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MLS Matchday Eight (Your Running Commentary)

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Good evening folks. We've got a full slate of games on tap in MLS tonight as 10 of the league's 15 teams are in action.

Here is a rundown of tonight's schedule of matches:

  • 7pm- Kansas City Wizards at Columbus Crew

  • 7:30pm- Toronto FC at D.C. United

  • 8:30pm- New England Revolution at Chicago Fire

  • 9pm- FC Dallas at Houston Dynamo

  • 10:30pm- Real Salt Lake at Chivas USA

I will be providing commentary on a variety of matches tonight, including TFC-D.C. United, so please feel free to follow along. As always, feel free to share your own thoughts, opinions and play-by-play in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action:

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10:30pm– That's all for me tonight folks. Houston-Dallas is still going on and Real Salt Lake-Chivas is going to get underway. Feel free to continue sharing your thoughts in the comments section below. Thanks for following along. Good night all. 

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10:26pm– SAVE REIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he makes a diving save to help the Revs salvage a point in the final seconds. Revs 1, Fire 1. ANOTHER tie for Chicago. Mind-numbing how the Fire can't put teams away.

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10:23pm– Shalrie Joseph has playe a great match tonight. He's started out as a forward but has been everywhere.

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10:18pm– Apologies folks. The combined boredom between Dallas-Houston and Chicago-New England put me to sleep.

Both matches are still tied.

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10:02pm– Blanco misses JUST wide by inches. It's still 1-1 Revs-Fire. The Dynamo-FC Dallas match is going into the half scoreless.

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9:52 pm– 60th minute in the Revs-Fire match. Ralston is in the game now and already making an impact.

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9:50 pm– Still tied at Toyota Park. Looks like the crowd has filled out in Bridgeview. Will the Fire settle for another tie?

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9:41 pm- GOAL REVS!!!!!!!!!!! And it's Shalrie Joseph with an easy tap-in. Some very slack defending from Chicago. Revs 1, Fire 1

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9:34pm– Chicago is up 1-0 on New England. Wilman Conde with the goal. New England is struggling badly. One shot on goal in the first half despite some decent possession.

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9:32pm– The DC-Toronto FC tie is good news for Red Bulls fans. Now we'll see what Houston does tonight in its match before facing the Red Bulls next week.

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9:30pm– WHAT AN ENDING in the DC-Toronto FC match. Dwayne DeRosario scored what looked to be the game-winner before a Marvell Wynne handball gave DC a penalty. Moreno converted perfectly to finish the game 3-3.

Houston-FC Dallas is on ESPn Classic for those who don't want to watch volleyball. It's scoreless in the 16th minute.

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9:12pm – Columbus with its first win of the season. You know the Crew will start the march up the standings. They're too good not to.

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9:08pm – Danny Dichio has come in for Nana Attakora. Serioux will slide into central defense.

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9:07pm– Yes, ESPN is pre-empting Houston-FC Dallas for college volleyball (bites tongue).

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9:04 pm– Stefan Frei looks extremely good tonight, and his goal kicks are CRAZY LONG. Seriously, he's booming them with ease into the other penalty area. I wonder if any of those teams that passed on him are regretting it now. A lot of teams should regret passing on him.

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8:59pm– Shalrie Joseph is playing as a forward for New England tonight. Sounds crazy, but the Revs sure need to shake things up after the past two weeks.

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8:57pm- GOAL TORONTO FC!! and It's Adrian Serioux with the header off a Guevara free kick. TFC 2, DC 1.

DC JUST MISSED WIDE!!!

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8:50pm– CREW 3, WIZARDS 2. Holy heck. A shootout in Columbus.

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8:45 pm- GOAL TORONTO FC!!!! And it's Dwayne DeRosario with a sweet flick shot directly from a LONG Stefan Frei goal kick. TFC 1, DC 1.

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8:41pm– Back to the DC-Toronto game. It's still 1-0 to DC in the 51st minute.

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8:38pm– Chicago-New England has just kicked off and the crowd at Toyota Park is SPARSE. No Bulls in the playoffs tonight so I wonder what the excuse will be from the Fire front office this time.

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8:36pm–  Still 2-1 to Columbus over KC in the 70th minute.

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8:24pm– Crew fans are throwing things at Claudio Lopez as he tries to take a corner kick. Play has stopped.

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8:23pm– It's halftime in DC and we're switching to KC-Columbus, where the Crew just retook the lead, now up 2-1 in the 57th minute.

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8:16pm-  Toronto FC nearly went down 2-0, but a DC goal was ruled offside. Toronto has had much more of the ball and is knocking on the door.

