Soca Warriors defender, Julius James had a solid outing as the Columbus Crew blanked New England Revolution 3-0 to seal a US Major League Soccer post-season berth on Saturday night.
Andres Mendoza scored twice and Dilly Duka added his first goal for the Crew which tied a club record by making the postseason for the fourth consecutive season (1996-1999).
With one match left to play, the Crew is third on the Eastern Conference standings with 47 points from 33 matches, one behind joint leaders’ Kansas City Wizards and Phillidelphia Union, the clubs of T&T internationals, Daneil Cyrus and Keon Daniel, respectively.
Despite the absence of Soca Warriors winger, Daniel—due to US Visa problems, the Philadelphia Union are headed to the playoffs.
In their final home game of the 2011 regular season, the Union played Toronto FC to a 1-1 draw, in front of a record-crowd of 19,178 at PPL Park on Saturday. Regardless of that outcome, the club secured a playoff spot when the Red Bulls fell to Sporting Kansas City simultaneously.
The Union will play their regular-season finale Thursday night at Red Bull Arena with first place in the Eastern Conference on the line for them and New York scrambling to get into the playoffs.
In Kansas, Sporting Kansas City minus injured T&T defender Cyrus shut-out the New York Red Bulls 2-0. New York striker Thierry Henry was ejected for violent conduct and Teal Bunbury and CJ Sapong scored in the second-half for Sporting to seal a spot in the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
With the victory and the Philadelphia Union’s 1-1 draw against Toronto, Sporting move into first place in the Eastern Conference on 48 points via the goals-scored tie-breaker. New York remain in fifth in the East on 43 points with a single game remaining against the Union in which they will now be without Henry.
At Pizza Hut Park, Frisco, Texas, FC Dallas began fine-tuning for what they hope will be a long playoff run, riding goals in each half by wingers Marvin Chavez and Brek Shea to a 2-0 win over the Carlyle Mitchell-less Vancouver Whitecaps at Pizza Hut Park.
Mitchell who had featured in the club’s previous two matches since joining from T&T club, Joe Public sustained a groin strain in a mid-week encounter with DC United and sat out the match.
The result ended the Whitecaps’ two-game winning streak and ensure they would become just the fourth team in MLS history to go an entire season without a win on the road.
The Whitecaps are bottom of the Western Conference table with 28 points from 33 matches, seven behind Scott Sealy’s San Jose Earthquakes, which went under to Seattle Sounders, 2-1.
Last night, English-born Soca Warriors midfielder, Christopher Birchall was expected to return from injury for the LA Galaxy in the final SuperClásico of the 2011 season versus fellow Home Depot Center denizens Chivas USA, which is out of play contention.
The Galaxy have already secured both the Supporters' Shield and the top seed in the MLS Cup Playoffs.