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5 things we learned in MLS Week 8: LA Galaxy attacks, Toronto FC defends

Reuters

Week 8 of MLS action was highlighted by a 401 Derby between Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact but there was plenty of impressive football on display across the league

Here's what we learned in Week 8:

Hungry is the LA Galaxy offense

How's this for a stat? Over seven games, the LA Galaxy have scored 17 goals - the most scored in the league in eight weeks of action ... and star striker Robbie Keane hasn't played the last four games, during which the Galaxy scored 10 of those goals.

Bruce Arena has built a team over the course of the last five years that continues to utterly dominate foes regardless of the pieces in the lineup. And Arena's new pieces, including Steven Gerrard and Giovani Dos Santos, have worked relatively well on the attack in recent weeks, helped on by young stars like Gyasi Zardes and Emmanuel Boateng.

That, coupled with the Galaxy's indomitable home record, makes this one frightening team to come up against.

Mighty is the Toronto FC defense

Toronto FC, as a franchise, has never been synonymous with astute, competent defending but the Reds have finally (finally) reinforced its back line with MLS quality defenders and the difference has been night and day.

Right full-back Steven Beitashour and central defender Drew Moor have, in tandem with Damien Perquis and Justin Morrow, formed a strong back four and goalkeeper Clint Irwin is of a quality that passes both the statistical assessment by media and the eye test of onlookers alike.

In midfield, Toronto now also boasts the tenacious Will Johnson, and his willingness to run gives the Reds some much-needed energy in the middle of the park. For their collective efforts, the Reds now sit pretty with only five goals conceded, the fewest in the league over eight weeks.

Even Preki would be proud.

Problems in New England

Something's not right with the New England Revolution in 2016. The team has only scored five goals in their last seven games and have recorded only one win this season over a New York Red Bulls team ravaged by defensive injuries.

Besides Chris Tierney's impressive play, little has gone right for the Revs, who now have a pair of losses and five draws to their name over eight weeks of action. And, if that silver lining was too positive, Tierney has gone down with a hamstring injury.

Jay Heaps has to establish once and for all which combination of Charlie Davies, Juan Agudelo. or Teal Bunbury will be leading the line or the Revs may just slip further away from redeeming their oh-so-close 2014 campaign.

(Don't) pack your bags, kids

(Photo courtesy: @mypancreasbroke)

In an effort to increase security, Major League Soccer announced it would be implementing stricter standards at entry gates for each of its 20 stadiums.

The new measures might bring up a few problems though: all fans have to go through a full pat down with search wands and a new bag policy prohibits most bags or purses. It sounds good in theory but in practice it may cause long lineups and delays.

Hopefully the process is smooth enough that fans won't miss parts of the match, a scenario which played out during last year's playoffs with FC Dallas supporters, who were stuck outside for well over 30 minutes into the first half.

Rimando reaches 400

While Gianluigi Buffon is celebrating his seventh Scudetto, Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando is celebrating an achievement of his own; the U.S. international shot-stopper made his 400th appearance ... and conceded five goals against the LA Galaxy to mark the occasion.

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