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8:09pm– D.C. dodges a bullet after a miscommunication between Jackovic and Kocic.

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8:08pm– It's the 32nd minute in DC and Toronto FC has settled things down and are getting much more possession.

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8:07pm– Adrian Serioux looks to be struggling with an injury of some type right now. He's playing in defensive midfield for Carl Robinson, with Nana Attakora playing in central defense with Kevin Harmse.

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7:58pm– Columbus has taken a lead vs. KC at the half. Emmanuel Ekpo with the finish for the Crew. Can the champions finally win one? Facing a tired Wizards squad, they should be able to.

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7:55pm– Two rookie goalkeepers facing off today in Stefan Frei and Milos Kocic.

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7:54pm– Great crowd at RFK Stadium tonight.

Toronto's usually solid midfield has been overrun so far. If D.C. could get some better service on set plays they'd be up 2-0 or 3-0 instead of 1-0.

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7:52pm– It's the 16th minute at RFK and Toronto has started to get involved a bit more. Rodney Wallace has looked good early on today.

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7:49pm– D.C. United is up 1-0 on Toronto FC after some sloppy defending in the area by TFC. Nsilu with the goal for D.C. This one is at RFK and D.C. United has been all over Toronto tonight. I'm hearing that several TFC players are sick tonight, and it looks like it.

Comments

  1. ESPN is (crap). They put more into the XFL’s one season than they ever have for MLS. And yes, Jim Rome needs his head “examined”.

    Reply
  2. RSF
    My point is they were showing “classic boxing” from 1993 on ESPN1 and a live MLS game on ESPN Classic. It just seems backwards to me. Wouldnt it make more sense to show the “vintage boxing” on ESPN Classic and the live game on ESPN1. I was just frustrated that ESPN’s MLS “Game of Week” was switched to a channel that few people have while ESPN1 was showing an old boxing match from 16 years ago.

    I’ll only stop complaining about ESPN’s coverage when soccer games get full pre game and post game coverage. And when they get someone to slap Jim Rome in the face.

    Reply
  3. @ sucram89

    The game was only on ESPN Classic for 15 minutes. The NCAA Mens Volleyball National Championship ran late. As soon as that was over they switched back to ESPN2 like normal. Plus they showed highlights of the DC game AND a live look in for the Revs game.

    I would stop complaining and be happy they showed as much as they did. They are stepping it up if anything

    Reply
  4. WHat are y’all talking about, all the games are televised, get Direct Kick and you can watch all of them. The games last night were brilliant especially DC-Toronto, the upside down flag might be a showing for the chicago kids that have been murdered, as far as marketing espn only markets the games they broadccast just like for any other sport don’t blame them, I thought tere coverage last night was very good, I loved the look in during half time. MLS and the individual teams are responsible for marketing if they wold market all of their players instead of just one or two then you’d probably see more of a return.

    Reply
  5. BIG BIG BIG thanks to the Toronto FC fans for showing up at RFK and supporting our effort to get a stadium built.

    Your banner was amazing. Much respect for all of you.

    Reply
  6. getting promotion for MLS is a tough thing. For it to be promoted, people must be watching it. But for people to be watching it, it must be promoted.

    You see the problem? Big sports advertisers like espn are not going to go out of their way to promote MLS or soccer in general. It is going to stick with only big competitions plus the big 3 and a few sputters here and there about a couple other things. The other problem is MLS is not making commercials to promote the league. Now, I do not know why, I have not researched anything, it is just a fact I and many others do not see any promotion outside of an MLS game. However, there is hope. The Summer will be a busy schedule (U.S. national team) and MLS does have its clubs going up against European teams. Hopefully this can spark some interest.

    I would like to see MLS use multiple national stations to for games that are more likely to be available to more audiences rather than just the combination of FSC and ESPN. (unless they actually do that already, I have not seen it yet.)

    It might be possible that we would see more games and get far more promotion, hence more people, and hence better MLS coverage over-all. Or I could be completely wrong about all of that.

    Reply
  7. pride of the east
    You hit the nail on the head.

    I also think they should televise more games in Seattle and Toronto since those teams are almost guaranteed to have a reasonable amount of fans.

    Did anyone else find it ridiculous that the game on ESPN2 was moved to ESPN Classic? I flipped over to ESPN1 and they were giving vintage boxing from 1993. Wouldn’t it make more sense if they move the vintage boxing to ESPN Classic and televised the game on ESPN1 instead. The people working at ESPN are either soccer haters or just plain stupid.

    Reply
  8. MLS’s biggest problem is that games Like DC – Toronto arent telivised, and web sites are its greatest news and publicity source.

