It is a busier-than-usual Sunday night in Major League Soccer, where three matches are on tap, including a pair of key Eastern Conference showdowns.
D.C. United is looking to avoid a late-season slide like they suffered at the end of last season, and will need a victory against the Philadelphia Union today at RFK Stadium (5pm, NBC Sports) to move back ahead of the surging Montreal Impact for the fifth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
For Philadelphia, today's match is pretty much a must-win for a team still holding onto some faint hopes of a playoff run. Newly-acquired midfielder Danny Cruz will make the start in his debut, and will be facing the player he was traded for, Lionard Pajoy is starting for D.C. United.
In Houston, the Dynamo look to keep their unbeaten home record intact when they take on the Columbus Crew (9pm). The Crew are still recovering from the tragic loss of midfielder Kirk Urso and showed well in a mid-week draw against the LA Galaxy.
At Red Bull Arena, the New York Red Bulls take on struggling Portland (7pm, Telefutura) in a match the Red Bulls need to stay within striking distance of Sporting Kansas City for first place in the Eastern Conference. For the Timbers, Sunday's match is just another chance for players to audition for their jobs in 2013.
If you will be watching today's MLS action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action.
Brian Carrol looked a few feet offside.
Nice free kick by adu into box. Carroll to clean it up
Phew! DCU avoids going down 2-0 courtesy of Adu flubbin’ one. Both teams creating chances but Philly looking more fluid in attack so far.
Philadelphia players are acting like 10 year old childs, this is ridiculous.
DeRo should’ve done better there. Set up with a calm touch by Pajoy and skies it.
Freddy Adu even has to save the team on defense. This guy is treated like such trash in Philly and my god they might never win a game without him. He sets up the goals and saves them.
Hahaha freddy adu the one man team. What would they ever do without him? Win games
WOW
DC United just have a goal stolen from them. STOLEN. Philly defender kicks the ball out of his own keeper’s hands to a wide open DeLeon and referee calls a foul on a DC player for… being near the keeper?
wtf is that bs
Awful from the referee. That was just pathetic.
Geiger has just been terrible this whole match. That was obviously a bad call, and the yellows have been flying out inconsistently all night, both ways.
He cut in front of the defender at the goal line as the ball got there, so that’s frankly not possible.
Boskovich with a free kick that curls through the Union D into the net. Here we go!
Yeah, and Lahoud has been given 2 different final warnings after his first yellow.
This man should never officiate again in his freaking life. Never again. You have to be freaking kidding me. YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME.
Wow this guy should never see another match as a referee again. This is simply embarrassing. And now a random red card to a DC player after disallowing the penalty goal with both teams encroaching?!?!
So, the Union player commits encroachment and DeRo’s penalty is called off??? And now DeRo blows the retake. Just horrid all around.
This referee should be banned from MLS. This is just an utter embarrassment for the league. That’s TWO legitimate goals disallowed for DC United. TWO.
OMFG HE RED CARDED A SECOND DC UNITED PLAYER
Straight red for Duda. Wow. This is coming from a Philly fan. People, this referee is absolutely nuts.
This is a joke. F Mark Geiger. F this joke.
Mark Geiger needs to take his mof8*&FD Philadelphia jersey off and leave this league.
Wow, this is fun. DC has lost their collective minds.
The ref is not actually wrong on anything from the penalty award forward. Before that things were a bit random.
But wow, what a dramatic last 20 minutes.
A second red card?
This man is either bought off or completely incompetent.
Wow. Nuts at RFK. This is getting out of hand. Jesus.
You know why the second red was fair. Even Pontius yelled at his own player as he was being sent off. Dudar just lost his mind.
What an awesome display.
Both teams encroached. Watch again. Doesn’t change it, but watch again without the rose colored glasses.
Wow…total madness at the end of this game.
Sheanon Williams ejected for a perfect tackle and is now refusing to leave the pitch. Ejected for a perfect tackle.
This official is completely incompetent. Completely incompetent. Disallows two DC goals that were legitimate. Red cards two DC players, one a straight red for barely a yellow card tackle and another for pushing someone. Ejects a Philly player for a perfectly legal tackle. Doesn’t eject another Philly player after 3 ridiculous tackles AFTER he was given his first yellow.
Wow. DCU looks like it needs family therapy intervention.
D.C. just lost the plot. They can blame the ref all they want, but if they keep their heads, they win the game and don’t have two players suspended for upcoming games.
