MLS Week 5: Columbus scores six, St Louis and Seattle four in wins

The Major League Soccer season continued during the March international break, starting with Portland and the Galaxy drawing 0-0 at Providence Park. The Timbers finished with one shot on goal to LA’s four.

“I thought we had good control of the game for, you know, 80 minutes, 70-something minutes, and then it started to get very wide open and a little bit chaotic there at the end,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “Again the game comes down to moments. We’ve got to put away some chances that we had inside of that 80 minutes where we have good control of things and we were unable to.”

Charlotte and the Red Bulls drew 1-1 at Bank of America Stadium. Elias Maoel put New York up in the 43rd and an own-goal leveled the score in the 74th minute.

Columbus beat Atlanta 6-1 at home with the Crew’s Aidan Morris opening the scoring in the 14th minute. Christian Ramirez doubled the Columbus lead in the 47th and Philip Quinton made it 3-0 in the 51st. Ramirez scored again in the 64th and Jacen Russel-Rowe scored the Crew’s fifth goal in the 68th. Atlanta’s Brooks Lennon scored in the 71st, but Maximilian Arfsten added a sixth goal for Columbus a minute into stoppage time.

“We were not good enough,” Atlanta coach Gonzalo Pineda said. “Not good at starting the ball, moving the ball faster, attacking the space behind…. Today we were not up to the standards we set for ourselves. That’s the story of the game.”

New England beat DC United 2-1 on the road, falling behind to a 45th minute Christian Benteke goal. The Revs’ Gustavo Bou equalized in the 63rd and Noel Buck scored in the 88th minute.

Chicago beat Inter Miami 3-2 in Fort Lauderdale, taking the lead from a 30th minute Christopher Mueller goal and doubling it when Carlos Teran scored in the 38th. Inter Miami’s Franco Negri pulled a goal back three minutes into stoppage time and Nicolas Stefanelli equalized in the 76th. Chicago’s Kei Kamara scored two minutes into stoppage time.

“This is a win that could really transform a team and really give you some momentum,” Chicago coach Ezra Hendrickson said. “We have three home games coming up now, so hopefully this will propel us into getting some full points at home.”

Orlando beat Philadelphia 2-1 at Subaru Park, going ahead in the 2nd minute when Martin Ojeda scored. Ivan Angulo made it 2-0 Orlando in the 9th with Philadelphia’s Andres Perea pulling a goal back in the 17th minute.

Austin and Colorado drew 1-1 at Q2 Stadium. With Austin taking the lead from a 5th minute Jon Gallagher goal, the Rapids equalized through Kevin Cabral in the 85th.

Houston beat NYCFC 1-0 at home. Amine Bassi converted a 55th minute penalty and Dynamo goalkeeper Steve Clark made one save to keep the clean sheet.

We’ve been saying we are a work in progress and will continue to be,” Gouston coach Ben Olsen said. “But from the day we got here until now the defensive shape and the understanding of who we are and how we’re going to go about winning games is getting clearer to everyone and that’s a really good sign.”

Minnesota and Vancouver drew 1-1 at Allianz Field. Mender Garcia scored for United in the 40th and the Whitecaps’ Simon Becher equalized eight minutes into stoppage time.

“I don’t think we did enough on the break, because we had some good moments,” Minnesota coach Adrian Heath said. “But when I look at where we were this time last week and you knew what was coming this week, I think that it was a magnificent effort for a lot of the players who are extremely tired and have not played 90 minutes.”

FC Cincinnati won 1-0 at Nashville from a 48th minute Brandon Vazquez goal. Cincinnati goalkeeper Joe Willis made three saves to keep the clean sheet.

“I think if you were watching or saw just the reaction after the goal, that was important for him, and certainly it came at an important time for us in the game,” Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan said. “Hopefully that is just the start of what I think Brandon himself and a lot of us expect in terms of finishing plays off.”

Seattle came back to win 4-1 at Sporting Kansas City after falling behind to a 5th minute William Agada goal. Jordan Morris equalized for the Sounders in the 23rd, scoring again in the 54th. Playing a man up from a 63rd minute Ben Sweat red card, Morris added Seattle goals in the 69th and 77th minutes.

“I just think today we were able to execute, again, after the first 30 minutes because I didn’t think we pressed well the first 30 minutes at all,” Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer said. “So once we found our footing, once you found the game a little bit, some of the pressing was a little bit better. But I would credit the game more for our attacking and our ability to attack Kansas City in moments. That, to me, was the difference – not necessarily where we pressed or how we pressed.”

St Louis won 4-0 at Real Salt Lake. Nicholas Gioacchini scored in the 47th and Klauss added goals in the 61st and 66th. Rasmus Alm finished off the St Louis goals in the 76th minute with Roman Burki making eight saves to keep the clean sheet.

LAFC won 2-1 at home over FC Dallas. Timothy Tillman scored for LA in the 3rd. FC Dallas went a man down in the 35th with a red card to Ema Twumasi and equalized through Nkosi Burgess in the 73rd. LAFC’s Denis Bouanga scored in the 84th minute.

We are very happy with the result,” LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said. “Luck and good fortune was on our side tonight, and we needed it to get the three points. We were not happy with our performance, especially with the ball and without the ball at times. I felt that we were a bit off-rhythm, sloppy with our passing, and impatient. We couldn’t find the right windows to break down more frequently than we did.”

Week 5 ended in San Jose with the Earthquakes and Toronto drawing 0-0. Both teams finished with two shots on goal.

“I mean we’ve had our challenges with injuries and also missing guys,” San Jose coach Luchi Gonzalez said. “So definitely both Toronto and us had challenges in that regard. But I am happy with some of the things we created in terms of our expected goals. We definitely created enough chances to score at least a goal. We defended very well collectively and individually, shutting down a few of their key guys and that’s important. If we can have an effort like that, consistently, defensively, things will bounce our way offensively.”