Crunch Time: The Earthquakes (11-12-7, 40 points) need wins and a little help in their late-season playoff push. If Portland loses or ties against Columbus on Saturday, the Quakes can vault above the red line in the tightly bunched Western Conference with a victory. But objects in the rearview mirror are fast-approaching. Real Salt Lake and Houston are just two point behind the Quakes. The Quakes are 0-2-2 in September after going 4-1-1 in August and 0-4-0 in July. How tight are things out west? There's an 11-point gap between fourth-place Seattle and 10th place Colorado. So a lot can still happen. In a 1-1 draw with RSL in the teams' previous meeting at Rio Tinto Stadium, Chris Wondolowski scored on a rebound-goal after Shea Salinas' shot was blocked.
Real Salt Lake's New Toy: In a 3-0 win over the visiting LA Galaxy on Sept. 19, RSL's new designated player Juan Manuel Martinez added a touch of class to the attack -- make that several touches. He drew a penalty kick on a clean-out foul by Galaxy defender Juninho, and later flashed an amazing individual effort to set up the third goal. Martinez sliced through the defense before serving a ball toward the goal. Devon Sandoval headed the ball into the net to complete his brace. Martinez, a former Argentina international, has played 13 seasons in top-flight South American leagues, mostly in the Argentine Primera Division. Surging RSL, which rallied to beat Santa Tecla of El Salvador 2-1 on Thursday in the CONCACAF Champions League on goals by Olmes Garcia and Martinez, has won two MLS games in a row.
Wondo On Pace: With 108 career goals, Chris Wondolowski needs one more to pass NYCFC coach Jason Kreis and take sole possession of fifth place on the MLS all-time scoring list. Wondo, who has six goals in the last seven matches, is tied for fourth with Robbie Keane in the MLS Golden Boot standings, each with 15. The Danville native is averaging nearly 17 goals a season since the beginning of the 2010 campaign. Wondo needed just 225 games to amass his career total. It took Kreis 305 games. In fact, all the players ahead of Wondo on the all-time scoring list played significantly more games than him: No. 4 Ante Razov (262 games, 114 goals); No. 3 Jaime Moreno (340 games, 133 goals); No. 2 Jeff Cunningham (365 games, 134 goals); No. 1 Landon Donovan (334 games, 144 goals).
