Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Football Americana Week 2: Maybe it does give you wings after all

This coming weekend will see more games in one day than any other in Major League Soccer's history, but football-starved fans had to make do with a truncated week two over the Easter weekend. Only two sides emerged from the second round of fixtures with six points in their pockets; one of them might just surprise you a tad.

On Thursday night we had a chance to see how defending champions Real Salt Lake would shape up against better opposition than the Quakes, who they hammered last weekend. Houston Dynamo emerged victorious at Robertson Stadium, continuing their unbeaten record in home openers. Javier Morales continued his great start of the season by opening the scoring early on, but two second half penalties by Brad Davis gave the Dynamo all three points. Jamison Olave committed both fouls and will not be in the good books of Jason Kreis this week.

Morales is on three goals for the season and so too is LA Galaxy striker Edson Buddle, who bagged a brace to give his team a Superclasico victory over Chivas USA. He nodded in the first early on and secured the 2-0 win with a tap-in four minutes from time, but not before earning a yellow card for a scuffle with Sasha Kljestan. Maicon Santos struck the miss of the season for Chivas. It's well worth a viewing.

Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire got off to very different starts in week one, and met in week two. The points were shared thanks to a 2-2 draw at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. Omar Cummings hit a superb opener in the opening exchanges, only for the Fire to equalise through MLS newcomer Collins John's first goal. The two sides then exchanged successful penalties either side of the break, with Conor Casey netting for the Rapids and Brian McBride earning a point for Chicago. In terms of refereeing decisions, the first spot kick was as clear as the second was clearly not.

Curt Onalfo's bad start at DC United became even worse when New England Revolution came to town and ruined the home opener with a quickfire double from substitute Kenny Mansally. United should have been in the lead by the time Mansally's 80th minute poacher's finish opened the scoring, and his breathtaking second sealed the deal for the Revs.

If DC are stinking out the league, New York Red Bulls are making observers sit up and take notice. After beating Chicago at RBA in week one, a tough away trip to much-fancied Seattle Sounders unexpectedly produced the same result. The impressive Macoumba Kandji fired the game's only goal in off the crossbar after the Sounders failed to clear a 21st minute corner. Bouna Condoul had to be in good form in goal to keep Seattle at bay.

If you want to keep tabs on the early running in Major League Soccer 2010, you can peruse the Eastern and Western Conference standings here. All the action from week two is available here, with a bit of digging around.

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