Cascadia Cup serves up another thriller

• by Ridge Mahoney  @ridgemax, May 25, 2014

[MLS: Week 12] Maybe ties are boring much of the time, but not in Cascadia. Like the 4-4 thriller played out by Portland and Seattle last month, the Whitecaps and Sounders ended knotted up Saturday in exciting fashion. The 2-2 tie drew a fifth consecutive sellout crowd of 21,000 to B.C. Place that witnessed a worthy entry to the growing list of memorable Cascadia encounters.

The Sounders took a 1-0 lead on a Chad Barrett header yet had to rally to earn a point. Gonzalo Pineda converted a penalty kick in the 82nd minute that had been whistled for a disputed foul on Jay DeMerit. The ‘Caps equalized shortly after Barrett’s goal with a fine combination goal tucked away by Erik Hurtado.

Gershon Koffie, who had blasted a shot off the crossbar in the opening minutes, punished a careless clearance out of the corner by Sounders keeper Stefan Frei by chipping into an empty net from about 35 yards out to give Vancouver the lead. DeMerit’s jump into Cam Weaver to win a head ball was deemed to be a foul by referee Ismail Elfath, and Pineda coolly converted his first penalty kick in a Seattle uniform.

The Sounders nearly won it a minute later when Obafemi Martins drilled a shot off the base of the goalpost, yet the tie maintained its perch atop the Western Conference at 8-2-3 (26 points) as well as the overall standings.



TIMBERS NET TWO, TOO. Portland also netted a pair of goals, both by Maximiliano Urruti, and that was enough to add to New York’s woes, 2-1, at Red Bull Arena. Urruti’s pair gave him four goals in as many games. New York lost its third straight game despite a penalty-kick goal by Bradley Wright-Phillips that is his 10th goal of the season, tying another Englishman, Sporting Kansas City's Dom Dwyer, for the league lead.

MULLINS, FAGUNDEZ ARE ALSO EN FUEGO. Speaking of four goals in four games, that stat also applies to New England rookie Patrick Mullins, who scored again as the Revs endured a downpour to beat D.C. United, 2-1. Fabian Espindola equalized to snap the Revolution’s home shutout streak at 432 minutes, but yet another hot scorer stepped up at a critical moment.

Diego Fagundez is on a slightly hotter pace; he knocked home the rebound of a saved shot for his fourth goal in the past three games to regain the lead for the Revs. United’s attempts to come back were hampered by a controversial red card issued to Eddie Johnson in the 82nd minute when he kicked out at Kelyn Rowe after they had battled for a loose ball.



RAPIDS ROLL AFTER RANT. Pablo Mastroeni may be new to this head coaching thing, but he’s pushing at least some of the right buttons.

A halftime diatribe from the first-year boss prompted two quick goals early in the second half en route to a 4-1 rout of Montreal. Kamani Hill scored his first MLS goal in a year and a half and Shane O’Neill followed up with his first league goal ever to break the game open.

“There’s no getting around that, he definitely got into us,” said O’Neill told MLSSoccer.com. “We all came out with a point to prove in the second half, and I definitely think we did that.”

Mastroeni didn’t like his team’s reaction to taking an early 1-0 lead on a Dillon Powers penalty kick that marked just the second time this season Colorado has scored in the first half.

MLS WEEK 12, Results:
Saturday, May 24
Real Salt Lake 0 FC Dallas 0.
Att.: 20,488.

Columbus 2 Chicago 0.
CLB: Ethan Finlay (Federico Higuain) 10
CLB: Jairo Arrieta (Federico Higuain) 25
Att.: 15,290.

New England 2 D.C. United 1.
NE: Patrick Mullins (Diego Fagundez) 55
DC: Fabian Espindola (Cristian) 73
NE: Diego Fagundez 77
Red Card: DC -- Eddie Johnson 82.
Att.: 13,589.

