Lucky matchday No. 13 is in the books. Because of the nature of this weekend ā backloaded with Sunday night games ā thereās just no way to go in-depth into every game, so I think it makes more sense to go in chronological order of the games and try to use each as a focal point for a sort of season-up-to-now overview.
In other words, Iām playing with the format a bit.
In we go:
Columbus Crew 0-2 LAFC
Whatās the deal with these teams? LAFCās not beating themselves in the ways they managed to each of the past two seasons. The backline is still dynamic and takes lots of risks, but thatās not coming at the cost of overall solidity. Add that to a midfield that still generally controls things, a solid goalkeeper and vicious set pieces, and thatās the recipe for a Supportersā Shield run.
What hasnāt happened yet is any sort of explosion from Carlos Vela, though he does appear to be warming up ā he scored a consolation goal midweek and the winner in this one after scoring just once in his previous 10 outings. Heās still not re-signed to that long reported extension of his DP deal and yes, his current contract is set to expire on June 30.
Brian Rodriguez is back, too, after missing a month with injury, and LAFC have an open DP slot theyāre expected to use this summer. In other words, they are already among the three (or so) best teams in the league and have a very clear path toward improvement.
The same is probably not true for Columbus, whoāve now won just once in their past nine and are staring at a stretch in which three of their next four are on the road. And they donāt win on the road ā itās something theyāve managed just three times in 33 tries going back to the start of the 2020 season.
I think there are a few issues with Columbus. One is theyāre fairly predictable, and another is theyāre fairly ponderous (they advance the ball more slowly than anyone else in the league, as per Second Spectrumās tracking data). It all adds up to a team that generally has a decent chunk of possession, but has struggled more to turn that into high-quality shots as the year has gone on.
Sometimes Lucas Zelarayan can bail them out with a bit of long-range magic. But when that dries up, as it has over the past two months, they donāt really have anywhere else to turn for a match-winner.
D.C. United 2-2 Toronto FC
Whatās the deal with these teams? D.C.ās still pretty much the same team they were before Hernan Losada was fired, just with the extra spicy addition of Taxi Fountas, who has quickly established himself as one of the most fun players in the league. So that means a lot of pressing, a lot of long-ball, and a lot of getting it to Julian Gressel or, in this instance, using Gresselās gravity to open up the half-space for Taxi:
The issue, though, is playing such a wide-open, high-risk style leaves you wide open when you take risks, and the backline hasnāt been great at scrambling its way out of those situations, while weāve officially got a large enough sample size to say ākeeper has been an issue no matter whoās between the sticks.
Toronto, meanwhile, are the worst team in the league if you want to go by the underlying numbers (and the Power Rankings!). They do a very poor job of getting early pressure to opposing backlines, their midfield struggles to close down quickly, and their entire backline has a nasty habit of losing track of runners on and off the ball. Just watch that clip again.
If thereās one smoking gun of a stat, itās the number of times they lose possession. As per TruMedia via StatsPerform, itās a league-worst 2,139 times through 13 games. Thatās actually more possessions lost than teams like RBNY or Philly, who have ālose possession in good spotsā baked into their entire philosophical approach. Losing possession a lot is a good way of compounding the disadvantages inherent to playing a midfield bereft of ball-winners.
There is a silver lining, though, and itās that a ton of academy kids are getting valuable minutes. So thereās a chance the lumps the Reds are taking this season make them much, much better come 2023 and beyond.
FC Cincinnati 2-3 New England Revolution
Whatās the deal with these teams? I think Iāve written more about these two than any other teams in MLS this year, so Iāll give you a quick recap:
- Pat Noonan has done a good job of getting more out of the talented young players on his side, while at the same time relying more upon the MLS veterans on the roster than previous Cincy coaches even attempted. Heās doing this by going all-in on an attacking ethos, which is the complete opposite of what new managers in charge of no-hoper clubs tend to do. Itās refreshing.
Itās led to a breakout season for Brandon Vazquez at center forward (he got his seventh goal of the year in this one), and a potential MVP season from DP No. 10 Lucho Acosta.
Basically every Cincy game is must-watch at this point. Even this one, which ended their club-record four-game winning streak, was fun as hell.
- The Revs are another team that have had to go all-in on attack because the defense has not been up to it. Part of this is just underperformance ā lots of guys who were very good-to-excellent last year have been meh (or injured) this year. Part of it, though, was tactical, as Bruce Arena was initially reluctant to switch out of the 4-4-2 wide diamond that badly exposed central midfield. He finally tossed that formation to the scrap heap, though as this game showed, New Englandās problems have hardly been solved in their entirety.
