There are goals. And then there are golazos.
Fredy Montero’s 35-yard strike in the Seattle Sounders’ 2-0 win over the LA Galaxy on Wednesday night clearly falls into the latter category. The goal was his first of the season.
The Galaxy have been the Sounders’ “boogey team” of late — Wednesday marked their first win over the defending champs since 2009 — but Seattle coach Sigi Schmid knew they had the victory in them all along.
LA will point out that they were without stars David Beckham and Robbie Keane, and that Bruce Arena made some lineup changes with long-term planning in mind. The alterations obviously didn’t pan out as hoped. “We technically weren’t very good,” Arena said afterward.
On the other side, Sounders right back Zach Scott couldn’t care less about who was or wasn't on the field for the Galaxy. “That’s their problem,” he said.
The three points put the Sounders up into third place in the West. But they’re still trailing the San Jose Earthquakes. In fact, everyone is. The “confident” Quakes scored a 5-3 win over D.C. United on Wednesday to take the lead in the Supporters Shield race.
Likewise, Chris Wondolowski’s brace gave him the lead the Golden Boot race with 10, one more than New York’s Thierry Henry. Not that he’s taking any credit for it. “Those two assists are the real things to talk about,” he said.
Actually, Wondo, the real thing to talk about is this save from Jon Busch on Dwayne De Rosario’s bicycle kick.
D.C. coach Ben Olsen pointed to his two missing starting center backs as a major reason for the loss, but he continued his praise of his players’ character. Last week, he talked about their “chutzpah,” and on Wednesday, he said there is “a lot of fight in this team.”
Finally, in the third MLS match of the night, New England got back to winning ways after three straight losses with a 2-1 victory over the visiting Colorado Rapids. Saer Sene and Fernando Cardenas got the goals. Cardenas’s cheeky chip was one to savor.
The win was the 100th of goalkeeper Matt Reis’s career, a milestone the Revs marked with a commemorative “#100” jersey. Find out where Reis plans to hang it.
In the opening matches of the Amway Canadian Championship semifinals, Montreal and Toronto played to a 0-0 draw and Vancouver topped Edmonton, 2-0. The Whitecaps victory came courtesy of two assists from 18-year-old Omar Salgado, who lined up at left wing. “We think [left wing] suits his attributes a lot more,” coach Martin Rennie said.
For Toronto, any result was an improvement. Winless in the league, TFC didn’t create many chances, but that didn’t bother coach Aron Winter. “We want to play attractive football, but at this moment … it’s important to get results,” he said.
The potential new owners of Toronto FC also got a result on Wednesday. The Canadian Competition Bureau said it will not challenge the proposed takeover by Bell and Rogers Communications of current TFC owners Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
No such luck for Real Salt Lake players. Coach Jason Kreis is happily challenging his team to be better, saying, “There’s a lot of room for improvement — which is a good thing.”
Portland’s Troy Perkins is still nursing the injury he picked up when Montreal’s Sanna Nyassi caught him with a boot to the face. Perkins called it a “stupid tackle,” but reportedly admitted that Nyassi apologized through Perkins’ Futty Danso, a fellow Gambian.
Timbers coach John Spencer is taking some heat from the fans for recent remarks that despite the “world-class atmosphere” at JELD-WEN Field, “it takes time to build a quality team.”
Colorado’s quality has been upped by this year’s addition of Kamani Hill. The 26-year-old American discusses at length his years in Europe, including the incredibly impersonal way that Portuguese club Vitória de Guimarães informed him his services weren’t necessary anymore.
Columbus Crew Stadium always has a world-class atmosphere when the US national team plays there. And Jurgen Klinsmann's side will be there on September 11 for a World Cup qualifier vs. Jamaica.
PPL Park has a world-class atmosphere for Union matches, and will presumably have it for the 2013 NCAA College Cup, which was awarded to PPL.
Finally, none of the goals on Wednesday required goal-line technology to determine their legitimacy (thankfully), but this commentary suggests the International Football Association Board’s testing this month could pave the way for some form of GLT to come to MLS at some point soon.
MLSsoccer.com Must-Reads
Anatomy of a Goal: Maicon Santos winner
Opta Spotlight: How getting good service matters
Postcard from Europe: AS Roma, American-Style
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