It’s a measure of how shaky Real Salt Lake’s recent form has been that instead of enjoying a rest on their return from Brazil, goalkeeper Nick Rimando and midfielder and captain Kyle Beckerman touched down with the national team at Atlanta airport to find themselves greeted by text messages asking of they were ready to play against New England.

Both players agreed to start (coach Jeff Cassar may have been one of a very few American soccer fans to be relieved Beckerman hadn’t started against Belgium last week) though Beckerman’s hope that he might enjoy “a 3-0 score around the 60th minute and have a nice walk-off” didn’t transpire.

Instead, Beckerman, Rimando and co needed two penalties to get past New England.

Coming into the game the Revs had been on a worrisome run of results, if not necessarily performances, while RSL had lacked some of their usual tidy industry without their big players and had been punished accordingly. They needed a result at home and duly got it, in an atmosphere that was doubtless boosted by the returning World Cup players.

For New England, the worry must be that they are beginning to resemble the side Jay Heaps had assembled by the beginning of the 2013 season – when there was rather more potential to admire than points to count. Heaps got that side to cohere into a playoff force, but with the loss of some attacking personnel he has had to rather start over this year. For a while Patrick Mullins looked the answer as an advanced forward, but teams have adjusted and once again Heaps' young team is on a learning curve.

As for RSL, their record-equalling unbeaten start to the year was followed by a rather more sobering run in and around the World Cup. Cassar may have emphasised the continuity of the RSL system and the ability for role players to drop in, but there was no doubting his relief when he spoke of the decision to start Rimando and Beckerman:

“It was really just communication with those two. When I was saying [that they probably wouldn’t play], my mind was telling me one thing, my heart was telling me another thing and my gut was telling me another thing. Once I was able to talk to them and hear their voices, and feel that they wanted to – not that they had to – it was a no-brainer.” GP

Houston’s goal drought ended … in seconds

Houston Dynamo had been not only beaten but shut out in their previous five league games when they faced New York Red Bulls on Friday. It was a period that had seen them not only do without their World Cup attendees, Brad Davis and Oscar Boniek Garcia, but the scorer of their last goal, rookie Mark Sherrod, whose two-game period as “the answer” was ended by an ACL injury. That set coach Dominic Kinnear back to square one.

But instead of another futile night, Houston scored within seconds – under the circumstances it was no surprise that their players looked as relieved as they did delighted when Giles Barnes popped up in the box to direct a smart, firm header down and past Luis Robles just 39 seconds into the game.

Suitably emboldened, the Dynamo, with Garcia and Davis back in the side, were the better side for the opening exchanges. Their lead only lasted until the 13th minute though, when Eric Alexander dropped off from the Red Bulls midfield and sent a long, lofted pass behind the Houston defence for Bradley Wright-Phillips to race on and score low across Tally Hall.

How Houston must wish that they had a goalscorer like Wright-Phillips. Midway through the second half he scored again, as he met Ambroise Oyongo’s cross with a perfect glanced header across Hall and inside the far post. New York had been confident enough in their approach play in the second half to just about merit the goal and the lead, but in truth both these sides have been mediocre in league play this year and Wright-Phillips’ league-leading 14 goals have been vital in stopping a disappointing post-Supporters Shield season turning into a wretched one.

It still could of course – New York’s Champions League schedule will make for a packed September and coach Mike Petke will have a lot of juggling to do as he tries to keep in touch with the playoff positions.

For Houston, the return of Davis is key. Davis came straight back into the team and just as it was looking like the Dynamo would be trying to console themselves with breaking their goal drought but not their losing streak, he was called on to slot home a late penalty that gave them a draw.

Beyond the goal, Davis was his usual industrious self without doing anything spectacular, though given the Dynamo’s goalscoring record without him you could make a fair case for arguing that in scoring a goal at all, he’d done something truly remarkable. GP

Chivas USA took full advantage of the break

Earlier this season, I spoke with Chivas USA interim president Nelson Rodriguez after a game in which once again a goal from Erick "Cubo" Torres made the difference for his side's fortunes. I made an innocent enough remark about the clamour among Chivas fans to get him signed up from his loan deal – the normally unflappable Rodriguez looked, momentarily, frustrated.

Sure, Torres was in form and that was great, he explained, but there was no rush, since all the options to extend the loan or make it permanent are at Chivas's discretion. He then outlined a number of unpleasant hypotheticals that would make any hasty decision to lock the player up look spectacularly imprudent, especially for a president only definitely in place for one year, as the team's next incarnation is resolved.

So Torres remained on loan … and kept scoring. Not quite enough to counteract the Chivas tendency to fall on the wrong side of scorelines, but enough to keep him in the charts and enough to see his loan contract extended during the World Cup break.

