Published 4/8/2007 9:02:13 AM by Staff from ESPN SoccerNet

Chivas USA 2 Toronto Fc 0
Ante Razov and Sacha Kljestan scored to lead Chivas USA to a 2-0 victory over expansion club Toronto FC in both teams' season opener Saturday night. Toronto FC became the first club outside the United States to participate in Major League Soccer. The league's 13th franchise had four Canadian-born players in the starting lineup _ goalkeeper Greg Sutton and defenders Miguel Canizalez, Marco Reda and team captain Jim Brennan. Only Sutton has played in the MLS before.

Chivas USA opened the season with a win for the second consecutive year. After winning just four games in 2005, Chivas won 3-0 in its first game in 2006 and went on to reach the MLS playoffs.

Toronto nearly scored its first goal 13 minutes in, but Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan stopped Edson Buddles' header at the goal line. Three minutes later, Guzan turned away Paulo Nagamura and Buddle seconds apart. In the 30th minute, Guzan stopped Alecko Eskandarian. The former D.C. United star ripped an open 12-yard shot that Guzan knocked out of bounds.

Chivas USA scored in the 35th minute when second-year midfielder Sacha Kljestan lobbed a pass over the defense to Maykel Galindos. The Cuban evaded goalkeeper Greg Sutton and slipped a pass to Razov, who knocked the ball into an open net for his 99th career MLS goal.

Razov has is one of eight players who have played in all 12 MLS seasons. With his next goal, the will join Real Salt Lake's Jason Kreis (108 career goals) and D.C. United striker Jaime Moreno (105) as the only members of MLS' 100-goal club. Kreis and Moreno have also played in each of the league's 12 seasons. Kljestan capped the scoring in the 87th minute when he unleashed a 20-yard blast into the back of the net for his first MLS goal.

Chicago 1 New England 0
Logan Pause scored in the fourth minute to give the Chicago Fire a 1-0 victory over the New England Revolution in both teams' season opener Saturday night.
Chris Rolfe sent the ball to Justin Mapp, who crossed it into the box. Pause headed the ball off the left post and into the net to give the Fire a 1-0 lead. The goal was Pause's first in a five-year Major League Soccer career.

Fire captain Chris Armas left the field in the 20th minute after an elbow bloodied his cheek. The Fire had 10 men on the field for about 5 minutes while Armas was stitched up, but held New England scoreless. New England had its best scoring chances in the second half. Andy Dorman rocketed the ball at goal in the early minutes of the second half, but Fire goalkeeper Matt Pickens leaped to his left and punched it out with one hand.

In the 81st minute, the referee awarded New England a free kick at the top of the box. Taylor Twellman blasted a low shot through the Fire's wall, but Pickens smothered it.

FC Dallas 2 Real Salt Lake 2
Carlos Ruiz scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time to rally FC Dallas to a 2-2 tie with Real Salt Lake on Saturday. Salt Lake was about one minute from winning a season opener for the first time, but goalkeeper Nick Rimando ran out to grab the ball in front and missed, leaving Ruiz to head in the tying goal.

The game ended shortly after the goal, which had the stunned home fans booing as the players left the field after blowing a game they had dominated. Jeff Cunningham scored twice for Real, which fell to 0-1-2 in season openers.

Freddy Adu made his Salt Lake debut and had three shots go over the crossbar. Adu, acquired in a trade with D.C. United, boosted Salt Lake's overhauled offense, which outshot Dallas 10-3 in the first half. But Real, which tied for a league-worst 49 goals allowed last year, couldn't hang on in the final minute. Dallas didn't have a shot on goal until Kenny Cooper got around the defense and kicked a shot off Rimando's hand and into the net in the 19th minute.

Cunningham tied it off a long pass from Chris Klein after defender Drew Moor fell, leaving Cunningham alone in front of the goal. Cunningham, who led the league in goals last season with 16, celebrated his first by dashing to the edge of the field and kissing a picture of himself on an ad.

Cunningham's second goal of the game was an easy one. Dallas goalie Shaka Hislop deflected Jason Kreis' shot to the left, where Cunningham was all alone to punch in the rebound in the 51st minute.

Colorado 2 DC United 1
Herculez Gomez and Roberto Brown scored early to lead the Colorado Rapids to their first season-opening victory, a 2-1 win over D.C. United on Saturday.
Terry Cooke had two assists for the Rapids, who opened the Major League Soccer season in their new $131 million stadium and had been 0-9-2 in season openers.

Officially, it was a sellout at the 18,000-seat stadium at Dicks' Sporting Goods Park, although the arena had several empty seats amid flurries and below-freezing temperatures.

Luciano Emilio scored in the 80th minute on a sharp pass from Kasali Yinka Casal to pull D.C. United to 2-1. Ben Olsen had a shot on goal for D.C. United in stoppage time, but Colorado goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul smothered it for his sixth save of the game.

Columbus 0 New York 0
Claudio Reyna wore the captain's armband for New York in his first Major League Soccer game, the Red Bulls' scoreless tie with the Columbus Crew in both teams' season opener Saturday night. Reyna, a midfielder who has played 112 games for the U.S. national team, signed with the Red Bulls in January after a 12-year career in Europe. Neither team was able to generate many scoring opportunities in a game played in blustery, below-freezing conditions that included snow in the second half.

Crew coach Sigi Schmid said he was happy to improve on last season's opener, a 3-1 loss at Kansas City that set the tone for what would be the Crew's worst season ever in its first year under Schmid.

''Obviously it's a better start than we had last year,'' Schmid said. ''I thought we didn't play a good first half. I thought in the first half we were very tentative. ''In the second half we were the better team, and we clearly had more chances. But we didn't finish them.''

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