Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. If you live in civilization – and by that I mean the west coast – there is soccer on from the crack of dawn until the sun drops below the Pacific.
These are the good old days. Life this weekend was, by the nearest measure, perfect.
Here's what I saw in a shortened Week 15:
1. The Old Gods and the New
This is Kaká's map of Opta events from Sunday's 1-0 win over D.C. United. It is messy:
D.C. did their usual excellent job of preventing the opposition's best player from being the game's best player. They shadowed him, and fouled him, and took away the easiest passing options, and made sure there were no open field opportunities. In the end they couldn't stop Kaká from beating them – he potted the rebound of his own missed penalty – but it was just a dose a bad luck, rather than the type of good luck United have conjured so often that it's irresponsible to call it "luck" at all.
But that shouldn't take away from the fact that Orlando City are now on a pretty nifty five-game unbeaten run, placing them third in the East on total points and fourth in points per game. They look very much like a playoff team.
The second-biggest reason why is that Kaká is now allowed to be messy. Early in the season chance creation duties were shared between him and Kevin Molino, who has since gone down for the year with an ACL tear.
Molino is a skillful player, but losing him sort of accidentally freed Kaká to run around and freelance a bit, which has made the Orlando City attack both more unpredictable and more potent. Without Molino and his penchant for dribbling directly into a crowd (he successfully completed only 8 of 32 attempts before his injury), the field is bigger and the ball doesn't stick on one flank or the other quite so much. And so, Kaká isn't stuck to one flank or the other quite so much.
"I think we’re getting to know more about him and what he is capable of. The chemistry within the group is getting a lot better," said manager Adrian Heath when asked about former Ballon d'Or winner. "They’re getting to know each other. It’s harder than people think to get everyone on the same page in such a short amount of time."
They're on the same page now. And as I said, the second-biggest reason is that Kaká can go where he wants.
The biggest reason, though? It's the play of their center forwards. Pedro Ribeiro and Cyle Larin have taken turns dragging defenders all over the field and making game-breaking plays. It was Ribeiro's turn this week, with Larin out on Canadian national team duty, and he drew a no-doubt-about-it penalty.
There is good soccer happening in Florida. The pieces finally fit.
2. Six Deep
Earlier this season Jermaine Jones said he hoped Scott Caldwell would join him in Jurgen Klinsmann's US national team picture, and I kind of laughed. "Here is the case," I thought to myself, "of a veteran player bigging up a youngster to try to instill some confidence, and maybe show the locker room how into the team he is."
There's no way, I thought, that Caldwell could be USMNT-level good. The first half of last season was defined for the Revs by the central midfield getting run over and through; and then MLS Cup was defined by Caldwell's inability to make a play in the final third. LA repeatedly dared Caldwell to beat them, and he couldn't do it. They sent multiple runners at Jones and Lee Nguyen, leaving huge gaps for the then-23-year-old to break the game open, but it never happened.
Beyond that there was the "range and athleticism" question, one that is less justifiable in the wake of Kyle Beckerman's success in Red, White & Blue. Caldwell doesn't cover ground like a Perry Kitchen or Danny Williams, but, well, he has this:
And then going the other way, he has this:
Caldwell dominated large parts of New England's 2-0 win over the Fire on Saturday, spreading the field and closing down Harry Shipp any time Shipp drifted off the flanks and into the middle third (and yeah, that's an issue – the Fire should know by now that Shipp is better when he starts centrally, then drifts wide, not the other way around).
I'm starting to believe that Jermaine wasn't just talking; he was saying real stuff about Caldwell's ability to read the game and make it easier for everyone around him. Caldwell has been, along with Charlie Davies, New England's most consistent player this year, and has turned what were previously weaknesses into strengths. He simply doesn't get run off the ball anymore, and is becoming very adept at bumping players just after they pass, so that they take space slower (one of the dark arts mastered long ago by Beckerman and Jones both).
And he makes plays. That pass above to an overlapping London Woodberry is not one that a ton of defensive midfielders in MLS can hit – and it's not one that I'd expect of Williams or Kitchen – but it's the type of thing Caldwell's doing fairly regularly now.
I'm not going to say "Cap him now!" But I was late to readjust my perspective on how much Beckerman steadies every team he plays for, and I don't want to make the same mistake here. Caldwell has a lot of those same properties as a player.
Jermaine saw it first, and he wasn't lying.
3. The Replacements
NYCFC have gone back to the diamond, and have now ripped off two straight wins. Saturday's was a fairly comprehensive 3-1 win over Montreal that included lots of possession (as per usual) and really nice build-up play (hey, that's new!).
They were particularly prolific down the left-hand side:
Getting Chris Wingert (No. 17) re-slotted into the left back role he played for almost a decade in Utah has made a lot of sense, as did having Ned Grabavoy (No. 11) play at the point of the diamond, which he'd done fairly regularly in the past - notably in 2011 when Javier Morales was hurt for most of the year.
But yeah... No. 15 is Tommy McNamara, and that graphic gives an idea of how strong a connection he has with both forwards, Patrick Mullins (No. 14) and David Villa (No. 7). McNamara plays much more of a north-south game than the typical shuttler (that's the term for a wide midfielder in a diamond or 4-1-3-2), and as such pulls the opposing fullbacks further away from the central channel, which - follow along, now - leaves Mullins and Villa with more room to operate.
NYCFC still have work to do and at least one big, Lampard-sized adjustment to make over the next month, but over the last two weeks they've started to resemble a decent MLS team. Youngsters McNamara, Mullins and Kwadwo Poku have all had a big hand in that, which should give NYCFC fans something to be cheerful about.
A few more things to ponder...
4. When Jon Busch breaks out a classic #BuschFace, Face of the Week is in the bag:
3. Last week in this space I wrote about No. 9s, and my worry that we don't see enough young Americans (and Canadians) coming through the ranks who know how to play with their back to the goal. For those looking for a clinic on how to do so, Obafemi Martins obliged in Seattle's 3-0 defenestration of FC Dallas on Saturday night.
Here's one goal Oba made for himself. Here's one that Oba made for somebody else.
I voted Oba for MVP last year because of plays like that. And if he keeps it up, he'll get my vote again this year.
Good, old-fashioned hold-up play will never die.
2. Ethan Finlay took over the league lead in assists, now with eight on the year. He had the primary assist on Federico Higuain's equalizer in Columbus' 1-1 draw with the visiting Galaxy.
1. Lee Nguyen hasn't scored from the run of play yet this season, but he's starting to put together moments where he looks like the Nguyen of 2014. That includes our Pass of the Week:
He's the best in the league at that hesitation pull-back, which both changes the angle of the pass and freezes the entire defense. On this particular play it looks like he hit the "pause" button on six different Fire players before slipping Teal Bunbury through.
Somehow that wasn't whistled a PK, though the Revs did score just seconds later. Still tho... that's a penal.
