Sometimes when you're away, you tend to miss out on some of the good stuff. In this case, with a handy MLS Live subscription and an iPhone, nothing was missed...not the good and unfortunately not the bad (it turns out watching the Union game on an iPhone at a wedding was not such a good idea after all).
The Red Bulls picked up a win against New England, but at the expense of Thierry Henry, who will be out a month after picking up a Hamstring strain. Toronto continued to their downward spiral, picking up their 7th straight loss. DC United on the other hand continued to impress, winning their second straight match.
Winning back to back games is something DC hadn't done since June 2009, but a strong United team got the better of Houston with a 3-2 final score. Maicon Santos opened up scoring early for United, with a goal of the week worthy header off a cross from Chris Pontius. Houston wouldn't pick up an equalizer until the 50th minute, when Will Bruin scored his first of two goals in the match.
Dwayne De Rosario gave the lead back to DC four minutes later, picking up his first goal of the season after what was meant to be a cross into the penalty area ended up bouncing off the post and into the net. Bruin would strike for his second in the 59th after United's net minder Willis failed to hold on after the shot, with the ball ricocheting off his hands and into the net.
Not to be outdone by Bruin, Maicon Santos would pick up his second goal of the game and the match winner, getting his head on the ball yet again off another brilliant cross, this time from Daniel Woolard. With the big win against the Dynamo, DC has a lot of momentum going into their Wednesday matchup in California against Western Conference leaders San Jose.
The third place New York Red Bulls also picked up a win this past Saturday, but their victory came at a cost. All was looking well for Thierry Henry during New York's match against the Revolution. Just seven minutes into the game, Henry notched his league leading ninth goal of the season, all New York would end up needing to pick up the victory.
Then in the 23rd minute, Henry slipped while while making a run at goal. After immediately favoring the back of his right leg, the veteran French International was helped off the field. New York is calling the injury a hamstring strain and is expecting Henry to miss about a month of action.
Despite the injury, New York picked up not just the win, but their first clean sheet of the season, bringing to an end a two game winless streak. The Red Bulls will have their work cut our for them as they travel to Los Angeles to take on the Galaxy without Thierry Henry next Saturday.
Toronto is 0-7-0. Now tied with Kansas City's 1999 squad for worst start to a season, TFC desperately could have used the draw they though they would end the game with on Saturday night. Instead, Real Salt Lake substitution Johnny Steele scored a stoppage time winner, crushing any spirit Toronto FC may have had left.
Real Salt Lake opened up the scoring with a 7th minute Kyle Beckerman goal, his third of the season. Toronto had a chance to equalize a few minutes later with a penalty kick, but Torsten Frings missed the target, hitting the left post. Salt Lake had a couple of more opportunities to put the game away in the first, with one goal being called back on an offside decision.
Toronto would come back in the 48th and get their equalizer after a beautiful shot from Eric Avila. Unfortunately, that is where Toronto could not escape their bad luck. In the 57th minute after a Real Salt Lake cross, Toronto gave up an own goal which came off the knee of Richard Eckersley. However, The 77th minute would once again give Toronto a false sense of hope, scoring a goal off the head of Doneil Henry from a corner.
All signs pointed to a draw, a result Toronto would have been more than be happy to leave Utah with, but a 93rd minute goal from Johnny Steele gave Real Salt Lake a huge last minute win. From there, it looked as if the Toronto FC players on the field just laid down and died, exhausted and humiliated with yet another loss.
Toronto will travel to Montreal on Wednesday for a Canadian Championship match, followed by a Saturday matchup against DC United which if they lose, would make them the team with the worst start to a season in MLS history.
Montreal was able to pick up their second win of the season against a struggling Portland team. The Impact scored two late goals in the 76th and 84th minutes to give the newest MLS squad a 2-0 victory. They will look ahead to their Canadian Championship match against the ever struggling Toronto FC followed by a Saturday match up against Eastern Conference leaders Sporting Kansas City.
The Union suffered a heartbreaking loss Saturday night against the red hot Earthquakes after Steve Lenhart scored a draw breaking stoppage time goal. Gabriel Gomez picked up his third goal of the season to tie the match up in 83rd minute, but Lenhart made sure the Quakes left Philadelphia with a win.
The Union will hope to rebound Saturday as they travel to Seattle, a team Philadelphia played very well against last season, coming away with a 2-0 victory. Seattle are coming off a 2-1 victory in Chicago and are currently on a three game lossless streak. Kick off for this game is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.
The Galaxy and Dallas matchup ended in a 1-1 draw, the only tie of the weekend, while Vancouver picked up a 1-0 win over the fledgeling Columbus Crew. Columbus will hope to break their 4 game winless streak as they travel to Portland to take on another struggling team in the Timbers.
This weekends match to watch out for has to be the Toronto/DC United showdown. Toronto will probably come out all guns blazing, attempting anything humanly possible to come away with anything other than a loss. If not, they will have the worst start to a season in MLS history. Unfortunately for Toronto, they are playing a DC United squad that has won two in a row. That match is available via streaming on MLS Live this Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET.