Since July 4, Montero has captured the Player of the Month award for July and has led his team to an unbeaten 5-0-2 record in league play. He has five goals and three assists in that stretch.

“It was a very big goal,” Montero said of the game-winning tally in second half stoppage time. “We have been dreaming about this situation and a goal so late in the game, giving us three points, got us closer to the playoffs.”

The 23-year-old, who now has two career Player of the Week honors to his credit, now has 10 goals and nine assists on the season and was the only Seattle player to register a shot on goal in the match against Chicago.

“Well, he got two goals,” Seattle manager Sigi Schmid said. “A lot of times, people just measure your game by goals. Certainly his motivation [Saturday night] was good and obviously his finishing was good. I was very pleased with that.”

CSN Vote: Montero was the second name on our ballot for the week. Conor Casey took the top spot by turning into creator for two goals on Saturday and then delivering a third for the coup de grace against the Houston Dynamo.

Casey’s performance for the Colorado Rapids earned our vote as he brought life to a moribund offense. When the top scorer can also turn in a two-assist game, something special is happening.

Ching started his goal-scoring tear in the 31st minute, capitalizing on a loose ball in the box. Teammate Richard Mulrooney sent a corner kick into the top of the six-yard box, and although Chicago’s goalkeeper Sean Johnson controlled the ball initially, he lost possession when he hit the ground hard. Ching pounced on the free ball and immediately kicked it into the open net for the first goal of the game.

Ching tallied his second of the night with a stunning bicycle-kick goal from seven yards out. In the 59th minute, Dynamo defender Bobby Boswell sent a hard shot on goal that careened off the crossbar and back into play. Ching, positioned outside the six-yard box, finished with a bicycle kick placed just inside the left post.

With the scored tied 3-3 in the 85th minute, Ching headed in his third goal of the night to complete the hat trick and to grab the 4-3 win for Houston.

This is Ching’s second career hat trick with the Dynamo, his first came in the club’s inaugural game on April 2, 2006.

This is the fifth Player of the Week award for Ching, who won previously in Week 16 of the 2004 season, Week 1 of the 2006 season, and in Weeks 11 and 28 of the 2008 season.

CSN Vote: I know the hat trick is impressive, but I voted for Danny Allsopp’s brace in D.C. United’s 2-0 victory over the Philadelphia Union. D.C. is wretched, and Allsopp gets credit for making the day enjoyable.

Bunbury is the second player to run afoul of the disciplinary committee for actions during the San Jose-Kansas City match. ‘Quakes defender Jason Hernandez, who was red carded in the 88th minute of the game, received an additional one game suspension and $250 fine on Wednesday. For the ejection, Hernandez already had an automatic one-game suspension and $250 fine.

The offense was a foul off the ball against — you guessed it — Bunbury.

Spencer had been rumored as the man to lead the Timbers, who begin play next season. On Tuesday, the rumors finally became reality. Spencer will be officially introduced at a press event on Wednesday.

His first order of business will come in a couple of weeks as he works with Timbers technical director Gavin Wilkinson to select the MLS player-selection mechanisms in which the club will seek priority over fellow expansion club Vancouver Whitecaps. 

The 39-year-old former Scotland international is keenly familiar with MLS after playing four seasons with the Colorado Rapids. Spencer, an ex-MLS All-Star, then joined the Dynamo in 2006 as an assistant and helped the club to back-to-back MLS Cup titles in 2006 and 2007.

Before arriving in MLS, Spencer played 14 seasons in Scotland and England with clubs like Chelsea, Everton and Rangers.

Spencer left the Dynamo on July 13 with rumors swirling that he was set to be named Portland’s first MLS head coach. In the meantime, his post with the Dynamo was assumed by recent MLS retiree Steve Ralston.

What can we learn from this debacle in Houston?

Well, Sir Alex Ferguson has some promising youngsters. They didn’t just score goals, they scored pretty goals. Tom Cleverley and Darron Gibson had two of the prettiests you will see in the gashing of the all stars. Federico Macheda had a brace before the first beer was consumed. Javier Hernandez scored on his debut, chipping Nick Rimando.

Not only was it the worst loss for the MLS in all star matchups, the MLS looked bad. The team came out with no fire and promptly got burned. Seriously, giving up a goal in the first 23 seconds is a new step in futility. Even the U.S. Men avoid such disaster in the World Cup, and they liked to give up early goals.

It doesn’t help that the rout came in front of a record crowd of 70,728—the largest ever to see a soccer match at Reliant Stadium, and the fourth largest to watch an All-Star game in any major sport in the United States. Is this how you want to showcase your game?

You can blame the lack of time playing together, and the voting system that left the team short on defenders and long on midfielders. Still, none of that excuses a performance that was flatter than week-old Pepsi.

Nothing seemed to click on the field. Watching the game on a big screen with a legion of Rapids fans, there wasn’t much to cheer about. Brian Ching provided a great goal when no one marked him on a corner kick. Dwayne De Rosario got a late goal to salvage the scoreline and delight the Houston fans he jilted when he went home to Toronto FC. Beyond that, I haven’t got much.

Juan Pablo Angel was misfiring. Marco Pappa wasted the first half on ridiculous chances from distance — the sort of efforts that make “optimistic” seem like an insufficient word. Chad Marshall missed on a couple of headers off set pieces.

All of this came against a Man U squad that lost to the Kansas City Wizards 2-1 on Saturday.

Yes, the KC Wizards topped this team 2-1 over the weekend.

If this was an all-star game, none of them showed up for the MLS.

