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Major League Standings- At the Copa America break

Seattle is still on the outside looking in but there's hope and a way in without any other teams dropping points, thanks to Vancouver.

By Jacob Landsberg
Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports

The Sounders won a game. On the road. I know it's crazy but it happened and to make things better, most of the West lent a hand in the Sounders quest to close the gap between them and playoffs.

Wednesday 6/1

Philadelphia Union 3 - Columbus Crew 2: Conor Casey saw a late red but its impact on the game was minimal with both sides still finding the back of the net once. He hurt his aides comeback but let's be realistic, the Union are looking good against their East rivals this year and finding a way to get three points against a borderline playoff side should've been expected.

Toronto FC 4 - Montreal Impact 2 (Canadian Championship): Montreal had Drogba and Piatti but no Laurent Ciman at CB. Toronto was missing Giovinco, Bradley, Altidore and Will Johnson. They started former Sounder Eriq Zavaleta at CB. After the egg they laid the week before this was expected to be a bit of a beat down by Montreal on paper, even playing away from Stade Saputo. But to use the old cliche, that's why games aren't played on paper. Jonathan Osorio took over with two goals in the first 35 minutes for TFC. A red for Montreal's Patrice Brenier in first half stoppage halted a comeback plan for the impactless Impact. Jordan Hamilton scored twice before the 80th minute to give a 4-0 lead. Montreal used the last 10 and stoppage to not look like NYCFC and stole two goals but it was all over by then.

DC United 0 - Sounders 2: It was the kind of game that felt like Seattle could get points from and that they needed points from. They got them. Joevin Jones was an incredibly impactful sub and helped them secure the three points.

Portland Timbers 1 - San Jose Earthquakes 0: Liam Ridgewell had an 11th minute goal. Darion Asprilla saw a red in first half stoppage. You would think Kinnear would rally his Wondolowski-less troops at the half and storm back at Providence Park in the second half a man up. It most definitely was not for a lack of trying with roughly 60% second half possession, connecting on an outstanding 84% of passes and out shooting the Timbers 14-2 in the match but nothing came of it. While it isn't fun to see Portland win or be ahead of us in the standings, it was more beneficial to have them win than San Jose if Draw City wasn't going to draw.

Thursday 6/2

NYCFC 2 - Real Salt Lake 3: In a battle of ex-Jason Kreis squads it was his former-former squad that brought home points. Salt Lake left their AAA baseball city to go to Yankee Stadium and the Bees, Real Salt Lake, succeeded on the narrow field. NYC had a plethora of chances in the first half but nothing went in for David Villa and Co. Jack Harrison started the scoring his first career goal in the 56th. That was the high point, the climax for NYC, as they collapsed. Both RSL strikers, Yura and Burrito, found the back of the net before Frederic Brillant's own goal sealed the match. A late PK gave NYC unfair hope with Villa converting in the 87th to make it 3-2. The inability to finish through the match was too much to overcome and get a point back for one of MLS' worst home sides.

FC Dallas 1 - Houston Dynamo 1:Dallas at home against the worst side in the West, another on paper victory but Pareja's side couldn't get past their Texan rivals in a rain soaked affair. The match produced one great strike and another good enough goal and plenty of excitement on a waterlogged pitch. They abandoned it after four minutes of playing in a swimming pool where it looked more like water polo than soccer. Eventually the field drained enough and they resumed the final 86 minutes. It was Ricardo Clark's laser beam that brought a point back for the Orange.

Los Angeles Galaxy 0 - Sporting Kansas City 0: Dos Santos, Magee and De Jong all started for LA in Carson. Dwyer, Feilhaber and Espinoza for KC. Two of the higher sets of talent not away on international breaks fought it out and a point is fighting, I guess. Let the stats speak for themselves for how poor the Galaxy can be this year. The Galaxy held the ball 63.7% of the time. They took ONE shot and it was considered blocked. KC in their 36.9% took 15 shots with four in target, eight off, and three blocked. The Galaxy competed 84% of their passes to KC's 72%. LA only had four crosses but competed zero and had zero corners on top of that. The stats seem to suggest that the Galaxy held the ball in the corner like in a old glitchy version of FIFA where you forgot to pause it and the CB holds the ball 30 yards from his own goal and no one can take it away. It's not what happened but it might as well have.

Seattle is still in 9th of 10 in the West. They're behind all but Houston but that win gave plenty of hope and desperately needed points going into the Copa America break. Seattle now is behind SJ for 6th by four points with a game in hand and two and three in hand on the teams between them and SJ (PDX and KC). Winning everything in hand on the teams above them still puts them into the playoffs at the expense of Vancouver. It isn't the best place to be and I won't sugarcoat it, but for another week in a row competing MLS teams did almost everything they could to help the Sounders close this gap.

MLS Standings 6-5

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