The New York Red Bulls got a lopsided win to start their home schedule, beating Colorado 4-1. Thierry Henry was the first player on the score sheet, putting New York up in the third minute. He had the assist on Kenny Cooper's goal three minutes later. It would be Henry again in the 53rd minute, with Colorado pulling a goal back in the 77th through Omar Cummings. Cooper would also score two, finishing off the 4-1 score with a goal in the 89th minute.
In the shock result category, Real Salt Lake lost 1-0 at home to LA's other team. Chivas USA gets their first win of the season. Casey Townsend scored the game's only goal in the 72nd minute. Afterwards, RSL coach Jason Kreis was happy to talk opposing strategies: "I think in the end you look at it a little tactically and say that we wanted to press the game and they wanted to defend and counter-attack. Tonight the defensive-minded team won. That’s not going to change the way we think about the game or the way we play.”
Seattle won the Friday night game, shutting out Houston 2-0. David Estrada opened the scoring in the 23rd minute with Brad Evans converting a penalty four minutes later. On Saturday, Toronto got shutout at home 3-0 by San Jose. If there's multiple goals from the Earthquakes, Chris Wondolowski must've scored. In fact, he opened the scoring in the 9th minute and then scored another in the 68th. Shea Salinas had the goal in between in the 56th minute. New England kicked off Portland at home 1-0 with a goal from Saer Sene a minute into the game. Columbus shutout Montreal 2-0 at Crew Stadium. Both goals were scored after Montreal's Jeb Brovsky was sent off in the 19th minute. Milovan Mirosevic put the Crew up in the 30th and Olman Vargas doubled that lead in the 66th. Chicago beat Philadelphia 1-0 courtesy of a 28th minute Dominic Oduro goal. Vancouver and DC played out a scoreless draw in front of 19,394 fans at BC Place.
In Sunday's other game, Sporting KC beat FC Dallas 2-1 at Livestrong Park. Dallas led on the road when Ricardo Villar scored 25 minutes. Kansas City was level by the 45th when Aurelien Collin equalized and in the lead for good through Kei Kamara in the 88th minute.
What Did We Learn?
1. What do you say about your team when they've lost badly? If you're the Rapids Oscar Pareja, something like this: "Without a doubt our maturity on defense has to be better than it was today, we have to pay more attention to detail, the team looked somewhat distraught at kickoff; not only because of the early goal. This is team is a work in progress and we have to keep on working. It’s easy when you win, we were coming off two consecutive wins but my message to the team is to keep on working, especially after tough losses."
2. 21,024 showed up at Red Bull Arena for an opening day three weeks into the season. That's better than last season, when they opened at home in front of 20,982. Capacity is 25,000.
3. New England joins Chivas USA with a disappointing home opener attendance. The Revs drew 12,925 a full 11 people better than the 12,914 they reported last season in their Week 2 opener against DC.
Top Five
1. Sporting Kansas City: Up three places based on actually winning while others didn't. See how much fun early season rankings can be?
2. Seattle: Played and won their second game of the season on Friday.
3. Vancouver: Yes, they're on seven points from three games played and our Western Conference leaders. However, a few weeks from now we're going to know why they needed all three points against DC.
4. Real Salt Lake: It's tough to play up a team that loses to Chivas USA. It's in-conference and Chivas USA's point still leaves them bottom out west. Yes, they're tied with their Home Depot Center neighbors, but on an extra game played. Remember, the real Galaxy has yet to show. They're still the team we all thought they were prior to the start of the season. Don't jump off that particular bandwagon just yet.
5. San Jose: A multi-goal shutout has them one of three teams in the West with six points from three games.
SKC actually tied that game before half time, if anyone wanted the facts.