Americans at home: MLS doesn’t stop

Major League Soccer just won’t take a break. Expansion, relocation, letting poor officiating wreck games, the league just keeps going even though international breaks when the rest of the top leagues in the world that it wants so badly to be like follows the FIFA calendar. Not MLS, the league subjected fans to depleted rosters and kept potential playoff contenders from fielding their best teams last weekend. It was probably totally all worth it though.

Anyway, there are some Yanks who are with the National Team while others had to stay with their clubs as the 2018 MLS season prepares for its 15 month playoff schedule. Here’s how some of them fared.

NYCFailC

The Pigeons had a big chance to make up ground in the Supporter’s Shield race last week with two matches against teams outside of the playoff table. They did not make the most of it and only managed one point, scoring one goal, and now sit six points behind the New York Red Bulls in the shield race. As for Americans anyone would pay attention to - despite some promising showings this season, Jonathan Lewis was given just 15 minutes midweek in the 1-0 loss New York suffered to New England.

As for the Revs, Kelyn Rowe managed to play 90 minutes while Juan Agudelo got in just a bit more than a half hour with former US U-19 Manager Brad Friedel giving the Americans some playing time in the win.

New York also dropped points over the weekend thanks to a 1-1 draw against DC United as Sean Johnson couldn’t keep Steve Brinbaum out of the net.

Sporting Kansas Clean Sheet

Elsewhere in the league, Sporting Kansas City kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win against Orlando City. SKC benefited from Dave Sarachan bringing in some younger players so that they didn’t have to part with Graham Zusi and were able to take home the victory. Though he probably won’t be pushing Zack Steffen for the keeper gloves anytime soon, Tim Melia made three saves in the shutout.

As for the losers, Sacha Kljestan and Dom Dwyer had a quiet night, though Dwyer did manage four shots against his former team while Kljestan committed one foul.

Almost too easy in Portland

Luckily, the final game of the break was between the Portland Timbers and Colorado Rapids. Without Kellyn Acosta, the Rapids struggled to score on Portland and fell 2-0 on the road. As for the Timbers, American forward Jeremy Ebobisse scored his first goal of 2018 in his first start of the season and Jorge Villafana helped keep Colorado scoreless in the win.

You can almost see Tim Howard thinking about how he would announce a goal like that once he can be a commentator full time.