The four matches on Wednesday night shifted the standings in the West, but may have been good for the Sounders FC
Sounders FC may have temporarily fallen out of the playoff picture with the results from four midweek MLS matches, but two of the results were actually favorable to Seattle in the long-term.
In Vancouver, the Whitecaps continued their hot-scoring month of June as Camilo Sanvezzo had two goals and an assist to lead the Whitecaps back from a 1-0 deficit to down Chivas USA 3-1. In four June matches, Vancouver has now scored 11 goals, going 3-1-0 to jump past the Sounders into fourth in the standings at 6-5-4. Sanvezzo now has six goals and three assists in the last five games, while 20-year-old Russell Teibert added two more assists to give him six assists in the last four matches. Chivas USA is now 0-8-1 in their last nine matches and have fallen to 3-9-2 overall.
The LA Galaxy also moved ahead of Seattle in the standings, but their scoreless draw with the Portland Timbers at the newly-named StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., was actually a good result for the Sounders. The Galaxy now move even with the Sounders at 21 points at 6-6-3, but the Sounders still have two games in hand on LA. The Timbers are now unbeaten in their last 14 matches at 6-0-8 and are an unbeaten 2-0-7 on the road this year. The first tie-breaker in the 2013 playoff structure is wins and the second is goals scored. Since neither team improved in either of those tie-breaking categories, it’s another reason the scoreless draw was a good result for Seattle.
The Colorado Rapids also had a chance to pass up the Sounders on Wednesday and took an early 1-0 road lead over the Chicago Fire, but Mike Magee equalized with his third goal in three matches since coming to the Fire in a trade from the LA Galaxy and Austin Berry put away the game-winner at the start of the second half. The Rapids dropped to 5-6-5 while the Fire moved closer to playoff contention in the East at 4-7-3.
Finally in a meeting of two teams that look poised to reach the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, the Montreal Impact regained the top spot in the league with a 2-0 win over the Houston Dynamo. Marco Di Vaio notched his 10th goal of the season to add to an early goal by Felipe Martins as the Impact improved to 9-3-2, one point ahead of FC Dallas for the best record in MLS. The loss drops Houston to 6-5-4, the same record held by the Philadelphia Union and Sporting Kansas City, putting those teams in control of the final three playoff spots in the East.
