Williams
Goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts's Major League Soccer career took off in spectacular style, but the dream start for Tyrone Marshall's club finally hit a reality bump, while Shavar Thomas, Omar Cummings, Ryan Johnson and Andy Williams were among other Jamaican footballers enjoying surprising rides after the first month of MLS 2009 in North America.
Ricketts, making his debut for the winless Los Angeles Galaxy last Saturday, after recovering from a groin injury, pulled off five top-quality saves to deny Thomas's Chivas USA a fourth consecutive win in a 0-0 draw and earn MLS Player of the Week honours.
Chivas and Galaxy share the Home Depot Center in California as their base and it appeared the goalkeeper, who last played for Village United in Jamaica following years with clubs in England, fit comfortably into his new surroundings.
STAR of the match
"When he gets into form, I think he can be an outstanding goalkeeper," Galaxy coach Bruce Arena told reporters after the game.
"Bruce put a lot of faith in me, so every game I just try to repay him," Ricketts said.
Thomas, now in his third season with Chivas, has helped Ricketts settle into the city by showing him around places like entertainment hotbed Hollywood.
"The game was a plus for him," the 28-year-old central defender, who was traded to Chivas from the Galaxy, said of his longtime national teammate. "He made a big impact right away. He came up with some big saves. He looked very sharp, very good."
The duo helped Jamaica win the Digicel Caribbean Championship in December.
Thomas said the 31-year-old Ricketts, 6' 4", 200 pounds, did well in his first 'SuperClasico', as the hyped-up clashes between Chivas and the Galaxy are known.
The core supporters of the two teams are decidedly different. Chivas, an off-shoot of a top Mexican club of the same name, has a huge Hispanic following. Fans of the Galaxy are more US-based. That has heated the rivalry even more.
"The lead-up to the game was a big thing," Thomas explained.
Saturday's roughhouse match-up resulted in three players being ejected, two from Chivas and one from the Galaxy.
"It was intense," Thomas added. "(Ricketts) got a first look at what it's all about."
Marshall's Seattle Sounders bumped into MLS reality, losing 2-0 against the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday. The Sounders, a first-year MLS team, had scored three consecutive shutout wins to start the season with Marshall at the heart of its defence playing every minute so far. It is now second in the western conference behind Chivas.
Williams' Real Salt Lake, a surprising western conference finalist in 2008, are currently sitting fourth in the conference with two wins and a loss from three matches. But 'The Bomber', with three appearances as a substitute, has yet to score or record an assist in 2009.
Promising start
Ricketts
However, Cummings, a 26-year-old striker with the Colorado Rapids, is off to a promising start. He has scored two goals in four games to help his team to a pair of wins, a draw and one loss.
The Rapids are just ahead of RSL in the conference standings. Johnson, 24, has also netted a couple MLS goals for San Jose Earthquakes.
Last season's losing MLS finalists, New York Red Bulls, which features the attacking winger Richards, are struggling. The team has no wins and just two draws in four games. Richards has played every minute so far. He has no goals or assists, but has picked up a caution. The team sits at the bottom of the eastern conference.
At least 14 players born in Jamaica, or whose parents are from the island, are scattered across club rosters in 15-team US Major League Soccer, the top league in North America.
American-born teenager Tristan Bowen, a US youth representative, is a teammate of Donovan Ricketts at the Los Angeles Galaxy. Injured and yet-to-play O'Brian White, a top draft choice and highly prized rookie, is joined on Toronto F.C.'s roster by Rohan Ricketts and Johann Smith, who both have Jamaican parents and played professionally in England before joining MLS.
Jeff Cunningham, a Montego Bay-born striker who has represented both Jamaica and the US, is at F.C. Dallas, along with US under-20 co-captain Anthony Wallace, a defender/midfielder whose parents are from Jamaica. U.S. national defender Cory Gibbs, who also has family from Jamaica, is at Colorado F.C., along with Omar Cummings
Match-ups
To several Jamaica national players will again face each other. Donovan Ricketts and the Galaxy will host Ryan Johnson's Earthquakes, while Tyrone Marshall will face his Digicel Cup central defense partner Shavar Thomas, when the Seattle Sounders travel to Chivas.
Andy Williams's RSL will hit the road to play Dane Richards's New York Red Bulls. The Red Bulls will host a bone marrow donor drive that day, to benefit, among hundreds of others, the midfielder's wife Marcia, who has leukemia.
Around the leagues
The 11-team United Soccer Leagues (USL) first division, the second-tier competition in the US, which kicked off its season on Saturday, April 11, also features several players with Jamaican ties.
A couple have already been active in 2009. Striker Nicholas Addlery and forward/midfielder Sean Fraser are on the roster of 2008 USL runners-up Puerto Rico Islanders.
Gordon Williams is following the progress of Jamaica's footballers playing professionally in MLS and USL, North America's top two leagues.