Chivas USA spoil Rice-Eccles finale

SALT LAKE CITY -- Real Salt Lake hoped to close out the only home field they have known since their inaugural season with a bang. But Chivas USA blasted those well-laid plans for a feel-good ending to pieces.

With the third-largest home crowd in RSL history on hand to witness the final match at Rice-Eccles Stadium, Chivas handed RSL a 1-0 loss on Saturday night, the club's first loss at home this season.

The result also had a huge impact on the MLS Cup Playoffs picture. Combined with Colorado's 1-1 draw with New England, Chivas USA is now in second place in the Western Conference, with the Rapids and Real Salt Lake tied for third place and the final automatic playoff spot.

Chivas scored the game's lone goal in the 72nd minute when Alecko Eskandarian had the simplest of goals gift-wrapped to him courtesy of a RSL defensive mistake.

Defender Nat Borchers chased after a long ball driven toward the RSL goal when he crashed into Nick Rimando as the Real 'keeper came out to snag the ball at the top of the penalty area.

The ball popped free and bounced to Eskandarian's feet. With nothing between him and an empty net, it was a simple matter of guiding it in.

A steady rain did not diminish the RSL attack in the early stages of the match. The club piled up scoring chances like they were raindrops striking the Rice-Eccles turf. Turning them into actual goals proved much harder to do.

Real nearly got on the board in the second minute when Yura Movsisyan put the ball to flight on a nice bicycle kick. He angled his shot at the far post, but the ball sailed wide over the upper corner.

Javier Morales created another nice chance on a free kick in the 10th minute. The Argentinean midfielder uncorked a powerful shot that easily cleared the defensive wall. It caught a little too much air, though, and cleared the crossbar as well.

Morales came up short on an even better opportunity a minute later. Forward Robbie Findley drove into the six-yard box and ripped a nice shot. Dan Kennedy came up with a nice save, but the ball bounced right into the path of Morales. It took only a split second for him to rocket it back on frame.

The ball nearly entered the goal, but it was stopped in midair on the line by Jonathan Bornstein and cleared away.

Chivas was nearly as active on the other end. The Red-and-White had a near-miss in the fourth minute when Eskandarian clamped onto a ball fed to him deep in the penalty area. Eskandarian one-touched it right at Rimando, who blanketed the ball for a save.

Another Chivas scoring chance materialized in the 24th minute. Atiba Harris tracked down the ball in the corner and sent it back to Francisco Mendoza just outside the top of the penalty area. Mendoza fired a bullet that was perfectly on target, but Rimando stood his ground and managed to knock it away with his fingertips.

RSL looked to finally have its first goal in the 31st minute when Movsisyan cut around a defender and curved the ball inside the near post. But his would-be score was waved off after Movsisyan was ruled offside.

Movsisyan's hard luck continued right up to halftime. He had a nice volley off a header in the 44th minute that was good enough to turn into a goal. But it went straight at Kennedy, who could not have moved out of the path of the ball even if he wanted to and deflected it to safety.

RSL continued to misfire in the second half. Will Johnson fed the ball to Andy Williams on a breakaway in the 54th minute. Williams had enough space to create something, but overran Johnson's pass. He recovered and corralled the ball before it bounced over the endline. But it left Williams with an awkward angle.

He tried to curve the ball up and bend it around the near post. Instead, the ball simply banged into the post and careened away.

After getting the opening goal, Chivas hung on through the final minutes. Real's last gasp came on a near-breakaway by Movsisyan in the 85th minute. He threaded the needle between a pair of defenders, but Kennedy covered up at the top of the goal area to make a timely save.

Chivas earn revenge vs. RSL

SALT LAKE CITY -- For months, it has simmered in the minds of every player on the Chivas USA roster. The Red-and-White had suffered a loss on their home field to Real Salt Lake, their first loss ever at The Home Depot Center to their expansion partner.

It was bad enough losing to RSL, a team they have typically dominated during since beginning MLS play in 2005. But being the only club to surrender three points to Real away from Rice-Eccles Stadium felt downright embarrassing.

