MLS Week 13 Recap – LAFC Remains Safe in West, DC United Tops the East

MLS battles are just heating up. Week 13 is officially over and, we have several interesting results and moves in the standings. DC United jumped over the Philadelphia Union in the East, and Houston Dynamo lost the chance to pass LAFC in the West. WagerBop.com brings a short recap of MLS round No. 13.

With Minnesota United defeating Houston Dynamo, LAFC found themselves safe at the top of the Western Conference. A narrow 1-0 victory in Minneapolis left Dynamo with 23 points, 11 fewer than the leaders, who do have three games more. Minnesota is now 5th with nice prospects to stay in the playoff zone if they continue to play like this.

LAFC was more than confident against Montreal Impact, defeating the guests with 4-2. Carlos Vela added one more goal to his account, and two assists, and the Mexican star now leads the league in both categories. He has 15 scores and 9 assists, by far the most. This victory extended the fantastic stretch of LAFC’s invincibility at Banc of California this season – 7 wins and a draw.

Philadelphia Union lost at home against Portland Timbers, who are slowly waking up and adjusting to the fact that they play only on the road. The result was 0-1 for the guests from Oregon. In the last five games, Timbers won three times and look good at the moment. Philly, on the other side, allowed DC United to take the top spot in East. Though, DC has just one point more than Union who still has a game in hand.

Rooney and the boys played just 1-1 against New England on the road. And that one point came with the Englishman converting a penalty in the 90th minute of the match, thus avoiding a complete failure in Foxborough.

LA Galaxy finally won after a period of bad games, and they did it without Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Galaxy was better than Orlando, in Florida, with 0-1. Dos Santos scored, and Portuguese superstar Nani missed the penalty for Orlando, and a chance to change the course of the game. We have to say that guests from LA didn’t deserve to win, because Lions totally outplayed them. Dos Santos’ goal came from the only shot on goal Galaxy had in this match. On the other hand, Orlando had 7, and all of them were stopped by fantastic Bingham.

For the fifth straight game, Toronto FC couldn’t win. After a solid start, they now took just one point from possible 15 and are slowly slipping away from the playoff zone. Right now, the Canadians are 7th with the same number of points like Chicago Fire. This Sunday night they lost at home to San Jose Earthquakes with 1-2, allowing the guests to come back from behind after trailing in the first half. Wondolowski’s goal in the 81st minute took all three points back to California.

Sporting Kansas City defeated Seattle Sounders 3-2, and also did the favor to LAFC holding the Sounders behind them on a solid distance. Meanwhile, SKC improved their chances of reaching the playoffs. They are now in a stable situation having in mind a period of awful results they posted a few weeks ago.

Colorado Rapids won their second game in a row following the worst start ever in the MLS history. The last-placed team in the entire league defeated Columbus Crew with 3-2.

Vancouver Whitecaps was better than FC Dallas with 2-1, while Chicago Fire played a draw at home against New York City.

Atlanta United’s period in which they pled excellently is now officially over. The champs lost the second game in a row and stopped their climb towards the top of the East. Though, their chances of reaching the No.1 place are still solid mostly because all other top teams didn’t perform well this weekend. Atlanta lost in Salt Lake against Real with 2-1.

New York Red Bulls, meanwhile, won on the road in Cincinnati 0-2, continuing to play good in the last four weeks. The Bulls won 10 of possible 12 points during that stretch, and are now third in the East.

Round 14 starts this Wednesday.