For a reminder, the league announced Wednesday that LA Galaxy coach Bruce Arena will coach the All-Stars against Manchester United on July 28.

The game will be broadcast live on ESPN2 and TeleFutura from Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas on Wednesday, July 28 at 8:30 p.m. ET.  
 
The honor of coaching the MLS All-Stars goes to the coach whose team has the best points-per-game average in League play through June 27.  With a record of 10-1-3, for 33 points (2.36 points-per-game), the LA Galaxy secured the MLS All-Star Coach position for Arena.
 
Arena is in his third season as head coach of the Galaxy.  A two-time MLS Cup winning coach, Arena is one of just four coaches ever to win the cup on more than one occasion.  As the all-time leader in wins among coaches in U.S. National Team history, Arena led the U.S. to the FIFA World Cup twice, including a historic quarterfinal berth in 2002 in Japan/Korea.
 
Because the LA Galaxy are scheduled to host the Puerto Rico Islanders in a 2010-2011 CONCACAF Champions League match on Tuesday, July 27, Arena has asked host city head coach, Dominic Kinnear of the Houston Dynamo, to lead the All-Star training sessions on Monday, July 26 and Tuesday, July 27, as well as serve as his assistant coach on gameday.
 
Still Voting: Fans and media may continue to vote for the MLS All-Star First XI through July 6.  One-fourth of the total vote for the First XI will come from each of the following groups: fans, players, coaches and general managers, and media members. The MLS All-Star First XI will be announced on Tuesday, July 13.
 
Arena and Kinnear will collaborate to select five additional All-Stars who will join the two Commissioner’s selections to complete the 2010 AT&T MLS All-Star Game roster. The entire 18-man roster, including those five coaches’ selections and two Commissioner’s picks, will be announced on Monday, July 19.

And A Goalkeeper Wins: MLS and the North American Soccer Reporters announced Thursday that Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando was voted Major League Soccer’s Player of the Month for June. 

The naming of Rimando marks the second consecutive month that a Real Salt Lake player has captured the honor. Salt Lake forward Álvaro Saborío won the award in May.

Rimando posted three shutouts through three games played in June, facing 16 total shots, to help the defending MLS Cup champions to a club record eight-game undefeated streak and a club record 17-game home undefeated streak.  The Montclair, California, native has recorded 99 career wins through MLS regular season play and will look to become only the fifth player in MLS history to hit the century mark as the team lines up against the New England Revolution Friday at Rio Tinto Stadium.

And Finally: ColoradoSoccerNow’s vote aligned with the rest of the universe as our selection, Juan Pablo Angel, was Major League Soccer Player of the Week for Week 13 of the 2010 MLS season. Ángel recorded two goals and an assist in New York’s 3-0 victory over the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday, June 26, at CommunityAmerica Ballpark.
 
After heading a ball out of the midfield to Salou Ibrahim, who scored the Red Bulls’ first goal of the match, Ángel tallied one of his own in the 82nd minute.  With his team leading 1-0, Red Bulls goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul sent a long ball up the field which bounced twice and fell to Ángel in the box.  Ángel fought around Wizards defender Aaron Hohlbein and hit a hard shot that got past Wizards goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen to double the Red Bulls’ lead late in the game.
 
Ángel put the game out of reach for the Wizards with a brilliant individual effort in the 90th minute.  As the clock wound down, he chased down a clearance out of the backfield, fought around Hohlbein, and dribbled around Nielsen to tap in his eighth goal of the season.
 
Ángel’s brace helped New York defeat Kansas City 3-0, for their eighth win of the season. 
 
This is Ángel’s fourth career Player of the Week award: 2007 – Week 7; 2007 – Week 19; 2008 – Week 20.

CSN Vote: Pontius was the top choice on a week that featured only four games. OK, the second goal was garbage, but he did what strikers are supposed to do: He made the keeper do his job. The keeper didn’t. Kudos to Pontius. He got our vote.

Spencer Stays True: Also on Monday, The Major League Soccer Disciplinary Committee fined Houston Dynamo assistant coach John Spencer $2,000 for making an inappropriate gesture to fans following the Dynamo game on June 5 versus the LA Galaxy. 

Fines collected are donated to MLS W.O.R.K.S., Major League Soccer’s community outreach initiative dedicated to addressing important social issues affecting young people and serves as a platform for both League and club philanthropic programs.  MLS W.O.R.K.S. seeks to establish Major League Soccer as a leader for improving the lives of people through sport.

In the 58th minute, Dallas midfielder David Ferreira slipped a ball from the end line, through the defense to Shea at the top of the six-yard box. With one touch, Shea redirected the ball past Earthquakes goalkeeper Joe Cannon for his first goal of the match.

Just two minutes later Shea would strike again. In the 60th minute, Dallas defender Heath Pearce played a long ball up the field for Shea who found himself in a foot race with Earthquakes defender Chris Leitch. The Earthquakes defender attempted to knock the ball clear of danger but was unable to as the ball continued to bounce toward goal. Shea stretched to get a touch on the ball and while Cannon made the initial block, before the ball hit the ground, Shea flicked a right-footed shot into the net for his second goal of the night.

This is Shea’s first career Player of the Week award.

Homer Voting: It would have been a good week to vote for Jovan Kirovski, who picked up two goals in LA’s 4-1 win. However, I tire of rewarding forwards for doing their jobs. I’ve started looking for defenders who do their jobs, and then get in on the attack. This week, Drew Moor got my vote. He has been solid in the back and he delivered the coup de grace against Columbus. My second choice was Shea, who brought Dallas to life with his two goals.