A couple movers and shakers this week but mostly we are starting to see some consistent play out of all the clubs, either good play or bad.

Feel free as always to pipe in your own below or comment on your club’s spot in the order.

1. New England Revolution (26 pts., same) – No need to change here. Nice road win in Houston without the likes of some key players. Clearly Steve Ralston is more important to this club than most would give him credit for. Since his return this club has looked nearly unstoppable. And is Kheli Dube the top rookie right now? I think so.

2. LA Galaxy (20 pts., up 1) – I still feel weird giving this club this much credit after seeing them in preseason but give it up to them. Without Landon Donovan and Carlos Ruiz, the Galaxy showed they had more than enough to take care of business in Oakland…I mean San Jose. Even David Beckham was ineffective in this one. I guess it may be fair to say that Ruud Gullit has slowly figured out the way to play in MLS.

3. Toronto FC (20 pts., up 2) – This club clearly is dominate at home. No matter who is missing they still find a way to get the job done. It didn’t hurt that Colorado has been largely terrible on the road this season either. Three very nice goals in the run of play too should give head coach John Carver some hope for the rest of the year.

4. Columbus Crew (22 pts., up 3) – A nice way to end a five-game winless streak and a four-game goalless streak. The three-nil beating of the Wizards was just what this club has been waiting for over the last couple of games. It should lift them back into the discussion in the east. Good time to do so with clubs like DC starting to play well behind them.

5. Chicago Fire (19 pts., down 3) – Back-to-back losses and really some poor play as of late from the Fire. Safe to say that they dearly missed guys like Wilman Conde (injury), Gonzalo Segares (WCQ callup), and Brandon Prideaux (suspension). But more importantly, it may be safe to say that this club really does need the finishing of Brian McBride after all.

6. Houston Dynamo (17 pts., down 2) – Was missing too many parts against New England…okay missing Dwayne De Rosario and Brian Ching. Clearly the lack of depth is going to cost this club sooner rather than later.

7. DC United (16 pts., up 4) – Big movers of the week but really they just leaped over a bunch of junk. Pretty easy to say that after the start of the season and looking at how things have gone recently, this club goes as Luciano Emilio goes. Can they keep this pace up? I think so.

8. FC Dallas (16 pts., up 2) – Showed some real heart on Sunday against the Fire. Hopefully that is a sign of things to come in the Big D as a new coach steps in to take over this week. Schellas Hyndman has his work cut out for him though from the start if you ask me.

9. Chivas USA (14 pts., down 3) – Biggest drop of the week, probably could have placed them a bit lower too. They’ve been lucky all season that the western conference has been so tight due to poor play but I think their injuries are really catching up to them right now. They need a big-time scorer and right now they just don’t have that.

10. Colorado Rapids (15 pts., down 2) – Hey they showed they can play consistent soccer, too bad it was losing soccer. I know they were missing some key players but not starting some guys like Christian Gomez or Herculez Gomez makes my head hurt for this club. Then again my head is still hurting from listening to their broadcast of the Dallas…I mean Toronto game.

11. New York Red Bulls (15 pts., down 2) – No offense meant no luck against a red-hot United on Saturday. There really was nothing they could have done to beat DC in that game. What was once thought of the best offenses in the league has a -4 goal differential right now. Like I mentioned earlier this week, Juan Carlos Osorio’s seat has to bet getting warmer here as we head into summer.

12. Real Salt Lake (15 pts., up 1) – Holy shit a road win. Congrats, now keep it up and we can possibly talk playoffs here.

13. Kansas City Wizards (12 pts., down 1) – The home return didn’t go as planned. I’m left wondering why on earth we thought this was one of the better clubs back in April. Oh yeah, its because it was April. Those first two games to start out the season seem like ages ago to Wizard fans though.

14. San Jose Earthquakes (10 pts., same) – Missing a couple players didn’t matter really. This club has very little depth and is showing it. I think had they been full strength, they would have at least put up a better fight against LA. It can only get better from here right? Right.

In a week where a few players shined more than others, it would take a solid performance like a hat trick to get the attention of the voters. Had there not been a hat trick out of either one you could easily place the award on a number of players like Matt Reis, Jon Busch, Rohan Ricketts, Alejandro Moreno, or Kenny Cooper.

But in the end it was either one hat trick or another. Emilio or Buddle. Take your pick because either one was fine indeed.

Buddle showed off his head, Emilio showed his dangerous feet.

To me I had to look at the goals scored. All six were solid efforts but to me I ended up enjoying Buddle’s headers a bit more than Emilio’s strikes. Two of the three goals from Buddle on Saturday in Oakland against the Quakes came from his noggin. The first header was a beautiful diving header, the second was just an all out effort to beat his man and create the separation needed to head home the goal.

So again to me, Buddle’s trick was better than Emilio’s. Some may see it different but they both really were something special.

The goal of the week is a different subject. Many solid goals. I believe the five in line for goal of the week are all worthy of selection.

But in the end I’m going with a strike from distance from DC United’s Clyde Simms.

