A few thoughts on the week of MLS action in the week before the international break.
The Emerald City Sees Red
I'm trying not to harp on Seattle news too much, but in the first three weeks it seems there's always something going on with them. In this case, fans, players and commentators were all pretty angry about a dive by Bolanos that got his team a penalty. (Here at 0:52 if you want to see yourself
Vancouver vs Sounders highlights) Referee Mark Geiger also made some pretty obvious gaffs outside of this call and the second penalty was questionable as well. The Sounders may have bigger things to worry about though, despite running an offensively-minded 4-3-3 none of the three star forwards have scored a goal yet, all of the offense has come long shots from midfielders; that shouldn't happen in a 4-3-3 so heavily balanced in favor of talent at the front. The Sounders are at 0-3-0 now, they'll have two weeks to regroup and they best use that time wisely or they could be in danger of remaining in the basement all season.
LA Soundly Win the First Leg of the Cali Classico
The Galaxy and the Quakes renewed their rivalry this weekend in the first leg of the Cali Classico that San Jose won last year. Simon Dawkins was sent off with a red that I thought was a little harsh, but not incredibly harsh early in the second half, and that loss of a man doomed the Quakes. The Quakes have other opportunities to get some revenge later in the season though and they do seem to be a better team than last year.
The Crew Can't Seem To Get Going
The Columbus Crew are another team that seemed to have strong offensive power coming into the season that seem to have fallen flat. Two goals in 3 games and still winless, if the Crew want to have a chance to make a return to MLS Cup they need to step up and start scoring goals, their defense isn't strong enough to keep them afloat without goals at the other end of the park. The good news is that they have two weeks to fix things, for their sake Greg Berhalter better figure out how to reignite that fire.
Sporting KC Are Perfect on the Season, But Are They Actually Good?
Sporting KC has 3 wins in 3 games and seems to be rolling along, but they've also done so off of some pretty odd circumstances. Their first two games saw the opposing teams get red cards in odd spots, and the second game saw a pretty badly missed offside call on their second goal. In their game tonight against Toronto the lone goal came off of a missed Brad Davis offensive foul, though the referee missing the call was understandable as it looked shoulder-to-shoulder in real time. Outside of playing a man up though, Sporting KC have looked downright average and their physical style will come back to bite them at some point in the season and almost did when Roger Espinoza saw red in the waning minutes of tonight's game. Of course, Sporting KC have been missing their main creator in Benny Feilhaber, who should return after the international break according to what he said on the broadcast today; that might make them look as dangerous as their place in the standings says they are.