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Late goals galore in MLS Week 3

SebastienLeToux (ISIphotos.com)

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The busiest weekend in MLS history produced what had to be the most last-minute heroics the league has ever seen in one week.

No less than four of the eight games played on Saturday saw late goals determine the outcome. From game-winners in Philadelphia and Chicago, to equalizers in Frisco and Sandy, fans around the country were treated to some serious late-game drama.

Leading off Saturday's late-goal charge was Sebastien LeToux, who completed his hat-trick with a game-winning free kick.

Here is LeToux's game-winner:

LeToux wasn't alone in delivering late. Here are three other clutch goals scored on Saturday by Ike Opara, Alvaro Saborio and Eric Avila:

IKE OPARA'S GAME-WINNER

ALVARO SABORIO'S EQUALIZER

ERIC AVILA'S EQUALIZER

Comments

  1. Shouldn’t that be Chester, Bridgeview, Frisco, and Sandy? Or did you mean Philly, Chicago, Dallas, and Salt Lake City?

    Reply
  2. You cannot honestly watch the games from the weekend and not say it was shocking.

    There were 8 goals that came directly off of disasterous plays.

    DC 1&2, SJ 1, LA 1 (two horrible plays), Chivas 1, NE 2nd & 4th.

    If you count terrible goaltending by Perkins and Burpo you get to 10 really bad goals.

    That is unheard of in any league.

    This weekend will not be remembered for late goals, but for HORRENDOUS miscues.

    Reply
  3. It was a good no call in the FC Dallas/Crew game. Handling should not be called when the ball is struck into the hand or arm of a player by another player that is so close by. Read the Laws of the game

    Handling the ball involves a deliberate act of a player making contact with

    the ball with his hand or arm. The referee must take the following into

    consideration:

    – the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)

    – the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)

    – the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an

    infringement

    Reply
  4. Thank you for noticing this. I mentioned it earlier and some dude blew me up and accused me of hating on MLS. It isn’t too much to ask for some professional quality defending. When that many mistakes happen league wide, maybe it’s just a fluke, or maybe it points to the lack of defensive quality across the board.

    Reply
  5. Dude, I love MLS. I live in freaking Austria and I watch the highlights of all the MLS games each week. This week I saw at least 4 goals that were the result of horrendous errors where the defenders either tried to dribble out of the back or played terrible balls back to the keeper or to the outside backs. That’s what I call poor defending. I’m not saying it doesn’t make for exciting games, but some of those mistakes were really difficult to watch.

    Reply
  6. You could not be more right on everything you said. RSL plays and attractive style of football and it’s a shame they’ve tied twice this year.

    Reply
  7. The Fire getting rid of Busch is proving to be disastrous. On top of that pulling Husidic for Mapp in the second half this past weekend has a lot of Fire fans boggled as to DLC’s thinking.

    Reply
  8. “A wiff on a punt!”

    Srfinger, we need to give credit to Jaime Moreno. He obviously played FIFA ’96 on Sega Genesis, where you were allowed to block the goalie’s punts (I once beat Qatar 94-1 using this tactic). Take note Bob Bradley.

    Reply
  9. This week provided the most horrific defending / goalkeeping errors leading to goals in MLS history.

    Only in a week like this can Seitz’s and Bouna’s goals look mundane.

    Ives, thoughts?

    Really, this was historic.

    Multiple back passes picked off.

    A wiff on a punt!

    OGs

    Gks pushing balls into their own nets.

    Nick Garcia getting stripped for a goal for the 15th time in his career.

    Cmon MLS defenders/keepers.

    Reply
  10. I hate that guy who commentates all these games!! “It’s in the net, it’s in the net” I hate that crap, I’m not even a soccer player (Basketball player) and I just recently began getting into soccer and I know that crap is whack.

    Reply
  11. Wow, just a terrible job by Schelotto there. Shameful the way he ran off to appeal for handball and left Avila all alone to shoot. Even if he was right, it was boneheaded.

    Reply
  12. Thomas,

    You don’t have to post on everything.

    If you don’t like MLS, one, you are missing out, but two, we won’t miss you if you don’t post.

    We will be ok. Trust me.

    Reply
  13. Most of Seattle agrees with you re: Ljungberg

    The funny thing was when he hurt his back, I think it was on the dive, selling a foul.

    Reply
  14. I think if MLS is going to succeed, they need to be modeled to approach what they have in Germany rather than the joke non-competitive leagues.

    Americans are up in arms that the Yankees have won it twice in the last ten years and have been good in between those….can you imagine a Man U scenerio ?

    Reply
  15. Tough to argue with Schelotto’s complaining…Crew fans, like myself, know that the good far outweighs the bad with him…on his day he can be the league’s best player…wish the Crew were less direct in the center of the park…Moffat took his goal well, but some more creativity would help in defending the Supporters Shield…We can agree to disagree on Lenhart 🙂

    Reply
  16. If by beautiful soccer your talking about RSL then I agree. Seattle’s only two shots on goal were the goals, they really couldn’t get too much going. And honestly if I was a Seattle fan I would be furious with Ljundberg, he spends more time on the ground complaining than he does playing. Honestly, he deserves an Oscar for selling his little dive to set up their 2nd goal. The both hands out twirl was world class! I knew he came over here for a reason!

    Reply
  17. Ives, next weekend will you include a post on game day so we can talk about all the MLS games that take place, not just two?

    Reply
  18. I’ll admit I turned teh RSL match off in the 90th. Sunday morning I saw the score and couldn’t believe what I was seeing!! Saborio has now arrived and will make his presence known if Kreis gives him a starting role consistently. Could definitely have a JPA-like season in his first year.

    Reply
  19. I fell asleep around the 92nd minute of the RSL/Seattle game and was rattled awake when the commentator SCREAMED when that header went in.

    The soccer in that game was fantastic by the way. Certainly DC’s incapacity to maintain possession influenced my perception on the RSL/Seattle game, but both of those teams know how to play beautiful soccer. The West is loaded this year.

    Reply
  20. Still a little pissed that RSL totaled 3 goals, Nat Borchers headed that 2nd SSFC goal in… Anyways, Edson Buddle’s on a hot streak, yeah?

    Reply
  21. I don’t know about the clear handball but I can see the clear stupidity of arguing for a handball and leaving a player to shoot. If Schelotto keeps playing and contests that shot the outcome is probably different.

    Lenhart is a hack. Haven’t seen anything yet that shows me he is ready for the next level. Maybe he will become more discipline and improve.

    Reply
  22. the question that is lingering on the tip of all of our tongues, Ives: will this result be enough to sink DC United down to dead last in your weekly MLS power ratings?

    Reply
  23. The Crew really got messed over here…clear handball, but the Crew’s inability to kill off the game was poor…On another note, Steven Lenhart is putting on a masterclass in playing target forward…look out for this kid in the next WC cycle…really maturing as a player…

    Reply
  24. Haha, the only thing worse than four auto-playing videos at work is four auto-playing videos that are so tiny you can’t see the ball. I got mercked!

    (SBI-The problem with the league-provided video is that you can’t embed them much bigger than we have them now (which are a bit bigger than you first saw them). The auto-play is a bit much so we’ll be sure not to include multiple links in the future.)

    Reply
  25. LaaaTooooooo ! We miss you in Seattle.

    How about the young guys in MLS ? Defense, midfield, goals, hat tricks even….all played by guys who are 1 or 2 years in the league.

    Exciting times in MLS fo sho….

    Reply

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