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!

I will try to keep this a bit shorter than normal, as I am currently working on a couple other things that I am hoping to get out today if time permits me to (plus there’s the Holland/France game going on that I really want to watch!).

So let’s get down to it:

Colorado Rapids – at – Toronto FC: Lots and lots and lots of callups here for this game. Both coaches will have to get creative with their lineups to make up for all the players missing. Judging by the list from the game preview, I honestly don’t know who has the edge in this one:

NTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: COL: Bouna Coundoul (Senegal; v Liberia, June 15); Pablo Mastroeni (USA; v Barbados, June 15); Ugo Ihemelu (Canada; v St. Vincent & Grenadines, June 15) … TOR: Jim Brennan, Greg Sutton (Canada; v St. Vincent & Grenadines, June 15) ; Amado Guevara (Honduras; v. Puerto Rico, June 14); Maurice Edu (USA; v Barbados, June 15); Tyrone Marshall (Jamaica; v Bahamas, June 15)

Judge for yourself. I have to say though I like Toronto’s chances being at home for this one, even without all the players who were called up. I’m also curious to see how the fans in Toronto react to Don Garber’s issue on streamers at the games.

I’m going with the home side in this one. Colorado’s inconsistent play hurts them more than helps them here. Though if Christian Gomez gets any sort of space to work with it could be a long day for the home side. I’m looking for Jeff Cunningham to net his 100th career goal in this one.

WVH Prediction: Toronto 2, Colorado 1

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New York Red Bulls – at – DC United: The old Atlantic Cup rivals clash. One of the better rivalries in this league really. Highly underrated in my book. Not too many callups to mention for either team but a couple United players are suspended for this one after last week’s crazy card fest in Chicago with the Fire.

Let’s face it, this one could be kind of ugly. I’m not entirely thrilled with either defense but if I had to pick a side right now it would be DC. They’re starting to pick things up nicely here based on the last couple of weeks and their road win in Chicago last weekend was a big one. Not only for their place in the standings but in terms of confidence.

Luciano Emilio is back in my opinion and he is the difference in this one. New York is still too banged up and they honestly don’t have the offense to hang with DC for 90 minutes right now.

WVH Prediction: DC 3, NY 1

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Columbus Crew – at – Kansas City Wizards: KC finally returns home after two months of road pain. The club needs a win and they host a club that needs a goal more than anything right now. Columbus is goalless and winless in their last four. The Wizards also need a win as they haven’t won in almost two months of play.

Columbus has sort of an injury issue right now to go along with their scoring issue. Those things don’t add up well for the Crew.

I like KC back at home here, the home crowd should be a positive boost for this club. Claudio Lopez should be able find the back of the net to get the Wizards back on track here this season.

WVH Prediction: KC 1, Columbus 0

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LA Galaxy – at – San Jose Earthquakes: Nothing like the second edition of the California Clasíco this season. Both clubs are playing pretty well as of late. San Jose will rely on the fact that the Galaxy are still without leading scorer Landon Donovan.

The key factor though in this game is David Beckham and who scores off of his crosses. While I think San Jose has the defense to handle LA and their attack, I just wonder if their offense is going to be able to keep up with the Galaxy’s. We didn’t see it in LA and I wonder really if the home field advantage will help the Quakes or not.

I’m going with the visitors by a slim margin though. San Jose has impressed me lately but they need to find more consistent shooting on offense to beat a club like LA. Even with the win last week I wasn’t thrilled with their offense, but I will say they did make the most out of their few chances against the Crew. LA is going to be a good test for that consistent offense I think.

WVH Prediction: LA 2, San Jose 1

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Real Salt Lake – at – Chivas USA: One of the better home sides takes on the worst road side. Yeah, listen, RSL wants to be in the mix but still hasn’t shown us they deserve to be in the mix here. Even last weekend at home against the Wizards they didn’t show us enough.

If they want to then this is the perfect place and time to do so. They’ve never won in LA against Chivas and also have yet to win on the road this season. You can’t go almost half of the year without a road win and expect to be in the mix for the playoffs.

I like Chivas at home for those reasons against RSL. Chivas had an easy time earlier in the year against RSL and I see that trend continuing with the likes of Jorge Flores and Jesse Marsch.

WVH Prediction: Chivas 2, RSL 0

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Chicago Fire – at – FC Dallas: Ah, a game I will be at (hopefully some live coverage too on Sunday!). The ol’ Brimstone Cup between the Fire and Hoops. Dallas has practically owned this series in recent years. I think this season it will change though with the coaching situation in Dallas right now. Plus Dallas has yet to play Blano since he’s been in MLS.

Blanco should be the difference maker in this one as Dallas has no been a consistent club at home this season. Chicago is also the only undefeated club on the road this year. I look for that to continue on Sunday, that is unless Kenny Cooper has anything to say about not being called up in the US national team camp this week. That could play a factor in this one.

Chicago steals one in Dallas for a change, their first win (I think) at Pizza Hut Park too.

WVH Prediction: Chicago 2, Dallas 1