HAHAH WOW
Cannot imagine this guy sees the pitch as anything more than a ball boy for the rest of the season. Awful officiating.
dC robbed at rfk. Should have been 4-1.
They had TWO legitimate goals disallowed. They should have won the game by a lot.
Of course they can blame the referee, they did what they had to and he took it away.
Yeah, that was insane. What a thing to happen. Glad the cardware didn’t come out until the end. Of course the other screwups were notable, too.
I did and players from both clubs did encroach. Fair point. Also fair to say that the call certainly *appears* biased as the act of encroachment is rarely called. That said, DCU (and Philly) could’ve put it away.
Studs up, from behind, nowhere near the ball. That is the very definition of a red-card offense. What could be your argument AGAINST it?
How to ruin a game,a memoir by Mark Geiger.
No idea what just happened. The ref lost control of the match. Then he panicked and stopped right at five minutes of stoppage even tho they had only played a minute or two.
1. It wasn’t a legitimate goal. A player encroached. You know that is a foul that requires a retake, right?
2. The red card to Dudar was also 100 percent the right call. Studs up foul, from behind, nowhere near the ball. You are aware that is a red-card offense, right?
I mean come on. DC had a goal disallowed because Geiger called a foul for a Philly player kicking the ball out of his own keeper’s hands.
What an embarrassment.
Players from both teams encroached. Referees ALWAYS let that go as they should.
The pk was obviously not a legitimate goal. Pontius encroached. The evidence was right there on video. What part of that are you arguing against?
Players from BOTH teams encroached. No call should have been made as neither interfered with the take or stop.
No, they don’t. And no, they shouldn’t. You don’t have to like it but it IS illegal and the call is legitimate.
Absolutely bonkers finish. Ref ruined it all both sides. But DC let it get to them. Fighting each other? Haha.
You clearly don’t understand the rule or its application. Has nothing to do with interfering with the take or the stop. Educate yourself.
Absolutely. That was the very definition of a red card foul.
Dude you are blind. He got the ball first of all and futhermore its no worst that all the garbage Lahoud was pulling all game long. Hey by the way if you are a deer hunter maybe you should try hunting with a deer costume next time you go out
As a neutral fan, IMO Mark Geiger ruined the game.
Pontius encroached FAR more than Adu did. Adu was maybe a step inside. Pontius was several steps inside. Refs often give players leeway for a step or two, but Pontius was way over the line. Stupid decision by him really.
Geiger twice during the game stepped in to intercept DC United passes and deflect to the other team. He removed two goals that should have counted. He tossed two players who shouldn’t have been. Man of the match for Philadelphia.
I guess the tossing of a Philadelphia player who shouldn’t have been stopped him from being named man of the match. But, he did allow another Philadelphia player to have 4 or 5 yellow card offenses.
As a neutral observer (SKC fan, so a mild interest in DC’s outcome):
Geiger was comically bad. Childishly inconsistent. My wife kept wondering why I was laughing. It was worse because I had just finished the DVR’d City vs. Southampton game, and the difference in officiating was… pretty freaking excruciating.
Geiger makes Ricardo Salazar look nuanced, decisive, and brilliantly accurate. I feel terrible for DC, but also for Philly. They both deserved much better than the finely aged sh!t cheese that Geiger served up.
Neutral fan and I saw two bad calls – the first disallowed goal and the Williams second yellow. There was nothing wrong with that first goal, and Williams’ only sin was making an incredible tackle that Geiger apparently refused to believe was possible. The encroachment call and the red on Duda were both good calls. And both were dumb decisions by DCU players.
Wow RBNY down 2 goals to Timbers. Ouch.
Geiger’s horrible performane aside, that was a clear and easy red card. Regardless of whether he ultimately got some ball or not, that was behind and studs up – he has to go.
Most of the rest of Geiger’s game was an absolute mystery though.
He is so awful, you must be trolling with this post.
Another game where he’s invisible, stops play to try to go 1 v 1, gets snuffed like usual and stands around.
There was minimal contact. This whole studs up arguement doesn’t fly. There have been plenty of challenges studs up that weren’t reds. Go watch the damn tackle again.
That wasn’t Pontius homeboy. That was Salihi. So you are blind. I get it now.
Wrong.
If you watch that tackle without partisan blinders on and still think its not a red card I don’t know what to tell you other than you are just flat out wrong.
Omg another ridiculous controversy.
Referee blows a play dead with his whistle (presumably to give a penalty for a handball). NY player then shoots the ball and scores after the whistle… referee allows it.
