Soccer <\/p>\n
We\u2019re now just two weeks from first kick.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Most of the heavy lifting in the transfer market has been done, most of the roster holes have been filled, and every team has been in camp for almost a month. One \u2013 San Diego FC<\/a> \u2013 has already kicked off the competitive portion of the year\u2019s events, hammering LIGA MX grandes Pumas UNAM, 4-1<\/a>, on Tuesday night in the Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n There were no questions about San Diego heading into the season; they already knew who they were, and man, did it show. But for a bunch of other MLS clubs, real questions around formation and tactical approach remain. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re here for today.<\/p>\n Here are a few of the teams I\u2019m keeping an eye on at the moment. Western Conference was yesterday<\/a>, Eastern Conference is below.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Lionel Messi as a false 9? True No. 10? Inverted winger?<\/strong><\/p>\n Truth is, the two-time defending Landon Donovan MLS MVP and still arguably greatest player in the world will play all three spots over the course of the season. Miami<\/a> will most likely once again play 50+ games and will certainly play in at least three different countries, which will necessitate a lot of positional and formational flexibility.<\/p>\n Head coach Javier Mascherano is up for it. He showed that last year. Messi<\/a> will be up for it as well \u2013 he\u2019s shown that for the past 20 years.<\/p>\n But if flexibility is how you get through a season, having a defined, first-choice XI with balance and clarity is how you win a title. I\u2019d argue Miami didn\u2019t have that through most of 2025, and I\u2019d argue just as stridently that they found it in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs when Messi was moved up to the false 9 role.<\/p>\n He started there in the final game of their Round One series against Nashville SC<\/a>, which they won 4-0<\/a>. He started there in the Eastern Conference Semifinal against FC Cincinnati<\/a>, which they won 4-0<\/a>. He started there in the Eastern Conference Final vs. New York City FC<\/a>, which Miami won 5-1<\/a>. And he started there in MLS Cup presented by Audi, which the Herons won 3-1<\/a>.<\/p>\n Going +14 over a four-game stretch against the best competition the league has to offer is absurd. And Miami followed it up by bringing Luis Su\u00e1rez back<\/a> \u2013 which makes total sense; he\u2019ll still chew up 3,000+ minutes across all comps, and probably register 12g\/10a or something like that \u2013 and then spending their open Designated Player slot on\u2026. Germ\u00e1n Berterame<\/a>. Who\u00a0can<\/em> play on the wing, but is<\/em>, factually, a No. 9.<\/p>\n So right now, my best guess at a Miami lineup is a basic 4-2-3-1 with Messi as a true No. 10 and Berterame up front. To be clear, that is a potentially devastating lineup. But it\u2019s definitely not what worked so well in the playoffs last season, and I\u2019m at least a little bit surprised that the front office spent their biggest offseason chip (that open DP slot) on a guy whose presence will actually make it harder to use Messi as a false 9.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Pep Biel, No. 10?<\/strong><\/p>\n Ok, we\u2019ve officially got a theme here, because I\u2019ve got another question about the starting position of another team\u2019s primary playmaker.<\/p>\n In this case, the No. 9 is off the board (Dean Smith\u2019s not about to do that to Biel<\/a>), but the right wing is very much in play. I won\u2019t say it\u2019s the betting favorite for Biel\u2019s primary position \u2013 probably 80 percent of his MLS minutes came as a No. 10 last year. Still, he\u2019s also played a bunch as an inverted playmaking winger on the right side, with an overlapping fullback pushing up to provide width and what I\u2019ll call more \u201cindustrious\u201d midfielders making up the central midfield trio.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot to like from him in that spot, and adding more off-ball runners to central midfield is a way to create attacking misdirection.<\/p>\n But the best teams in MLS have DPs whose skillsets complement and amplify each other, and there was not enough of that between Biel and the team\u2019s other DP, left winger Wilfried Zaha<\/a>. You\u2019d think that, when Biel was playing as a No. 10, these two guys would\u2019ve just instantly figured it all out. It wasn\u2019t that way, though; it was the other way.<\/p>\n Well, they\u2019re going to run it back in 2026, I think, and my best guess is that Biel will start the year as a true 10 in a 4-2-3-1 with Zaha back in his usual spot on the left and Kerwin Vargas<\/a> out on the right. Those are three guys who take up premium roster slots (same with starting No. 9 Idan Toklomati<\/a>), and that\u2019s how you want to build an attack, right? Put your highest-impact players in their best spots and create a framework for them to work together.<\/p>\n It makes sense on paper. I\u2019m curious to see if it can better translate on the pitch this year, because for Charlotte<\/a> to take a step forward \u2013 to become a team that doesn\u2019t just make the playoffs, but actually scores goals and wins stuff \u2013 they need the guys in those spots to make each other better.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Will Orlando skew left this time?<\/strong><\/p>\n It ended up being kind of shocking last year when \u00d3scar Pareja, who\u2019s been a long-time devotee of a vanilla 4-2-3-1 with a No. 10 and fullbacks who take turns overlapping, deviated from that system. In this case, it was a shift to the right to highlight one of those fullbacks, the\u00a0now-departed Alex Freeman<\/a>.