MLS 2018 Diary, Week 2: We've Got Budding Storylines, People!

Spotting good pedigree isn't always complicated.

I decided to do a stand-alone summary for each week of Major League Soccer action. That’s instead of lumping that in with the review of Portland’s (frankly eye-burning) loss. I’ll go deeper on two games each week - ideally, at least - and give thumbnail impressions for the other ones. If I update either post as the week goes on, it’ll be this one.

And so, with zero claims toward expertise and exhaustive knowledge, here’s how The World of Major League looked this week.

Columbus Crew SC 3-2 Montreal Impact

Crew SC opened some eyes when they opened the season with a road win over defending champs Toronto FC, so I contradicted my own tweets to watch them instead of the Colorado Rapids’ visit to New England. Columbus even started off against Montreal the same way they did against Toronto - i.e., with two early goals nearly back-to-back. Even as they threatened to run up the score, Columbus left fairly glaring gaps all over the field for the Impact to exploit; by the second half, Daniel Lovitz and Ignacio Piatti (who pulled a sleeping dog act through the first half), in particular, dismantled Columbus’ defense from Montreal’s right. The Impact clawed all the way back in right before the final whistle (hell of a goal from Raheem Edwards, too)…only to cough up a late, late (and sadly justified) penalty kick that Gyasi Zardes slammed into the right side of the goal’s roof.

It’ll be interesting to see the reads on this game, because Montreal looked the stronger team; they almost rescued a draw in their road opener against the Vancouver Whitecaps (of whom, see below), but they didn’t and they’re stalled out at zero points for the season and a -2 goal differential. They still have dangerous players - Piatti, obviously, but also Matteo Mancosu - but they also have issues from getting players like Jeisson Vargas and Saphir Taider into useful roles in the team (Taider, especially, played under his pedigree) to having a few players who look a couple steps off Broadway (Michael Petrasso and Samuel Piette). As for Columbus, if yesterday gave an accurate display of their team defense, I’d be as worried about that as a Crew fan as I’d be about the team moving. On the plus side, they look like they have a plan in the attack, and their engine, Federico Higuain, looks like he’s got plenty of miles left. More than anything else, both teams look interesting and show real potential, both for effectiveness and decent entertainment.

OK, that’s that game. I’ll wrap up one more (probably tomorrow) and tuck that on the end of this post as an update, but, barring inspiration, that’s as deep as I intend to go on those. As for the rest of this weekend’s games, here are a handful of thumbnail notes and takes both hot and cold.

Also…c’mon, MLS. The six-minute condensed game? When the highlight reel takes just two minutes less? Guys…

New England Revolution 2-1 Colorado Rapids

When you squish 90+ minutes into six you it gets damn tricky to spot the nuance, but, since neither team draws much in the way of interocitement (that’s “interest” and “excitement” mashed together), it’s hard to not shrug this off as the home team between two also-rans winning at home, at least pending anything new. Chris Tierney still has it, the old dog, and the note in the recap about New England cobbling together a decent back-line merits mention…then again, Colorado’s new signing/(probable) solution (honestly, that pedigree screams "Colorado Rapids!") Jack Price hoofed the rebound off his saved penalty kick over an empty net.

Real Salt Lake 1-5 LA United FC

See, Jack Price? It’s not hard to put back a PK rebound. (Call Joao! He's nice.) …and that was the last good memory they had…

I mean, those were hideous goals to concede - and not just the offside one. Alternately, the way one projects those highlights onto the results depends a lot on where they balance credit and blame between LA’s attack and RSL’s defense. To come down on a side, I’d hang two of those goals firmly on RSL’s defense, and the Utahans managed only one goal, so that’s the simplest "what happened" I can come up with. LA’s writing its own script at this point, and it’s pretty damn flattering. Diego Rossi’s movement - hell, even Carlos Vela’s run for LA’s 5th - look so obvious and simple, but they broke down Seattle with those same runs. I’ve got nothing on RSL, who didn’t show in the highlights much, but I was glad to see Marco Urena pick up an honorable mention in the recap (linked to in the score). From the looks of it, LA knows how to use him.

Chicago Fire 3-4 Sporting Kansas City

First, I can’t believe Chicago lost this game after what looked like one hell of a comeback. Second, I don’t think Graham Zusi was trying to chip Sanchez that one time. More than anything else, both teams piqued…nay, aroused my interest. Also, so many questions? Who are Aleksandar Katai (Chicago), Johnny Russell (SKC), and Felipe Gutierrez (also, SKC)? And what can Sporting be if Daniel Salloi plays like that week in and out? I would never expect this score-line in a game featuring SKC, but they looked good for every goal they scored tonight; and Chicago answered back just as nicely (if you click the link on Katai above, you'll see Bastian Schweinsteiger earn his paycheck). Both teams are making noises as teams to watch so far. (Also, hereby declaring that anything less than nine minutes is a highlight reel, not a “condensed game.” We have some standards around here.)

Houston Dynamo 1-2 Vancouver Whitecaps

First, does Andrew Wenger read like the poor man’s Jordan Morris to anyone else? This looked like another good one, honestly, a cup of tea with big ol’ pile of leaves to pick through. For one, I didn’t expect shit from Vancouver this season, but they’re now 2-0-0 and, after watching Montreal, that feels a lot less lucky. Houston, meanwhile, looked like they had the most chances, just not the better ones. Break Shea’s “smash” and Stefan Marinovic’s (dueling) “grab(s)” frame this win nicely, but, whatever, it’s working. As for Houston, steady as she goes, guys.

