I do have a couple points that I got from last nights gave to share with you though and then some highlights to enjoy.

• Fredy Montero is a beast. We knew the kid was going to be good coming into this game but his first goal showed me just how special of a player he really is. Contender for the Golden Boot this year? Possibly, but definitely an early candidate for player of the week.
• NY defense still not good. I know there are a few new guys on the way and they will improve this defense a lot but man last night they looked even worse than they did a year ago. Plus is it me or is Danny Cepero really any improvement over Jon Conway? Just a thought.
• Overall winner was the crowd. 32,500+ last night is an amazing number for MLS on a weekend, but even more impressive on a week night game like last night. They all showed up in green (finally we have a green wearing club in MLS) and made their voices heard.

Highlights:

Yeah, you just don’t see a season series end up working out like that. Three draws. Yeah.

Obviously it was a game that was different in each half of play. I really felt Houston dominated the first half, you know the half that wasn’t seen on TV because of some WNBA game. Yeah, I bet that pissed a few people off around the country. It got me upset for about three seconds when I realized to tune to my best friend ESPN360.com. Seriously folks, if you have the ability to use that site, do it.

Back to the game though, as said before Houston controlled the opening half of play. The goal off of Brian Ching’s heat was a nice one. Some real good run of play action from the men in Orange leading up to that goal. Dallas really sat back and just watched the play develop and happen. Something you can’t do, certainly on the road against your top rival.

The second 45 was a little differnet tone. Dallas came out with a little more energy and was rewarded after the hour mark. Kenny Cooper provided another nice header for the game. A sweet cross from Juan Toja. That my friends was the kind of stuff we expect out of Mr. Toja.

The energy was good in the second half from both sides. Lots of end to end action. A bit chippy though at times. We saw our fair share of cards in the second half. Dallas got extremely lucky not to be down a man when Pablo Ricchetti pulled down Stuart Holden on a breakaway chance. Probably should have been a red card but the ref deemed it just a yellow.

I loved the second half subs by new Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman. Bringing on Dominic Oduro was exactly what the club needed. The seemed to get a better spark with the Birdman on the pitch. Also the Dax McCarty sub looked pretty good as did the debute of Eric Avila (though I would have liked to have seen more than seven minutes or so of him).

Houston was a bit unlucky in this one in either a call not going their way or a bounce not happening for them. They probably should have won based on the amount of chances that they had on net. Give a lot of credit to Dallas keeper Dario Sala for coming up big in some spots when he needed to.

I think the Dynamo are clearly showing just how badly they need another striker. Their defense is solid and their midfield can possess the ball like it’s nobody’s business. But when it comes to finishing, other than Ching and Dwayne De Rosario they have next to nothing going for them. Of their team’s 17 goals, Ching and DeRo account for 10 of them. Someone else really needs to step up or they need to bring someone else in to get the job done. I just don’t know if they are a contender at this point because of that very reason.

Same in some respects could be said about Dallas. Aside from Cooper they really lack a second option up top. But their other issues may be a bit bigger than just getting another scorer at this point.

Hard to believe that this season series ended in a draw. El Captian will have to be decided elsewhere this year in either the US Open Cup or the playoffs later on if these two clubs end up facing one another in one (or both) of those competitions.

EDIT: Apparently the El Capitan has been awarded to FC Dallas this year due to a tiebreaker that I wasn’t aware of. Dallas outscored Houston 4-2 on road goals and was given the cannon. I honestly thought they would try to use another game as a tie breaker but I guess not!

Some weren’t as big as others but that is just the nature of the game too. A couple put up a fight in the losing effort, while others were out of it from the start of the game.

A very interesting week, mainly due to the vast dominance of some teams in the weekend.

As weird as it is to say this, but watch out folks, that team out in LA with David Beckham may actually be for real this season. Even with a hurt Beckham, probably an ineffective Beckham for more than a half of play the Galaxy showed us they have other guys who can pass the ball around and score.

New England continues to impress me a top the table.  Toronto continues their strong play at home, who would have thought they’d be in third place right now when the season started?

