I turned on Sky Sports this morning and the lead headline was that the New England Revolutuon had beaten David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy 2-1 in a battle of the top teams in MLS. I must admit, I almost fell of my chair when I saws the headline.
Here are the game summaries from this week’s MLS games.
New England 2, Los Angeles 1
Adam Cristman scored two goals as the New England Revolution held on for a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy on Friday. Cristman opened the scoring with an unassisted tally in the 33rd minute and then doubled the advantage four minutes later with his career-high sixth goal of the season to give the Revolution a 2-0 advantage.
David Beckham halved the deficit in the 66th minute as his shot deflected off a New England defender before sailing past goalkeeper Matt Reis for his fifth goal of the campaign.
With the win, New England (10-4-3) increased its lead in the Eastern Conference standings to seven points over the second-place Columbus Crew (8-4-2). Kronin made five saves for Western Conference-leading Los Angeles (6-6-3), which still holds a one-point edge over Real Salt Lake (5-6-5) and the Houston Dynamo (4-4-8).
Rapids 4, Red Bulls 4-0
Tom McManus and Mehdi Ballouchy scored goals in the first half and the Colorado Rapids cruised to a 4-0 victory over the New York Red Bulls on Friday night. Colin Clark added a goal in the 49th minute and speedy Jamaican Omar Cummings came off the bench to seal the game with a goal in the 68th minute.
The Rapids (6-8-1) had scored only four goals during a four-game winless streak. New York (5-5-5) entered the game with only one loss in its previous five games.
Kansas City 1, FC Dallas 1
Abe Thompson’s header one minute into stoppage time allowed FC Dallas to salvage a 1-1 draw against the Kansas City Wizards on Friday at Pizza Hut Park. Thompson headed a cross from halftime substitution Eric Avila past Kansas City goalkeeper Kevin Hartman in the 91st minute. Kansas City had scored in the 39th minute after Scott Sealy accepted a pass from Claudio Lopez and beat goalkeeper Dario Sala on a 12-yard shot that sailed just inside the right post.
Sealy’s tally ended a string of 448 consecutive minutes without an offensive goal for Kansas City. The Wizards’ only tally in that stretch came on an own goal against the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Chivas USA 1, San Jose 0
Ante Razov free kick in the 88th minute lead Chivas USA to a 1-0 triumph over the San Jose Earthquakes at The Home Depot Center. With the victory, Chivas USA (6-6-3) is now tied with the idle Los Angeles Galaxy (6-6-3) atop the Western Conference.
San Jose (3-9-3) was shut out for the third time in its last four matches and remains with a league-low 10 goals in 15 contests.
Chicago 2, Columbis 2
The Columbus Crew continued their recent hot streak by overcoming a two-goal deficit to rally to a 2-2 tie with the Chicago Fire. Steven Lenhart scored his second goal of the season from the penalty area in the 87th minute to level the contest for Columbus (8-4-3), which extended its unbeaten streak to five games.
With an assist from Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Emmanuel Ekpo put the Crew on the board in the 36th minute. In the eighth minute, Justin Mapp’s shot hit the left post and bounced to Chris Rolfe, who cleaned up the rebound and drilled the ball past diving Columbus goalkeeper Will Hesmer to open the scoring.
Chicago (6-5-3) doubled the advantage in the 25th minute when Calen Carr scored from the right penalty area after accepting feeds from Gonzalo Segares and Rolfe.
