes. I don’t think he was faking.
In Columbus, they cheer when a player gets up and walks off an injury. In Seattle, they assume the guy is faking and boo. It was harsh of me to say Seattle fans have no class. There is a lot to be admired about them, but you really should not boo until the guy gets up and starts running. Then boo all you want.
“Ljunberg misses two sitters…why does Sigi let a player who’s been out 2 weeks take those kicks?”
Because Ljundberg’s the most experienced, technical guy on the pitch. He wasn’t injured, he’s fit enough to play 90, he can take the kicks. He missed, it happens, yes, it hurt. What Seattle really missed is a midfield working together, IMHO.
Never First,
If an away team has “sold” two injuries the way Ekpo did, and then time wasted like no tomorrow for the draw (including the 4 minutes it took them to line up along the goal line after the back pass), you’ll get boos from the home fans. Ekpo did more than “sell” the first one, and the second one, if he was injured, once again, it was a miraculous recovery. Saying that they have “no class” because they’re sick of watching 15 minutes roll off the clock because of various columbus “injuries” is moronic. But then again, I guess it is the bandwagon thing to do now to pile on Sounders fans.
Never First is wrong, the Seattle fans and the official got it right. Ekpo was contacted by the sidelines and was about to go down, but instead walked two paces inside the line then plopped (obviously to stop the game). The official asked him to roll back and he delayed. I’m glad they restarted play immediately because Ekpo jumped up when he saw that play would continue without him. These tactics to delay games deserve boos and more yellow cards.
Wow,LA deserved to win that even with 10 men,thats what happens when you start alan gordon….he misses all three chances….give buddle the hardest one and he finishes is clinically
I was actually talking about when O’Rourke fell down holding his leg and had to be taken out of the match. The fans booed him.
I’ll admit Epko sold the first one, although he really did get kicked in the bum which can be painful if you’ve never had it happen to you before. On the second one, he got kicked about four times in the ankle.
I don’t mind booing when the guy comes back on the field after a miraculous recovery. I do mind booing while the guy is on the ground holding his leg in pain.
I would guess that DC fans are furious about that penalty, BUT… Wick really escaped a red card for his actions: elbows to Twellman’s head do not constitute good goalkeeping. I think both teams could agree that the reffing was awful, but this Revs fan is thrilled that karma really exists.
SJ won??!!?? I knew last place in the Power Rankings was inevitable for my Burn, just didn’t think it would be this week.
yeah! the ref undercalled the galaxy game for the first time this season. Also Galaxy were the better team even though they were down 1 man most of the game. Buddle is back. Now the Gals have offense. Galaxy is due for 4 wins in a row. Wait Donovan is leaving for a month. 4 more ties. F.
Ekpo literally rolled slowly off the field after writhing for minutes and then popped to his feet and wanted back on. I’ll boo that if it’s my own team doing it.
If you’re referring to booing Ekpo, are you serious about him being truly injured? Well, those were two miraculous recoveries! I tell you, there is something amazing about being off the field of play for that guy. One minute he’s writhing in what can only be truly excruciating pain, the next he’s doing great. Yeah, pulling that stuff while you’re away, will always get booed.
Freddy Ljunberg misses two sitters one from the spot the other from 6 yards out. Question is, why does Sigi let a player who’s been out two weeks take those kicks.
Seattle fans have no class (if voting for all of their only players for the All-Star game was not a clue). I appreciate the enthusaism, but booing when a player is truly injured is terrible.
Looks like the Galaxy are unbeatable! For those who said they couldn’t believe they couldn’t win with a man advantage in their last game, they came from behind down a man this time. If only they could figure out how to win!
aaaaaand scratch that. 1-1.
Scratch that. 1-0 Wiz!
Interesting note: No ties this week in MLS! (But both SEA-CLB and LA-KC are tied in the 80th minute).
It’s time for a coaching change in salt lake as much as i like kries he’s got to go he just can’t inspire these players
Wow! Ljungberg missed the penalty. I can’t even find fault with that one being called, although it was against my team.
I would even take Bryant Gumbel…
I cant take another game with ESPN or FSC commentators. What a joke! Is Dennis Miller available?
Cheers to better refs next season! That poop was crazy!
announcers should be banned from saying penetrate. Sounds very wrong while watching soccer.
you don’t drink? Ah I’ll drink for the both of us. 🙂
sonicdeathmonkey:
I’m not really just commenting on this one instance. There always seems to be something wrong on the site. Even when the matchtracker seems to be working, it’s not. The games sometimes freeze at a certain minute in the match and then don’t update anymore. Sometimes they freeze in the final minute of the match so that an hour after the game is over it still shows the game as being in the 90th minute. The point is, is that I thought since they can’t afford players or even referees, they might be able to hire some people who can run a website. I guess that’s too much to ask.
I don’t even drink, but that has me tempted to go find a bottle of something somewhere.
Nope, got some bud light and high life. I feel bad for my liver.
Hey Ives, can you look into whether MLS execs put out some kind of memo that anytime someone falls down in the box, you must call a penalty?
Hey, Krista, care for company?
I thought Chivas got robbed, that was simple brandishing a weapon to the full Ocean’s 11 that just got pulled on DC…
Aristotle, I’m fairly certain it is not intentional. Matchtracker has been down before. This seems to be the case. Chill.
A few weeks ago, I defended MLS officials. I have never been so wrong about anything. Officials are determined to ruin this season. I’m a Crew fan, so I don’t even care about any of these teams. However, I do care about soccer in this country, and this is just shameful.
What is with the MLS website? Now they don’t even keep track of their own games in progress? If they don’t care anymore, why do they expect anyone else will? Maybe they will post the scores tomorrow. Meanwhile I’ll go to an English website to get the scores of MLS games.
F***ing BS. Time to go develop a drinking problem.
COIMPLETE AND UTTER (CRAP) PENALTY. twellman EVEN LAUGHING ABOUT IT. THIS IS DONE.
Whoa. 3-0 Houston!
who is this man Landon Donovan? are you talking about baby jesus?
Like the energy of play of the DC game. Course it helps we are up a goal.
I’m going out on a limb and predicting that the Galaxy will get a draw against the Wizards. Also, any goal the Gals score will have Landon involved somehow.
“FSC people, you aren’t a fan of the game if you don’t support your nation’s league.”
Huh?
I’m certainly most interested in TFC at Houston, which is really saying something.
DC on turf doesn’t seem promising, but without Gomez maybe it won’t matter as much.
RSL first road win of the season………………… i hope
The Brimstone Cup is coming home to Chicago!
Ekpo v the revolving door at Sounders LB could make/break the game. Sure it isn’t a star studded matchup, but I expect to that to be Seattle’s biggest challenge.
Sturgis or Ianni or Wahl will start.
And in a must win for vital power ranking standings, the performance of Zakuani v Zayner should be entertaining as well.
FSC people, you aren’t a fan of the game if you don’t support your nation’s league.