The Red-and-White didn't just get mad and pout about it. They got even. Chivas repaid the favor on Saturday night, handing RSL a 1-0 loss in the finale at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Not only did it mark the first home setback for Real in 2008, but it paid instant dividends to Chivas. The Red-and-White vaulted past RSL into second place in the Western Conference standings.

"We always knew that we had a good team," Chivas coach Preki said. "It was just a matter of getting everybody healthy and getting everybody playing."

Preki didn't feel like his club played its best Saturday. But it didn't matter. A simple defensive blunder by RSL made the jump in the standings possible.

Ex-RSL forward Alecko Eskandarian scored the game's only goal in the 72nd minute when he collected the ball after a collision between Nick Rimando and Nat Borchers.

Borchers chased down a long ball into the penalty area. At the same time, Rimando came out to clear it away. He tried to call his defender off, but they crashed into one another anyway.

The ball popped free and rolled to Eskandarian's feet. He collected it and guided it home for the simplest of goals.

"I saw Rimando coming off his line and Nat was chasing him down," Eskandarian said. "I remembered two months ago those same two had a play, I think against New England, where the ball squared out, so I figured I might as well keep going, maybe something will pop out, and sure enough it did."

That lone tally was essentially gift-wrapped to Chivas, but they aren't about to complain about such a lucky break.

"It ended how I wanted," midfielder Carey Talley said. "It was kind of like their game when they came to us. Two players collided there and the ball just rolled into the net, and we took advantage of it. So I thought we did a pretty good job."

Chivas put itself to capitalize on such a fortunate twist of fate by putting ample pressure on RSL's offense. Real struggled to play much of anything through the midfield with the Red-and-White shadowing them more than annoying puppies.

When they did get down into scoring position, RSL took itself out of the match by struggling to finish shots.

Chivas had its own finishing struggles in the first half too. The Red-and-White had a near-miss in the fourth minute when Eskandarian clamped onto a ball fed to him deep in the penalty area. He one-touched it right at Rimando, who blanketed the ball for a save.

Another Chivas scoring chance materialized in the 24th minute. Atiba Harris tracked down the ball in the corner and sent it back to Francisco Mendoza just outside the top of the penalty area. Mendoza fired a bullet perfectly on target, but Rimando stood his ground and knocked it away with his fingertips.

Finally getting on the scoreboard might have required a little luck, but Preki felt like it was exactly what Chivas needed.

"We got a fortunate goal," Preki said. "Sometimes, in this game, you have to be lucky and get one of those things. This year luck hasn't been on our side too often, so tonight we'll take it. It's that time of year that we'll take the points, it doesn't matter how they come."

Earning a victory in Utah in the final match at Rice-Eccles Stadium felt poetic justice for players like Talley and Eskandarian who once called that venue their home. They, like the current RSL roster, are happy to finally retire the artificial surface in favor of the grass field in the club's new stadium.

"This town deserves it," Talley said. "The fans are great, they supported the team through thick and thin the last four years. They're putting a better product on the field and it'll be perfect for that stadium."

United hoping to add regional glory

WASHINGTON -- For several years, D.C. United have been craving regional success to match their perennial status among Major League Soccer's elite. But a trying league campaign and a persistent injury epidemic have forced the Black-and-Red to ponder difficult decisions with the advent of the inaugural CONCACAF Champions League competition.

The capital club owns the most illustrious international record in U.S. soccer history, having tasted both regional and hemispheric success in 1998 at the zenith of its late-1990s glory years. But even though D.C. took part in three of the last four CONCACAF Champions Cup competitions, a string of high-profile letdowns has seen regional honors continue to elude the four-time MLS Cup winners, to the abiding frustration of fans, players and front office alike.

United has amassed a bevy of South American talent for the specific purpose of contending in tournaments like this one, only to see Brazilian attackers Luciano Emilio and Fred, along with Argentinean playmaker Marcelo Gallardo and his compatriot, tall center back Gonzalo Peralta, atop a catalog of injury concerns as group play begins with the visit of Costa Rican side Deportivo Saprissa to RFK Stadium on Tuesday night.