The butts-in-seats look was helped by a game in Oakland for the Quakes. Good lord I cannot stand that venue. It just looks weird for soccer. Can’t they at least make it look like it does when a football team plays there? And you could tell that grass was not in good condition either. Lots of slipping out there. Other than that it was a pretty typical weekend across the board. Toronto, KC both sold out their place; DC posted good numbers considering a heavy rain storm in the area; Dallas even had its average numbers on a HOT Sunday afternoon (why wasn’t that game scheduled for Saturday night?); and Chivas posted their pathetic 10k …but hopefully that will change in a topic later on this afternoon!

So what stood out in each game? Let’s get to it:

Toronto FC 3 – 1 Colorado Rapids:

• Danny Dichio’s goal was a thing of pure class in the first half. Nothing Colorado could do about it and really their defense wasn’t doing much up until that point anyways. A goal was coming and Dichio hammered a beaut home.
• Toronto’s record at BMO Field this season to a league-best 5-0-2, what may be more impressive is their goals-against at home…just two all season.
• Rapids fans could make the excuse that they were missing too many players for this one, but then again so were the Reds.
• Finally some consistent play out of the Rapids though, too bad it was consistent play in the wrong direction. First stream of the season, a losing one.
• Weirdest yellow card reason I’ve ever seen on Saturday with Jeff Cunningham. He was carded for “trickery.” I didn’t know you could get carded for that. Wow.
• I must have missed something, why didn’t Christian Gomez start in this one? He scored a late goal to end the shutout but not the full 90. He must not like turf or something. They certainly could have used his services all game.
• Two great strikes by Rohan Ricketts. Really nothing Preston Burpo could do about them.
• I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the Altitude broadcast may be the worst in the league. the two guys that do the broadcast really know little of the game and the play-by-play guy never knows when to shut-up and call the action on the field. Listen to all of his goal calls, you will see. Also, he called Ricketts the wrong name all game, apparently to him there were two Jeff Cunninghams on the field.

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DC United 4 – 1 New York Red Bulls:

• Nothing like turning to this game 20 minutes late and seeing two straight goals within a couple minutes of watching. And a third not to far after that.
• DC looked good, I mean really good at home in this one. Luciano Emilio easily had his best game of the season and maybe his career with DC.
• Want a quality goal? Look at Clyde Simms’ goal. Wow.
• Got to love the wing play out of DC right now. I love Fred and Santino Quaranta handling the flank play, you can tell it has really opened up things for this team and their offense. Lots of goals in the past couple games because of it.
• DC still has some work to do in defense though, against a better offense (like a LA) they will be very vulnerabe to set pieces. But overall New York did little to test them.
• New York is in a world of trouble right now. Some people didn’t see it coming, I saw it for weeks. Their defense is terrible. But I honestly still believe it isn’t just their defense, its their goalkeeper too Jon Conway. They need that summer transfer window to open fast.
• New York said they would just use it on defense and possibly some wing players but they need some scorers too. Juan Pablo Angel is still hurt and no one else can score like he does on this team.
• Juan Carlos Osorio…meet the hot seat.

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Columbus Crew 3 – 0 Kansas City Wizards:

• Talk about a surprise. I honestly didn’t expect this result out of the Crew. For a couple weeks they’ve looked a bit lost out there and seem to have gotten themselves in a summer slump. But this game surely ended their scoring problems.
• Nothing like ruining a nice homecoming too. First home game for the Wizards in two months did no go as planned.
• One person they needed badly to get back on the scoring sheet was Alejandro Moreno. He looked real comfortable out there and really shredded this young KC defense.
• Again, those early goals can kill any momentum, the Chad Marshall goal in the third minute seemed to have done that to the Wizards. They never really got into this game after that.
• KC continues to struggle on offense and defense.  I think we are really seeing what I talked about in my unit rankings out of this club back in the preseason. Lots of youth and a lot of problems.
• Can Claudio Lopez get some help up front for KC? It wasn’t like this club was missing a lot of players or anything in this one. Lopez just seems like he has no chemistry with his midfield or strikers right now.
• Poor KC, back on the road next week in Toronto.

