Thursday, September 23, 2010

Those Other Games Last Night

As promised, let's talk about about those MLS games last night. I'm sure that the audiences watching were pretty small considering that both games were going on at the exact same time as the two CCL games involving MLS teams (really great scheduling there) but there was still plenty of drama with both games changing results on goals in extra time.

New England Revolution nearly ended FC Dallas's undefeated streak until Jeff Cunningham scored with 10 seconds of extra time left. The only problem is that Cunningham was pretty clearly offside and the official missed it. They say it's better to be lucky than good sometimes, right?

David Ferreira  put in a great effort for FC Dallas, even if he did miss his first penalty of the game, and should be given most of the praise for them coming back from 0-2 down to tie. He earned two penalties, made one of them, and set up Cunningham (who was offside) for the final goal. FC Dallas as a whole didn't play well, and can't afford a performance like this in the playoffs, but their star wasn't going to let them lose this game.

In the second game Kansas City Wizards rallied twice from two goals down to beat the Houston Dynamo 4-3. For a while it looked liked Kansas City, who has been the hottest team in the league lately, would blow their playoff chances with a loss to the not-what-they-used-to-be Houston Dynamo. Luckily Kei Kamara kept up his great season with his 10th goal of the year, Pat Onstad executed one of the worst goal kicks of all time to give Teal Bunbury a goal, and then Good Old Josh Wolff followed up and Adrian Serioux own goal with a diving header in the 96th minute for the win.

This was a huge win for Kansas City who remains right in the thick of the playoff race now. Also, Michael Harrington played really well for them at the right back position. This young kid had a great rookie season in 2007 but struggled with injuries last year. He's rebounded well this year, however, and with no great options at the right back position for the national team going forward may be a player to keep an eye on if he keeps improving.

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