The Digital Crawl: Matchday 1 Recap

I apologize that I couldn't get a gamethread up for this game. For the most part, I'll be around here for the home games as I am the out of towner on the blog. Please accept this list of reading as payment in lieu of my absence.

Sporting Kansas City 1 D.C. United 0

Black and Red United: Immense Performance By Bill Hamid Thwarted By Late C.J. Sapong Goal

Sporting KC Reports: Postgame Reaction: Sporting KC VS D.C. United

KC Star (The Full 90): Late strike gives Sporting KC a 1-0 win at D.C.

Sporting KC Official Website: Quotes reaction from road win

On the game plan:
Our idea was, we had five goals tonight. The first was to get a shutout; the second was to get a goal through the run of play; the third was to get a goal off a set piece; the fourth was to get points out of the game; and the fifth was to get our first road win. We got four out of five, so not too shabby.

Peter Vermes, Coach-speak expert. What ya got, Bill Hamid.

D.C. UNITED GOALKEEPER BILL HAMID

On saving Kai Kamara’s header:
Hats off to [Daniel] Woolard for jumping into that play, because if he didn’t then Kai [Kamara] probably would’ve gotten more power into the header and probably would’ve buried it. So, hats off to Woolard for that.

Even I find this diplomacy ridiculous, that was a hell of a save by Hamid and Daniel Woolard at best well positioned himself to get hurt by Kamara on the way down.

Down the Byline: Sunday after stats

Soccer By Ives: Late Sapong winner leads KC past D.C. United

*(included solely for the professional level of trolling displayed by SBI readers)

Other game recaps and links after the jump

Recaps from around SBNation

Colorado Rapids 2 Columbus Crew 0

Burgundy Wave: Colorado Rapids 2 Columbus Crew 0 - A Statement Win

Massive Report: Colorado vs. Columbus (Match Recap)

SBNation Soccer: Video: Quincy Amarikwa's game sealing golazo

The East had a pretty bad showing last night, but that wasn't completely unexpected. A mistake in goal by Columbus's backup keeper for the first goal...the second well...he does like to shoot those, eventually one had to go on target and it was worth it.

Vancouver Whitecaps 2 Montreal Impact 0

86 Forever: Vancouver - Montreal Post-Game: Beating Montreal is Just What We Do (Awesome Canadian hate here)

Mount Royal Soccer: Vancouver - Montreal Post-Game notes : Game of mistakes

SBNation Soccer: VIDEO: Camilo Sanvezzo Turns Impact Into Keystone Kops

As I see it, Vancouver might not even be a playoff team this year, but they are going to have games where their attacking talent simply tears teams apart, not exactly a task fitting for an expansion team to defend against.

Real Salt Lake 3 LA Galaxy 1

LAG Confidential: Galaxy Vs. Real Salt Lake: Legs Like Taffy Doom LA Late

RSL Soapbox: Real Salt Lake 3 - LA Galaxy 1 - Match Recap

RSL was not far behind LA to begin with. With good health, better conditioning, and a match at the Rio Tinto, apparently they caught up quicker than we expected. Don't take too much from this. Saunders had a bad night in goal and Beckham was still Beckham.

San Jose Earthquakes 1 New England Revolution 0

The Bent Musket: Quakes 1, Revs 0: Heaps Suffers First Coaching Defeat On The Road To Start 2012 Season

Wondolowski scores in every match, right? Neither team isn't very good at the moment, but there were things to build on. Lee Nguyen played well, but after seeing Vancouver's offense his release isn't nearly as odd as before.

FC Dallas 2 New York Red Bulls 1

Big D Soccer:: FC Dallas Gets Revenge Over New York

New York's defense still isn't pretty, which makes me think it wasn't Tim Ream's fault, especially as he helps pull Bolton out of the relegation zone. I wish I could blame Rafa Marquez but alas he is on suspension.

Other Soccer Links:

Zonal Marking: APOEL 1-Lyon 0 (Or why the away goal rule kills soccer)

This is perhaps the most amazing story of the year outside the run by Mirandés to the Copa del Rey semi-finals.

The best part of this is Arsene Wenger's quote which makes me wonder what 10 defenders kicking the ball into the stands would look like and how large the riot would be.

SI.com: Avi Creditor's recap of yesterday's MLS action

Soccer By Ives: Former Wizard Hercules Gomez goes for a brace and assists a third goal

Shameless Self-Promotion section

NBC Sports: Fearless MLS predictions: Champ, MVP, top Rookie and more

(Steve Davis gives SirBenGartland a shout-out for capturing our offseason mood perfectly)

There have been some disagreements with Mr. Davis over the years (Generally, involving Kevin Hartman and Jimmy Nielsen), but there may be no one out there who supports the devoted soccer bloggers out there more just by reading and not pulling the "I'm a professional writer" card as often as others. It's a little sad he's not on here and we can't start those stupid arguments at Daily Soccer Fix anymore.