A big, looming issue is talent. Tajon Buchanan is gone and, while Sebastian Lletget has been okay in his stead, there are levels here. Matt Turnerās gone this summer, and I think itād be naive to expect any of his replacements to match what heās done in basically any of the past four seasons (they certainly struggled when Turner was injured over the first two months of this year). And Besiktas fans keep showing up in my mentions anytime I tweet about Adam Buksa, which⦠yeah. I imagine New England are going to get an offer they canāt refuse this summer.
Still, I struggle to imagine this Revs side missing the playoffs. But I do think āRevs miss the playoffsā is a much likelier 2022 headline than āRevs win a trophy.ā
Back to Lletget for a second: His golazo to open the scoring in this game gave us our Face of the Week:
Nashville SC 2-2 Atlanta United
What's the deal with these teams? Nashville had made linear progress from Year 1 to Year 2 look so easy that it seemed a safe bet theyād do the same in Year 3. And for a while, as they were able to grind through that season-opening eight-game road trip, it looked like they were doing it.
But cracks started to show toward the end of that trip, and those cracks have turned into chasms now that the āYotes have come back home. They cross too much; they donāt create anything unless itās rugged hold-up play from CJ Sapong, or Hany Mukhtar getting loose on the break; they are still weirdly bad defending set pieces, and are suddenly more fragile than they used to be defending from open play.
Theyāre still not bad by any stretch of the imagination. But it doesnāt feel like the ceiling is any higher than it was last year, and with their final DP slot spent to give Walker Zimmerman a well-earned raise, it doesnāt seem like a midseason match-winner is coming in the summer window.
Atlanta are, of course, loaded with match-winners, and Gonzalo Pineda has done a good job of getting his attacking midfield triumvirate of Thiago Almada (spectacular for the past four weeks or so), Luiz Araujo and Marcelino Moreno to start actually playing together, rather than just taking turns going 1-v-1. Even without Josef Martinez ā who, it should be noted, is back in training and is reportedly finally progressing well ā they are hugely dangerous in the attack.
They are, however, dangers to themselves and others defensively. Obviously when you lose your starting goalkeeper, d-mid and best center back to season-ending injuries, youāre going to struggle. And thatās what weāre seeing from the Five Stripes, who are especially poor defending in their own 18.
CF MontrƩal 1-2 Real Salt Lake
Whatās the deal with these teams? Even with this loss, I think itās fair to say MontrĆ©al have been one of the best teams in the league this year. It took a while for folks to realize that ā they took a beating through the first four weeks as they were trying to juggle CCL with regular-season play, which virtually no one can do ā but then they came screaming out of that with an eight-game unbeaten run.
It was driven by MVP candidate Djordje Mihailovic in attacking midfield as well as DP d-mid Victor Wanyama, but as great as those two guys have been, itād be wrong to give them all the credit because Wilfried Nancy has just been able to pull more and more and more out of the cadre of young (or youngish) player he decided to make his foundation last season.
And thatās how to get goals like this one:
Iām still not quite convinced these guys are A-Tier contenders since their defense is only pretty good, and their goalkeeping is a measure less than that, and both Romell Quioto and Kei Kamara are more band-aids up top rather than true fixes to the situation. They needed Mason Toye to hit, but because of his injuries, he hasnāt even gotten on the field this year.
As long as they keep the group together ā not a given since thereās plenty of European interest in Mihailovic ā theyāll be one tier below the elites.
RSL have made a good case they could end up at that same level or even above. Weāre almost 40% of the way through the season and nobodyās really sure what to really make of this team because nobodyās really sure what kind of DPs the new ownership group will bring in, nor what shape head coach Pablo Mastroeni will opt for when (if?) the new guys arrive, nor when (if?) Damir Kreilach will be healthy again.
And yet even with all that uncertainty theyāve logged six wins against teams Iām pretty sure will make the playoffs, and theyāre just four points off the Shield pace set by LAFC. I legitimately donāt know how theyāve done it ā theyāve got a negative-3 goal differential and most of the all-in-one advanced numbers have them mid-table at best.
Yet here they are, still in the hunt and still fighting like hell. Mastroeni demands full commitment from his charges, and thus far theyāre giving it.
