Chicago Fire 3-1 Philadelphia Union: Union Burned by Rolfe on Sunday Night

CHESTER, Pa.—When the Philadelphia Union step into PPL Park, something good usually happens. Tonight just wasn't the night, as the Chicago Fire (11-7-5, 38 Points) trounced the Union (7-12-2, 23 Points) 3-1 in front of 18,412 at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania on Sunday night.Chicago forward Chris Rolfe scored two of his team's three goals, while Arne Friedrich added another for the fourth-place Fire.The game was scoreless until the 34th minute when Philadelphia's Freddy Adu crossed a ball into Chandler Hoffman, but Chicago's Jalil Anibaba ended up knocking it in his own goal to give the Union a 1-0 lead.The Fire then scored two goals in the next four minutes, as Sherjill MacDonald beat Bakary Soumare, crossed it into the box, and Rolfe volleyed a one-hopper with his knees right past goaltender Zac MacMath.Chicago's Marco Pappa placed a corner kick right near the penalty area, and Friedrich headed it in to give the Fire a 2-1 lead in the 47th minute. Chicago scored their final goal in the 55th minute as Chris Rolfe hit a twenty yard shot right past a diving MacMath who barely touched the ball with his right hand.Philadelphia is now 13 points behind the last playoff spot, currently held by DC United. Chicago moved up into fourth place in the Eastern ...

Steven Lenhart’s Winner Saves San Jose Earthquakes in Stoppage Time

The Seattle Sounders had every reason to feel confident heading into Saturday night's MLS Western Conference showdown against the San Jose Earthquakes.Never mind that the game would be played in the cozy confines of Buck Shaw Stadium, where San Jose have been loathe to concede points this season.Never mind that the Sounders were catching the Earthquakes on a brief dip in form—San Jose had grabbed only one point from their last possible six. Sounders striker Eddie Johnson had scored six goals in his last seven games. His fellow forward Fredy Montero had two goals in his last three. Midfielder Mauro Rosales had six assists in his last six games. But a taxing run of games—including Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup final, which had gone all the way to penalties before Sporting Kansas City prevailed—had forced head coach Sigi Schmid to make some key changes to his normal lineup.Rosales and Johnson had both gone the entire 120 minutes in the Open Cup final, and Schmid decided that, given as how those two and Montero would be unable to go a full 90 minutes against San Jose, he would bring them on as impact substitutes.The gambit nearly worked, too. By the time 90 ...

Sporting Kansas City Show No Letdown, Defeat DC United 2-1

After playing late into the night on Wednesday for the U.S. Open Cup final, one could have understood if Sporting Kansas City had suffered a letdown in their match on Saturday night with D.C. United.No such letdown occurred as Sporting KC downed their Eastern Conference rivals 2-1 in front of 20,439 fans at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park.Sporting KC opened the scoring in the 13th minute. On a corner kick from the right wing, Graham Zusi put a right-footed outswinger into the penalty area, where he found Teal Bunbury. Bunbury's header hit the lower 90 on the far post past goalkeeper Bill Hamid, his third goal of the season.It was Zusi's 10th assist of 2012, putting him back into a tie for the MLS lead with Brad Davis and Dwayne De Rosario.While Sporting KC continued to dominate the possession, DC United managed to capitalize on one of their few opportunities, albeit in somewhat controversial circumstances.In the 23rd minute, Andy Najar fed a long ball into the penalty area, where Nick Deleon brought the ball down to his feet and put it in the back of the net.Replays appeared to show Deleon contacted with the ball his forearm. It was reminiscent of the ...

MLS: Why the League Must Be Wary of Heading Down the Wrong Path

Sixteen years ago the world's most popular sport experienced a rebirth in the United States of America, the third biggest country in the world, as a new soccer league was formed. The league had several goals, including to provide high quality competition for future and current national teamers stateside. 16 years later, the league has been an enormous success.While some may disagree and say that soccer is still not an interesting sport in the eyes of the average American sports fan, in just 16 years, the league has nearly doubled in size, going from 10 to 19 teams. That must mean something. And while considered by many to be a retirement league for European players, now many world class players are coming to the US from Europe at earlier ages (most recently Tim Cahill).The league is definitely not of the quality the top leagues in Europe can claim, but it's not by any stretch of the imagination a poor league. Look at Landon Donovan. He's never had a successful stint outside of the US in his lifetime. Two short spells at Everton doesn't count. Yet somehow he has the most goals in USMNT history. Somehow he manages to stay in ...

