Montreal

Major League Soccer’s 17th season will kick off on Saturday, March 10, 2012 with six matches. First Kick presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods will continue with two games on Sunday, March 11 and one on Monday, March 12.

With an early March kick-off, Major League Soccer will have a western tilt to it in the first couple of weeks, but by the end of week 3, all but one MLS club will have played a home opener.

The Houston Dynamo will nit play their home opener until May 12, when their new soccer specific stadium us built.  Read more... (234 words, 1 image, estimated 56 secs reading time)

The final numbers are in and Major League Soccer saw a 7% increase in attendance this year, from 16,675 fans per game to 17,870 fans according to MLSAttendance.blogspot.com .

Out of the 18 teams in MLS only four saw a decrease in average attendance. They were Chicago, Columbus, Philadelphia, and Toronto. Philadelphia’s name is on the list because in 2010 they played their opening games at Lincoln Financial and drew over 25,000 fans to some of those games. The Union’s soccer specific stadium is obviously smaller which is why they technically had a decrease in attendance.  Read more... (348 words, 1 image, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Real Salt Lake‘s bad week continued as they lost to the expansion Timbers while the NYRB and Philadelphia Union continued their run with good wins.

Portland Timbers 1 Real Salt Lake 0
Kenny Cooper goal in the 22nd minute from a Kalif Alhassan cross was enough as the Portland Timbers hand Real Salt Lake its first Major League Soccer loss of the season.

The expansion Timbers (3-3-1) recorded their first shutout, improving to 3-0-0 at home.  Read more... (547 words, 1 image, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

The folks over at MLSSoccer.com have update their weekly power rankings. No surprise that Real Salt Lake is in first place. The Portland Timbers are one of the big winners moving up to four places after a week that consisted of two home games, seven goals and six points.

Major League Soccer Week 5 Rankings

1. Real Salt Lake
No. 1 in the MLS power rankings, and fighting to be No. 1 in CONCACAF as well. The next 10 days will determine whether this RSL bunch go down as a great team, or a truly legendary one. Win or lose against Monterrey, this is still the best team in MLS until someone proves otherwise.
Last Four: WWWW  Read more... (1108 words, 1 image, estimated 4:26 mins reading time)

The New York Red Bulls got their first win since the opening week of the season while Charlie Davies continued his remarkable goalscoring recovery for D.C. United.

New York 3 San Jose 0
Luke Rodgers scored the first two goals of his MLS career and added an assist to lead the Red Bulls to a victory over the Earthquakes.

The win for the Red Bulls (2-1-2) snapped a three-game winless streak. It also came at the expense of the Earthquakes (1-2-2), who shocked and upset the Red Bulls, the MLS Eastern Conference regular season champions, in the opening round of the 2010 MLS Cup playoffs.  Read more... (591 words, 1 image, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

A review of the action in Major League Soccer this weekend.

D.C. United 1 LA Galaxy 1
Charlie Davies converted a disputed 90th-minute penalty kick as D.C. United tied the Los Angeles Galaxy 1-1.

The goal, Davies’ fourth of the year and third on a penalty, came 78 minutes after Mike Magee put the Galaxy ahead on a header off David Beckham’s corner kick.

Davies drew the penalty by falling to the ground inside the 18-yard box after pushing the ball past Omar Gonzalez. Television replays showed Gonzalez stretched his arm and made contact with Davies, but that Davies made the most of it. Several Galaxy players rushed toward referee Abiodun Okulaja to protest after he blew for the foul.  Read more... (410 words, 1 image, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

There’s no doubt about who’s ranked number one this week. Real Salt Lake thrashed the LA Galaxy to show that they are the class of MLS at the moment.

MLS Rankings: Week 2
1. REAL SALT LAKE (2-0-0)
Last week: Beat Los Angeles, 4-1, on Saturday.

This week: Idle.

Outlook: Is there any doubt which team deserves the top spot after RSL‘s rout of the Galaxy at Rio Tinto? Granted, the Galaxy was without Landon Donovan, Omar Gonzalez, Greg Berhalter and Donovan Ricketts, but RSL didn’t have key starters Alvaro Saborio and Will Johnson, either. Javier Morales was the star of the show, and RSL looks to ride its momentum into its CONCACAF Champions League semifinal second leg at Saprissa next Tuesday.  Read more... (1264 words, 1 image, estimated 5:03 mins reading time)

Even with players away on international action this weekend there was still a full slate of MLS games. The headline game was the match between RSL and the LA Galaxy, which RSL easily one. At the other end of the table, the Columbus Crew are still winless to begin the season.

Real Salt Lake 4 LA Galaxy 1
Javier Morales scored twice and added an assist as Real Salt Lake strolled bast the LA Galaxy. RSL got off to a great start when Morales assisted on Andy Williams’ goal in the 2nd minute. Morales then made in 2-0 after only 10 minutes when he scored for the penalty spot. Morales then beat Galaxy goalkeeper Josh Saunders from 20 yards out in the 41st minute to send RSL into halftime with a 3-0 lead.  Read more... (889 words, 1 image, estimated 3:33 mins reading time)