Recapping the MLS weekend

We’ll dive into the MLS more in the next few days, but the San Jose Earthquakes deserve a quick Sunday night mention as they are becoming a better story every day. It was newbie Darren Huckerby who nodded the Quakes past a Kansas City team that desperately needed a result.

That puts San Jose out of last place in the West finally (welcome to the loneliest place on earth Rapids) and back up at 25 points, where they now sit in a tie with the L.A. Galaxy. The Quakes are now just two points out of third place and five out of second with plenty of season left.

The productivity of these newcomers is just uncanny. Huckerby claimed the final winner and Arturo Alvarez had the first goal in this one on a fierce header into the upper part of the goal. Check out the highlights from this game, too, as the Quakes were playing some fun football down the flanks and had several other opportunities that were denied by Kevin Hartman.

Glancing at the weekend as a whole:

The winners: San Jose made a huge jump with that win, and Chivas USA also claimed a much-needed three points against Toronto to put them in sole possession of third place in the West (where you can jump multiple spots in a single weekend). Columbus also made a nice statement with a road win at Dallas, and Houston planted themselves firmly atop the West with the victory against Chicago this afternoon.

The losers: Kansas City needed points from that game and blew a chance to get at least a draw. Colorado also lost a nice opportunity to make up ground in the West, but they allowed Real Salt Lake to claim the three points rather easily.

Not sure: L.A. got a result on the road, but the defense again failed when they had a chance to get the full three.