Orlando City SC 1-2 Minnesota United FC

Justin Meram found chances, but, more than anything else, this result has me revising my first blush at Minnesota upward - especially with their Week 1 near-comeback against San Jose in the same back pocket. The same goes for Orlando, only in the opposite direction. The thing that stood out most in their opening weekend draw with DC was something like softness - i.e., they generally outplayed DC, but couldn’t stop them from breaking out now, again and more effectively. Also, Minnesota's Sam Nicholson caught my eye. Fucker looks strong. Oh, and busy night for Ethan Finlay - for those wondering where he got off to. One goal, one offside goal, and coughing up a PK (is the league not providing video for Finlay's good goal commentary on his tainted first?). Busy day at the office…

And…yeah, I’m gonna leave it there for tonight. If I had to guess, I’ll get to the two remaining games tomorrow. Haven’t decided yet which game I’ll watch all of, but I’m leaning toward New York City FC’s 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Galaxy, on the grounds the bigger story is in there. Till then…

UPDATE

Before continuing with the rest of the weekend’s games, I wanted to flag the kind of news that might matter for the next couple weeks, maybe kick around a couple thoughts. First…

The News

Necessary disclaimer: I don’t go out of my way to avoid soccer writing. It’s more a matter of hitting some kind of lifetime limit on canned quotes from coaches and players. These are not orators. And that doesn’t mean I think athletes are dumb, so much as they put their brain-power elsewhere…

…and, to roll with that concept, something Bobby Warshaw (who seems really hung up on motivation in sports in MLS's video content), finally explained formations to me in a way I actually understand - something like real-time, but situation specific. Who knows? It might I even be how that stuff really works. At any rate, he answers the age-old question of whether or not formations are a total lie by saying, both. And that’s really, really helpful.

Elsewhere, I caught two bits of intriguing news today. First, New England Revolution have hung the “For Sale” sign back on Lee Nguyen, and they’ve got a couple offers and I don’t want to link to a tweet, but it's in here. In bigger news (because I’d argue Nguyen moves the needle less than he used to), per a report (in French), Montreal is reportedly near on deals for an Uruguayan winger (Alejandro Silva), and a central defender (Rudy Camacho, who is under 36, hopefully, unlike their last guy). I don’t know either player, but it shows Montreal hasn’t stopped looking and, as noted above, the Impact might yet have life in them. That said, the least-complicated piece of bad news to come out today was Minnesota losing Kevin Molino along with his ACL. Crappy.

Thoughts

It could be I have only one - and it’s about the Supporters’ Shield. As regular visitors might recall, I now understand getting deeply invested in the Shield as the only rational, response to the MLS regular season, so I have. Imagine, then, my alarm at any flaws in the concept…for instance, the fact that it can’t be an equal contest between teams because not all schedules are created equal in MLS, some teams will have easier schedules, and it’s all the Conferences’ fault, East, West, fuck ‘em both, I mean, fuck them, because if I can’t worry about something from today till fucking July, I seriously cannot watch another second of this fucking league-by-committee, I’m not sorry…

…thankfully, the league’s ruthlessly enforced parity makes it rare for most teams in MLS to play well year over year, and that keeps any given team’s schedule from being definitively better or worse than any other team’s, even on paper when you're eyeing them at the beginning of the year, and you can try, but it probably won't because, who saw FC Dallas coming last year? Or failing to come? So, yeah, I’m good. And, no, Portland isn’t looking good for the Shield after Week 2. Can’t imagine their odds have held fer shit...maybe even took a hit on MLS Cup.

And…back to the action

New York City FC 2-1 Los Angeles Galaxy

The rest of the league will have trouble wresting Best Name from Anton Tinnerholm. Also:

“While some of the shine comes off the remodeled Galaxy in their first road test, a slick NYCFC squad again underlined their championship contender status despite their inability to match the scoreline to their superiority in the run of play.”

That’s from the recap (link in the score) and I honestly don’t think I could have better phrased the second clause; the first one, though…what “shine”? Who declared LA had “shine”? NYCFC, meanwhile, has shine; they’re riding a solid 2017 and they look as good as any team in MLS right now. I keep seeing Jesus Medina do good things, so I assume they didn’t skip a beat, at least not there. I saw LA lost Giovanni dos Santos and, besides me feeling sad for him…well, how much does it matter? And you've got the other dos Santos, so there you go. All in all, I’d argue the book remains out in the Galaxy till they hit a patt…yeah, what the hell is it with defending last year’s bottom dwellers “shiny”?

And, that leaves only one game…

Atlanta United FC 3-1 DC United…

…and, hold on. Aw, fuck. A media blackout? For an Eastern Conference game, over 24 hours later? Hokay. Back to the recaps/highlights. (And I’ll work on getting in my games on the weekend.)

On the game, it’s nice to see Darren Mattocks doing his thing, good (if late, and too late) and bad (on that miss…thanks for bringing the weird, kid). The shots count for this one must have been horrifying (eh, not terrible), because the “condensed game” (8:45, so close) showed a pretty tight succession of shots by Atlanta - the Atlanta people expected to see. And, hello, DC!

Basically, you have an interesting set of signals with Atlanta. I think Houston is decent, maybe even good, while DC feels like a team that didn’t do nearly enough, anywhere: so what does a bad loss to the former tell you and what does a coasting win over the latter - and I mean that on the detail level of, for example, what Houston did that short-circuited Atlanta so badly?

Anyway, great goal by Miguel Almiron and credit to DC for fighting to the death. We could use that out here, in Portland.

Well, that's it for this post. Might add some tweets (really trying to get the political stuff in a cage - sorry!) as the week goes on - injuries, trades, etc. - otherwise, till next weekend.