Davis: Big strikes from young and old

The age difference for two featured goal scorers from Round 16 spans about 17 long years.

And at either side of the bookends, the stories behind the weekend strikes were significant.

On the young side, Abdus Ibrahim became the fifth youngest scorer to record a goal in an MLS match. His well-taken tally for Toronto (in the Canadians' 2-1 loss to the Fire) happened a few weeks shy of Ibrahim's 17th birthday.

The only younger guys to score in MLS represent a pretty fearsome foursome: Freddy Adu, Santino Quaranta, Eddie Gaven and Jozy Altidore.

Surely you recognize Adu, who was sold last year to Portugal's Benfica. And Altidore was recently sold to Spain's Villarreal. Quaranta is enjoying a career resurrection at D.C. United. And Gaven, though currently dinged by injury, remains a valuable young starter at Columbus.

None of that is to say that Ibrahim is the next big target for the international market or automatically glory-bound. It's just to say that scoring young has been a harbinger of good things to come, at least.

Ibrahim's goal, scored to the delight of hundreds of TFC faithful, who had made the long cross-border trip to Chicago, appeared for some time to have earned John Carver's team a point on the road. That's significant, since TFC had managed just three of a possible 18 points on the road before the visit to Bridgeview.

Unfortunately for TFC and the faithful Red Patch Boys -- TFC's super supporters' group -- John Thorrington rescued the night for the home team. His late strike grabbed the result for Chicago. Still, it couldn't completely undo an exciting night for Ibrahim, who only recently moved north in a trade from Dallas.

FC Dallas made the Ethiopian-born teenager a second round selection in last winter's SuperDraft. In fact, Ibrahim was the second youngest player ever to be selected in the draft. Only 14-year-old Freddy Adu (in 2004) was younger when chosen.

At the other end of the age continuum, Ante Razov is delivering regularly again for Chivas USA -- and that's not great news for the field.

Preki's men have soldiered on fiercely this year despite rampant injury. The HDC outfit remains right in the middle of the Western Conference pack despite physical setbacks to defenders and forwards, a buildup of medical issues that might have splintered less tough-minded sides.

A patchwork of defensive lineups, backed by Brad Guzan, was able to hold down its end. But scoring was sometimes problematic through the first half of the season as Razov struggled to get healthy and two other potential starting strikers dealt with ailments of the own.

But Razov began getting more fit a month or so back. Then, last week, the surest sign yet that maybe he had regained his balance: a spectacular free kick that became a highlight-reel game-winner against San Jose.

Razov followed that with an absolute beauty last week against Los Angeles. Delivered with sublime touch and clinical accuracy from 25 yards, it was an opportunity that few players would see, much less attempt.

He punctuated the week's work with Chivas USA's only goal in the SuperLiga setback against Pachuca on Sunday night. And a pretty fair week's work it was for a 34-year-old (who happens to be the league's second all-time leading scorer).

So, Chivas USA is attacking the summer with a healthier defense. It still has that well-balanced midfield -- which has mostly remained healthy all year. Now, Preki's side also has a hot striker.

(Of course, Chivas USA just lost a central figure on the other end, where goalkeeper Brad Guzan once stood. He's bound for a Premiership high adventure. But that's another story.)

TACTICAL CORNER

Plenty of managers had lots of tactical choices to make last week, considering a tightly packed schedule. The calendar for MLS teams included 14 matches last week in four competitions (SuperLiga, U.S. Open Cup, Canadian Championship and MLS regular season.)

New York Red Bulls manager Juan Carlos Osorio, for instance, opted to rest Dane Richards for more than an hour of his team's road match at Kansas City. (And the feisty little guy improved his team's attack immediately upon his second-half introduction.)

At Chivas, Preki stated outright that he had to pick one of the week's two matches to rest veteran defender Claudio Suarez. So, The Emperor had to miss Thursday's SuperClasico draw with the Galaxy.

It will be more of the same for Chivas, New England, Houston and D.C. United this week as the foursome plays out first-round SuperLiga competition with two matches each.

Interesting that Claudio Lopez is playing wide now for Kansas City -- and that it seemed to stir a bit more life into the Kansas City attack. Lopez seemed quite comfortable attacking the Red Bulls last week from those wide spots.

It will also be interesting to see how Curt Onalfo uses Josh Wolff once the U.S. international becomes eligible on July 15. Wolff has always been a striker. But considering Onalfo's impulse to use every attacking weapon available, and considering that Wolff often lined up as an outsider midfielder at his former German club, would anybody really be surprised to see him line up there at CommunityAmerica Ballpark?

Juan Carlos Osorio gets credit sometimes for being the league's standard bearer in terms of tactical tinkering. But Colorado's Fernando Clavijo sure likes to throw out different looks. Many of his formations are hybrids and patchworks, in fact.

Or, sometimes, the looks are familiar formations -- even if they aren't so familiar to his own team. For instance, just last week Clavijo shifted away from the four-man back line the Rapids have used all year. Instead, he lined up Pablo Mastroeni behind two markers (Facundo Erpen and Ugo Ihemelu) in a 3-5-2 for an afternoon meeting with San Jose.

The Rapids have used nine different lineups in 16 games this year.

Osorio, of course, was still doing his formation- and personnel-juggling. In the club's contest against Kansas City, he deployed two wide players who are very comfortable defending, hoping to neutralize the Wizards' top attackers, who were out wide.

Seth Stammler, usually seen in the middle of the park, and Luke Sassano, better on defense than on the attack, were lined up wide. Meanwhile, Carlos Mendes, most often seen along the back line, played as a holding midfielder.

San Jose's Ronnie O'Brien lined up on the right, as usual, as the Rapids visited Buck Shaw. But by the second half, manager Frank Yallop was apparently weary of watching an attack that still lacks for creativity. O'Brien moved to the inside, where the ball did move a bit faster due to his presence.