2014 Week Twenty-Three Report

The late summer weather heats up and the goals start pouring in from all sides, I guess.  Take a peek down below.  If your preference is a 0-0 stalemate, you came to the wrong place.  In addition to the goals, injuries to our guys seem to be the order of the day.  Here’s how it all went down for our guys last week:

PORTLAND TIMBERS  W 4-1  @ Alpha United, CONCACAF Champions League group 5  •  On Tuesday night in Guyana, the Timbers ran out easy winners in their first-ever CCL contest with two goals in each half.  Ben Zemanski [Akron/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy] and Michael Nanchoff [North Royalton/Walsh Jesuit] (seen below, on the right, post-game) were both starters, playing 90 and 82 minutes, respectively.  

DC UNITED  W 1-0  v Waterhouse FC, CCL group 3  •  No Chris Korb [Gates Mills/University School] in this one.  He’s still out injured.  But without him, DC got off to an ideal start in CCL group play.

MONTREAL IMPACT   W 3-2  @ CD FAS, CCL group 4  •  Up two goals, then tied.  Down a man, then up a goal.  There’s never a dull moment when Montreal plays FAS, and this match was representative of that statement to the fullest.  Evan Bush [Concord Township/Lake Catholic] was in goal and he’ll probably remember this match for a long time, feeling very glad to get out of El Salvador with the three points.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY  W 4-3  @ Colorado Rapids  •  This game wrapped up our Wednesday night portion of the program with a ton of goals, but no Kenney Walker [Wickliffe/Wickliffe].

MONTREAL IMPACT  L 2-4  v New York Red Bulls  •  Bush started and again got shelled.  Again.  He made three saves and without him, the hapless Impact could’ve really gotten hammered.  How hapless?  Montreal was winning 1-0 at halftime.  Granted, the Red Bulls are tough to beat at home, but…

TORONTO FC  D 2-2  v Chicago Fire  •  Justin Morrow [Cleveland/St. Ignatius] started  at left back, as per usual, but he subbed out in the 58th minute with an apparent hamstring injury.  We’ll keep you updated on the status of that as news becomes available.  But before he left, Morrow’s cross way back in the third minute was turned into an own goal by Fire defender Bakary Soumare.

COLUMBUS CREW  W 3-0  v Houston Dynamo  •  Ben Speas [Stow/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy] was an unused sub as the Crew continued its strong form of late, as the Black and Gold have now moved into a tie with TFC for third place in the Eastern Conference on 33 points (though those guys have two games in hand on Columbus).

DC UNITED  W 3-0  @ Sporting Kansas City  •  The injured Korb was not in the XVIII again as DC put it to the Eastern Conference leaders and got a bit closer to overtaking them.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY  W 2-0  v Vancouver Whitecaps  •  Two first-half goals were enough to carry the Galaxy to victory over the Caps.  No Walker in the team for the second straight match.

PORTLAND TIMBERS  L 2-4  v Seattle Sounders  •  If you didn’t watch this match, played live on ESPN2 because you were on a walk with your kids and then feeding them dinner while watching the Simpsons marathon on FXX, and just looked at the stats, you’d notice that they don’t support the final scoreline.  But the visitors were up 3-0 after 70 minutes and showed the form that has taken them to the top of the Western Conference and Supporters’ Shield standings.  Darlington Nagbe [Lakewood/St. Edward] started as a mid and played 80 minutes.  Zemanski was an unused sub and Nanchoff was not in the gameday XVIII.

NON-MLS REPORT
INDY ELEVEN  L 2-4  v OTTAWA FURY  •  Our only two fellas in the NASL were set to face off for the first time since the Spring Season, but gnarly weather rolled through central Indiana in the early evening and pushed back kickoff to nearly 10pm.  After the visitors went ahead in the second half, the home side equalized in the 84th minute, and just as the Indy fans were set to go home content with the point, Sinisa Ubiparipovic [Mentor/Mentor] scored two minutes later to earn Ottawa its first victory of the Fall Season.  Kyle Hyland [Bay Village/Bay] started at left back and played the entire match for Indy, and in one more link to Cleveland, the referee was Chris Penso of Dover.

WILMINGTON HAMMERHEADS  W 2-1  @ Orange County Blues FC;  D 3-3  @ LA Galaxy II  •  Brad Stuver [Twinsburg/Twinsburg] started both and played every minute, making three saves against the Galaxy Jr. and one more against the Blues.  The Saturday night win was the Hammerheads’ first in four matches since Stuver joined the club and the four points earned helped them climb to within a point of the playoffs.

PHOTO CREDIT:  Portland Timbers Facebook page

Week Twenty-Two Preview

Here are this week’s previews in chrono order, as always:

Saturday

COLUMBUS  @ Toronto FC, 2pm – Fox Sports Ohio  

The Trillium Cup fires up again this weekend when the Crew heads north, holding a one-game advantage by virtue of a 1-0 win in Toronto back in May.  Here is the match preview from mlssoccer.com and also the match preview from thecrew.com.

DC UNITED  v New England Revolution, 7pm

The Revolution has allowed the fewest goals in the league this season, so DC will have to work extra hard if it’s going to put an end to its four-game winless streak.  In addition to Chris Korb [Gates Mills/University School] on the DC backline, one other Cleveland link is Chris Penso [Dover], who will be the 4th official for this match.  Here is the match preview from mlssoccer.com and also the Tale of the Tape from dcunited.com.

MONTREAL  v Sporting Kansas City, 730pm

Two Eastern Conference heavyweights square off in this one.  The Impact are winless in their last five, and this would be a huge match for them to break up that streak.  Here is the match preview from mlssoccer.com and also the match preview from impactmontreal.com/en.

PORTLAND  @  SAN JOSE, 1030pm

This match between the Timbers and Earthquakes is one of those “throw out the records” matches.  If I had to predict one thing about this one, it wouldn’t be the score or the winner.  It would be that after it’s all over, Timbers Head Coach Caleb Porter will take issue with the ‘Quakes’ physical style of play.  Too often this season, the hurly-burly has been a significat factor in a San Jose win, loss or draw.  Here is the match preview from mlssoccer.com, the sjearthquakes.com’s Fan Guide and also the match preview from portlandtimbers.com.