Americans at home: Rockets, defenders scoring, and a lot of soccer

MLS was back to playing a lot of games this week as there was a full slate over the weekend plus lots of midweek action. With teams still having five subs it meant a lot of Americans saw the field and put together some big moments for their clubs.

Yanks strike big in a California Classico blowout

The LA Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes met for yet another Classico and San Jose carried the day. The team won 4-0 thanks to a brace from Nick Lima and a goal from fellow American Tommy Thompson. The Quakes have had their struggles in 2020, but the performance shows that the extent that the team can strike at their opponents when they are on a good day.

Tommy’s goal was good.

Lima’s second was an absolute firecracker.

Elsewhere in the match, Sebastian Lletget and Julian Araujo started while Efrain Alvarez came off the bench for just over 30 minutes.

Fontana and McKenzie secure a road point for Philly

A player who is regularly getting mentioned in this article is Anthony Fontana. The Union central attacker now has five goals on the season as he’s getting regular starting time for the club. He opened the scoring for Philly but DC United went ahead 2-1 headed into the closing minutes of the club. That’s when Mark McKenzie grabbed an 87th minute equalizer to draw the game even and grab a point for the Union.

Fontana’s goal came because of not good defense...

But McKenzie’s was pure, just pure, class.

Caden conquers again

I guess he just scores when he wants? Caden Clark announced his presence in MLS with an absolute rocket of a goal against Atlanta United and followed it up with an equalizer for NYRB against Toronto FC in their midweek match. It seems like he’s not long for MLS so enjoy seeing him pop up and do awesome stuff in the league while you can.

Mueller and Parks each bag a goal in a 1-1 affair

That just about sums it up.

Kinda nice just seeing an easy header after those rockets from Philly and NYCFC.

Elsewhere in the match, Darryl Dike started and went 89 minutes with just a shot on goal. A notable absence in the game was James Sands who is out for the rest of the season with a broken foot.

LAFC TEENAGER HYPE TRAIN

After not really contributing much of anything to the Americans at home catalogue in their first two seasons, LAFC might have a player to watch. 16 year-old Christian Torres scored his first MLS goal against the Portland Timbers in stoppage time to earn a 1-1 draw.

But, he wasn’t alone in scoring in the game as Jeremy Ebobisse had scored early in the second half to put PTFC up 1-0.

Also of note for LAFC, 19 year-old Bryce Duke played 75 minutes in the match making his 10th appearance on the year.

Remember Ethan Finlay? Remember Memo?

You should, maybe, I guess. They probably won’t be getting a call up anytime soon, but each player contributes for their team and Memo Rodriguez is probably a bit underrated in MLS.

Finlay scored two goals to put Minnesota United up 2-0 in the first half.

Ethan’s second capped a nice move for the Loons.

But, Memo started the comeback for Houston and drew the away team within one as the game ultimately ended 2-2. Chase Gasper and Jacori Hayes also went the full 90 for the Loons.

So close, and yet... yeah pretty far for Atlanta United

They’re struggling to do much scoring, but the defense has been a bright spot for Atlanta United this year. The team managed to allow one goal or less over the last five games while failing to score in three of those matches. That would be their undoing yet again as a stout defensive effort from Miles Robinson and George Bello was wasted when Toronto scored in the 89th minute at home against the Five Stripes.

Gyasi gets number 11

This isn’t going to be news for anyone, but Gyasi Zardes is good at scoring goals, not so much at penalties. There’s no other player that scores when he misses like Gyasi does. He helped the Columbus Crew overcome Keaton Parks and NYCFC by a score of 3-1 over the weekend.

A key goal from Djordje

The Chicago Fire have been a bit up and down and needed some luck to get a draw with Sporting KC over the weekend. Still, give credit where it’s due as Djordje Mihailovic grabbed a stoppage time equalizer thanks to a howler from Tim Melia.

The youngster came on in the 60th minute and proved to be the difference between a point and nothing in the match. For SKC, 19 year-old Cameron Duke went 67 minutes with Jaylin Lindsey and Gianluca Busio each playing the full 90.

Monday night football

MLS has mostly given up on trying to play on Mondays, but this week New England and Philly squared off with the Union getting the better of the Revs thanks in part to Anthony Fontana doing this.