who did what, what it means and what to look for next:
Kansas City 1, Toronto 1
Man of the match: Every goalkeeper's debut should be as good as Sam Reynolds' first test in the Toronto FC nets. Reynolds, the son of Chicago Fire assistant coach Craig Reynolds, was originally signed as a short-term backup. Now he may have now earned a closer look with five saves in last 30 minutes as K.C. pressed hard.
Bigger picture: The best game of the weekend, with two teams bent on attacking, plenty of scoring chances, good quality all over, a red card near the end and lots of great individual battles. Ronnie O'Brien and K.C.'s Michael Harrington took turns going at each other; TFC's Maurice Edu and Carl Robinson had their hands full with Kerry Zavagnin and Carlos Marinelli in the middle.
Pressure point: TFC center back Andrew Boyens made a young player's mistake when, sitting on a yellow card, he went in late and from behind on Sasha Victorine in the 76th minute. The rookie had plenty of defensive support around him and had Victorine turned and moving the wrong way near midfield. Ultimately, his team wasn't punished, mostly owing to Kansas City's lack of sharpness around TFC's goal.
Chicago 0, Colorado 0
Man of the match: Fire center back C.J. Brown helped tamp down the Colorado attack, which was stronger than the home team's in a match with few chances at either end. Brown busily dealt with Terry Cooke's good service from the Rapids' right side. He was also assisted by goalkeeper Matt Pickens' absolute gem of a save on Nicolas Hernandez's second-half effort from long range.
Bigger picture: Fire interim manager Denis Hamlett started a young lineup in his first match in charge, one averaging 25 years of age. Four players were 22 or younger, including Chad Barrett, Jerson Monteiro, Brian Plotkin and Bakary Soumare. Veteran Chris Armas added some veteran mettle when he entered a match for the first time since June 23. He should be a candidate to start in Wednesday's visit to Los Angeles.
Pressure point: The timing on Pablo Mastroeni's groin injury couldn't be worse for Fernando Clavijo's Rapids, who still have the back half of a brutal stretch remaining. Sunday's contest was the second of four matches in 11 days in three different cities.
Chivas USA 2, New England 0
Man of the match: No one responded better to Chivas USA's worst loss yet (4-0 last week in Houston) than Paulo Nagamura. The Brazilian central midfielder buzzed all over the Home Depot Center pitch. Center mid partner Jesse Marsch got the first goal, but Nagamura's presence in tackling, harassing and getting forward was massive for Preki's resurgent side.
Bigger picture: Chivas USA's reconfigured back line (owing to Jonathan Bornstein's international duty and Shavar Thomas's suspension) was steadfast. New England didn't manage so much as a corner kick for 60 minutes. Preki has more tough work ahead in lineup selection, however. Not only will Bornstein, Brad Guzan and Sacha Kljestan remain unavailable, he'll be without Claudio Suarez (red card suspension) and Paulo Nagamura (yellow card accumulation.)
Pressure point: Injuries and international commitments have taken a huge bite out of Steve Nicol's Revolution's as well. The club emerged from a brutal stretch -- five of six on the road -- with a healthy 5-1-2 record. But the Revs are 1-2-2 since, still not finding themselves Saturday as steady-eddies Michael Parkhurst and Steve Ralston returned to the team.
Columbus 1, New York 0
Man of the match: Take your pick between Crew center backs Chad Marshall and Marcos Gonzalez, who handled everything in their area, quieted Juan Pablo Angel and allowed a Red Bulls attacker to sneak in behind them only once. Go with Marshall for winning everything in the air as the Red Bulls went Route 1 over the last 10 or so minutes.
Bigger picture: The Crew won without Guillermo Barros Schelotto, which is significant indeed, considering the influence he has had over the Crew lately. Columbus added to its win streak (now at three) because Sigi Schmid is suddenly getting good performances from all over the field, including the versatile Stefani Miglioranzi, who is quickly becoming a lineup fixture.
Pressure point: Red Bulls attackers Clint Mathis and Juan Pablo Angel seem to have no chemistry. And word is leaking out of the Red Bulls locker room that the pair have a cordial, but business-only relationship. The other interesting situation to watch: Santino Quaranta is just 22 years old but already on his third MLS team. Is this his last chance? The former United and Galaxy attacker came on as sub Saturday but didn't do much to help a team that finished June with a 1-3-1 mark.
FC Dallas 0, Houston 0
Man of the match: In a largely defensive match, the honors will go to a defensive midfielder. Richard Mulrooney never let FCD's Juan Toja out of his sight, either marking quickly once FC Dallas gained possession or accounting for him as a nearby Dynamo man locked on. The result: Toja had his quietest match this year.
Bigger picture: Not a whole lot going on in the seventh scoreless tie in MLS this season. (For all the soccer critics, that means just eight percent of MLS matches as of Saturday had been goalless draws.) Dominic Kinnear made a somewhat bold call by reinserting Brian Ching and Dwayne De Rosario into the lineup, despite a five-game winning streak while they were away. As assistant manager John Spencer said after the match: you can't punish guys and drop them from the team because they made their national teams.
