The first full week of MLS is Back was full of drama on and off the field.
After the first week of games was all about Black Lives Matter, this week began with some Coronavirus drama as two players involved in the Toronto FC vs DC United tested positive for the novel virus.
The match was officially postponed less than an hour before the scheduled kickoff and was replayed the next day after the players were re-tested and both results came back negative. The match itself was dramatic with Toronto FC blowing a 2-0 lead while up a man.
Sunday's Sporting Kansas City vs The Minnesota United match was full of goalkeeping errors. In the first half Minnesota United keeper. Tyler Miller embarrassingly left his near post open allowing Khiry Shelton to score. Later in the match SKC's goalkeeper, Tim Melia took out Aaron Schoenfeld and was given a red card. The Loons came back with two stoppage-time goals to win 2-1.
Monday saw LAFC make some horrible defensive mistakes against the Houston Dynamo to be down 3-1 at halftime. Lacking the presence of Carlos Vela, the Uruguayan duo of Brian Rodriguez, and Diego Rossi stepped up to draw level and end 3-3. Later that night cross-town rivals, LA Galaxy lost to the Portland Timbers 2-1; however, new star Javier "Chicarito" Hernandez scored his first goal in MLS.
On Tuesday, Orlando stayed hot beating NYCFC 3-1 through two Chris Mueller goals. Later in the night, the Philadelphia Union beat Inter Miami 2-1 including a beautiful counter-attacking goal. The Sounders continued their slow start to the tournament losing to the Chicago Fire 2-1.
Wednesday saw arguably the best game of football in the past few months regardless of league. An Ali Adnan effort and a freak own-goal gave the Vancouver Whitecaps a 2-1 lead over the San Jose Earthquakes at halftime. San Jose was down 3-1 in the 63rd minute when they brought on MLS all-time leading goalscorer Chris Wondolowski. Wondo cut the deficit in the 72nd, and Oswaldo Alanis evened the score in the 82nd. The drama wasn't done until the 98th minute when Shea Salinas came off the bench to win the game for the Quakes'.
Thursday wasn't too different. The Canadian Classique between Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact was full of goals ending 4-3 in favour of the Torontonians. Ayo Akinola bagged his first senior hat-trick en route to creating a national team duel over his allegiance. Atlanta continued to struggle, this time losing to FC Cincinnati after going down to 10 men in the first half. And the Columbus Crew stayed hot after beating the New York Red Bulls 2-0.
Friday brought more late drama as Sporting Kansas City who lost in stoppage time early in the week needed stoppage time to beat the nine-man Colorado Rapids. Graham Zusi scored in the 92nd minute to continue the theme of late drama at the MLS is Back Tournament.
On Saturday, Portland stays hot after beating the Houston Dynamo 2-1. However, all the news went to El Clasico. The highly contested derby hasn't let any expectations down until now. Even though there were eight goals in the match, it was a 6-2 blowout by LAFC over the 5-time MLS Cup winners. Letting Diego Rossi score four goals in the game was not the only problem for the Galaxy. Throughout the games they've played in 2020 they seem to lack ideas going forward. After back to back defeats, MLS' most successful club has an issue.
This week in MLS showed the beauty of the league. Young prospects are getting chances, at times dreadful defending and highly contested games. As the players return to fitness and the speed picks up, it will only get better.
Hopefully, everyone can continue to stay healthy so the fans at home can enjoy this insane tournament.
