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Welcome to this recap of Major League Soccer Week 3 - and do
cherish these early days when the schedule draws bald, strong lines between one
Week and the next. As with the clock ticking up to closing time, things get
blurry later.
Speaking of blurry, I have strong doubts that the standings
will look the same at season’s end than they do today. As much as I try not to
lean too far over the skis - especially now that I’m working with less direct
observation - I feel pretty confident in predicting that neither Toronto FC,
nor the Seattle Sounder and the Portland Timbers will end 2018 hanging off the
bottom of the table; on the other side of the same token, I don’t expect Minnesota
United FC to finish 2nd in the Western Conference and I do expect that
Philadelphia won’t hold onto 3rd in the Eastern - and I say that as someone
who’s thrilled to see teams like that where they are, even as I believe
both teams read like someone who believes he’s ready for the pro circuit after
winning his first three hands of Texas Hold ‘Em.
It was a pretty good weekend all in all, even for being
Portland-Timberless - although, let the record show that my unconscious mind
guided me toward a means to let the Timbers crash this post - in that not a lot
of teams and situations feel settled after Week 3. I’ll get to individual
results and comments thereon - and the stuff about Portland - but I want to
continue by filling in the outline above and painting sort of an statistical, impressionist portrait of the week just past.
I’ll start with a word on methodology. I watched three games
this weekend: Atlanta United FC’s 4-1 romp over the Vancouver Whitecaps, Real
Salt Lake’s generally fortuitous 1-0 win over the New York Red Bulls, and FC
Dallas’ long-handed ‘n’ languid 3-0 walk over the Seattle Sounders (links to recaps down below). Your first
take-away from that is that I know those games better than the rest, but, as
every modifier in the sub-clause of that sentence suggests (because what do I
know about, say, Dallas after watching for just one 90-minute game?), I have
every intention of drawing inferences from whatever data points I have on hand, and I’m not sure it’s going to be any worse.
To illustrate the above, allow me to draw broad preliminary
examples from this week’s games: for instance, I think Toronto reads as having
enough faith in what they’ve got to the point of perhaps asking too much of
them - see, who they started against Montreal. The Red Bulls, meanwhile, look
like they’re building the squad rotator’s dream. It’s a choice of thinking your
players can handle the rigors and still win it all (Toronto) versus a plan to
optimize a long-haul season, while knowing that might entail a slip or two (New
York, whose squad rotation worked against Portland, but not RSL…sort of). The
Sounders, on the other, other hand, might be pushing too many ingredients past
their expiration date to succeed in most things this year.
I have two thoughts after that, one of them tangled in the
penumbra up above. It’s injuries I’m talking about there, which have forced
both Seattle and RSL to cobble together line-ups for Week 3. While that mostly
feels like a combination of bad luck (Jordan Morris) and iffy personnel
(Nicolas Lodeiro) for Seattle, RSL’s festering rash of hamstring and calf
injuries is enough to make me wonder whether that teams over-trains players a
la the rumors from Jurgen Klinsmann’s U.S. Men’s National team tenure (going
the other way, a player like Joao Plata, in particular, arguably files under
“iffy personnel”; also, Klinsmann prefigured Trump…just noting it). The
sub-text for both of those examples could matter: for instance, Seattle could
very well make a run a couple weeks after they become whole, and the league
should know by now what they can do when they’re locked in. That said, their
loss this weekend arguably had as much to do with Clint Dempsey’s thoroughly
unnecessary dick-punch on Jacori Hayes (welcome to MLS, kid, invest in a cup?).
As for RSL, they might have more starters limping around the team doctor’s
office, but it’s also less clear they have a trophy-winning starting eleven in
their roster even absent injuries. (Then again, at time of writing, the same
goes for Seattle.)
To stick with Dempsey’s dick-punch for a second, the Video
Assistant Referee (VAR) played major roles in all of the games I watched this
weekend. VAR gave RSL their decisive (and, as laid out below, barely deserved)
goal, and it led to the sendings off for the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Kendall
Waston and Dempsey for Seattle. I’m still torn over the whole thing, honestly...shit, VAR, I mean, not the sendings off.
First, while it wasn’t monstrously disruptive, I’ve noticed that, so far, a lag
tends to exist between the actual infraction and the decision to review it.
This can involve some semi-lengthy standing around and…I think I’ve seen the
game resume only to get stopped again later for a review and…well, I dunno.