Colorado 4 Montreal 1.
COL: Dillon Powers pen. 5
COL: Kamani Hill (Edson Buddle) 54
COL: Shane O'Neill 58
COL: Dillon Powers (Marlon Hairston) 84
MTL: Andres Romero (Troy Perkins) 88
Att.: 17,616.



Vancouver 2 Seattle 2.
SEA: Chad Barrett (Kenny Cooper) 36
VAN: Erik Hurtado (Pedro Morales) 39
VAN: Gershon Koffie 66
SEA: Gonzalo Pineda pen. 82
Att.: 21,000.

New York 1 Portland 2.
NY: Bradley Wright-Phillips pen. 36
POR: Maximiliano Urruti (Steve Zakuani) 45
POR: Maximiliano Urruti 74
Att.:  19,513.

Friday, May 23
Sporting KC 2 Toronto FC 2.
SKC: Dom Dwyer (Sal Zizzo) 47
TFC: Luke Moore (Jermain Defoe) 67
SKC: Dom Dwyer (pen.) 84
TFC: Collen Warner 1 (Nick Hagglund) 90+
Red Card: TFC -- Steven Caldwell 63.
Att.: 19,914.

Wednesday, May 21
D.C. United 2 Houston 0.
DC: Chris Rolfe (Fabian Espindola) 28
DC: Fabian Espindola (Chris Rolfe) 63
Att.: 8,224.

LA Galaxy 2 FC Dallas 1.
LA: Robbie Keane (Gyasi Zardes) 24
LA: Gyasi Zardes (Juninho) 44
DAL: Tesho Akindele (Jair Benitez) 65

MLS WEEK 12, Schedule:
Sunday, May 25
8 pm ET
LA Galaxy vs. Philadelphia, UDN
10:30 pm ET
San Jose vs. Houston




MLS Standings:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
PTS TEAM W-L-T GF/GA
23 New England 7-3-2 21/14
18 Sporting KC 5-4-3 18/12
18 D.C. United 5-4-3 17/14
17 Houston 5-6-2 16/21
16 Columbus 4-4-4 15/14
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14 New York 3-5-5 19/21
13 Toronto FC 4-4-1 11/11
12 Chicago 2-3-6 19/21
11 Philadelphia 2-6-5 15/20
7 Montreal 1-6-4 9/22

WESTERN CONFERENCE
PTS TEAM W-L-T GF/GA
26 Seattle 8-3-2 25/21
24 Real Salt Lake 6-0-6 23/13
18 Colorado 5-4-3 16/15
18 FC Dallas 5-6-3 22/22
17 Vancouver 4-2-5 18/14
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13 Portland 2-3-7 18/20
12 LA Galaxy 3-3-3 10/8
10 San Jose 2-4-4 10/12
10 Chivas USA 2-5-4 13/20
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MLS: Leading Scorers
G PLAYER, TEAM
10+2 Dom Dwyer, Sporting KC
10+1 Bradley Wright-Phillips, New York
8 Erick Torres, Chivas USA
8 Clint Dempsey, Seattle
6+1 Fabian Espindola, D.C. United
6+1 Robbie Keane, LA Galaxy
6 Federico Higuain, Columbus
6 Joao Plata, Real Salt Lake
6 Will Bruin, Houston
6 Alvaro Saborio, Real Salt Lake

MLS WEEK 13, Schedule:
Tuesday, May 27
8 pm ET
Sporting KC vs. New York, ESPN2, WatchESPN, ESPN Deportes
Wednesday, May 28
10:30 pm ET
Chivas USA vs. Portland, MLS LIVE
Saturday, May 31
4 pm ET
Seattle vs. Real Salt Lake, MLS LIVE
5 pm ET
Toronto FC vs. Columbus, MLS LIVE
7 pm ET
Montreal vs. New England, MLS LIVE
D.C. United vs. Sporting KC, MLS LIVE
8:30 pm ET
FC Dallas vs. San Jose, MLS LIVE, UDN
10:30 pm ET
Chivas USA vs. Philadelphia, MLS LIVE