<\/p>\n By every measure, Freeman wasn\u2019t just the best attacking fullback in MLS last year, but the best and most impactful attacking fullback in league history. He was getting as many touches in the box as some forwards, and all the advanced data (stuff like American Soccer Analysis\u2019s all-in-one \u201cgoals added\u201d metric) had him more or less breaking the mold.<\/p>\n It was the kind of performance that gets you into the national team, or gets you a move to a Champions League-caliber LaLiga club. Or, in Freeman\u2019s case, gets you both<\/a>.<\/p>\n Point is, with Freeman gone there\u2019s no pressing need to tilt the formation so drastically to one side of the field again, because there is simply zero chance that whoever Orlando<\/a> get to replace him at right back will offer the same attacking punch that Freeman did. Which makes it a good bet that Orlando go back to the \u201cone fullback stays, one fullback goes\u201d system that has served Pareja so well over the years.<\/p>\n HOWEVER\u2026 I do want to make a point here: while they don\u2019t have a like-for-like right back replacement for Freeman, they do have, in Tyrese Spicer<\/a>, a left-footer who\u2019s kind of a mirror image. Spicer\u2019s mostly played on the wing in his career, and while he offers a lot, he\u2019s not really goal-dangerous enough to be a starting winger in MLS (neither is Iv\u00e1n Angulo<\/a>, to be fair).<\/p>\n When he\u2019s been played as a wingback, though? Devastating. And Freeman\u2019s job in attack in 2025 was, essentially, to be a wingback.<\/p>\n I do think Spicer could do a mirror image of that job, though there are two big concerns:<\/p>\n The left side is more cluttered because neither Pa\u0161ali\u0107 nor Ojeda will stop tilting left (nor should they), and whether it\u2019s Angulo or new acquisition Tiago<\/a>, there will also be a left winger to account for. Freeman overlapping like mad actually balanced Orlando\u2019s shape, while asking Spicer to do the same from left back this year could unbalance the whole thing.<\/p>\n So yeah, probably not going to happen. But man, I\u2019d love to see them try it at least a little bit.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n How much of Nancy-ball will the Crew keep?<\/strong><\/p>\n General manager Issa Tall said it when he hired new head coach Henrik Rydstr\u00f6m<\/a>: \u201cWe collectively share a vision for how we can continue to advance and evolve the club\u2019s dynamic style of play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s not \u201cchange\u201d or \u201cdiscard\u201d or \u201crethink\u201d or \u201cremodel.\u201d \u201cEvolve\u201d feels like a carefully chosen word \u2013 one that indicates Rydstr\u00f6m has been brought in to largely keep what Wilfried Nancy built over the past three years, and to iterate on it in marginal, but hopefully meaningful ways.<\/p>\n A lot of that makes sense as both Rydstr\u00f6m and Nancy have reputations as attack-minded coaches who want their teams to have the ball and create with it. Nancy, in particular, came to the Crew<\/a> when the correlation between possession and points per game in MLS was at its nadir. In three years, he won two trophies and rewrote the meta for what works in this league.<\/p>\n The part that I\u2019ll be keeping my eye on: as free-flowing and improvisational as the Crew looked under Nancy, ask any player who played for him, and they will tell you that the whole thing was religiously drilled until the players understood in their very souls the importance of proper spacing and rotations. You could improvise within the framework \u2013 that\u2019s why and how you\u2019d see 2024 Defender of the Year Steven Moreira<\/a> occasionally operating in the half-spaces as a No. 10 \u2013 but you absolutely could not break it. So when Moreira pushed up, someone else would drop back or slide over so that the Crew would always keep their 2-3-5 or 3-2-5 shape.<\/p>\n Rydstr\u00f6m, meanwhile, is a stated proponent of \u201crelationism,\u201d which\u2026 well, it\u2019s a system of play (or an anti-system, if you want to get into the metaphysics of it) that, taken to its logical extent, dispenses with the framework entirely. Just ball-winning and vibes, man.<\/p>\n I\u2019m mildly worried that the evolution Rydstr\u00f6m has in store for this team will be more profound than anyone\u2019s really expecting.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Can Cincy find balance out wide?<\/strong><\/p>\n In retrospect, I don\u2019t think I quite appreciated how crucial the two wingbacks, left-sider \u00c1lvaro Barreal and right-sider Santiago Arias, were to the success of Cincy\u2019s Supporters\u2019 Shield-winning 2023 side.<\/p>\n Arias, the veteran, provided a veteran\u2019s know-how and calm on the ball, acting as a platform for long spells of possession, almost as a second or third deep-lying midfielder and always as a ball-progression hub.<\/p>\n Barreal, of course, was basically a secondary No. 10 for the Orange & Blue that year, and a match-winning one at that.<\/p>\n In pulling apart the difference between that great 2023 side and the lesser versions we\u2019ve seen over the past two seasons (still very good teams, mind you), we\u2019ve tended to focus \u2013 I\u2019ve<\/em> tended to focus \u2013 on Matt Miazga<\/a>\u2019s injury and Lucho Acosta\u2019s departure. And I do still think those are the two most important factors at play.<\/p>\n But the balance and dynamism from those wide spots haven’t been quite as good as they were three years ago, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a coincidence that Cincy have had to cycle through myriad wingback combos to try to replicate what they had at their very best.<\/p>\n If they\u2019ve gotten it right this time, they\u2019ll be back up above 60 points yet again and will enter the playoffs with a better chance of walking away with a trophy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n