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LA Galaxy 3 – 0 San Jose Earthquakes:

• Edson Buddle, Edson Buddle, Edson Buddle. Wow. Three great goals, one from his feet and two from his head. Whoever said this club was all Landon Donovan scoring was dead wrong.
• David Beckham tweaked his hamstring early in the game, and was largely ineffective after that but give credit to the rest of this Galaxy team for coming together and showing us all they had other parts who can contribute to the attack.
• I don’t know which header I liked out of Buddle the most. Probably the first one, which was his second goal of the year. It may be my goal of the week.
• San Jose’s defense just didn’t have an answer for Buddle in this one. They gave him too much space and he made them pay for it.
• As much as we sometimes lose Buddle in all of this, he’s still showing us how effective of a scorer he can be. No one would have thought he would score eight goals this season, let alone this early in the year.
• San Jose did battle in this one and had some chances on net but nothing that ever troubled Steve Cronin in net for the Galaxy.
• Don’t look now but this Galaxy club is actually good here. I know it was against the Earthquakes but their defense even looked better. What? Yeah, I know.
• San Jose again has to go back to the drawing board. Please spare me the reasons for the loss like they were missing a player or two. Everyone this weekend was missing a player or two and LA just made the most of it.

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Real Salt Lake 1 – 0 Chivas USA:

• Wow, a rare road win for Real Salt Lake. Maybe there is some life in this club after all.
• Let’s be honest too on the Robbie Findley goal, Chivas keeper Dan Kennedy was way off his line on that one. Anyone think Brad Guzan would have gotten that one? Its a maybe but I think this outcome would have been different with Guzan in net.
• Chivas showed us again how weak their offense can be this season. They go down and they rarely fight back. Not a good sign for this club.
• I honestly didn’t see much of it but judging by the Quick Kicks highlights on MLSnet.com, it wasn’t much of a game. Hell the second half highlights conclude at the 60 minute mark.

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For the Dallas/Chicago game see the game recap from earlier….

So what else did I miss from this weekend? Let’s hear it. More from this weekend coming up in a bit!

But that didn’t stop the home side from putting away their old rivals from the north 1-0 on a hot afternoon.

Kenny Cooper extended FCD’s home dominance against the Fire to 11 games, dating all the way back to 1999. Yeah, that’s one of those sports streaks that is in the impressive category.

It truly was the right time for the Hoops to get a win though. Going into a week where they are expected to get a new head coach, it was a perfect way to end the interim Ferruzzi era. The interim coach pulled out all the stops in this one, which felt like a rivalry game once again between these two sides.

Cooper gets on the board early for the home side and they never looked back. Chicago honestly never really got into the game. Blanco and company looked beat by the heat and Dallas nearly made it a two or three nil game in the second half with Cooper and Dominic Oduro.

I must say this was one of the more impressive wins out of this young Dallas club all season. They showed heart for 90 minutes and really never quit like we have seen them do in recent games. There were a lot of nervous faces out on th pitch late in the game, especially in the final seconds. But when it was all said and done Dallas walked away with three points and moved right back in the thick of things in the western conference.

The loss for Chicago showed us a couple things. One, it was hot and this club tires quickly in the heat; two, Blanco flops a lot; and three, without Jon Busch in net this club may not be where they are if it weren’t for him.

Sure Cooper had the goal for Dallas and was the man of the match for them, but to me Busch stood out as the man of the match overall. Nine saves on the afternoon, the one that beat him he wasn’t going to get anyways. A couple more later in the game I don’t know how he got.

I was left wondering after this game if this is more of the same out of the Fire now. Defense is slowly showing their weaknesses, their offense isn’t packing the same punch, and their depth is in question. Sure, once Brian McBride comes things should pick back up but right now this club looks to be going into a mid-season slump of some sorts.

It definitely was not the same road side that we had seen all season. Hard to believe it was their first road loss of the year. But given their track record in Dallas, its not all that shocking.

As for the Hoops. Just like I said earlier, they showed heart. I loved the fact that they never stopped going for goal in this game once they had the lead. Out shooting a club like Chicago is what this offense needed. And a shutout is easily what the doctor ordered for the defense.

Ferruzzi made the right moves in the line up in what should be his final game. Too bad its his final game, I think the club would be better off for the rest of the year with him. But that is for another day.

More weekend recaps on the way in the morning….

With the win, New England extended their unbeaten streak to six games and are now well atop the MLS standings with 26 points after 13 games.

