MLS Weekend: Forward Columbus

WASHINGTON, DC (Sept 8, 2008) USSoccerPlayers -- Columbus took full advantage of the top of the table clash at Crew Stadium, taking down New England and putting three more points at the top of Major League Soccer.

Los Angeles 2 - Salt Lake 2

Still a point rather than three for the Galaxy, who haven't exactly greeted the arrival of Bruce Arena wit new-found confidence.  LA took an early 1-0 lead from Bryan Jordan in the 9th, holding it until the 21st when Real Salt Lake grabbed a Yura Movsisyan equalizer.  In the second, RSL took the 2-1 lead in the 52nd, answered by Edson Buddle in the 69th.

"Overall I am obviously pleased," Arena said. "We went into the game with some issues in terms of the roster and trying to fit some of the pieces together. It was a challenge, but I think we have to give a lot of credit to our team. Salt Lake threw everything they had at us in the first half. They are a good team and it showed. I think it took our guys 30 minutes to figure some things out, but as for the second half we played pretty well for the most part. Given some of our limitations tonight, I'm really pleased with the effort and the result."

Pleased or not, LA now have the worst record in MLS, bottom of the Western Conference on goal differential to Dallas.

"It used to be when I was playing for another team and we would be playing Salt Lake, it was a team that you would expect to get a win," said RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman. "You knew that there was going to be a point in the game that you would get a chance to win, and Real Salt Lake would find ways to lose. We've tried to clean that up right away. We've seem to have done that at home so far. It's just a different mentality in the guys.""

San Jose 2 - DC 1

Maybe there's hope for LA, considering San Jose has gone from worst to playoff contention.  The Earthquakes put two of their four shots on goal in, with Arturo Alvarez scoring in the 18th and Darren Huckerby in the 62nd.  DC pulled one back in the 76th, but suddenly San Jose is legit.

Chicago 1 - New England 0

The Fire got the only goal of the game in the 36th minute from Stephen King, and with it second place in the Eastern Conference on goal differential from New England.

Red Bull NY got very little service, a total of four shots with two on frame.  They did win the battle of corners, two to Chicago's one.

Columbus 4 - New England 0

When you get out-shot 27 to 4, the mystery of how New England got swamped by Columbus becomes a little less mysterious.  The Crew put 13 of those 27 shots on goal, and four in the back of the net, but it took them most of the first half to hit the opener.

Guillermo Barros Schelotto got that opener in the 40th, setup Andy Iro for the second in the 45th, and got the assist on Jason Garey's goal in the 67th.  Garey got a second in the 90th.

"I think we can start talking about and thinking about it now, that we want to win the league," Crew coach Sigi Schimd said. "We want to win the Eastern Conference. It's not so much the playoffs now, we have a chance to maybe do more now; maybe even want to grab hold of that thing called the Supporters' Shield. If we think we're here, if we pat ourselves on the back, we're not going to do it, so we have to keep our feet on the ground and continue to do what we do which is work hard and have everyone fight for each other."

New England is also talking about winning the League. 

"Our confidence is still sky high, we just have to look at ourselves in the mirror and take a gut check," New England midfielder Shalrie Joseph said. "I think we're only five points out of it and we know there are seven or eight games left. We can still make a run. As I said, we're not far away from the top, we just have to put this one behind us and look forward to the next one."

Toronto 1 - Chivas USA 3

With both teams down multiple players, Chivas USA took advantage and another three points off Toronto.  The FC had the lead for eleven minutes, opening the scoring with a Tyler Rosenlund goal in the 30th.  Daniel Paladini equalized in the 41st, Jonathan Bornstein scored in the 58th, and Ante Razov finished things off in the 96th.

"It's incredibly important. I think right now we put ourselves in a really good spot to push in the last seven games for a playoff spot," said Chivas USA coach Preki.  "Maybe we can get into the second round, we're going to try."

His counterpart with Toronto played up exactly what was expected.

"I thought they gave everything they had," John Carver said.  "Unfortunately sometimes when you give that much effort it's not good enough. Especially when you arrive on a Monday and you look and you've only got so many players to deal with and then all of a sudden three arrive on a Friday morning, who -- I've got to be honest, I didn't know anything about. Two of the three did a great job, but I can't fault the one because he's come in and done a job for me. But I've always said I wish I had 11 Rohan Ricketts, because I asked him to play one, two, three positions -- and if I asked him to play in goal, he'd go in there as well."

Houston 3 - Kansas City 1

Though both teams were close on shots taken (14 to 10), it was Houston dominating shots on goal 10 to 2.  The result as what those statistics suggest, with Brad Davis scoring in the 28th and Nate Jaqua adding two in the 54th and 67th before Kansas City even got on the board.  Davy Arnaud ruined Tony Caig's shutout attempt in the 87th, with Houston now building a gap at the top of the Western Conference.

"Two o'clock in the summer in Houston is probably not the brightest idea, but we fought through it. It's just something you deal with," Jaqua said.