Landon Donovan sets a big record
Galaxy superstar Landon Donovan matched Jeff Cunningham’s all-time Major League Soccer scoring mark of 134 league goals. Donovan had two goals in Los Angeles’ 5-0 win over Chivas USA, and will share the all-time mark for now, and will have one or two matches (depending on availability around U.S. national team matches) to pull ahead and own the achievement by himself.
Here is the historic goal by Donovan, who may own every important scoring record in the land (MLS and for the national team) before it’s over.
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The Red Bulls qualify for playoffs
Mike Petke’s team became the first officially book a post-season berth – and what a wild way to get there. Tim Cahill’s dramatic header in the seventh minute of stoppage time was the punctuation mark on a match that went all kinds of crazy over the last quarter hour or so. Details of the wild 2-2 draw at Red Bull Arena are here.
The teams that are eliminated … or practically eliminated, at least
Columbus, Dallas, Vancouver and New England all left themselves on the brink of elimination by failing to pick up maximum weekend wins. None are officially eliminated, but all would need to win their remaining matches and, in some case, look for an improbable series of events to provide assistance. The current standings are here.
The big routs
An unusual number of unusually lopsided matches marked a weekend (in a league driven by parity). The rout was on early outside of Denver, where the Colorado Rapids owned a 4-0 lead after just 40 minutes against the Seattle Sounders. Seattle did find enough team pride to make a better second half of it, but the damage was done in a 5-1 clobbering. That was the Sounders’ worst MLS loss since joining the league.
A day later, just west of there, Los Angeles made similarly quick work of Chivas USA, pulling away early in a 5-0 win. Rookie Gyasi Zardes and Irish international Robbie Keane joined Donovan in creating all the offensive destruction.
Back on Friday night, Chicago began the weekend with a 3-0 win over D.C. United at RFK Stadium. Three-goal wins are exactly rare in MLS – but three goal margins on the road are pretty uncommon.
Another scoring record almost set
Speaking of the big whuppin’ at Dicks Sporting Goods Park outside Denver: Rapids rookie Deshorn Brown scored 14 seconds into the contest. That was the second fastest goal in league history; only Dwayne De Rosario, back in 2003, found goal faster. Is this the moment that gets Brown over the Rookie of the Year hump for good? He looks like the clear favorite now. Here is that goal:
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The unlikely hero in Philadelphia
Philadelphia Union attacker Kleberson had done absolutely nothing since joining the team early in the summer to justify his Designated Player status. But the Brazilian World Cup veteran did finally rise and score a huge goal Saturday, a precision free kick in stoppage time as John Hackworth’s team kept its playoff hopes alive with a 1-0 win over Toronto. The Union still has work ahead, but now has an inside track to the fifth and final spot out of the East.
The weekend’s top performance
Chicago’s big win over D.C. United may have looked all lopsided … but that’s only because Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson turned in such an impressive performance. The visitors needed his nine saves, including some real gems, to eventually pull away from United.