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MLS News Highlights

© Corey Arnold

On Feb, 24, San Jose met Dallas in Mexico and played to a 4-3 loss. Both coaches were happy with the play of each team, as the game was fairly evenly paced.

The Kansas City Wizards tied 1999 South Korean Club Champion Tajon Citizen 1-1 on Feb. 25 in an exhibition game in Portugal. The Wizards have a 2-0-1 record thus far in the team's five-game, 16-day trip to Portugal. Tajon Citizen scored first, when Wizards defender Tahj Jakins was whistled for a handball in the box. Gong beat Kansas City goalkeeper Bo Oshoniyi on the ensuing penalty kick to give Tajon Citizen a 1-0 lead. It was the first goal allowed by the Wizards in exhibition games this year. In the 61st minute, Wizards newly acquired forward, and MLS all-time leading scorer, Roy Lassiter tied the game at 1-1. Defender Nick Garcia played a long, diagonal ball toward the box. Lassiter outran the Tajon Citizen defenders and before their goalkeeper, while coming strong off his line, could get to the ball, Lassiter chipped a shot over him and into the empty net for his first goal in a Wizards uniform.

The Tampa Bay Mutiny closed out its five-day, two-game exhibition tour of Colombia Saturday the 24th with a 3-0 loss to Second Division side Soacha F.C. in Soacha. The small-town venue held 1,000 fans, who enthusiastically greeted the Mutiny's Carlos Valderrama; "El Pibe" utilized this match as another professional farewell opportunity in his native country.

Adolfo Valencia and Alex Comas each scored first-half goals, and goalkeeper Tim Howard saved a penalty kick midway through the second half, to help lift the MetroStars to a 2-0 shutout victory over powerful Benfica of Portugal on the 27th at the Stadium of Lights in Lisbon. Benfica used 13 players during the game, including 11 members of their full roster and four regular starters. The game was played in two 40-minute halves with unlimited substitutions.

The Dallas Burn were defeated by Bachilleres, 3-1, on the 27th in Guadalajara, Mexico, in a physical match that featured two red cards for each side. Bachilleres, the reserve team for Atlas, opened the scoring in the 44th minute on a poor Burn clearance from a corner kick. The attempted clearance found a Bachilleres attacker 25-yards from goal and his left-footed shot trickled into the lower-left corner of the goal. Bachilleres doubled the lead in the 60th minute on a counter-attack as Dallas was caught pushing forward for the equalizer. A Bachilleres attacker got behind the defense and dribbled 'keeper Adam Zapala, easily scoring into the open net. The Burn got one back in the 80th minute, as Chad Deering headed home a cross from Lazo Alavanja. With Dallas again pushing forward for the tying goal, Bachilleres tallied the final strike in the 88th minute on another counter-attack, resulting in a one-on-one with Zapala. As Zapala charged from the goal, the attacker dropped the ball off to an overlapping runner who knocked the ball into the open goal.

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