Soccer <\/p>\n
The March international window means this weekend\u2019s games were going to provide us with only limited relevant, long-term data.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
With that in mind, it seems like this is a good opportunity to just go through the games, one-by-one, and get an assessment of where we stand:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
I\u2019m mostly impressed Cincy<\/a> found a way to come back from a goal down and take a 2-1 lead despite missing virtually all their relevant center backs. It really is being held together with popsicles and toothpicks back there (which, I think, is an explanation for their struggles building out and with their defensive shape).<\/p>\n What I\u2019m saying is that there just aren\u2019t a lot of teams that\u2019d be pitching shutouts with their fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth-choice CBs out there. So while there is some sturm und drang in the fanbase, and while I share some of that (the Garys haven\u2019t looked great even when they\u2019ve had a relatively full complement of starters), the personnel realities of this particular game demand moderation in its assessment.<\/p>\n As for Atlanta<\/a>, Emmanuel Latte Lath<\/a> has been worth every penny. Even when he\u2019s not scoring goals he\u2019s putting pressure on opposing backlines with his movement.<\/p>\n Alexey Miranchuk<\/a>, though\u2026 look I hate to harp on this every single week, but there were moments in transition, moments in possession and moments when they won the ball back off the press where you\u2019d expect an MLS-caliber No. 10 to make something happen. And it repeatedly did not, in what I think were very obvious ways.<\/p>\n Atlanta are down to 24th in the overall league standings, but have three straight at home coming up. They need to start winning.<\/p>\n Also, Face of the Week here:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n My two big notes for the Loons<\/a>:<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say they weren\u2019t the better team \u2013 they clearly were, and by a good distance. On a different day, this one ends 4-2. But by being a little complacent with where they were drawing their line, and by being both a little too unsure defending on the front foot and a little too willing to defend in their own box, they opened the door for late disappointment. Again.<\/p>\n The Galaxy<\/a> got themselves a good point (an intra-conference road point is a good point by definition) with the fightback and Emiro Garc\u00e9s<\/a>\u2019 opportunistic goal. They also showed, I think, a little more attacking cohesion in this one than we\u2019ve gotten used to this year. Christian Ramirez<\/a>\u2019s goal was very, very nice.<\/p>\n But they still look like (and, frankly, are) a team just fighting to keep its head above water.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n As the tweet says, this is wonderful stuff:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Technically unassisted at the end but this is maybe the nicest team goal I’ve ever seen Charlotte score. pic.twitter.com\/kBq4ZuSs6V<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) March 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n New left back Souleyman Doumbia<\/a> \u2013 making his debut in this one \u2013 certainly offers something different going forward than Tim Ream<\/a> (Ream\u2019s passing remains brilliant but he\u2019s never going to get on the ball and take space like that), and the Crown obviously put that to good use right away.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not expecting Charlotte<\/a> to suddenly become a possession team that regularly strings together minute-long, 15-pass build-ups. It is nice, though, to see them demonstrate the ability to do exactly that when the opponents are daring them.<\/p>\n Anyway, once it went 1-0 they just completely ripped up a Quakes<\/a>\u2019 side that was waaaay too ragged chasing the game. If you play like that you\u2019re shipping at least two and, well, they hit the over.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Man, I did not have Luis Muriel<\/a> on my 2025 \u201cGass Theorem\u201d bingo card, but he\u2019s among the early leaders in that category as he\u2019s outright won the starting No. 9 job. Obviously the goals and assists are the biggest reason why, and his opener in this laugher was just a clinical, thinking man\u2019s goal. He read the shape of the play, slowed his run, and glided to the central channel while Mart\u00edn Ojeda<\/a> made a nice near post dash to drag defenders away and open things up.<\/p>\n The second goal, though, came off Muriel\u2019s DEFENSIVE work. What???<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Look at the defensive work from Luis Muriel(!!!!) that forces the turnover. pic.twitter.com\/RVXeIB2xph<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) March 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n He stacked one challenge on top of another, which set the table for Iv\u00e1n Angulo<\/a> to force the turnover. That kind of effort is shocking, given what he was for this team last year, and it\u2019s what will keep him in the lineup long-term.<\/p>\n D.C.<\/a> were just out-manned for one, and for two, their tendency toward over-pursuit really crushed them.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a tough thing to balance for any pressing team \u2013 how do you get pressure on the ball, but not leave yourself wide open in the other direction? United haven\u2019t figured it out yet.