So much for the Los Angeles Galaxy season collapsing.
The Galaxy halted its recent slide in commanding fashion, delivering a 3-1 victory against the Columbus Crew on Saturday to regain sole possession of the best record in MLS and ease fears that the team was in danger of falling apart.
Los Angeles stepped up with a needed win, but several other teams in dire need of three points fell woefully short. Playoff pretenders Toronto FC and the Chicago Fire both entered their matches expected to record precious points, but both were shut out, leaving them both in serious danger of falling out of the playoff race.
One team that rebounded well was the New York Red Bulls, which shook off last week's loss to Real Salt Lake by handily beating a Colorado side that never looked like a threat.
Here is a look at last weekend's MLS action:
Chivas USA 2, New England Revolution 0
The playoffs are still a REAL longshot, but Martin Vasquez's team put together a strong and promising performance. Meanwhile, the Revs were just plain awful, leaving the playoffs looking like a pipe dream. HIGHLIGHTS
New York Red Bulls 3, Colorado Rapids 1
The Red Bulls have found a starting lineup that works, and Thierry Henry is starting to look like his old self. The real key for the Red Bulls is the play of wingers Dane Richards and Joel Lindpere. As for Colorado, the Rapids paid for a slow start and must still learn how to win on the road, and are still relying too much on Omar Cummings. HIGHLIGHTS
D.C. United 1, Toronto FC 0
There wasn't a more embarrassing result than this one for Toronto, which has suddenly gone from unbeatable at home to very vulnerable. This loss could be the first major step in another late-season slide, while D.C. appears to be responding to new coach Ben Olsen. HIGHLIGHTS
Philadelphia Union 1, Chicago Fire 0
The Fire learned what many have learned, that the Union can be very touch to deal with at PPL Park. Sebastien LeToux continues to build his MVP case (though it's still a losing one) while Brad Knighton stakes his claim to the starting goalkeeping job. As for Chicago, the Fire is running out of time to catch the pack in the playoff race. HIGHLIGHTS
San Jose Earthquakes 0, FC Dallas 0
The Dallas defense put together another strong road performance while San Jose has to feel disappointed at its inability to generate many quality scoring chances. The FC Dallas unbeaten streaks is made even more impressive by the fact that Schellas Hyndman has been starting rookies Zach Loyd and Eric Alexander. HIGHLIGHTS
Los Angeles Galaxy 3, Columbus Crew 1
The Galaxy rediscovered some much-needed swagger in thrashing the Crew. Landon Donovan showed some energy that has been lacking in recent weeks, while the Galaxy attacked showed it could still produce without Edson Buddle. Columbus won't spend much time dwelling on this one with CONCACAF Champions League looming, but Andres Mendoza's consolation goal was a good start for the Peruvian newcomer. HIGHLIGHTS
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What did you think of this week's matches? Consider Los Angeles the MLS Cup favorite again? Starting to think the Red Bulls can win MLS Cup this year? Think Chicago and Toronto FC are doomed to miss the playoffs?
Share your thoughts below.
Yeah, I’m with you Ives. That has to suck in any sport to have such a great individual season as a player and yet have such a crappy season as a team. Would love to see a historical list of Superstar athletes having banner years on craptastic teams. Any sport would be fine. Suggestions?
Holy bomb from Omar Cummings!! GOTW???
dear ives, thanks for the locker room materiel regarding my race for mvp. but if you know anything about me, i could care less about silly awards. i love my team and even more the wonderful people who cheer me on every week at ppl park. i will just continue to score and assist in every game i play while also putting in a full 90 minutes of heart and hustle.
thanks!
seba
(SBI-Did you really get some joy out of pretending to be LeToux? Listen, I think he’s having a great year, and I remember writing at the time that Seattle would regret letting him go, but I’m just being realistic about his MVP candidacy. It’s not happening.)
Go Quakes. Giovanni is looking like a good DP pick up. Nice to see the team getting better.
Ream’s contact on Cummings was a hard hit to the shoulders, which very well could have been a penalty. There was no way that Cummings flopped there!
Lmao that’s so true he’s playing like how he plays on friendlys this is.what we need now if kanji can play like that.
San Jose were w/o both starting central MF’s so as disappointing as a home draw was it’s better than a loss against a good Dallas team right now. Eduardo looked pretty good in his first minutes in a long time and nearly won the game late on, but this draw combined with the dropped points by Toronto, Chicago, AND Colorado is almost like a win anyway.
All SJ need is to get some of our injured players back in time for the playoffs and hope Eduardo and Geo continue to gel. And after 2 abysmal seasons its nice be thinking about the post-season realistically.
i havent seen richards play with this much confidence for this long. he’s finally learned how to cut the ball! rather than just running in a straight line and sending in an awful cross.
Red bullls are beast look to see them go on a run to the champion ship. Richards form haas helped the team out a lot, that bein said I predict a red bullls vs galaxy final
Ives-Is Le Toux’s case a losing one only because Philly won’t likely make the playoffs? If they do make the playoffs, Le Toux’s 11 goals, 10 assists, out of 27 team goals gets my vote any day.
(SBI-K-Town, he’s having a great year, but there’s no way he gets the votes for MVP because he’s on the second worst team in MLS. How much value can you have if your team finishes at the bottom? Obviously you could argue that Philly would be winless or have one or two wins without him, but with just five wins, I don’t see him getting the votes.)
I’m starting to like Omar Cummings a lot, mainly because he doesn’t dive, which is becoming exceedingly rare these days.
Don’t get me wrong, he flopped once or twice…particularly when Tim Ream made contact with him in the box (contact was there, would have been a very soft penalty though). But these days there are so many effing divers in soccer that I’m now willing to separate diving from what I guess I will call “going down kind of easily in a somewhat understandable situation.”