MLS Weekly Wrap-up: MLS’s first all-female broadcast team calls a match!

This week was a historic one for MLS. The first ever all-female broadcast team took on calling the D.C. United vs New England Revolution game. This was a huge moment for women in sports everywhere. The game was called by Lisa Byington with analysis by Danielle Slaton, and sideline reporting from Katie Witham. They did a wonderful job and I hope to see more women in sports broadcasting in the future. Elsewhere, Toronto FC’s match ended in a draw, the Seattle Sounders murdered the LA Galaxy, and both New York teams were given a red card. Here’s how this week’s matches shaped up.

Wednesday:

D.C. United 4-1 Portland Timbers

Before the historic D.C. United all-women broadcast, they took on the Portland Timbers and came out on top. Portland started the game off strong, scoring the first goal. Samuel Armenteros got the Timbers on the board at the 34’ mark. That would be the end of the Timbers’ success. Wayne Rooney scored two goals (43’ and 68’), proving he is not just a washed-up English player moving to MLS to finish his career. He has really found a spot on this D.C. roster. The second D.C. goal of the match came from Oniel Fisher (47’) before Rooney brought the total to three. United were not done yet, though, as Darren Mattocks drove the win home with a goal in stoppage time (90+1’).

Los Angeles FC 2-0 Real Salt Lake

LAFC continues to impress. They shut out Real Salt Lake midweek. They maintained ball possession and had the most shots at goal. Both goals came from Christian Ramirez at 13’ and 30’. All the action took place before the halftime whistle.

Saturday:

Seattle Sounders 5-0 LA Galaxy

Oh man, the Galaxy had a tough week. They played a match against the Colorado Rapids on Tuesday, where they were able to pull off a draw although at times it looked like a loss was imminent. Seattle put on an absolute show for their home crowd. Chad Marshall had a goal within the opening minutes (3’, to be exact). Harry Shipp brought the lead to two shortly thereafter (18’). Servando Carrasco netted an own goal at the 50’ mark. Cristian Roldan would be the next to get on the board at the 59’ mark. Raul Ruidiaz would score the final Seattle goal at 67’. To be fair, the Galaxy are pretty battered right now. Zlatan Ibrahimovic didn’t make the trip and Giovani dos Santos, Jonathan dos Santos, and Romain Alessandrini are injured. These are big blows to the LA roster.

Philadelphia Union 2-0 New York City FC

The Union pulled off a big win this weekend against NYCFC. Cory Burke opened up scoring at 57’. Ilsinho scored the second Union goal at 76’. NYCFC’s Ronald Matarrita was shown a red card at 90+5’ for a challenge on Ilsinho, putting them down a man late in the match.

Vancouver Whitecaps 2-2 New York Red Bulls

Daniel Royer started out strong for the Red Bulls, scoring his first of two in the opening minutes (5’). Kendall Waston replied for the Whitecaps, giving them two goals and the lead. The first goal came at 42’, the second at 60’. Red Bull’s Michael Amir Murillo was given a red card at the 84th minute. Despite being down a man, Royer’s second goal of the match came late, tying it up at the 90th minute.

Montreal Impact 2-1 Chicago Fire

Our rivals came out on top this week against the Chicago Fire. Ignacio Piatti got the Impact on the board within the opening six minutes with a penalty. The rest of the match moved a bit slow, until Chicago’s Nemanja Nikolic scored an equalizer at the 70’ minute mark. Montreal would go on to win it with a late goal from Daniel Lovitz at 90+1’.

Sporting KC 3-0 Portland Timbers

Portland had a rough week. They fell short to Sporting KC on Saturday. Sporting’s Diego Rubio came out hot. He scored two goals. The first came at 28’, while the second followed shortly at 37’. Their third and final goal came late in the match from Johnny Russell at 89’. Sporting dominated the match, taking 25 shots at goal while Portland only took seven.

Houston Dynamo 1-2 Real Salt Lake

Another tough week for the Dynamo. They got on the scoreboard with a lone goal from Boniek Garcia at 36’, the only of their 12 shots at goal to make it in the net. Real Salt Lake scored both of their goals in stoppage time for the dramatic late comeback. Albert Rusnak struck first at 90+3’. He would go on to score a second stoppage time goal on a penalty at 90+10’!

FC Dallas 2-0 Minnesota United

The other Texas team had a much better weekend, shutting out the Loons at home. They controlled ball possession and took more shots (16-7). Maynor Figueroa got Dallas on the board with a goal at 44’. Michael Barrios followed shortly after with the final goal of the match at 57’.

Sunday:

Atlanta United 3-1 Columbus Crew SC

Atlanta United continues to dominate. This week’s victim was the Columbus Crew. Josef Martinez gave United the lead early on with a goal at 31’. Gyasi Zardes tied it up for the Crew early in the second half (50’). Hector Daniel Villalba gave Atlanta their lead back at 76’, while Miguel Almiron secured the win at 82’.

D.C. United 2-0 New England Revolution

The landmark broadcasting game of the week ended in favour of United. Luciano Acosta scored the opening goal of the match early on at 13’. New England’s Scott Caldwell was given a red card at 73’ after receiving a second yellow card. With New England down a man, D.C. struck again. Zoltan Stieber scored at 89’ to keep D.C.’s hot streak going.

LAFC 2-0 Colorado Rapids

LAFC continues to play good soccer. While Colorado controlled more of the ball, LAFC took more shots, which worked in their favour. LAFC got two of those shots past Tim Howard. Lee Nguyen scored the first at 49’ and Diego Rossi had the game winner at 80’. This was LAFC’s second straight shutout.