Houston scored on a Brian Ching header (of course) in the 64th minute off a free kick to take out Chivas USA 1-0. This wasn’t really one of those boring low scoring games (see Columbus earlier), with both teams pushing it end to end in what was both a technical yet physical game. Neither team had an abundance of chances, with Houston directing only 3 shots on frame. They probably should have made it 2-0 if not for Brian Mulling whiffing on a couple of shots and a missed hand ball from the referee.
Chivas lost their first game of the season. Not a lot to say for them. They played well and look to be set to finish in the top half of the Western Conference. No doubt we’ll see both of these sides in the playoffs at the end of the year.
In Foxboro, the Revolution led throughout, with Toronto never really able to mount a serious challenge to the goal. The Revs took the game 4-0 with Taylor Twellman starting the scoring with two goals in the first 18 minutes. Shalrie Joseph added a penalty (which isn’t mentioned on MLSnet) and Andy Dorman scored on a nice drop pass from Steve Ralston, his second assist of the night. New England looks to have lost absolutely none of its offensive firepower with Clint Dempsey hopping across the pond. Also, Taylor Twellman finds the post-game lemonade to be crap.
Toronto was never able to get anything going offensively, though they look like they have a solid attacking set. The defense came apart on multiple occasions and they were fortunate to only give up 4 goals. They’re going to be a gritty team and should be able to grind out a few wins against the bottom half of the MLS table.
An uneventful match yields a boring nil-nil draw. The Crew had 2 real chances, 1 on a needle threading pass from Ned Grabavoy that Jason Garey couldn’t finagle into goal. The second was a rocket from the foot of Eddie Gaven from 25 yards out that forced Nick Rimando into a sprawling save.
Salt Lake never really looked to challenge goal, with their best chance coming from a Mehdi Ballouchy worm burner from about 35 yards out. Otherwise, both sides were content to play follow the bouncing ball around Rice-Eccles.