Matt Reis again was huge in goal for New England, with a few saves on the night. The biggest came late in the game when Reis fended off a Stuart Holden penalty kick.

Both clubs entered the match missing key players due to national duty in World Cup qualifying. New England was without midfielders Kenny Mansally (Gambia), Khano Smith (Bermuda) and Shalrie Joseph (Grenada). Houston was missing forward Brian Ching (USA), as well as goalkeeper Pat Onstad and midfielder Dwayne De Rosario (Canada).

The early goal from Steve Ralston was an initial shock for the home side, as Houston was dominating the early possession until New England was able to find the back of the net. Early goals continue to be tough to over come this season. I’m pretty sure the majority of clubs who’ve scored in the opening 10 minutes have gone on to win the game thanks in large part to the early goal.

For a tough defense like Houston it was surprising to see them give up such a quick strike early on. It definitely left the door wide open for New England to strike again, which they did with Kheli Dube late in the first half. Dube took a nice corner from Mauricio Castro.

The more I see Dube, the more I keep thinking Steve Nicol has done it again in finding fresh new talent each year. Dube was a Supplemental pick this year no less. Finding talent that works out this well in that draft is very tough to come by and Nicol is looking very smart for it.

Even though New England won the match, Houston still had plenty of chances. You can’t knock them for Matt Reis having another stellar night in goal for the Revs. Had both clubs not had all of the international callups that they had I think this could have been a very different game with the recent for of Houston.

I don’t think this knocks the Dynamo down all that much here. I think they will bounce back in their next game when they get Ching, De Rosario and Onstad back in the lineup. But it did show their lack of depth in certain areas that we all know about. Its obvious how much they need another striker. I just wonder if they are serious about making a move to make up for it at this point.

Let’s face it, Chicago looked like the better side last night and in the end they walked away with the three points after another stellar effort. Not to mention the fact that they OWN DC in RFK Stadium like no one else in this league. The 2-0 win looked easy for the most part.

It wasn’t anything special either. The first half, Chicago created chances and in the later stages of the half they were rewarded with a Justin Mapp goal. By the way, that was Mapp’s first goal since 2006. As for DC in that first half, they failed to create any real chances against Chicago. It wasn’t a defensive stranglehold on DC by the Fire defense, it was merely a United team that didn’t look at all comfortable on the pitch with one another.

There it is, this club still hasn’t come together this season as a team.

Chicago on the other hand has. Seven games in and this club is sitting atop the entire league with 16 points, one ahead of idol Columbus.

DC remains the cellar dweller of the east with six points. Ouch. I know they had a slow start a year ago but this may take the cake.

Let’s drop some credit where it is due. Fire boss Dennis Hamlet may easily be the front-runner for this season’s Coach of the Year award. Whatever magic he throws out there seems to work. Seven games and only three goals against. That my friends takes a lot of effort. An effort that only the Fire are putting out right now.

Oh an by the way, the Fire also are tied for the lead in goals scored this season with LA. Major kudos going out right now to that Fire offense who really impressed me last night. The header by Chad Barrett to set up Mapp’s goal was simple and great to watch. As for the goal, it was just something that all you kiddies need to learn how to do out there. Stay calm, cool and collected in front of net. Mapp did just that. It wasn’t a power shot but one that saw placement with some pace. Very nice work.

We talk about how designated players work in this league, well one that continues to shine is Blanco. He scored his third goal of the season and for the most part was the reason why the Fire had the chances that they did last night.

DC on the other hand has a DP who sat out with an injury (Marcello Gallardo) and now another one that still couldn’t make anything happen (Luciano Emilio). But I will say this, there was a couple players for DC who did at least make the effort on the offensive end. Both Jamie Moreno and Fred at least tried to make things happen in both halves of play. Neither really connected on goal but at least someone was trying in a Black-and-Red kit.

I must say the more I see Chicago, the more I am impressed with them. And the more I see DC, the more I continue to question what’s going on with them. Maybe we need more time with them or something but right now things just aren’t what they should be in DC.

Tom Soehn has a lot of work to do. To say that they’ve been here before may start to get old but I think now we are seeing just how much passion this team doesn’t have out there. Sure they miss Ben Olsen a lot but even more so they miss the intensity that he always brought. Right now, they are missing it in a big way.