The impact of the long casualty list could clearly be seen on head coach Tom Soehn's lineup in United's last match, a 2-2 home draw against FC Dallas on Saturday. Striker Thabiso Khumalo was originally brought in from lower-division side Pittsburgh Riverhounds to bolster the D.C. reserve squad and had just completed his loan deal the day before, only to find himself starting alongside team captain and all-time league scoring leader Jaime Moreno.

The South African acquitted himself well, but his new coach's frustration was evident as he discussed his roster limitations afterwards.

"It's very difficult right now looking and knowing you have impact players sitting on the bench and having to wait to put them in," said Soehn, who gave Emilio 22 minutes in relief of Khumalo. "There are situations in a game when you want to be reactionary of the situation but you can't. So it's difficult right now and that's why I'm encouraged to get those guys in playing. Hopefully we can push the minutes next time."

Soehn's disappointment is understandable, given the level of talent at issue. Emilio won both MLS Most Valuable Player and Golden Boot honors as league-leading scorer a season ago and leads the squad with 10 goals this year. His participation would dramatically sharpen the Black-and-Red's cutting edge in the attacking end on Tuesday.

The same goes for Gallardo. The highest-paid player in United history, "El Muneco" has missed most of the last two months with sports hernia issues and full fitness remains elusive. Last week he was hit by a case of the flu as well as an ankle complaint, and the coaching staff elected to keep him out of uniform over the weekend with an eye towards having him closer to full speed against Saprissa. The smooth Argentinean is the archetypical South American No. 10 and his vision and composure in the center of the park would be a massive boost against the Costa Rican powerhouse.

Most of the region's other leagues are just working their way into the meat of the domestic schedule. However, MLS is entering the final month of its regular season and United have failed to haul themselves into the upper echelon of the cutthroat Eastern Conference, leaving their playoff hopes at risk and deflecting attention from the significant challenge of qualifying out of the Champions League's formidable Group A.

MLS teams traditionally struggled in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, a tourney which kicked off while the U.S. league was in its preseason stages. But the timing of Champions League offers a different sort of challenge and United, along with fellow MLS representatives Houston Dynamo, are entering uncharted territory as the league tries to balance its roster size and strict salary cap setup with the desire for better results in international play.

"The competition has been expanded and that has brought about a lot of questions. How do we manage this? How do we manage it as a league?" said D.C. general manager Dave Kasper last week. "So I think it's being discussed, ways the league can put teams in a position to succeed. That's being discussed right now and hopefully there will some sort of solution to that. Our immediate goal is to get guys healthy."

All told, D.C. must play 12 matches in the next six weeks and their CONCACAF adventure will have to be juggled with the ongoing demands of MLS play. But the club is open about its larger ambitions of regional ascendancy, and such aspirations require the squad to produce results regardless of the circumstances.

"That's how it's going to be this year," said defender Marc Burch. "We want to be in these tournaments and we're going to be faced with game after game. So the next two months are really, really busy and we're going to try to rest guys and get out of it what we can...We've got to just face the games as they come."

Rest provides tonic for weary Revs

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- A tired performance in Columbus may not have been the first time the New England Revolution had looked fatigued this season. But a 4-0 result against the Eastern Conference-leading Crew might have seen the Revs stretched to their breaking point.

"We've been tired for three or four weeks," Revolution head coach Steve Nicol said. "It didn't just appear in Columbus. It has been building through the end of SuperLiga."

That stretch saw the Revs slip from comfortably in first place to worryingly looking behind them to see whether Chicago had overtaken them as the team stumbled in league and CONCACAF Champions League play.

"We went through a rough patch," Revs goalkeeper Matt Reis said. "The double trip from Toronto to Trinidad messed with a lot of people. We've gotten over the hump now. We've had a little bit of time off. We've had some time to get away from each other and think about the season. It's the stretch run."