It was an intriguing "break" for Chivas, in not seeming to be much of a break at all, with Torres not the only piece of squad tinkering that went on in a project whose long-term event horizon has been rather foreshortened by circumstance. There is still no news on the team's next incarnation, but Rodriguez and coach Wilmer Cabrera seem determined to make sure the product in the shop window is as enticing as it can be, on the playing side at least.

And that approach has had impressive returns – when Torres dived into the crowd to celebrate on Saturday night, he wasn't just celebrating his winning goal over Montreal in the fourth minute of injury time – he was celebrating his team's third win in a week.

Admittedly, Chivas had looked very weary throughout the game, given their recent exertions, while Montreal never looked like getting their first back-to-back win of the season in a disappointing match. But with his team now off the bottom, and hard on the shoulders of Portland and LA, Torres had sent a reminder that whatever an uncertain future holds, right now his team are still in business. GP

Seattle's momentum got capped

Even without their headliners, Seattle have proved themselves the league’s most formidable force over the past couple months. After a 5-0 defeat by New England back in May, Sigi Schmid’s side claimed four wins from five games, all without Clint Dempsey. Only a 2-2 draw with Cascadia rivals Vancouver tempered their streak.

But as another Cascadia Cup clash cropped up, Seattle were found out. They were missing just one too many first-team players this time round.

Schmid generally did a good job of compensating for what he lost in the absence of Dempsey and DeAndre Yedlin (both at the World Cup with the US), moving Brad Evans to right-back and using Chad Barrett or Kenny Cooper (or sometimes both) alongside Obafemi Martins to keep his side’s fundamental 4-4-2 shape. But suspensions meted out to Osvaldo Alonso and Gonzalo Pineda left Seattle significantly weakened for their visit to BC.

Even so, Schmid selected a stubborn side. They missed the passing composure of Pineda in the centre, but Evans gave the Sounders’ midfield more of an aerial and physical presence.

“Any game against the Sounders is always tough, physical,” said Vancouver coach Carl Robinson, post-game. “I think we’ve had two games against them where it’s draining. I said to the players they must be absolutely exhausted because I am, and I haven’t run.”

With the USA’s exit from the World Cup, Yedlin and Dempsey are back with the Sounders, but unlike Michael Bradley at Toronto, they were afforded a week’s rest ahead of the game against Portland – where they will play in front of a sell-out crowd of 67,000.

Of course, there is the possibility that by the time Yedlin pulls on rave green again he will be a Roma player (based on reports circulating Sunday), although it has been mooted that the right-back could spend the rest of the season on loan at Seattle as part of any deal.

Robinson described the match against Seattle as a “trap game”, given how many fringe players were given the opportunity to show they merit more than merely places on the bubble. The former Wales international was referring to guys like Michael Azira, normally the Sounders’ fifth-choice midfielder.

A week is a long time in soccer, and it's an even longer time if you’re the Vancouver Whitecaps. The dismal defeat by Colorado seven days prior, in which they tallied just one shot on goal, snapped an eight-game unbeaten streak. While this was hardly Vancouver on top form, it was a marked improvement. GR

Dallas back on track

While the rest of the league took a two-week break for the World Cup group stage, FC Dallas took a slightly longer sabbatical. Having recorded five wins from their opening five league games, Oscar Pareja’s side then took just seven points from their next 10 fixtures.

The slump coincided with the knee injury suffered by Mauro Diaz, up until that point the team’s MVP. Without their playmaker, Dallas struggled for creativity and invention.

Before Diaz's injury the Texans averaged nearly 2.5 goals per game. Afterwards, their goal average dropped as low as 1.2. But Diaz and the FC Dallas team the inspired earlier in the season finally returned for Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Union. Said Pareja:

Mauro made us all feel the magic in the air and everything just calms down with him.

Indeed, on the basis of their results and performances with and without him, Diaz’s influence on FC Dallas cannot be understated.

However, it wasn’t just the return of Diaz that saw the Dallas of two months ago reappear. Hendry Thomas, also been ruled out through injury since May, was introduced off the bench in the second half.

Whenever Philadelphia worked up any kind of momentum, Diaz and Thomas were on hand to nullify their threat.

“We finished with a smile on our face,” said Pareja. “It’s peaceful to see the talent on the field. It’s magical. Today is one of those nights that make you proud of the job well done.”

Meanwhile, Union interim team manager Jim Curtin watched from the touchline as his new-manager smell was replaced with a familiar stench of helplessness, when Maurice Edu was shown a straight red card late in the game.

Each match is something of an audition for Curtin, and had the former All-Star followed up his impressive debut win over New England with something other than defeat, his case for being appointed on a permanent basis might have been stronger. But while John Hackworth has been gone for the best part of a month, the problems that blighted the Union’s disappointing first half of the season remain.

Against Dallas, Philadelphia had more attempts on goal – but just as has been the case all season, they lacked the cutting edge to make the most of their otherwise patient build-up play. The Union need more than just change in the dugout. GR