Watched by a dismal crowd of 8,992 at MAPFRE Stadium, Crew SC squandered an early lead and by losing to Vancouver, 2-1, dropped out of first place in Soccer America's MLS Power Rankings.
New York City FC jumped into the top spot by rallying for a 2-1 victory at San Jose. Atlanta United captured a 1-0 victory at Minnesota United to win its third straight and move into second.
By unleashing the Might of Zlatan in the first El Trafico the Galaxy overtook rival LAFC in the rankings. Orlando City unleashed striker
Dom Dwyer, who had been sidelined by a strained quad,
to score twice in a rousing 4-3 defeat of the Red Bulls that brought the Lions their first victory of the season. A hat trick by
Dominique Badji powered the Rapids past Philadelphia,
3-0, and into the win column.
Defending MLS Cup champion Toronto FC got back to winning ways, 3-1 at Real Salt Lake, but losing finalist Seattle dropped a 1-0 decision at home to Montreal
and is the only 0-3-0 team in the league. The other winless teams include Portland and Chicago, which played a 2-2 tie, and temporarily homeless D.C. United.
MLS Week 5, Results March 30 Toronto FC 3, Real Salt Lake 1.
Highlights March 31 Orlando City 4, NY Red Bulls 3.
Highlights LA Galaxy 4, Los Angeles FC 3.
Highlights Columbus 1, Vancouver 2.
Highlights Houston 0, New England 2.
Highlights San Jose 1, New York City FC 2.
Highlights Colorado 3, Philadelphia 0.
Highlights Chicago 2, Portland 2.
Highlights Seattle 0, Montreal 1.
Highlights Sporting KC 1, D.C United 0.
Highlights Minn. United 0, Atlanta United 1.
Highlights Only MLS results are
factored into the Power Rankings, which include a team’s record in parentheses and rank last week.
1. NEW YORK CITY FC (4-0-1), 2. Players keep stepping up in the
absence of
David Villa, who failed a late fitness test for this match.
Maxi Moralez chipped a ball that
Anton Tinnerholm hammered into the net
and netted the deflected winner himself as NYCFC won a road game it trailed in the third minute.
2. ATLANTA UNITED (3-1-0), 5. Gutted out the win after losing defensive linchpin
Leandro Gonzalez Pirez to a second caution late in the first half.
3. SPORTING KC (3-1-1), 6. Five goals in five games makes
Felipe Gutierrez an early candidate for
Newcomer of the Year and SKC also got back its shutout mojo while outshooting D.C., 22-12.
4. VANCOUVER (3-1-1), 9. An equalizer by
Brek Shea early in the
second half provided the platform for
Kei Kamara to score the winner against one of his former MLS teams. Cross by
Felipe set up Kamara to head home.
5. COLUMBUS (3-1-1), 1. A fourth goal in five games from
Gyasi Zardes provided a lead that vanished when keeper
Zack Steffen parried a crossed ball right to Shea, who volleyed it
home.
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6. LA GALAXY (2-1-0), 10. Goals by
Sebastian Lletget and
Chris Pontius
set the stage for IbraTime and a spectacular derby triumph. Galaxy defense has its issues but this squad obviously wanted to win, and scored four goals without the dos Santos brothers.
7. LOS ANGELES FC (2-1-0), 3. Two sharp goals by
Carlos Vela were blown away in a disastrous half-hour. Nothing to do but push on towards an historic home opener less than a month
away.
8. NEW ENGLAND (2-1-1), 14. A nice game for
Cristian Pentilla -- set up the first goal, netted the second -- and a shutout provided the Revs with a well-earned road
win.
9. NY RED BULLS (2-2-0), 7. Missing several starters, the Red Bulls were disjointed much of the time and managed to fritter away a pair of one-goal leads as well as a late
equalizer by
Aaron Long. The goal that put them behind came from a first-time finish of a throw-in. Not good.
10. FC DALLAS (1-0-2), 11. The only team to sit out
the weekend gets back to work Saturday at home against Colorado.
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11. TORONTO FC (1-2-0), 17. TFC
launched 19 shots -- six apiece for
Jozy Altidore and
Sebatian Giovinco -- and simply overpowered RSL to get into the win column.
12. PHILADELPHIA (1-1-1), 8. Early in
the second half, Union conceded twice within eight minutes. It hasn't won any of its last 13 road games.
13. MONTREAL (2-2-0), 16. Impact exploited a man-advantage to win with a
Jeisson Vargas goal created by an elegan cutback from
Ignacio Piatti. Big kick-save by
Evan Bush preserved the victory.
14. HOUSTON (1-2-1), 4. Dynamo hasn't won since bopping Atlanta United in its first game of
the season. It was trailing 1-0 in the 35th minute when
DaMarcus Beasley was sent off for denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity yet still managed to generate 16 shots.
15. SAN JOSE (1-2-0), 12. Quakes failed to build on third-minute goal by
Yefferson Quintana despite a creating a few decent opportunities to do so.
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16. MINNESOTA UNITED (2-3-0), 13. Presented a chance to atone for last year's 6-1 thrashing as well as a man
advantage late in the first half, the Loons falied to capitalize. They scored the only goal -- for the other team.
17. REAL SALT LAKE (1-2-1), 15. Whatever propelled RSL to a strong
finish last year hasn't resurfaced so far in 2018, which prompted head coach
Mike Petke to declare,
"I know what the problem is and it's going to be fixed." 18.
COLORADO (1-1-1), 22. Rapids rolled to their first win on the momentum of a
Dominique Badji hat trick.
19. ORLANDO CITY (1-2-1), 23. Recovered from a strained quad,
Dom Dwyer led a fiesty, scrappy effort by scoring twice, and the Lions won it late with a
Scott Sutter shot that deflected off
Josue Colman into the net.
20. PORTLAND (0-2-2), 19. The Timbers led twice but couldn't get to the line for that first win.
Diego Valeri got his first goal of the season and
Sebastian Blanco bagged his third. For the second straight game, defender
Liam Ridgewell was left off the game-day roster.
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21. CHICAGO (0-2-1), 20. Assists on both goals from
Bastian Schweinsteiger brought the Fire back
twice
to get its first point of 2018. Defender
Brandon Vincent set up the first goal and headed home the second from a precise Schweinsteiger cross.
22. D.C.
UNITED (0-3-2), 21. United fell behind in the third minute when a ball bounced into the net off defender
Felix Brillant and only rarely looked potent enough to equalize.
23. SEATTLE (0-3-0), 18. Red cards in each of their losses is a distrurbing trend for the Sounders. This time
Kelvin Leerdam foolishly patted an
opponent across the face in the 40th minute. They were cut apart when Piatti set up the Impact's goal.