The stretch run might have started in Columbus, but the Revs would prefer to shift the focus towards last Thursday's 4-0 win against Chivas USA as a sign that the revival could be forthcoming.

An extra couple of days worth of rest and training gave New England a buffer it hadn't seen in two months to propel them past a weary Chivas USA side missing several regulars.

The reward? A long weekend to rest and a full week of training ahead of Saturday's trip to Colorado.

"It's going to be nice to get a few days off and get a full week of training," Revolution midfielder Steve Ralston said. "It's been so long that I can't remember. We'll go over some basics and some things that we need to work on."

Practice isn't the first thing most players say they want, but Reis said missing out on that practice time has hurt the team because they haven't been able to work on the bad habits that have crept into their game over the past couple of months.

"We'll get in a good week before we have to play," Reis said. "That's most important. We need to get away from each other and recharge our batteries. We need to look at this stretch run of the last six games and make sure that we're in a good position for the playoffs."

That position has been complicated by the recent three-match winless streak. The win against Chivas USA closed the gap between the Revs and Columbus to three points by the end of the weekend. The two teams meet again at Gillette Stadium on Sept. 27, a match New England will need if it aims to earn the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

"We'd love to get home-field advantage in the playoffs, but we need to get there first," Ralston said. "It's a long season and a lot of teams have closed the gap. Every point is important now. If we can win our conference, that would be great."

Reis said that this little break will give the team the mental break it needs to push for conference supremacy.

"The end of the season is around the corner now," Reis said. "It's just important to play better."

Second-half rally propels Red Bulls

E. RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- On second-half goals by Juan Pablo Angel and Dave van den Bergh, the New York Red Bulls defeated Real Salt Lake, 2-1, at Giants Stadium Saturday night, rallying from a 1-0 deficit to take the full three points for the second time this season.

The Red Bulls improved to 8-1-3 at the Meadowlands this year, while Real Salt Lake, which is undefeated in 12 games at home, is now 1-9-2 outside of Salt Lake City.

Real Salt Lake went in front, 1-0, in the 38th minute when Robbie Findley flicked in a service by Chris Wingert and freed Yura Movsisyan in on goal. Movsisyan outran Gabriel Cichero and tapped the ball with the outside of his right foot to the left of Red Bulls goalkeeper Jon Conway.

It was Movsisyan's third goal in the last five games.

Movsisyan was unfortunate not to have a second first-half goal when he took a pass from Javier Morales and took a touch around Conway. But Movsisyan's shot sailed over the crossbar in the first minute of first-half stoppage time.

The Red Bulls equalized four minutes into the second half when Angel received a long ball over the top of the RSL defense by Kevin Goldthwaite. The Red Bulls captain got around Jamison Olave, who went down on contact, and slotted the ball inside the far post. It was Angel's ninth goal of the year and seventh in his last nine games.

Conway was called into action on 56 minutes when he was forced to dive to his left to save Will Johnson's well-struck shot from 22 yards out.

The Red Bulls put intense pressure in the RSL defensive third just after the hour mark and were rewarded with the go-ahead goal by van den Bergh. Cichero whiffed on a shot attempt and Dane Richards' shanked shot fell right to van den Bergh, who hugged the offside line and beat Nick Rimando inside the far post for his sixth goal of the year.

A minute earlier, a dummy by Magee allowed Angel to latch on to a pass from Richards, but Rimando made a diving stop. Rimando also stopped Goldthwaite's point-blank header On the ensuing corner kick.

Movsisyan came inches away from tying the game in the 75th minute, but his shot from 16 yards out deflected off Conway's hand and the near post. He also fired a shot from distance over the crossbar in the first of four minutes of second-half stoppage time.

Findley had the game's first quality scoring chance, but he put his attempt from 16 yards out off the outside of the near post in the 14th minute. Four minutes later Mike Magee headed van den Bergh's cross from the left side over the net from just outside the six-yard box.

In the 27th minute, Movsisyan got behind the Red Bulls defense, but he put his shot wide of the target. The Red Bulls came right down the field and Richards' low shot just missed the mark.