LOL MLS
Commentators said it was Pontius. That angle was only shown once, so I don’t know for sure. Who it was is irrelevant anyway, homeboy.
Timbers coach just went onto the field to get at the official at half time. Pissed.
Yeah, you could read Pontious’ lips as he said “be smart man”.
All of this likely would be moot if DeRo hadn’t skied his first half chance. As a DCU supporter, definitely a tough one not to leave with the full 3 points.
Roy Miller will probably end up taking most of the blame for the 2 goals, but there was plenty to go around. That said, I had no problem with taking Miller off so early.
The team was lethargical when it had possession, and was pushed up too high up the field to give the ball away so cheaply. They were in relatively good position to defend the counterattacks.
When Cooper came on everything seemed to click. Passing was crisper and quicker, there was better movement off the ball. Having Solli and Le Toux on the right instead of Barklage and Solli helped as much as getting Roy Miller off the field.
I assumed it was a whistle from somewhere other than the referee, because I can’t believe the ref could allow the goal after blowing the play dead on his own.
To defend the goal, the time between the shot and the whistle was so quick that I don’t believe the Timbers players could have reacted to it.
But if the ref did blow that whistle, I don’t know how you allow the goal.
I definitely think he blew it. Even the NY players were like wtf how did that count.
Everyone stopped except the guy that hit it. You could see them screaming at him that he blew the whistle. It was very loud and right when the ball hit the guy’s hand.
Gotta love galavision. Controversial goal allowed, portland players screaming at & chasing the official and all we hear in the background for a minute straight is GGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLL!
There was no encroachment. This ref sucked
and DC got hosed
Has MLS done away with second assist? Otherwise why wouldn’t Dax get one?
tough call. DCU player kicked keeper’s hand first. Still, i wouldn’t have complained had they allowed the goal.
changed the game when Miller went off and Cooper came on. Miller was struggling, his bad turnover leading to Portland’s second goal counter attack
fun game back and forth, lots of space for both teams
The moment the whistle blows the play is dead. By the laws of the game, that “goal” is no different than if a player ran onto the field with a throw in and threw the ball into the net with his hands. The referee has no power to award a goal for a dead ball going into the net.
If he was going to give the penalty, he should have given it. You can’t play advantage with a DEAD BALL.
Remind me of a call from RSL v dallas. Rimando catches the ball, relays it to a forward on a breakaway, but ref decides to stop game for a foul on dallas. How about some consistency right?
What are you talking about? He got nowhere near the ball.
A player inside the arc at the top of the 18 before the penalty is struck = encroachment. Educate yourself.
How many colombians are in the MLS? Does anyone have an exact number?
I agree. Anything else is just rationalizing because the person prefers the outcome of the bad call.
@Eric
link to en.wikipedia.org
This is the seventh game by Le Toux in Red Bulls uniform and the sixth that I say – his trade was a mistake. He is spectacular in spoiling opportunities, missing chances and clogging our attack.
I certainly wasn’t rooting against DCU. Yeah, that was one royal mess at the end. Funny, but I wonder if trading players this week, those players yapping in the dressing room, etc. might have contributed to the angry tone today.
another MLS game, another ref issue, an unfortunate problem with the league disappointly
the game has been fun to watch, but Chara just got cleaned up from behind by Tainio, no whistle.
those are the calls that MLS officials allow too much, for example. pretty much right in front of the official too
He’s not fitting in offensively yet but his work rate is fantastic and he is backtracking really well. He’s a talented guy and I think it’s only a matter of time before things begin to click. Let’s not go crazy and unload him the way they unloaded DeRo when he didn’t immediately fit in. Once his teammates are able to tell he and Cooper apart, that should help as well.
This is all we have now – to get patient with him.
He blew the whistle and was running to the spot for the PK then turned around and allowed the goal.
Wow, that was horrible. I’ve called games where I blew the whistle and immediately regretted it because I should have allowed advantage; however, it’s not an option to just pretend you didn’t or say “nevermind” – just not an option.
Houston have the worst finishers in the league.
You can argue the red to Dudar was the right call. Same for the encroachment on the pk, but Geiger took a goal away from dc. Also it looked like there were two offsides calls missed on the Union 1st goal. Also Lahoud should have been sent off. DC forward was pushed the back on a cross in the box and there was no call. The ref is not bigger than the game, but Geiger tried to make himself the center of attention all night. His officiating was also biased towards the Union.
That’s pure bs. Dc had a goal taken away from them on a bogus foul.