who did what, what it means and what to look for next:
New England 1, Los Angeles 0
Man of the match: Taylor Twellman might not be out of the scoring race just yet. The prolific Revs veteran scored his ninth this year (and fourth game-winner) Sunday to keep him in sight of Luciano Emilio (13) and Eddie Johnson (12).
Bigger picture: New England got solid efforts all over the field, from Shalrie Joseph, Michael Parkhurst, Jay Heaps, Steve Ralston and others to help rally past the disappointment of last week's 3-0 setback at home to D.C. United. On the other side, David Beckham sat out for the second time in L.A.'s last three matches.
Pressure point: The Galaxy attack looked better Sunday than it did in the midweek loss at D.C. United. Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle were able to occasionally penetrate and make the Revs' three-man back line sweat a bit. But in the end, the Galaxy's three road matches in MLS play since Beckham arrived have netted zero goals and just one point. The Galaxy now have two goals in seven road matches this season.
New York 3, Toronto FC 0
Man of the match: Joe Vide's energetic work in the middle of the park kept TFC from ever gaining a toehold on the match. His interceptions and tackles initiated countless Red Bulls attacks, including the home team's second goal (credited to Jozy Altidore), which all but guaranteed the Red Bulls win.
Bigger picture: Flank midfielders Dane Richards and Dave van den Bergh looked refreshed Sunday, after both had appeared to tire in July. Forward Jozy Altidore was active, too. Also, it looks like Chris Leitch might have displaced Kevin Goldthwaite at left fullback.
Pressure point: After training during the week and apparently being ready for action, goalkeeper Ronald Wattereus was a late scratch from Bruce Arena's lineup. Claudio Reyna started but had to come out after just 23 minutes due to a groin strain. Continuity in the lineup and familiarity can make the difference as teams lean into the playoff race and Red Bull, although far healthier than in July, is still finding it hard to come by.
Colorado 1, Houston 0
Man of the match: Young Rapids midfielder Colin Clark was a real troublemaker all evening, tormenting the left side and supplying a series of dangerous crosses and runs behind the Dynamo defense. Rare is the game when somebody who opposes Brian Mullan hits more dangerous crosses than Houston's rock-steady right-sided midfielder, but Clark did on this night.
Bigger picture: Dominic Kinnear's club has lost two in a row. On the one hand, the setbacks have come on the road. On the other hand, they've been to Real Salt Lake and Colorado, two sides that are currently chasing the field for playoff spots. Six of Dynamo's seven losses this year have been by 1-0 counts.
Pressure point: It must be difficult, juggling the important SuperLiga matches and the MLS regular season contests, maintaining enthusiasm for both. While Dynamo look forward to their SuperLiga semifinal this week, they have slipped in consecutive MLS road matches, watching Dallas pull slightly ahead with a game in hand on Dominic Kinnear's men.
FC Dallas 3, Columbus 2
Man of the match: Clarence Goodson has been steady in the center of the Dallas defense this year. But a series of near-misses on offensive set-plays have bitten his game at the other end. He picked a nice time for No. 1 of the 2007 season, rising in stoppage time to smash in Dax McCarty's corner kick.
Bigger picture: McCarty had perhaps his best match in Dallas, helping to compensate for all the running usually supplied by (the injured) Juan Toja. McCarty played along the right side, but drifted inside often to provide help for Pablo Ricchetti and Marcelo Saragosa in the defensive midfield positions. It was just the kind of performance Dallas needs right now.
Pressure point: Columbus got things stabilized in late June, which was the first mission. But if Sigi Schmid's men hope to make any noise in the playoffs, they must find ways to elevate their game on the road. Columbus' last four matches away from Ohio have been scoreless ties at Chicago and Colorado and losses at Dallas and Chivas USA.
D.C. United 1, Los Angeles 0
Man of the match: Luciano Emilio has 13 goals in 18 games, which is dandy production. He powered one past Joe Cannon in this match, as the Galaxy goalkeeper got two hands on the Brazilian's effort, but couldn't keep it out of the net.
Bigger picture: Marc Burch and Josh Gros formed quite a tandem along the left side, troubling Chris Klein and Quavas Kirk, who was too busy trying to defend to ever make a good impact on offense. Tom Soehn finally is getting some width in the attack, as Burch is aggressively overlapping while Gros busily pops up in different spots.
Pressure point: The Galaxy have used Pete Vagenas, Kevin Harmse and Kelly Gray at holding midfielder, but none have really claimed the position. As David Beckham becomes the focal point of the attack, the Galaxy's most pressing need seems to be a ball hawking central midfielder dynamo who can chase, harass and tackle, then immediately hand off the ball to Beckham.