With nearly a full allotment of players, Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio went with his familiar 3-5-2 formation at home. Returning to the team were Goldthwaite (suspension), Jorge Rojas (international duty) and Magee (staph infection).

With Seth Stammler rested because of a bone bruise in his right knee, Rojas played deeper in the midfield with Juan Pietravallo, Magee was used as an attacking midfielder and John Wolyniec, who has scored five goals in the last three reserve games, played up front with Angel.

With Fabian Espindola out with a severely sprained right ankle Jason Kreis started Findley up front with Movsisyan. Williams returned from international duty to play in the midfield and Robbie Russell started in RSL's back four, with Wingert, Nat Borchers and Olave.

Jeff Parke, who has been hampered with right ankle injuries, came off in the 53rd minute for Chris Leitch in Osorio's first substitution. In the 25th minute Parke had his right ankle stepped on by Will Johnson.

Carlos Mendes replaced Magee in the 59th minute for the Red Bulls' second substitution.

Clint Mathis, the all-time leading scorer in Red Bulls history, made his return to Giants Stadium, coming on for Andy Williams in the 59th minute. Kenny Deuchar replaced Findley in the 78th minute for Kreis' second change and Ian Joy came on for Russell five minutes from full time for RSL's final change.

Ottawa to announce MLS expansion bid

With the tremendous success of Toronto FC on the other side of the province as a case study, Ontario's capital city of Ottawa is looking to get into Major League Soccer and has a press conference scheduled for Tuesday morning to announce an expansion bid and plans on building a world-class soccer stadium.

Eugene Melnyk, owner of Senators Sports & Entertainment, is the driving force behind the possible deal and could be the fifth National Hockey League-based investor-operator of an MLS team and second in Canada, joining Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, the NBA Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC. Colorado Rapids operator Stanley Kroenke owns the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets of the NBA among other teams, while AEG, investor-operator of the LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo, own the Los Angeles Kings, and Dave Checketts and Sports Capital Partners, operator of Real Salt Lake, own the St. Louis Blues.

Ottawa is the latest Canadian city interested in possibly adding a Major League Soccer team. Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash joined Vancouver Whitecaps ownership in a bid to land an MLS expansion team in his hometown of Vancouver and Montreal, which is already home to a brand new 14,000-seat soccer stadium (Stade Saputo) is also in contention for an MLS expansion team.

Major League Soccer will expand to 15 teams next year with the addition of the Seattle Sounders and will then add a team in Philadelphia in 2010. Other possible expansion destinations include a second team in New York, St. Louis, Miami, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Portland.

According to published reports, the New York Mets are looking to be the ownership group of a second New York club. David Howard, the executive vice president for business said the Mets are hoping to get into MLS expansion following the completion of construction for their new $600 million home, Citi Field.

"Our vision is not to be just a successful baseball team, but to be a world-class sports and media entertainment company," Howard told Bloomberg Radio's "On the Ball" program, which will air Saturday. "We're a lot closer to that goal than we were five years ago."

Noonan's journey reaches MLS goal

TORONTO -- It's a long way from Alesund, Norway to Columbus, Ohio, but it's a journey that Pat Noonan has taken to get back on an MLS scoring sheet.

The veteran striker scored for the first time in almost a year to lead the Crew to a 1-1 draw with Toronto FC at BMO Field on Saturday.

"I'm hoping to just come in and contribute," Noonan said. "There's a lot of guys fighting for spots and tonight I was able to get a start and get a goal. I'm happy to be here."

Noonan is a six-year veteran of Major League Soccer, first breaking into the league in 2003 with the New England Revolution. The versatile attacker scored 37 goals in 119 games with the Revs through 2007, including a league-high 30 points in 2004 that tied him with Amado Guevara for the MLS Scoring Champion Award.

Injuries hampered Noonan over the last two seasons, however, and as a result he was let go by the Revolution following last season. Noonan signed with Aalesunds FK of the Norwegian Premier League and played 11 games for the team known as the Tangoshirts before signing with the Crew on August 6.