NYCFC 1-0 Chicago Fire FC
Whatās the deal with these teams? NYCFC have probably been the best team in the league since finishing their CCL run. Theyāve taken 19 of 21 available points, and have a +15 goal differential. They are now just fractionally behind LAFC in the Shield race on PPG, and are atop the East on the same.
They have done this despite constantly juggling injuries and absences ā theyāre down to their third-string right back, whoās actually a d-mid, and their No. 10 has had to be a No. 6, and their back-up LB has had to be their starting LB, etc etc etc. Everybody has to handle injuries, but I donāt think anybodyās done so as well as the Pigeons.
The one problem on the horizon, though, is the Taty Castellanos situation. In the 10 games heās played theyāve scored 23 goals; in the two he hasnāt, theyāve scored once, and it was a PK (in this game!). Heber is back, but heās not back, and if Tatyās sold this summer (seems likely)... how do you replace the best pressing forward in the league, who also happens to be the best playmaking forward in the league, and also happens to be one of the top goalscoring forwards in the league?
I think theyāll still be really good. But having an elite center forward has consistently been the difference, leaguewide, between being a really good team, and a team that wins hardware.
Sadly for the Fire, the only hardware they look like theyāll be competing for is the Wooden Spoon. Obviously that can change, and Iāll argue theyāve looked better in attack over the last three games as Chris Mueller has gotten into the team.
But thatās not saying much. Theyāre now winless in nine, Xherdan Shaqiri has been a massive disappointment, and the defense has consistently broken down after a promising start. I think they can point to the fact Jairo Torres has barely played as a mitigating factor (he only just arrived a couple of weeks ago and is carrying a knock), and perhaps moving Torres inside as a No. 10 and Shaqiri out to his more natural right wing spot could help fix things.
Though to be clear, I donāt think thatās how it was drawn up when they made those acquisitions. Rather, thatād just be Ezra Hendrickson trying to make the best out of a rapidly deteriorating situation.
So even though a lot has changed in Chicago, not much actually has.
Charlotte FC 2-1 Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Whatās the deal with these teams? Charlotte have been far from the utter disaster Miguel Angel Ramirez warned us all about in preseason, and I think Ramirez has a lot to do with that. Theyāre generally compact and difficult to break down, and mostly donāt beat themselves. They donāt have many match-winners ā maybe none, to be honest? Though Iāve still got some Karol Swiderski stock ā but they work hard as hell, and teams that work hard as hell tend to make their own luck:
Am I calling that our Pass of the Week? Of course I am.
I donāt think this team really looks anything like Ramirez wants (theyāre mostly playing a 4-1-3-2 against the ball, and I think heād rather put out a 4-3-3 team that has 60% possession every game), but heās figured out how to make them sometimes dangerous and always respectable. For an expansion team, thatās damn good.
For Vancouver, who are this yearās Cursed Clubā¢, āsometimes dangerous and always respectableā would be a massive improvement. Iām willing to write a lot of this off to injuries and health & safety protocol absences, as well as not working to get Andres Cubas (who is absolutely the right signing for them) into town this winter. It also shouldnāt be forgotten that Maxime Crepeau is gone, and he was their best player last year, and Iāll just very gently say goalkeeper is no longer a position of strength.
But a lot of this has been compounded by some wild personnel decisions from head coach Vanni Sartini, especially at wingback. Iām actually not convinced they have even one natural wingback on the team, and they have a bajillion wingers, so Iām constantly perplexed at the fact they play a formation that features zero wingers and asks a ton from the wingbacks.
I do think theyāll get better as the season goes on ā the arrival of Cubas and a (hopefully) healthy Caio Alexandre basically guarantees it. But theyāre digging themselves quite a hole here.
Inter Miami CF 2-0 New York Red Bulls
Whatās the deal with these teams? The Red Bulls are the Red Bulls: Theyāre pressing high and hard, are more direct than anybody in the league (though the Union are giving them a real run at it), have excellent defenders, an excellent goalkeeper, promising young midfielders and disappointing center forwards. Itās what itās been for a few years now.
The difference this year is they were bought in from the start, and have played really energetic ā even by Energy Drink Soccer standards ā soccer. They just havenāt turned it into goals often enough, and I think the knock-on effects of that have been apparent over the past few weeks as the defense has really started to suffer. Prior to May there was a lot of dominance and strangling the life out of teams. Since the start of the month thereās been a lot of hanging on for dear life, and zero wins in four to show for it.