    Reply
  9. Upside down US flag usually means one of two things.

    1. S.O.S. The flag is flown upside down when a ship is under duress, like when they’re taking on water, have been taken by pirates or are having a season like this year’s Crew.

    2. a f#d up seamstress

    In all seriousness, good showing by the Crew. I think they’ve looked like a good side, despite the record.

    Plus they took points off of KC, who were gaining on Seattle. 🙂 Now, we’re two points up with two games in hand.

    I’m a single-table type of guy.

    Reply
  10. Best MLS game ending i’ve ever seen hands down! (DC vs TFC) Glad I was there… Not even locally telivised due to the Capitals losing on CSN. wow!

    Reply
  11. Toronto FC has been in some high scoring affairs – they beat KC 3-2 near the start of the season. With two quality attacking mids in Guevara and Rosario, they are a handfull.

    Well KC again camp up short thanks to some erratic defending – I wish CO would just admit that Herzig cannot provide enough cover and get Jewsbury some help in center mid….

    Reply
  12. I’ve heard a lot of people saying Kljestan is playing terrible because he hasn’t been getting on the score sheet…but I think Bob Bradley is going to notice primarily the fact that his team has 8 more points than any other MLS team.

    Reply
  13. Jay Heaps is the biggest cheat in MLS. Geiger is a complete idiot for a ref too.

    Ward sent a through ball to Nyarko, Heaps slid in and reached up with his hand to knock it down. Ball falls to Thorrington so Geiger calls advantage. But, Nyarko was free and alone.

    Should have been a red for Heaps.

    Jay Heaps is on Eddie Gaven status now.

    Reply
  14. Hey, I might regret not taking Frei, who did look great, but I’ll take the six goals from the PartyBoy/Wallace axis.

    Reply
  15. Hey this is cool from ESPN. they’re giving us coverage from something on a different channel.

    Maybe there is hope…..

    Reply
  16. Blanco fixed his flag with a short sleeved jersey but now Brandon Prideaux has an upside down flag on.

    This is kinda funny.

    Reply
  17. Well done by Jorge Gonzalez stopping play tonight in Columbus, I’m glad a referee finally took a stand against Columbus fans throwing stuff.

    Reply
  18. That was one of the best MLS game’s I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a lot). The goals were quality (even the route 1 ball from Frei was a deft touch from DeRo). Too bad the ref lost it a bit with the cards at the end, but over all he stayed out of the way. Unfortunate penalty for Wynne, but great game. Deserved point for both teams. TFC will get the full compliment when DC venture north!

    Reply
  19. Oh, come on! This is ESPN tradition. They do anything they can to rub soccer’s face in the dirt. Now they’re going to do interviews!

    Reply
  20. volleyball? College volleyball? MEN’S college volleyball??? Ouch. I’d understand if it was beach volleyball, but this hurts.

    Reply
  21. I never understand this – ESPN never allots enough time to some of its events. I don’t mind when MLS has to be preempted on occasion – things don’t always go as planned. But they do it a lot to MLS, putting things on (like the men’s volleyball championship) on and assume it will take the least amount of time possible. I’m sure they do it so they they don’t inadvertently have airtime they need to fill…but like I said, they do it a lot to MLS. And then they wonder why they don’t have the ratings they want.

    Reply
  22. I’m guessing Blanco comes out in the 2nd half with the Flag fixed. He has long sleeves on and it was probably a last second stitch job gone wrong.

    I saw it in the 32nd minute on a close up.

    Reply
  23. Blanco’s American Flag is upside down on his jersey?

    Anyone else seeing this?

    I wonder if there is a reason for this.

    Reply
  24. There are a bunch of mildly interesting angles in this TFC-DCU match. For one, many were arguing pre-draft that DCU should choose Frei–they went with Kocic in the second round instead. Also, the miscommunication between Jakovic and Kocic is ironic–Jakovic’s last club was Belgrade Red Star and Kocic is from the former Yugoslavia. Both clubs upgraded heavily in the draft so it’s an interesting comparison of rookies. DCU is coming off two dramatically different child stories: Fred’s daughter had skull removal surgery (to allow for growth and remove pressure on the brain) while Quaranta’s wife give birth to a daughter yesterday. Finally, it’s a bit curious starting Kocic since he was a bit unsteady against FCD’s high crosses and I’d expect he’ll see a steady diet of those with Dichio in the game.

    Reply
  25. Columbus up 1-0 thanks to Emannuel Ekpo. Rogers gets it to Schelloto, Schelloto backheels for Moreno, Moreno backheels for Rogers, Rogers loses it but it falls to Ekpo. Rogers has looked dangerous though.

    Reply

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