Monday, May 12, 2008

Week 7 Spotlight

Top 11

G - Jon Conway Jon Busch
D - Bakary Soumare
D - Jeff Parke Chad Marshall
D - Michael Parkhurst
M - Dwayne De Rosario Dane Richards
M - Kyle Beckerman
M - Cuauhtemoc Blanco
M - Steve Ralston
M - Christian Gomez
F - Robbie Rogers Taylor Twellman
F - Juan Pablo Angel

Coach: Steve Nicol brought back Steve Ralston slowly a week ago and now did the same with Taylor Twellman. The two combined for Sunday's match-winner.

Denis! I'm still impressed by how Hamlett has helped this team gel.

Top player: Robbie Rogers bagged a pair of goals and completely turned the match around.

Top goal: Cuauhtemoc Blanco's left-footed blast was a stunner. Absolutely.

Top save: Jon Conway turned Mike Randolph away to maintain the Red Bulls' lead and the club went on to win 2-1.

Top game: Columbus 3, San Jose 2. The Crew showed us another manner in which they can win games - the come-from-behind method, which until now had not been shown by any club this season.

A week of firsts: Some notable firsts occurred in Week 7, including but not limited to:

- Brian Ching, Dwayne De Rosario, Juan Pablo Angel and Taylor Twellman were among the players who scored their first goals this weekend.
- Houston won their first game of the season.
- FC Dallas lost their first game ever in which Kenny Cooper scored a goal.

Top pass: Okay, this may not become a regular feature but there were some outstanding passes this weekend. Dane Richards and Emmanuel Ekpo had sublime passes to set up goals but Andy Williams' chip that set up Kyle Beckerman's goal was an absolute thing of beauty.

Unflagging support - In the absence of TFC, and in a week in which their respective sides took it on the chin, the home fans at DC and LA provided great atmosphere.

LOWLIGHTS

Ugo Ihemelu is talented but prone to the occasional bonehead move. We saw that here with the Galaxy and apparently he hasn't gotten past making mental mistakes. His handball led to Houston's match winner.

Landon Donovan took a pair of flat-out dives against New York. We've all seen Donovan tear up the league in the first month to know that he is much better than having to resort to dives.

Dario Sala and Bouna Coundoul each made puzzling charges off their respective lines, and each resulted in a goal.

The reffing in the LA/NY match - once a lot went uncalled, players started pulling every trick, shove and late tackle in the book. "Letting them play" shouldn't become "Letting them beat up on each other".

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