Justice does get served - they haven’t got a call wrong that I’ve seen so far -
but…if no one gets hurt, who doesn’t enjoy seeing a scoundrel get away with
something? I know it’s hard case to make, but cheating well is an art form of
its own, and I think I miss it a little. It could be I’ll get used to it over
time - and this gives players a chance to rest (which could cut down on
time-wasting tactics) - but there’s a real appeal to a real-time event that
doesn’t have snitching cameras trained on everyone’s every move. (Side note:
Swear to god this is about prepping us for a full surveillance state, just like
that guided parking shit is about making the public peacefully accept
driverless cars.)
Whoops, the other idea. Put simply: how many teams in MLS
are just an Andrew Wenger (Houston Dynamo) or a Daniel Salloi (Sporting Kansas
City) away from competing a reasonably strong footing?
That’s enough general stuff for now. Broadly, though, I
believe some teams have revealed themselves already, while others haven’t. For
instance, I think the Atlanta we’ve seen over the past two game days is the
Atlanta the league should expect; I think the same goes for the Red Bulls, New
York City FC, and Sporting KC, who run a very real-world risk of being
interesting this season. Take away Alphonso Davies and I see nothing to that
tells me Vancouver will be strong this season; the Philadelphia Union and DC
United both present as mediocre teams, but not hopeless ones, while the two
Texas teams, Houston and FC Dallas, feel like talented teams who look as likely
to thwart themselves as lose to the opposition. (Jesus, that paragraph. Sorry. I'm on a pointless deadline.)
Notes on each games appear below, starting with SL v. New York Red Bulls, then FC Dallas v.
Seattle Sounders. Observant Timbers fans will note that those games include the last team Portland faced (Red Bulls) as well as
the next one (Dallas). So, once I wrap up notes on both, I’ll squeeze in some
thoughts on how I expect Portland to fare against Dallas. After that, I’ll wrap
up the rest of the results, starting with Atlanta v. Vancouver (which I
watched…let’s call it “late” on Saturday). Here goes…
Real Salt Lake 1-0 New York Red Bulls
If you want to know what Alfredo Ortuno will bring to RSL,
you’ll definitely have to wait for next week (or more, depending). In a game
that should give Timbers’ fans flashbacks (of running through waist deep mud,
not to mention wondering whether Portland even fielded a forward), New York’s
press almost completely choked off RSL’s service up-field. Even given openings,
RSL players flubbed simple outlet passes, made runs to nowhere and generally
suffered a “red-rover” style outing against the Red Bulls, running forward
headlong only to get thrown back past Point A, or even beyond, again and again.
And they still won the damn game. Go figure. Their defense (mainly David Horst
and Justen Glad, but definitely Nick Rimando) held their final desperate
line…but not as often as you’d think. As well as New York picked off the ball
and moved it down the field, they suffered something awful from attacking third
swoons. Long story short, Rimando made a few saves and New York’s Carlos Rivas
did the one fucking dumb thing that gave the penalty on which RSL won.
Still, for the second time in as many weeks, New York
prioritized the CONCACAF Champions’ League (thanks! you have my support), only
this time they got burned by a lack of finishing and/or Rimando. (Or, for
Portland fans, David Horst looked one hell of a lot more effective against the
Red Bull reserves (energy drink backwash? damn, that’s nasty!), than our own,
Cadillac-priced Liam Ridgewell.) This squad rotation could pay off enormously
down the road in the form of, 1) fresh starters down the stretch, or 2) younger
players ready to step all the way up in a system they know as well as the
geezers in the event the starters go down at the crucial moments. For what it’s
worth, I’ve loved that model for years, and think it’s something like the one
true path, if just in this goofy-assed league we love well and grudgingly
(HONEY, I’M HOME!). You’ll notice I’m not naming a ton of players, and that’s
somewhat deliberate: as with communism, New York’s is a supremely collective
system, as nice a plug-‘n’-play scheme as you’ll find in MLS. Until you get to
Bradley Wright-Philips. Or Conor Lade (who drew a fascinating comparison to
Diego Chara in-game).
