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What is potentially the biggest news of this summer transfer window might have happened on a cool, mid-winter Thursday night in Buenos Aires. The plate tectonics supporting soccer in the Americas shifted as Independiente Del Valle became just the third Ecuadoran club ever to qualify for the Copa Libertadores final, and they went about it by defeating Boca Juniors -- the greatest club on this side of the Atlantic -- 3-2 at La Bombanera and 5-3 on aggregate.
That alone would make the result noteworthy. The part that's of local interest: Boca Juniors and Uruguay playmaker Nicolas Lodeiro has been strongly linked with the Seattle Sounders. Lodeiro is 27 and a veteran of both the World Cup and Copa America, as well as the Eredivisie and Brazil's Serie A in addition to time spent with Boca and his hometown club, Nacional of Montevideo.
Boca Juniors wanted to keep Lodeiro until the very end of their Copa Lib run, which most (including me) assumed would take a few more weeks. They were strong favorites to win the title, and Lodeiro was their starting No. 10.
It's not clear that a transfer has officially been worked out, but reporters in bothmarkets consider it close to a done deal.
That is good for Seattle, because they need all the help they can get. Let's start there:
All Apologies
The Sounders head to Portland on Sunday (3 pm ET; FOX in the US, MLS LIVE in Canada) having earned something of a reprieve thanks to their 5-0 midweek win over FC Dallas. It's just their second win in the last two months, and ended a four-game winless skid. They've had no consistency in terms of chance generation -- which is where Lodeiro, if he signs, should help -- and have been just error-prone enough at the back.
Portland are wearing a different shade of green and playing a different brand of soccer, given that they're unbeaten in eight. Even so, it's not like things are rosy (sorry), as they've scored just once in three draws this month after a torrid June.
Fanendo Adi's cold spell hurts, and is linked inextricably to Diego Valeri's absence. Beyond that, however, it's fair to say that Darlington Nagbe hasn't been the same since his return from Copa America action. He's less involved and more passive (passivity is always a danger with him), and last week's scoreless draw at the Red Bulls was the most anonymous performance I've seen him give:
He was better but still not influential in Wednesday's 1-1 home draw against Montreal, and here's the number with a bow on it: In 270 minutes since returning from Copa America, Nagbe has yet to create a single chance. He's been a passenger.
Will he show up on Sunday?
I'll also be watching: We don't know about Nagbe, but we do know that Clint Dempsey won't be involved this weekend after his midweek red card. When Dempsey's out, waaaaaay too much of Seattle's chance generation falls onto the shoulders of the wingers, and Portland will be well aware of that. Sigi Schmid's got to come up with a way to threaten the Timbers up the middle or it'll be yet another day spent bending in low-percentage crosses.
Come As You Are
The Houston Dynamo have generally been pretty good since Wade Barrett took over, having gone 1-1-4 in their six regular season games under his supervision. Friday night presents their toughest task thus far, as they'll travel to Carson to face the LA Galaxy (11 pm ET; UniMás in the US; MLS LIVE in Canada).
Houston are very much one particular thing under Barrett: A 4-3-3 team that protects central midfield, builds up the left-hand side, and cuts down on the number of shots you're allowed in the box. This is what their network passing graph looked like a couple weeks back in a 1-0 win over Philly:
That's constructed using Opta data. Each circle represents the aggregate location of each player, while the thickness of the lines connecting them represents the number of passes exchanged back and forth.
Please don't consider this to be definitive, but it is nonetheless illustrative. And it illustrates a big problem for the Dynamo -- namely, the absence of left back DaMarcus Beasley (No. 7 above), who's sidelined after undergoing minor knee surgery. Beasley isn't exactly their primary attacking threat because the Dynamo don't have a primary attacking threat. They rely upon him and Boniek Garcia, and sometimes Alex or Giles Barnes, and maybe a jot of Rico Clark drifting over or Will Bruin drifting back. None of them have exceptional gravitational pull so they all have to be working together in order to attack to any good effect.
Abdoulie Mansally will likely come in for Beasley, and while he's a good backup left back to turn to, he lacks both the wheels and the ability to both solve and create problems on the fly as Beasley does. It's a fragile machine Houston's constructed, and now they're going to LA without one of their most crucial parts.
I'll also be watching: The balance of the front three for the Galaxy. Gyasi Zardes has played on the wing with Robbie Keane as a lone forward since they both returned from international duty, and while LA's picked up a pair of wins in that time I'm still not convinced it's the best way to use them in the long run.
- Update: It appears Beasley's absence did indeed hurt Houston's attack, but Sheanon Williams got the nod in the veteran's place in a 1-0 Galaxy win. Keane had an off night by his standards, but Steven Gerrard picked up the slack and notched the night's only goal.
Token Eastern Song
The weekend's final game is a not-quite-a-rivalry contest between I-95 neighbors Philadelphia and New York (7 pm ET; FS1 in the US; MLS LIVE in Canada) in Chester.
This is the end of a ridiculously busy stretch for the Red Bulls, as it marks their ninth game across all competitions since mid-June. Included in that roll call is a 2-1 loss to Philly in US Open Cup play, a game that RBNY dominated for the first 45 minutes before running out of gas for the second half as the Union started to do damage on the break.
New York are 3-3-2 in this stretch of games, and Dax McCarty is still at the center of it all. The veteran d-mid had a slow start to the season by his standards, but has rounded into his Best XI form since mid-May and is still all over the ball:
Philly have played against RBNY often enough over the last five years to know how important McCarty is. They'll have looked at the tape this week and seen that things are as they've seemingly always been: He's at the center of everything RBNY does, for good or for bad. And the key is to push him further and further from the New York attackers -- create a disconnect that makes McCarty purely defensive.
Doing so not only kills New York's rhythm from open play, but it also makes them appreciably less likely to draw set pieces. And that's crucial, because they are by far the best team in the league on restarts.
I'll also be watching:Chris Pontius, another guy who's back to his Best XI form. He scorched New York in that Open Cup game, and is one of the league's very best wingers when healthy.
One more thing:
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Don't do anything stupid this weekend, kids.