Usually, teams that control games (even if they donāt control the ball) start stringing together wins. Usually, forwards that find chances (like Patryk Klimala always finds chances) start burying goals. Thatās what advanced analytics tell us.
But advanced analytics are just more predictive than pure results, theyāre not guaranteed. And weāre getting to the point where the Red Bulls are one of those teams that just breaks the models. Not in a good way.
Miami, meanwhile, have almost fully shed the meme team label. Theyāre 4-2-2 in their past eight games after that miserable first month, during which they took just one point out of a possible 15 on offer. The big move, quite obviously, was Phil Nevilleās decision to call out and bench Gonzalo Higuain.
That did three things:
- It allowed Neville to make Leo Campana the undisputed starter at center forward.
- It allowed Neville to play a high-energy, counterattacking 4-3-3 with speed in both midfield and up top.
- It eventually lit a fire under Higuain to the point that he seems to be embracing his role as a change-of-pace sub.
Thereās still a lot wrong with Miami ā itās not clear whether or not they have any starting-caliber center backs, for example, and they can definitely get gashed if they go behind and have to come out of their shell.
But itās really been quite good for almost two months now, and Iām not sure anyone saw that coming.
FC Dallas 1-2 Minnesota United FC
Whatās the deal with these teams? Los Toros Tejanos have leaned hard into their youth, and itās paid: Jesus Ferreira is leading the Golden Boot presented by Audi race, Paxton Pomykal has been one of the best two-way central midfielders in MLS, and guys like Brandon Servania and Edwin Cerrillo have provided quality minutes. On top of that their veteran(ish) acquisitions ā Paul Arriola and Martin Paes ā have been excellent, and Matt Hedges has come back to full health.
All of this is happening within the context of Nico Estevezās system. The Spaniard, who came to Dallas last year from Gregg Berhalterās USMNT staff, runs a system similar to what Berhalter initially tried to do with the US, meaning ball-dominant positional play out of a 4-3-3.
Thatās given Dallas control over most of the games theyāve played. In recent weeks, though, as the front-foot 4-3-3 has been figured out a little bit, Estevez has had his side come out deeper, looking more toward sending runners in behind in order to weaponize that frontline speed.
The project isnāt complete. Sundayās loss knocked them into a two-game losing streak, and their lack of defensive depth and attacking firepower are reasonable concerns. Young Alan Velasco getting comfortable quickly would help a ton, and so would more boxscore production out of the central midfield.
Iām going to borrow from last weekās column for the Loons:
ā¦with Minnesota, look at this progression, via Second Spectrumās tracking data: In 2020 they pressed 99.7 times per game outside their defensive third. In 2021 it climbed to 102.6 times per game and in 2022 theyāre at 117.5 presses per game outside their defensive third, which is third-most in the league. And while their pressure has jumped an eye-catching amount in the middle third (last year: 79.5 times per game; this year: 94.3), itās actually their front-foot pressing of opposing backlines that Heath has really leaned into this year. They are third in the league in pressing opposing backlines, and do so almost 25% more often than they did last year.
Minnesota have not turned the above into goals, and so Sundayās win snapped a four-game winless skid.
Still, theyāre not just going to disappear. Emanuel Reynoso has started playing better after a rough March (and April), and Robin Lod has capitalized on the chance to win a starting job as a No. 9 (a false 9, really, when he plays there). Itās not great resource allocation ā Minnesota have two DP No. 9s on the bench, and zero consistently productive wingers ā but itās been enough to keep their heads afloat.
Well, I should say itās been enough to keep their heads afloat when combined with Dayne St. Clairās otherworldly shot-stopping. Heās basically saved this team half a goal a game which, if he keeps it up over the course of the entire season, would be the best season by any ākeeper in American Soccer Analysisās database.
Heās running away with Goalkeeper of the Year, and should honestly be getting some MVP buzz as well.
San Jose Earthquakes 1-1 Sporting Kansas City
Whatās the deal with these teams? It basically comes down to the Matias Almeyda Era vs. the post-Matias Almeyda Era for San Jose. Here are the numbers:
- With Almeyda: 0-4-3, -6 goal differential.
- Without Almeyda: 4-1-3, +5 goal differential.
Interim head coach Alex Covelo has changed a bunch, starting with scrapping Almeydaās man-marking defensive scheme, which literally everyone had figured out by the middle of last season at the very latest. That, combined with a less adventuresome remit for the fullbacks (they still get forward, but there are restraints now), has mostly fixed the defensively bleeding that largely defined the Almeyda era.