Pressure point: Ramon Nunez has found himself planted firmly on the FC Dallas bench. Nunez was Steve Morrow's first choice playmaker to begin the season. But he was too predictable - consistently looking to shoot from distance instead of spreading the ball around more - and now can't even seem to find minutes as a substitute.
D.C. United 4, Colorado 1
Man of the match: A nice match for D.C. United's left side, as Josh Gros and Fred each busied themselves by making life hard of the struggling Rapids. Fred did the most damage, with a goal and an assist as his team bounced back from a poor outing in Salt Lake City.
Bigger picture: With defenders Bobby Bosswell and Bryan Namoff and midfielders Ben Olsen and Jaime Moreno unavailable, United manager Tom Soehn had to get creative. He started with Clyde Simms as a center back, but switched he and right back Devon McTavish in the first half. Is there a position Simms can't handle? He's already played all over United's midfield this year.
Pressure point: A five-match losing streak represented the longest in MLS this year, and the Rapids longest since 1998. (They snapped it later in the weekend against Chicago.) The Fire and Toronto both arrested four-game slides before they took a fifth loss earlier this year. And things went from bad to worse for Colorado in this match as Mike Petke left the match with a left ankle injury.
THIS AND THAT FROM WEEK 13
Technician's notebook:
• Apparently, Eddie Johnson is the only Wizards attacker who knows how to handle a breakaway. Scott Sealy and Yura Movsisyan made poor choices on breakaways within about two minutes of each other. Sealy chose to shoot from about 25 yards, even though he had two steps on the nearest defender. Movsisyan never got off a shot, as debuting goalkeeper Sam Reynolds held his ground like a champ against the indecisive Kansas City forward. Movsisyan failed to get efforts on goal on three other sterling second-half opportunities, and his finishing must improve it he wants to find a regular place on the team.
• It's difficult to identify what Chicago wants to do offensively. The Fire are not trying hard to get the ball wide; not trying to play into someone's feet up front; not shipping diagonal balls into the corners or in front of goal; not attempting to get in behind defenders; not looking to counterattack. The bedraggled Fire offense couldn't take advantage of a Rapids defense missing injured anchor Mike Petke, adjusting to Facundo Erpen's arrival, further depleted by Kyle Beckerman's absence in the midfield and, after about 15 minutes Sunday, by Pablo Mastroeni's injury.
• Tough luck for debuting interim Fire manager Denis Hamlett. He had just replaced forward Jerson Monteiro with Calen Carr when the Fire's second forward, Chad Barrett, had to leave the match due to cramping. Hamlett had no choice but to make his third and final substitution at that time. A few minutes later still, the new manager had little recourse, unable to make a defensive change, when Bakary Soumare was ejected.
• Justin Moose played wide on the right for D.C. United in Ben Olsen's absence. That's somehow appropriate, because in the bigger picture Moose looks like a Ben Olsen starter kit, with his busy work rate and ability to simply get after it. But Moose also needs to take on people more often and look for the "positive" action, instead of the "negative" pass. Fred on the left had some of that going, too, sometimes becoming unnecessarily tentative about taking on Rapids defenders.
• Preki's reconfigured back line at Chivas USA (owing to Jonathan Bornstein's international duty and Shavar Thomas's suspension) did everything you could ask in shutting down the visiting Revolution. New England didn't even get its first crack at a corner kick until the 60th minute. Now, however, Preki has some tough work ahead in lineup selection. Not only will Jonathan Bornstein, Brad Guzan and Sacha Kljestan remain away with the national team, he'll be without Claudio Suarez (red card suspension) and holding midfielder Paulo Nagamura (yellow card accumulation suspension).
Flagging production for Ruiz: FC Dallas' Carlos Ruiz is on pace to score four goals this year, which would easily be the striker's lowest output since his 2002 debut in MLS. In fact, he's been in double digits in goals every year so far. FC Dallas manager Steve Morrow continues to believe in the Guatemalan international, insisting that Ruiz just needs to find goal once to get himself going again. Right now, FC Dallas have a problem getting Ruiz service in dangerous areas, either on crosses from the outside or on balls to his feet at the top of the penalty area. Bobby Rhine, playing for Drew Moor, who's with the national team, did get in some early service Saturday. Rhine is better at getting forward to provide good balls from the right, but he's not the defender Moor is.
Bouna time!: Rare is the dull moment when Rapids goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul prowls his defensive third, never afraid to stray beyond the 18. Sunday against Chicago he got caught in possession at one point, then went flying into a dicey two-footed tackle to extinguish the trouble. A few minutes later Coundoul charged 30 yards from goal to meet advancing Fire striker Chad Barrett, who got around the rangy Rapids goalkeeper but couldn't catch the ball before it rolled over the end line.
The center back shuffle: There were interesting choices at the center back spot in Sunday's match at Toyota Park. For the home team, long-time midfielder Diego Gutierrez played center back alongside C.J. Brown. It's a move interim manager Denis Hamlett, seeking more defensive organization, tried in a friendly against Polish side Cracovia last week and apparently liked. At the other end, Colorado boss Fernando Clavijo had little choice but to insert Facundo Erpen, acquired only Thursday in a trade with D.C. United, immediately into the mix for his similarly struggling side.
Steve Davis is a freelance writer who has covered Major League Soccer since its inception. Steve can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
