The 27-year-old New England midfielder Lee Nguyen has had an incredible few weeks by any standards, scoring four goals in three games. Though Toronto didn’t exactly present a competitive opponent last weekend, in a game in which Nguyen scored within the first two minutes, New England continued their good form midweek by beating the stumbling Sporting KC 3-1 at Gillette Stadium; Nguyen provided two second-half goals of incredible quality. Cometh the man, cometh the profile pieces packed with friendly hyperbole from grateful team-mates.  Even amid the long-hyped acquisition of Jermaine Jones, Nguyen and the Revs are turning heads toward Foxborough as Jay Heaps’ side storms up a decidedly mediocre Eastern Conference. They are six points behind KC and a few wins away from relative comfort in the playoff race. The Revs will face the Chicago Fire at home this weekend, a team desperate to crawl back into the playoff conversation and fired up from a streak-ending win last week against FC Dallas.  Fans should eventually expect some regression from Nguyen despite some (deserved) accolades. Even so, MLS is a league which rewards timing as much as form, and the Revs are developing into a team worth watching as we head into the final stretch.  Sporting KC, the reigning MLS champions, have lost three MLS matches in a row.  No need for fans to panic. Plenty of time for the team to reignite their push for top spot in the East (and possibly an outside chance at the Supporters Shield). SKC are still in second with a comfortable cushion above their nearest neighbours, the Revs, despite losing to them in midweek, and the absence of their top goal-scorer Dom Dwyer, out on suspension, no doubt played a role in that defeat. First-placed DC United are on a good run of form, sure, but things will change. This is MLS, of course.  Yet the Kansas City Star notes with some alarm that this is the first time Sporting have dropped three in a row since May 2012. Moreover coach Peter Vermes’ normally defensively sturdy team, who had allowed only 23 goals as of 17 August, have conceded nine in their last three games. Despite a decent first half against New England, some sloppy play from centre-back Lawrence Olum and a less-than-stalwart Matt Besler helped hand the Revs the game. Defensively, the wheels seem to be coming off at the worst possible time.  This weekend they will travel to Harrison, New Jersey to face the New York Red Bulls. This should be a winnable match, despite the attacking talent of Bradley Wright-Phillips, Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill. Another loss will raise some major questions over SKC’s defensive organization.  Only the most prickly Toronto FC fan would hold new coach Greg Vanney to account for a 1-0 road loss against the Philadelphia Union, a game in which Ashtone Morgan was sent off and Jonathan Osorio taken off with an apparent injury. Vanney, who replaced coach Ryan Nelsen after general manager Tim Bezbatchenko sacked the coaching staff last weekend, following an abysmal 3-0 loss to the Revs, promised to “unleash the players a bit and allow them to express themselves” ahead of the midweek game. After the final whistle, Vanney spoke of an “emotional couple days”.  All this talk of feelings and self-expression may be greeted with some skepticism from a fan base that is uncomfortably numb after seven years of failure. But Vanney did mention some tangibles as well – “Our spacing and positioning wasn’t such that we really made them make some decisions,” he said of the Union game on Wednesday. It wasn’t much, but it vastly more concrete than the old Nelsen boilerplate.  Fans will be less forgiving of Vanney however, and ultimately Bezbatchenko and the entire TFC brains trust, should the team fail to show further improvement in a rematch against Philly at BMO Field this weekend. Despite a week of doom and gloom, Toronto have done enough this season to put them in touching distance of the playoffs with nine games to go. The clock is ticking …  Rarely do you get a game as finely poised. Two teams who played to a decisive result only a couple of weeks ago, eager for a rematch. Two teams within touching distance of first place in a very competitive Western Conference. Two teams needing to chase off a resurgent rival in the LA Galaxy, a club now pushing Seattle for first place.  Real Salt Lake hosts FC Dallas on Saturday night. FC Dallas won their last encounter 2-1 despite going a man down when Blas Perez received a second yellow at the end of the first half. The loss ended RSL’s six-game unbeaten streak, but FC Dallas then saw their own 10-game run end, losing 1-0 to the relatively lowly Fire in their next match.  Both teams have a point to prove, though admittedly a poor result either way won’t necessarily reflect the end of season results.  “This one I want,” RSL coach Jeff Cassar said. “I think our whole team wants it, I think our whole club wants it. It’s not a must-win or anything, but we want this one. I think it’s a game, again, where we’re going to have a lot of possession.”  FC Dallas coach Oscar Pareja has a relatively fit team and the impressive Tesho Akindele to call on. Maybe not a decisive match, but still a very good one.  Though a necessary evil in a World Cup year, MLS clubs face yet another four weeks of weekend and midweek fixtures in September, particularly taxing for those teams participating in the Concacaf Champions League (and for Seattle and Philadelphia, squaring off in the US Open Cup final). Though a more condensed schedule could lead to injuries, the real issue is how clubs balance squad depth with so many midweek fixtures and, for those in the CCL, so much travel.  MLS is not exactly known for its deep rosters, and this week saw injuries to DC United’s Chris Rolfe (fractured radial head, out six weeks), Jonathan Osorio (quad or hamstring, prognosis unknown) and Houston Dynamo’s starting keeper Tally Hall (torn ACL, out for rest of season). MLS clubs, at a critical point of the season, will be required to get more out of their non-regular starters over a number of increasingly crucial games.  It’s therefore perhaps worth asking at what point this dilutes the quality of the competition? With both the Eastern and Western conferences tightly packed, every game counts. With fixture piling on fixture, it’s less a thrilling race to the finish than a difficult slog. Unavoidable perhaps, but food for thought in MLS this weekend.
Five things to watch this weekend: midfielder is on a streak so hot his unheralded team are back in the playoff picture – will he burn the Fire?