In attack thereās a lot of the same stuff that made Almeydaās Quakes fun, but itās been combined with more sensible use of the personnel on hand. That begins with a shift to a 4-1-4-1 as the default formation, and a commitment to getting the wingers, Cade Cowell inverted on the left and Cristian Espinoza on the right, into space running off of center forward Jeremy Ebobisse. A pair of attacking midfielders, Jackson Yueill and Jamiro Monteiro, operate in the half-spaces underneath and occasionally sneak forward unmarked to head home goals (seriously, these guys are scoring like a header a game).
All that was staring Almeyda in the face. He didnāt have to be a genius to use it, he just had to be rational.
Sporting have been heading in the opposite direction. I know thatās kind of a cruel thing to say after they bounced back from last weekendās 7-2 humiliation with four quality points this week, but this is still a team that lost 7-2 last weekend and has won just once in their past nine.
They still press a bunch (though theyāre dialing it back way more often now), but when that first line of pressure gets broken they tend to be in a world of hurt. Peter Vermes has started churning through the roster trying to look for potential answers, and to be fair guys like Cam Duke and Kortne Ford have provided some nice moments. Hope is springing eternal, even among the hardened vets:
I am more skeptical. Nonetheless, this was a very good bounce-back week after the humiliation in Portland.
Austin FC 2-2 Orlando City SC
Whatās the deal with these teams? Austin are among the league leaders, currently second in the league on points and third in PPG. That is good!
They also play intricate and fun ball-dominant soccer, and Josh Wolffās system puts an emphasis on both making the field big as well as getting guys with individual skill in high-leverage spots. That, also, is good!
What was less good was the schedule they faced out of the gate, a nine-game waltz through the lilacs that Verde, to their credit, smashed. They went 6W-1L-2D with a +14 goal differential.
Things have not gone so well since they got into the second part of their schedule, a 10-game stretch that mostly comes on the road, or against good teams, or both. Through four games they are a not-great-but-not-disastrous-at-least-yet 1W-2L-1D record, good for four points with a -1 goal differential.
One thing that is clear is theyāve gotten better at limiting transition opportunities, and being a little more conservative with how high their fullbacks push has served them well. But itās still not clear theyāll be able to consistently create high-level chances against the better teams in the league, and that was once again the case in this one (for the first hour anyway).
So I think, at this point, Austin look like a playoff team ā maybe one that can sneak into the fourth seed and host a postseason game. They havenāt looked like anything more than that just yet, but they havenāt looked like much less.
Orlando, on the other hand, have looked like both much more than that and much less than that, and sometimes have pulled it off over the course of a single game. That was the case on Sunday, when they played a dominant first hour, but then picked up a red, conceded a penalty, picked up a second red, conceded a late equalizer and ended up hanging onto the point by the skin of their teeth.
Itās been weird. The Purple Lions have had no flow ā coming into this game theyād won four of six, which is great, but the two losses were absolutely feeble three-goal drubbings they took at RBNY and at MontrĆ©al. Like, literally two of the worst performances any team has put forth this year.
The schedule stays manageable for a while longer, then gets much, much more difficult in the second half of the season. They need to start stringing together some performances, and that probably means getting more out of their new DPs Facundo Torres and Ercan Kara, each of whom has been underwhelming.
Colorado Rapids 1-0 Seattle Sounders
Whatās the deal with these teams? The amount of turnover from one year to the next for Colorado has been a little understated, I think? Yes, Sam Vines left midseason, but left back is still kind of a question mark. Cole Bassett and Kellyn Acosta were loaned and traded, respectively. Auston Trusty is gone in the summer. Younes Namli didnāt play a huge role last year because of injury, but he was the teamās only DP and heās gone. Dom Badji came in late in the season, immediately won a starting job and was awesome; he signed with Cincy as a free agent. Andre Shinyashiki, the former Rookie of the Year, saw his role reduced and was then traded to Charlotte.
Itās been a lot, and so we probably shouldnāt be surprised Colorado are not proving to be either as solid or as flexible as they were the past couple of seasons ā they just donāt have the firepower to manage that. What they do, instead, is this:
As last season went on the Rapids played more and more out of a 3-5-2, and more and more in transition. That trend has continued into this season.
Know what trend hasnāt? Finally? Set piece dominance. They are midtable after years and years of just absolutely wrecking folks on restarts. Iām pretty sure injuries to Jack Price and Danny Wilson have a good bit to do with that.