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Union<\/a> got an early goal off a set piece and made it stand up in their bounce-back win after last week\u2019s disappointment vs. Nashville SC<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019m gonna let the numbers tell a good chunk of the story here:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Part of this is the Union being really good and organized and playing with a ton of commitment (and by that I mean they run more \u2013 two miles more on the night \u2013 than whoever they\u2019re playing, and sprint more often). They look absolutely miserable to play against.<\/p>\n But also, part of this is St. Louis<\/a> not really having figured out anything this year except how to get numbers behind the ball. They are very much not on the same page.<\/p>\n They did have one good moment \u2013 a lovely slipped pass from Marcel Hartel<\/a> to Cedric Teuchert<\/a> midway through the second half that Teuchert muffed with his second touch. But if you\u2019re getting only one truly good moment a night, you don\u2019t have much margin for error.<\/p>\n This was the knock on Olof Mellberg\u2019s clubs in Sweden, by the way. Waaaaay too cautious and disjointed going forward. Not great!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n I\u2019m giving Felipe Carballo<\/a> our Pass of the Week for this nice little touch across his body to punish the sloppy (disastrous) Toronto<\/a> offside trap:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n This is a lovely bit of interplay. RBNY need more of this in the final third as they become less of a pressing team under Schwarz. pic.twitter.com\/D2yBYnRbex<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) March 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n That\u2019s just really clever movement and awareness, married to a delightful bit of skill.<\/p>\n And then Carballo followed it up 15 minutes later by chirping his way into what will be one of the funniest red cards of the year, which was a fitting capstone to an amusingly officiated game.<\/p>\n RBNY<\/a> are unbeaten in four and have scored multiple goals in three of those, so I feel like I\u2019m maybe hitting this too hard, but I still don\u2019t love the way they look in that 3-4-2-1. Their pressing shape is weird and thus far they haven\u2019t made up for it with added comfort on the ball.<\/p>\n Two notes for Toronto:<\/p>\n Armchair Analyst special correspondent Calen Carr was in the booth and got to see Kerr (and Insigne) up close:<\/p>\n Kerr clearly has the tools to stretch teams (something TFC desperately need) and has mastered the art of the aerial game, but at times he looks passive and has yet to manage the defensive responsibilities needed to convince the last three TFC managers to get consistent starts as of yet.<\/p>\n That said, Insigne gave a listless 97 mins that were his first mins of 2025 and first start since last September. It showed. Robin Fraser switched the shape to a 3-4-3 and looked miles better when Kerr came on (alongside Derrick Etienne Jr<\/a>., who provided the beautiful cross). I\u2019d expect Kerr to go into the XI. He deserves it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Good job by the Pigeons to go to Ohio and come away with a point. There was a lot of holding-on-for-dear-life \u2013 they were outshot 23-5 \u2013 but there was also some committed defending and a couple of fun debuts as academy kids Seymour Reid (who is, I guess, more academy-adjacent than a true academy product) and Maxi Carrizo<\/a> both took their first-team bows.<\/p>\n The Crew<\/a> are unbeaten in five, but have scored only twice in their past four, the past three of which are draws. They have been the better team in each of those games.<\/p>\n They are, however, missing that extra bit of final-third quality that won them trophies the past two years. Part of me admires their stubbornness in not rushing a Cucho replacement, but man, they\u2019re leaving points on the table here. And if they come up just short in the Supporters\u2019 Shield race, my guess is it\u2019ll be the points they dropped in March rather than the ones they drop in September that\u2019ll be the difference.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n It took 45 minutes for Nashville to figure things out \u2013 really, to figure out how to get Hany Mukhtar<\/a> the ball in the half-spaces \u2013 and once they did, they just completely buried a Montr\u00e9al<\/a> side that looks completely out of gas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were able to make a small change at halftime, where I think we were able to put one player deep to build, and move another player high,\u201d is how head coach B.J. Callaghan explained it to assembled media afterward.<\/p>\n \u201cGast\u00f3n [Brugman] was sort of up underneath the forwards, which was high, knowing that we were probably going to have to play a little bit more direct, and try to get some support underneath there, also potentially drag players away to give us a little bit more time to build up.\u201d<\/p>\n You can see some of that on the opening goal:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Alex Muyl breaks the deadlock for @NashvilleSC<\/a>! ???? pic.twitter.com\/jK8Vek8C4f<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n As for the Montr\u00e9al assessment of that goal\u2026 yikes. They have no ability to get on the ball and dictate anything about the game, and off the ball they are still just kind of lost.