Best Fans in MLS? Social Media Outburst Shows Seattle Fans’ True Colors

There is a bit of confusion for every MLS fan outside of Seattle.Does having the largest average attendance in a stadium that was built for NFL football make your fans "the best?"There's no doubt that the vocal sea of green has created a exciting spectacle of viewing in the high-definition sports age, and Major League Soccer could not be more thrilled.But at what point did we stop using class as a factor in determining anything about fans?Remember the "Malice in the Palace" when Ron Artest went and attacked a fan in the crowd during an NBA game in 2004? Although Artest was clearly in the wrong, it has scared the image of Detroit Piston fans immeasurably.Seattle fans were upset about not winning, and to any fan, losing and being unhappy is understandable. But the outcry on social media following the Sounders penalty shootout loss against Sporting Kansas City in the US Open Cup set a new standard for classlessness.Just how bad was it? Here are just a sample of the comments left on Major League Soccer's Facebook page (next slide).Begin Slideshow

USMNT: 5 MLS Players Who Deserve a Klinsmann Call-Up

The MLS season is in full swing and there are plenty of Americans who have had breakout years so far. Some have even impressed enough to have fans mentioning their name in USMNT discussion.While we have seen Jurgen Klinsmann experiment and give a lot of players opportunities with the National Team in the last year, there are still a few players worthy of a call-up by the head man.Here are five MLS players who deserve their first call-up from Klinsmann in the next couple of months. Enjoy! Begin Slideshow

NBA and NHL Get the Boot: MLS Is the 3rd Most Attended Sports League in America

In just 16 years, the world’s most popular sport has climbed to become America’s third highest spectator sport on average. While soccer's relevance has been questioned by critics for many years, recent figures indicate that Major League Soccer (MLS) now averages higher attendance numbers than both the NHL and NBA respectively.The MLS kicked off in 1996 as a result of a FIFA mandate requiring that a professional soccer league be launched in the United States if the country wanted to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup.  The primary objective was to expand interest in the sport in North America.  It has taken almost two decades, but that long-term goal seems to have been achieved.The NFL leads with 67,358 during its 16-game regular season, and MLB averages 30,334 per game. Dating to the MLS all-star game, the soccer league is averaging 18,733 in attendance per game during the 2012 season, significantly higher than the record-setting 17,872 in 2011.  In comparison, the NHL averages 17,455 in attendance per game, while the NBA averages 17,273.  Additionally, Nielsen Media Research indicates that MLS telecasts are averaging a record high 345,000 viewers on average for each game shown on ESPN/ESPN2, and up 12 percent from ...

NBC Sports Raises the Bar for American Soccer Coverage with MLS 36

This past week saw NBC Sports unveil the first episode in their MLS 36. MLS 36 is a series where NBC Sports follows an MLS player for 36 hours. The episodes take a behind the scenes look into a player's life in and out of the game.The first installment in the series followed MLS leading scorer Chris Wondolowski leading up to and thru the MLS All-Star game against Chelsea. The 30 minute episode gave an exclusive look into how Chris goes about his time leading up to the game.MLS 36 sprinkles in some comments from other players and coaches to give a perspective on the player of focus. In Wondo's episode, it was interesting to hear what fellow MLS competitors like Kyle Beckerman had to say about Chris.The first episode was done really well, and if NBC Sports continues to produce the series to this level, then fans will be well pleased. From seeing Wondo's reaction to having to accompany his wife on a non-stop tourist walk of Philadelphia to Chelsea's John Terry telling Chris he has "incredible movement," NBC Sports gives us a lot of gems that are hidden from our everyday viewing.Hopefully this series catches on with soccer ...

Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Seattle Sounders: Rating David Beckham’s Performance

David Beckham, let me have a word with you on your farcical display of football for the Los Angeles Galaxy against the Seattle Sounders, a match in which your men proceeded to get impaled 4-0 at CenturyLink Field in Seattle on Sunday night. You are fully aware that Daniel Sturridge put on his best Santa Claus impersonation and let he and his footballing elves of Team Great Britain gift-wrap a 5-4 penalty shootout win to South Korea, at the expense of rendering him the loneliest man on the British Isles. And you committed one of the biggest sins you could ever commit for a player of your stature—you simply let the result get to you. It affected your deliveries. It affected your distribution. It made every corner an easy clearance, and every set piece a routine defensive stop for the home team. Furthermore, your efforts defensively were the type of efforts worthy of the USASA level. Getting beaten off the ball, bad passing, no first touch...forget the similarly farcical performance against the New York Red Bulls. This display against Seattle made the Red Bulls game look a decent outing for you. Now do you realize why you don't deserve to ...

Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Seattle Sounders: Rating the Galaxy Players

It is very difficult, if not ridiculously impossible, to win at anything if you don't play with pride, purpose, commitment, dedication and/or heart. With that being said, Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy commited a very grave sin on Saturday night against Sigi Schmid's Seattle Sounders. This team played with none of those intangibles, and were impaled accordingly.The Galaxy were destroyed in a 4-0 shutout by the Sounders at CenturyLink Field on Sunday night. With the team dropping to 10-11-3 (33 points), the time has come for me to lay my own version of the Freeh Report on a team that never showed an ounce of the aforementioned intangibles during the defeat and deserved beatdown received in Seattle. Here it is.  Josh Saunders: 1 You would think that Josh Saunders would have an improved performance after giving up five goals against Real Madrid. Unfortunately for him, he never was able to make the type of clean save that would acquit his case, and his case was never acquitted.Saunders only made two saves because he was facing his execution at the hands of the Rave Green firing squad of Seattle.  Sean Franklin: 1.5 Sean, let me talk with you a little bit.Please get it through ...