Tim Howard was on form earlier in the week, denying Stoke City a ticket to the Premier League Asia Trophy final as he denied Van Ginkel in the penalty shoot-out; to put Everton through 5-4. However, Everton fell 3-1 to Arsenal in the final. It was backup Joel Robles that played in the final and Howard was rested.
Elsewhere in pre-season, Newcastle narrowly beat Sacramento Republic 1-0; thanks to an own goal from the USL outfit. Newcastle were playing the last 20 minutes with 10 men after Massadio Haidara was red-carded. Earlier in the week, Sacramento scored a 1-0 victory over Newcastle’s rivals Sunderland. The Premier League side had named a strong team and were visibly shocked at the defeat.
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Steven Gerrard was made to rue missed chances in the Galaxy’s Open Cup defeat against Real Salt Lake. He made amends on his league debut, scoring one and assisting two versus San Jose Earthquakes and helping Robbie Keane to another hat-trick. A strong start to the next chapter in his long and storied career for the former England captain.
Gerrard of course has been named to the MLS All-Star team to divided opinion. However at least he actually has MLS minutes under his belt – Lampard is still yet to play and as such has annoyed many fans for what they feel is an unmerited place on the team.
Also getting in on the hat-trick train was Clint Dempsey. The highest American Premier League goalscorer took the match ball home as the United States demolished Cuba 6-0 in the Gold Cup quarter-final. Tottenham’s DeAndre Yedlin saw action as a second-half substitute while Aston Villa goalkeeper Brad Guzan kept a clean sheet.
There were no goals this time round for Bradley Wright-Phillips or Lloyd Sam, but the New York Red Bulls still ran out 2-0 winners. Luke Mulholland also failed to score but came away with a win, as Real Salt Lake defeated Houston Dynamo at home 2-0. Jozy Altidore too could not find the net, but luckily his teammate Giovinco took care of business along with Marco Delgado to make it a 2-1 Toronto win.
Irishman Kevin Doyle scored the only goal to secure a 1-0 win for the Rapids away to the Seattle Sounders. He took his time though, his goal coming in the 84th minute of the game. Some have pointed to the temporary grass on the field as opposed to the usual turf as to why the game was more difficult to play. The artificial turf has been removed in order to accommodate the Manchester United versus Club America game which Manchester United ran out 1-0 winners.
Liam Ridgewell saw himself go into the referee’s notebook in a really feisty game between Portland and Vancouver. Each side had a man sent off in a 1-1 draw.
Dom Dwyer grabbed his sixth goal of the season, as Sporting Kansas City won 2-1 against Montreal Impact. Dwyer has now scored seven goals against Montreal over the past two seasons, tying with Thierry Henry as the player with the most career goals against the Impact.