MLS round-up, April 13 & 14

The MLS weekend began in Oregon, where Phil Neville's Portland Timbers took on Los Angeles FC. Both sides have had middling starts to their seasons, a bonus for Timbers fans but something of a comedown for the Black & Gold, who are used to flying high. Whatever Neville has got his team doing is (sometimes) effective and it looked that way when Felipe Mora put the home side ahead in the eleventh minute during a brief period of Timbers dominance, but Mateusz Bogusz equalised eleven minutes later with a cracking finish from Timothy Tillman's pass. Eduard Atesta went close to putting the visitors ahead before Portland's creative talisman Evander scored his fourth of the season to give Timbers a half-time 2-1 lead that lasted all of three minutes into the second-half when Maxime Crepeau took out Denis Bouanga just outside the box as the striker raced towards goals. Crepeau was sent off and Bogusz fired the subsequent free-kick home to level the scores. It was a game of few chances after that as Portland looked to shut up shop and, to be honest, both sides would probably have taken a point before kick-off. The action continued in the nation's capital, where Orlando City left Duncan McGuire on the bench for the trip to DC United. United's Christian Benteke has been in stunning goalscoring form this year and grabbed his sixth in six games just five minutes in with a header following a corner. City 'keeper Pedro Gallese made saves from Aaron Herrera and Lucas Bartlett, before Dagur Thorhallson headed home an equaliser after 28 minutes, a state of affairs that remained through to the 66th minute when Gabriel Pirani restored DC's lead from a Benteke knock-down after Bartlett and Jared Stroud had again gone close. That was the cue for City to introduce McGuire and Nicolas Lodeiro, the latter of whom forced a save from Alex Bono, the resulting corner allowing David Brekalo to head the visitors' second leveller on 82 minutes.  Gallese then saved from Benteke, the scores remaining level into stoppage time when McGuire raced onto a Lodeiro through-ball to give Orlando a 3-2 lead which, despite chances for Pirani and Herrera, they held onto for the win.

It was also a 3-2 game down in North Carolina, this time in favour of the home side as Charlotte FC beat a very game Toronto FC. A lively first half produced just the one goal, from Charlotte's Kerwin Vargas, but the Reds got back into the game four minutes into the second-half when substitute Prince Owusu tapped in from close range. Both sides had chances after that but it was new signing Liel Abada who put The Crown ahead again with a good finish on seventy minutes, a lead which lasted for eight minutes before Owusu scored another point-blank effort. The home side brought Patrick Agyemang on in search of a winner and were rewarded just six minutes later when he grabbed a goal, and Toronto were unable to get back into the game, a second yellow card for Kevin Long compounding their misery. They could have done with some of those goals in Harrison, New Jersey, where New York Red Bulls faced Chicago Fire in one of the league's longest-standing rivalries. The home side dominated the early play, with Emil Forsberg, Dante Vanzeir, and Lewis Morgan going close to giving them the lead but it all looked like it might fall apart in the 42nd minute when VAR turned a yellow card for Andres Reyes into a red, the right decision following an elbow into the face of Fire's Tobias Salquist. The second-half was mostly Chicago but they couldn't find a way past Carlos Coronel in the Red Bulls goal and the game finished 0-0, leaving Red Bulls still top of the Eastern Conference, for an hour at least.

Last season's Supports Shield winners FC Cincinnati have also started well this season but came unstuck on their visit to Quebec on Saturday when CF Montreal sent them home with a 2-1 defeat. Ruan hit the post for the home side early on but the game sparked into life on 21 minutes when DeAndre Yedlin ran Mathias Coccaro into the advertising hoardings, receiving a very lenient yellow card for his actions. Coccaro had to be substituted off, replaced by Josef Martinez, and Yedlin's violence came back to bite him on the ass in first-half stoppage time when Martinez put Montreal ahead. Martinez, Mathieu Choiniere, and Raheem Edwards all had chances to increase Montreal's lead in the second-half, with Yuya Kubo going close to the visitors before finding the net with a 58th minute equaliser. The stalemate lasted just four minutes, though, before Arial Lassiter restored Montreal's lead, and that's how it stayed, with the Garys unable to break down a resolute Canadien defence. Down at Yankee Stadium, New York City FC versus New England Revolution was a clash of two sides very much out of form this season, althoguh they were little better last year, either. The Revs were knocked out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup in midweek, 9-2 on aggregate, but were coming off their first win of the season last weekend over Charlotte FC. City had drawn their last two games and a scoreless first half looked like it might be three, especially as Ian Harkes's red card for the Revs was (correctly) overturned following the intervention of VAR. Following some good work by Hannes Wolf, Agustin Ojeda gave the Pigeons the lead on 57 minutes, and there were chances for both teams to score before Julian Fernandez wrapped up the game with City's second in the third minute of stoppage time.

