MLS Roundup Week 30: Do You Need a Pen?

Penalties galore!

By Ruel Gutierrez Apostol@rga_02 Sep 12, 2022, 9:00am CDT

Your Chicago Fire Football Club has won a game!

Well, it was against a Phil Neville side, which, if you’ve listened to our podcast or read my previous MLS roundups, I don’t rate very highly. So I would have been disappointed if the Fire had dropped points against them - again.

While all of you, myself included, enjoyed the Fire’s win against the team from Ft. Lauderdale, this is what you may have missed from MLS week 30.

Montreal 2 - 2 Columbus Crew

With the 2-2 draw against the Crew, the Montreal Impact Club de Foot secured their spot in the Audi MLS Playoffs or whatever they decided to call it this season.

Jonathan Mensah opened the scoreline for the visitors with a header in the 66th minute. Lucas Zelarayan followed up two minutes later, doubling the Crew’s lead. However, almost 10 minutes later, the Crew was down to 10 men after Luis Diaz was shown a straight red for kicking Kei Kamara. It was a questionable red, but a red nonetheless.

Montreal capitalized on this and pushed forward. They finally got their breakthrough goal in the 89th minute when a Victor Wanyama header gave them some hope. Then four minutes into stoppage time, Zachary Brault-Guillard scored the equalizing goal for Montreal.

Charlotte FC 1 - 0 NYCFC

NYCFC is in a rut at the moment. With the loss against Charlotte FC, they’ve only earned five points in the past ten matches.

Despite being a man up due to Leicester City #legend Christian Fuchs getting a red card in the 56th minute for elbowing Tayvon Gray, they couldn’t capitalize on that and eventually fell 1-0 with the lone goal being scored early on in the match by Daniel Rios in the 5th minute.

Nashville 1 - 1 LA Galaxy

Nashville was close to grinding out a narrow 1-0 win against the LA Galaxy but instead settled for a draw.

Hany Mukhtar scored on the spot in the 28th minute after his team was awarded a penalty after a LA Galaxy handball. That was his 22nd league goal this season.

The Galaxy was awarded a penalty in the 53rd minute, but Chicharito’s attempt at goal was saved; this was his second missed penalty in two games.

The visitors had another chance at goal when a Walker Zimmerman handball during stoppage time awarded them another penalty. This time Riqui Puig converted it, equalizing the match.

New York Red Bulls 2 - 1 New England Revolution

Within five minutes, the Revs and the Metrostars scored two goals in the 53rd and 58th minute, respectively. It looked like it was going to be another classic Eastern Conference draw between two old-timers of the league.

But, the lone Revs goal scorer of the night, Tommy McNamara, committed a foul in the penalty area, gifting the Red Bulls a goal. Lewis Morgan converted the penalty in the 78th minute, confirming the W for the hosts.

Philadelphia Union 5 - 1 Orlando City

Despite winning the US Open Cup 72 hours prior, Orlando got humbled by the Philadelphia Union, who have now scored 23 goals in the past five games.

Among those goals came from a penalty and an own goal - it’s a shame that a Cory Burke goal didn’t come to fruition. Andres Perea scored Orlando’s lone goal of the match.

FC Cincinnati 6 - 0 San Jose Earthquakes

San Jose, how can you let FC Cincinnati score six past you?

Chicago, how did you lose to a team earlier this season that allowed a Cincinnati team to score six past you?

How do you let Yuya Kubo score?

How do you concede a penalty near the end of stoppage time?

Just how?

Seattle Sounders 3 - 0 Austin

The Seattle Sounders finally broke their bad spell after a 3-0 win against Austin, which was their third straight loss. Raul Ruidiaz scored the first goal of the match in the 12th minute from a Nicolas Lodeiro assist. Ruidiaz got his brace in the 34th minute.

Despite Austin having more shots than Seattle, they couldn’t produce anything from it. Their lone goal of the night was...an own goal. In the 68th minute, Ruben Gabrielsen’s own goal doomed Austin to their loss.