Since returning, Noonan has played in five games and Saturday's match was his second start, as regular forward Guillermo Barros Schelotto was out with a hamstring injury.

"It was the right time for me to come back," Noonan said. "I've come back into a great situation with a team that's having a successful year."

He couldn't have picked a better time to rediscover his scoring touch, either, as the Crew were trailing TFC, 1-0, after 40 minutes and looked out of sorts on attack without Schelotto leading the way. Noonan carried the ball almost from midfield and cut across the middle, freezing two Toronto defenders expecting him to race closer to the net.

Instead, Noonan stopped and launched a high shot that eluded Reds goalkeeper Greg Sutton and found the back of the net. It was Noonan's first goal in almost a full calendar year, as he last scored on Sept. 15, 2007 as a member of the Revolution.

"I was able to turn with the ball and I carried it in waiting for a defender to step and maybe get a one-two because I thought I was a little far out," Noonan said. "I think I was able to get Tyrone [Marshall] to bite a little bit and brought it back to the left and put it in."

The draw extends the Crew's unbeaten streak to five games (4-0-1) and ensures that they will leave the weekend's action still in first place overall in the league table. Columbus head coach Sigi Schmid pointed to Noonan's goal as an example of the depth that has been a big part of the Crew's success.

"One of the reasons we brought Noonan here was because we knew he could play in that position," Schmid said. "He scored a great goal today. Stefani [Miglioranzi] stepped in [for Brad Evans]. Emmanual Ekpo, he's only been back a little more than a week after being gone for a month with the Olympics, we're trying to round him into shape but everyone saw his quality in the last 15 minutes of the game. I've never been disappointed about our depth."

Despite Schelotto missing Saturday's game and Frankie Hejduk and Alejandro Moreno absent last week to international duty, the Crew finished those two games with four points. Schmid said his team's strong character keeps them from worrying about injuries or absences.

"We're not wasting time talking about [who's not here], we're talking about who's on the field," he said.

While a draw on the road is always a good result, the game continued a disturbing trend for Columbus. They fell behind on a sixth-minute goal when Amado Guevara passed a direct free kick opportunity to Carl Robinson, who launched a shot past the wall and goalkeeper Will Hesmer.

"We talked about their re-starts and we're disappointed that we gave up that first goal, especially within five minutes," Hesmer said. "It's a ball that I wasn't able to see, I didn't see it until too late obviously. I want it back because I think it's a ball I could save."

The early disappointment was compounded a few minutes later, when the Crew were awarded a penalty kick. Schelotto is the Black-and-Gold's penalty kick specialist with four goals in as many attempts this season, but with Schelotto out, the duty fell to Moreno, who didn't get a full foot on the ball and sent a weak attempt that was easily saved.

It all added up to yet another slow start for the Crew. Columbus has allowed a league-high eight goals within the first 15 minutes of games this season. This disturbing trend gets worse on artificial surfaces --- four of those early goals allowed came in three games in New York, Salt Lake City and Toronto.

"We've played four games on turf this year and in three of them we've conceded a goal in the first 10 minutes of the game," Schmid said. "So this time being able to come back form that was a positive. Dealing with the psychological blow of missing a penalty kick, you know, was also something we needed to come back from. I was proud of that. I was also disappointed, in a way, because we created some chances and had the run of play at times and should have done a bit better with our chances."

The early deficits are a problem that the Crew will have to correct if they want to advance in the MLS playoffs, but the team can already add one trophy to its case for 2008. The draw clinched the first-ever Trillium Cup for Columbus, as the Black-and-Gold won the season series between the two regional rivals.

The Trillium Cup may not be quite in the same league as the MLS Cup (or even the Norwegian Cup), but it's still an honor that Noonan is proud to have.

"I want to win all the trophies that we can," Noonan said. "Hopefully it's a start towards another trophy at the end of the year, but hey, a trophy is a trophy and we're happy to win it over a good team."