July 11, 2005

The Monday Morning Bash

WARNING! What you are about to read may shock you due to its almost unbelievable content. Super-struggling Southern California club Chivas USA absolutely dismantled Real Salt Lake 5-1 at the Home Depot Center on Saturday night. It actually could have been worse as Chivas USA missed a few tasty opportunities late in the second half that would have really put an exclamation point on the thorough spanking they gave to their expansion rivals from Utah. RSL defender Brian Kamler opened the scoring for Chivas USA with an own-goal less than five minutes into the game and then Hector Cuadros, Antonio Martinez, Matt Taylor and Isaac Romo all put balls past RSL keeper D.J. Countess to secure only their second win of a season that is already 18 games old. The biggest downer of the evening? A paltry 8,000 fans turned up at the HDC to watch Chivas USA put on their best performance of the season.

The Los Angeles Galaxy continued to prove that they are totally useless on the road as they fell to the MetroStars 2-1 at the Meadowlands in front of 12,000 fans. Eddie Gaven followed up his own header to poke home the game winner in the 67th minute after Galaxy keeper Kevin Hartman made a mess out of what looked to be a routine save. On the bright side, Galaxy midfielder Hercules Gomez scored his first MLS goal in the losing effort. Don’t worry guys, you’ll be home soon!

Greg Andrulis still has a job and the Columbus Crew keep losing. Hmm…interesting. I wonder if there is any correlation between the two. More alarming is the fact that only 12,000 fans showed up for a club that has its own stadium and was second in attendance last year. Defender Eddie Robinson and forward Ronald Cerritos rounded-out the scoring for the Earthquakes who are quickly becoming the “can-do” story of the season.

Freddy Adu logged a full game but it wasn’t enough to guide his team to victory as Sasha Victorine hammered home the game winner for the Wizards to send the hosts home with zero points. Over 18,000 fans turned out to watch a rematch of last year’s MLS Cup, but without the likes of Jamie Moreno and Alecko Eskandarian on the field, it just didn’t feel anything like last November.

Steve Nicol is probably on the phone right now to Bruce Arena asking him if he can have some of his team back as the New England Revolution just isn’t the same without its top guns and Taylor Twellman looks like a little lost boy up top without running partner Pat Noonan who is away at the Gold Cup. The Revolution got dumped by the Fire 1-0 in Chicago on Saturday night on a goal from Gonzalo Segares in the 58th minute to drop them out of the top spot in the East.

TGIF! Just as you’re clocking out, they’ll be kicking off. The end of the work week has San Jose traveling to our nation’s capital for a prime time affair as the Earthquakes will look to continue their seven-game unbeaten stretch against a D.C. United team whose performances have been all over the place as of late.

Mark Lincir, Senior Editor, 90:00™