New York Red Bulls' stay at the top of the Eastern Conference was ended by an Inter Miami side for whom Lionel Messi was starting his first league game since March 2nd, his undoubted genius once again on show as they visited Sporting Kansas City. KC moved the game to Arrowhead Stadium, home of the NFL Chiefs, and were rewarded with a record crowd of 72,610, the third highest in MLS history, but given many of the extra fans were there to see Messi, it's doubtful what effect - other than a financial one - it had on the team. Still, it looked like there might be a upset on the cards in the sixth minute when Erik Thommy scored a cracker for the home side, a lead which lasted just twelve minutes before Messi put Diego Gomez through for an equaliser. Messi;s influence was further felt six minutes into the second-half when he scored an absolute pearler past Tim Melia from outside the box, but Thommy was determined it wouldn't be all about the little wizard as he scored his second on 58 minutes to level the scores. To that point, KC had largely kept bitey racist Luis Suarez quiet but he managed to wriggle free of his markers on 71 minutes to put Miami ahead, and Thommy went off injured before he could reply. Seattle Sounders managed to find some form last week, demolishing CF Montreal 5-0 at Lumen Field, and must have travelled to Frisco, Texas, with some hope of a second win in a row against an inconsistent FC Dallas. It was a game of few chances, Sounders' Cristian Roldan missing probably the best chance to find a winner, and a 0-0 draw was a fair, if dull, outcome.

Minnesota United have been in up and down form for new head coach Erik Ramsay and that continued at home to Houston Dynamo on Saturday when the Texans escaped from Allianz Field with an unlikely 2-1 win. Micael's opener for Houston was the first decent chance of the game and sent the teams in at 0-1 at half-time, with Teemu Pukki finding the 'keeper's hands in stoppage time. Minnesota dominated affairs after the restart, with Pukki, Will Trapp, Robin Lod, Hassani Dotsin, and Jeong Sang-bin all going close before Franco Fragapane fired home an equaliser after seventy minutes. United almost grabbed a winner through substitute Tani Oluwaseyi but it was Houston that scored next, a breakaway move finding Sebastian Kowalczyk in the right place at the right time, and despite more chances for Oluwaseyi, Fragapane, and Jordan Adebayo-Smith, the points went South with the visitors. Columbus Crew were the sole MLS side to make it through to the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup in midweek and that effort might have taken its toll as they visited Real Salt Lake on Saturday. The game was not short on action, with the home side having eight shots on target to Crew's four, but there were no goals at the end, a 0-0 draw probably the most surprising result of the night.

A 4-0 win over Toronto FC last week put Vancouver Whitecaps at the top of the Western Conference, leapfrogging a Los Angeles Galaxy side that lost the El Trafico derby to Los Angeles FC. They two met at BC Place on Saturday, the Whitecaps' fourth home game in a row, with a busy first-half resulting in no goals, a state of affairs that continued through to the 56th minute when Dejan Jovelic scored his sixth of the season following a fast break. Brian White and Alessandro Schopf went close to finding an equaliser for the home side before White's 77th minute header from a Ryan Gauld cross did exactly that, only for Joseph Paintsil - whose arrival has sparked Galaxy into a force to be reckoned with this season - to restore Galaxy's lead three minutes later, chasing onto a through ball from Riqui Puig. It was 3-1 two minutes later when Paintsil set up Diego Fagundez and it stayed that way despite Gauld and Damir Kreilach having good chances to get Vancouver back in the game. Saturday's final game came from northern California, where the woeful San Jose Earthquakes were hosting the wonderfully unpredictable Colorado Rapids at PayPal Park. With just one win - over an equally at sea Seattle Sounders side - from their first seven games, the Quakes are having a miserable 50th anniversary season and that continued on Saturday when goalkeeper William Yarborough brought down Rafael Navarro in the box, the Rapids striker picking himself up to score the resulting penalty at the ten minute mark. Quakes had much the better of the next half hour but allowed Rapids back into the game either side of the break, Navarro heading a second on the hour after Djordje Mihailovic and Cole Bassett had gone close. Rapids 'keeper Zach Steffan was much the busier man in the second half but Rapids were again more clinical in front of goal, Bassett finishing things off from distance with ten minutes to go to stretch San Jose's misery at least into next week when they travel to table-topping LA Galaxy.

There were two games on Sunday this week, the first of which saw Philadelphia Union visit the Mercedes-Benz Stadium home of Atlanta United, a clash of the two of the league's more attack-minded teams. United were missing top scorer Giorgos Giakoumakis but, with Thiago Almada in inspirational mode, they had their chances to take the lead before they actually did so in the 55th minute when Daniel Rios headed home an Almada cross. Caleb Wiley made it two with an absolute thwack of a goal eight minutes later and Atlanta looked like they were firmly in control, only for Mikael Uhre to reduce arrears with a cracker of his own in the 73rd minute, and then Kai Wagner to equalise in the 77th minute. Almada and Tristan Myumba could have won things for United before the final whistle but it finished 2-2, continuing Union's undefeated start to the season. As an expansion side last season, St Louis City confounded all expectations by storming to the top of the Western Conference. They haven't been quite so good so far this year and faced an Austin FC side on Sunday that had won two out of two after a sluggish start. That sluggish Austin returned at City Park, not even registering a shot on target, although Cuty made hard work of things, Joao Klauss's 57th minute strike the only difference between the sides, although Indy Vasiliev was a menace for St Louis throughout.