THIS AND THAT FROM ROUND 19
Technician's notebook:
• Aware of the need for rest to combat his team's jam-packed schedule, and dealing with injury and suspensions, LA Galaxy manager Frank Yallop made four changes from Thursday to Sunday. Mike Randolph, Peter Vagenas, Carlos Pavon and Edson Buddle replaced Kelly Gray, Alan Gordon, Abel Xavier and the suspended Kyle Martino. Yallop wants to play with a 4-3-3 and has done so at times lately. But Sunday at Gillette Stadium, he lined up the Galaxy in a modified 4-4-2, with Landon Donovan stationed on the left but apparently allocated the freedom to move inside and play behind the two strikers when LA had the ball.
• Galaxy center backs Ty Harden and Ante Jazic (filling in for Xavier) had all kinds of problems dealing with Taylor Twellman, who had five decent looks at goal within the first 40 minutes and later crashed in the game-winner. Twellman is so good at playing just off the center back's shoulder, hiding in the defender's blind spot, so to speak.
• Colorado's best players Saturday were on the flanks, where Terry Cooke and Colin Clark had productive matches. But the Rapids, playing at home and presumably desperate for goals, simply aren't getting enough players forward. Generally it's down to one of the wide guys trying to find the two strikers, and that's about it. Pablo Mastroeni and Jovan Kirovski aren't getting forward quickly enough to support from their central midfield spots, and the Rapids get very little offensive contribution from their outside backs.
• Down two goals, and with a perilously short bench due to an overflowing injury list, Toronto FC manager Mo Johnston's pulled Tyrone Marshall off the back line and moved him alongside striker Andrea Lombardo. Aside from a near-miss header off a corner kick, Marshall's minutes at forward were uneventful.
• Houston manager Dominic Kinnear asked something different from All-Star attacker Dwayne De Rosario, who opened the game playing as a left midfielder. De Rosario had a tough time in the first half receiving the ball in places where he could run at Rapids' right back Dan Gargan. (De Rosario then moved back into the center in the second half due to some injury-related reshuffling.) Kinnear probably could have reconstructed the starting formation to get De Rosario in the middle, playing front or Richard Mulrooney and Ricardo Clark. But Houston does such a great job of defensive organization in the 4-4-2, Kinnear apparently wanted to maintain continuity there.
• Having tinkered earlier this year with a 4-5-1 and then taken a quick peak at a 4-3-3, Red Bulls manager Bruce Arena had his team back in a classic 4-4-2 against Toronto. Jozy Altidore and Juan Pablo Angel worked in tandem at the top.
• Red Bulls center midfielder Joe Vide at his best when he's hustling around, busting up plays and winning tackles, then distributing as simply as possible. He seems to have trouble decelerating just a bit after winning the ball, when he should relax and make easy passes to the dangerous Red Bulls attackers.
• The plan isn't really to play David Beckham as a deep-lying midfielder, it is? Most likely, Beckham was simply being cautious last week in his minutes against D.C. and deferring to the fact that his team was a man down (following Kyle Martino's ejection). The Galaxy was also having trouble advancing the ball out of its own half, so perhaps the savvy Beckham recognized that he might have trouble getting the ball if he strayed too far forward.
Costly red cards: Ejections collected over the weekend will weaken two clubs this week. In Colorado, Ugo Ihemelu was expelled late for dragging down Joseph Ngwenya just before the Houston forward could reach the penalty area. It will affect Fernando Clavijo's entire lineup, because Pablo Mastroeni could now be leaned on to play in the back. That leaves a central midfield that's already playing catchup in most games even further depleted.
In Dallas, Marcelo Saragosa was ejected for planting an elbow in Guillermo Barros Schelotto's throat late in FCD's win. With Juan Toja out for now with an ankle injury and Pablo Ricchetti in need of rest at some point, Saragosa's suspension will certainly hurt his team.
Caught in the act: TFC's Andrea Lombardo did well as a lone striker against Los Angeles, but didn't have quite the same success against Red Bulls central defenders Jeff Parke and Seth Stammler. Now, he may well get to sit out a match or two. Referee Alex Prus might have missed the sucker punch Lombardo threw into Hunter Freeman's midsection, but the TV cameras caught it.
Burse undefeated for Dallas: With Dario Sala still ailing, second-year man Ray Burse manned the FC Dallas goal once again. Burse's skills may still be a tad raw -- he was a late comer to the goalkeeping position -- but his record in four starts is unblemished. Burse has a draw in SuperLiga, a quarterfinal win in the U.S. Open Cup and two wins in MLS regular season play.
An offensive trickle: Not only is Toronto not scoring (with shutouts in five consecutive matches), Mo Johnston's men aren't even directing many efforts toward goal. They had no shots on goal at all in Sunday's loss to New York, and have just eight total for the last four matches.
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.