Seattle are below midtable in the standings, and this game was a stinker from them. They are also, you might have heard, the champions of North America.
Yes, theyāll miss Joao Paulo, and yes, itās reasonable to expect both Nico Lodeiro and Raul Ruidiaz to need a little more downtime than theyāve gotten in past years.
But does anyone have a real argument as to why this group isnāt going to finish top four in the West for the 13th straight year? If that argumentās been made Iāve yet to see it, and Iām not in the mood to make it myself.
LA Galaxy 0-3 Houston Dynamo FC
Whatās the deal with these teams? Are the Galaxy in trouble? I know they started well ā they had one of the best defenses in the league for a while, and Chicharito was scoring a bunch, and that central midfield pairing of Mark Delgado and Rayan Raveloson was controlling games out of Greg Vanneyās 4-2-3-1 ā but things started trending down about a month ago, and I think theyāre officially getting ugly.
- LA are 1W-3L-1D in their past five.
- LA havenāt scored more than once in any of their last seven.
- Chicharito has not scored in his past eight.
- None of the wingers have scored an open play goal all year.
Those are troubling signs for any team. For a team thatās either squandered good starts or failed spectacularly on Decision Day for most of their recent history, itās starting to feel like the very worst kind of deja vu.
The Galaxy were supposed to be past this! Kevin Cabral was supposed to adjust, and Efrain Alvarez was supposed to grow, and Douglas Costa was supposed to be the kind of proven creative talent who could give Chicharito tap-ins, but literally none of that has happened. And Chicharito, for his part, has started missing the chances he does get with alarming regularity.
I donāt think theyāre good enough defensively to 1-0 their way to the playoffs. They allow a fairly high number of box entries, as per Second Spectrumās tracking data, and then once theyāre in there on the back foot, the center backs arenāt exactly dominant.
Paulo Nagamura also has some stuff to figure out, though at least heās got his Dynamo side pointed in the right direction a bit now. This marks their second win in three on the heels of a really poor four-game winless skid, and there are promising signs ā theyāre getting goal contributions from their DP striker Sebastian Ferreira, and Darwin Quintero has been a high-volume chance creator when heās been healthy, and the defense has suddenly started limiting high-quality opportunities, and the wingers are producing at least a little.
They are right there in the playoff race, just above the line. I think if youād offered that to the Dynamo (coaches, front office, fans) before the season started, and before Hector Herrera got there, theyād have taken it.
Portland Timbers 0-2 Philadelphia Union
Whatās the deal with these teams? The Timbers are, I think, in a holding pattern? Right now it seems like everything is on pause until we see ā they see ā how far back Sebastian Blanco can get. Thatās the big one, because over the past few years theyāve collected points at a Shield-winning clip when Blancoās been healthy, and at slightly above a Spoon-winning clip when he hasnāt been.
He is not alone among the walking wounded, though. Eryk Williamson, last week, had his first truly excellent game since popping his ACL; this week he was taken off injured in the first half. Felipe Mora has been out for months and has at least one more month before heās expected to return. The backline has been dinged up as well, and even Diego Chara has missed some time.
The other stuff weāre all waiting for is some level of development from guys like Santiago Moreno, Cristhian Paredes and even young David Ayala. With Chara and the rest of the regulars aging, the 25-and-under group has to pick up more of the slack. Thus far, they havenāt.
Portlandās 12th in the West on PPG and have two wins in 11 games going back to mid-March. I do think theyāve played a bit better over their past few outings, but they havenāt looked much like the group that made it to MLS Cup last autumn.
Philly, on the other hand, look quite a bit like the group that almost made it to MLS Cup last autumn. They have the same strengths ā rock-solid defense, elite goalkeeper, tough-as-nails midfield, lots of pressing energy everywhere on the pitch ā as that team. They also have the same weakness, which is a lack of high-end production from the No. 9 spot.
Maybe when Mikael Uhre gets healthy that changes. But maybe it doesnāt, and also, thereās no guarantee heās ever going to be completely healthy for this team. Weird stuff can happen! At least for now, Daniel Gazdag is picking up a bunch of the slack.
One note on the Union: They are even more direct and full-throttle this season than they have been the past couple of years. They just refuse to play with the ball through midfield unless theyāre running at a dead sprint toward goal.
Itās not the prettiest stuff in the world to watch, but itās an ethos.