<\/p>\n The \u2018Yotes are on a three-game winning streak. Montr\u00e9al have one point from 15 on offer and haven\u2019t scored since first kick. They are in hell right now. But they are not alone!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Also in hell with one point from 15 are Toronto and Sporting KC<\/a>, whose offseason plan of investing heavily in the attack has somehow not fixed the defense (or, you know, the midfield, or the attack).<\/p>\n There are a lot of things going wrong, but a big one that\u2019s jumped out at me is how easy it is to complete progressive passes against them. More than 38% of opponent passes against KC are forward, which is the highest mark in the league. That speaks to an inability to get immediate pressure on the ball.<\/p>\n As such, they allow the third-highest direct speed of opposing attacks, which speaks to an inability to close down space in midfield. And when you combine those two, you get a team without much athleticism that\u2019s spending a lot of time behind the play, chasing the game. Against LAFC<\/a> that\u2019s death, total and complete.<\/p>\n This is why I thought it was so important for them to get Jake Davis<\/a> into central midfield from the jump. He\u2019s a guy who puts out fires before they start, and none of the others in the mix currently have shown the ability to do that.<\/p>\n The one slice of good news: the plan is to have Davis back in midfield next week<\/a>. Sporting really need that to happen.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Black & Gold looked like what they are: a deep and talented team who absolutely wreck mistake-prone opponents. I\u2019ve had my complaints about them in big games against the region\u2019s biggest teams, but nobody in the league have been better at walking out of games like this one with a comprehensive 2-0 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n A 23rd-minute Ariath Piol<\/a> red card was the defining moment of this game in that it made Dallas<\/a>\u2019s win feel kind of inevitable.<\/p>\n The game\u2019s only goal came when Lucho Acosta<\/a> drifted back post for a diving header off some pretty nice build-up from los Toros Tejanos. And I\u2019ll tell you, there were lots of moments of neat build-up like that from them, as the shift from the 4-2-3-1 they\u2019d been playing into a 4-4-2 diamond seemed to suit not just Acosta, but the rest of the midfield as well. Sebastian Lletget<\/a> was very good, and new d-mid Ramiro<\/a> \u2013 who\u2019d been pretty ineffective moving play around through the first month \u2013 had his best game in MLS.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the network passing graph. You can see how high Acosta was able to play:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Three questions I have coming out of this one for Dallas:<\/p>\n Irrespective of all that, getting this road win after dropping two straight at home in pretty grim fashion is a big, early, \u201cok, exhale\u201d moment for this team.<\/p>\n RSL<\/a>\u2026 lose one\/win one so far in 2025, which is not entirely unlike their start to last year\u2019s record-setting campaign. Next Saturday\u2019s trip to Minnesota already feels like a huge game.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n For the second straight week Portland<\/a> shifted into a 4-2-3-1 and for the second straight week they looked significantly more comfortable than they were to start the year. They weren\u2019t great, mind you, but they were good in certain ways (mainly defensive organization) that they\u2019d struggled with over the first three weeks, and are now in decent shape heading into next week\u2019s Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire home date with the Dynamo<\/a> (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass<\/a>).<\/p>\n Part of the equation is the growing comfort of new DP No. 10 David da Costa<\/a>. He wasn\u2019t great either \u2013 he\u2019s still settling in \u2013 but he\u2019s been consistently good and consistently available<\/em>, which matters a lot because having that safety valve means you spend less time chasing the game. You can see the Timbers sort of programming themselves to find him when they\u2019re running out of ideas, and while that\u2019s not the sexiest job of a No. 10 it\u2019s still a job that the No. 10 has to do.<\/p>\n Anyway, they were aided in that regard by the loose and gappy shape of a Rapids<\/a> team that\u2019s starting to worry me (and also by Josh Atencio<\/a>‘s own goal).<\/p>\n While most of the rest of the league had \u201cwe were missing guys to international duty!\u201d excuses, the Rapids had something close to their first-choice backline and central midfield and, uh, what\u2019s happening here, fellas:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2014 Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n That\u2019s a catastrophe. And while Colorado were unbeaten entering this game, there\u2019s been a disturbing amount of that to start the year (Zack Steffen<\/a>\u2019s heroics have mostly blanketed the mistakes; no Steffen, no blanket).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Another entry in the big book of frustration for the Sounders<\/a>, who were the better team and created several good (no great) chances via final-third interplay and getting numbers into the box. I was worried they would look static \u2013 they\u2019ve had a habit of being so when Jordan Morris<\/a> isn\u2019t starting at center forward, and he\u2019s out another month \u2013 but that really wasn\u2019t the case. Towards the end of the first half in particular there was some nice stuff happening that was just missing the final touch (and there was a lot of good work from Houston\u2019s Jimmy Maurer<\/a> in there as well).<\/p>\n At the risk of being mocked<\/a>, I think the question you have to ask is if they can find that little extra bit of quality in the final third. So far\u2026 no.<\/p>\n The Dynamo will be happy to walk out of Lumen with the point, especially since they were down to their third-string \u2018keeper by the 67th minute (good job landing the plane by 22-year-old Blake Gillingham<\/a> in his pro debut).<\/p>\n I\u2019m looking forward to seeing this team with Ond\u0159ej Lingr, the DP playmaker they\u2019re reportedly about to sign from Slavia Prague, pulling the strings. Let\u2019s hope he, combined with the return of Jack McGlynn<\/a> from international duty, can inject this team with a little bit of life in Portland next week for Sunday Night Soccer.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n I mentioned the Gass Theorem earlier, and while folks like Luis Muriel deserve a tip of the cap, it\u2019s a different DP No. 9 who\u2019s the runaway leader through five games.<\/p>\n That\u2019d be Hugo Cuypers<\/a>. The Belgian is simply made for Gregg Berhalter\u2019s system, which has always generated chances for center forwards who made fundamentally sound decisions with off-ball movement. Kei Kamara benefited from it, Ola Kamara benefited from it, and Gyasi Zardes benefited from it. All of those guys had their best-ever MLS seasons under Berhalter, and now it\u2019s Cuypers\u2019 turn:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2014 Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n That is a by-the-numbers Berhalter Ball goal: A switch to the fullback out wide; a run from the winger in the seam; a weighted pass into that run; a one-time ball across the six for a one-touch finish. Pull up Kei\u2019s 2015 highlight reel (he was second in the MVP race that year) and you\u2019ll probably find about a dozen of this exact goal.<\/p>\n In total, Cuypers is up to five goals: two from set pieces, one from the spot and the past two being the one above and last week\u2019s variation on the same theme<\/a>. Only one of the five required more than a single touch.<\/p>\n It has been a hand-in-glove fit, and along the way the Fire have both 1) begun fixing the defensive issues that looked REAL BAD their first two weeks, and 2) have integrated a ton of young talent, both foreign and domestic.<\/p>\n They have also now won three straight road games for the first time since\u2026 wait for it, wait for it, wait for it\u2026 May of 2009!! And bear in mind, this is all before integrating Rominigue Kouam\u00e9<\/a> (he made his debut and got a late goal for his efforts) and while dealing with some injuries and churn.<\/p>\n The caveat here is the \u2018Caps<\/a> were missing a ton, including a starting center back and their three best players. The only thing really worth writing about from their POV is the Jayden Nelson<\/a> thing \u2013 which I was skeptical about \u2013 seems real. His work on the Daniel R\u00edos<\/a> goal was excellent.<\/p>\n He\u2019s now got five assists in about 235 minutes across all competitions, and has shown much more clarity and quickness in his final third decision-making.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Coming into this game I wrote about<\/a> how Austin<\/a> have a thing: gunk up the half-spaces and try to hit on the break, but the problem was the \u201chit on the break\u201d part. They haven\u2019t been good at it, and I even made a video<\/a> about it in which the takeaway was \u201cthe next step is figuring out how to turn those moments \u2013 i.e., moments when teams test them by trying to build through the central channel \u2013 into chances and goals.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Brandon Vazquez finds his first for @AustinFC<\/a>! ???? pic.twitter.com\/ajVuBMviXO<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n Well done!<\/p>\n They then got like six more chances off of sequences like that, which is how they dominated the xG battle (and they got their second goal off a quick restart from Owen Wolff<\/a>, who was absolutely brilliant and has been one of the handful of best young players in the league this year). And look, I don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s going to argue this was a pretty game, and there\u2019s definitely some worry that Osman Bukari<\/a> 1) didn\u2019t start, and then 2) was very Rigoni-esque when he came on.<\/p>\n But they showed progress in the exact way they needed to show progress over last week. They have three wins in five and are second in the West. I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s complaining.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think anyone in San Diego<\/a> will be complaining, either, even after their first loss in club history. They will absolutely need to look at the film and figure out why they were suddenly susceptible to the types of breakaways they\u2019d limited over the first month (they changed their midfield shape a bit to something more double pivot-y, which IMO had something to do with it), and obviously without Chucky Lozano<\/a> and Marcus Ingvartsen<\/a> \u2013 two of their three biggest attacking signings \u2013 there is a talent issue in attack.<\/p>\n Nothing that happened in this game made me feel any differently about this team overall, though. They are well-structured and well-coached, and are going to keep being a tough out.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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