As for RSL, I don’t think we’ve seen their final iteration
this season. On the attacking side, they were legit shit during the first half,
but players like Jefferson Savarino came on late, and Corey Baird showed some
promise after he came on. Brooks Lennon looked like a better-than-average fall
back at (right) fullback, but you still wonder whether he wouldn’t help the
team more upfield, and Demar Phillips…golly, did he look out of his depth. And
he’s a good metaphor for this RSL team that, again, won this game, if without
much of a compelling reason. Hold that thought…
FC Dallas 3-0 Seattle Sounders
This gets to the big beefy heart of my beef with VAR. First,
did Clint Dempsey deserve his red card? Yeah, dick-thwacking should be
discouraged in the modern game, if just to show a little class. Before posing
the next question, I want to express my sincere concern to the either, both or
all three of Jacori Hayes’ testicles and the shaft of his penis. Look, he didn’t suffer any kind of long-term damage, and here’s the thing I’m
hung up on: did Dempsey getting sent off make the game better? More fair, sure,
but better? In my mind - no, fuck that, in my experience, no - with real respect
to Hayes’ balls, no, that game sucked as a contest. Dallas punched the gas
pedal like a teenager browsing on his older brother’s Tinder account while
driving down the freeway. They had chance after chance to bury this game and
pull Seattle’s underwear of their collective heads, but they just…strolled
their way to three more goals than Seattle, playing as if they knew the
next chance would come, something that 2017 Dallas would know better than to
believe in.
Seattle started 2018 bad. We’re talking Portland Timbers
bad, because even as they’ve allowed fewer goals, they’ve also scored one less
(as in zero goals, they’ve scored zero goals). It’s not all bad for Seattle,
especially given that new players like Magnus Wolff Eikrom and Kelvin Leerdam look
something between good and very good. Injuries have stretched them thin, to be
sure (Lodeiro), and they won’t get some guys back (Jordan Morris), this team
has proven-good players - which is better than some teams have waiting
eternally on potential to come good.
My thoughts on VAR aside, Dempsey killed his team today.
Period. Even before he got chucked, Dallas kept sending Michael Barrios behind
Nouhou Tolo, and Seattle, either by tactical blunder or in idiotic hope of
winning a doomed love…er, game, got burned time and again by pushing its line
too high…pay attention to this Portland! THIS!!! Game as this performance was (I
rate it at “pretty damn”), Dallas really did walk through the second half, more
or less bestirring themselves when something too easy to ignore opened up. That
overstates it a bit - see Dallas’ third goal (and nice work by the new
Bulgarian kid, Anton Nedyalkov) - this game devolved into an infrequently-used
shooting gallery. If I was a Dallas fan, I’d be most excited at signs that Roland
Lamah looked sharp and connected to his teammates. Mauro Diaz looked healthy and whole
too.
I expect both of these teams to be in the mix come season’s
end, and I’d put more money on Dallas right now (and with these rosters) than
Seattle, because I’m not unconvinced they’re not living on borrowed time in too
many positions.
Those are the two games, SO, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR
PORTLAND?
It was relieving, obviously, to see a team (RSL) that
struggled just as much against the Red Bull’s press as Portland did. To wipe my
ass with that silver lining, I don’t recall Portland putting that much fear
into the Los Angeles Galaxy either, so just file that away. Dallas pressed only
here and there against Seattle - that’s excepting Urruti, who chases the ball
like a giddy kid in every game he plays - I think they’ll leave more space (or
allow) for Portland to play than either LA or New York did. And, when Portland
gets beyond the press, I’m not sure they won’t be facing a weaker defense than
New York’s in Dallas; it’ll be sort of neat to see what any Portland attackers
can do if Dallas gives them too much space at the top of the attacking third.
And, when I envision this in my head, I’m seeing Diego Valeri and Sebastian
Blanco pulling strings in the channels at the top of the attacking third. Will
we line up to allow that? Can we? No fucking idea! But I have some thoughts on
that that tie back directly to the notes above.
On the other, more concerning side, Portland’s fullbacks have not been good so far; getting
Portland’s central defenders into any position where they have to chase
attackers has not panned out for Portland; the Timbers will be playing in
Dallas, and on a bigger field than they’re used to: that is the slick,
hairbally bolus at the heart of my concerns about next weekend’s game. Dallas
plays a system designed to create one-v-ones against fullbacks, movement that
forces the central defenders wide and/or high to cover runs from midfield. I’m not saying Portland will lose, so much as I’m arguing
that the team is systemically vulnerable to Dallas’ style of play - e.g., make
the field big and go really goddamn fast. I also think Dallas doesn’t defend as
well as a lot of MLS teams. I’m also encouraged at the fairly large pile of
chances they squandered today.
If this game doesn’t feel winnable, it feels pointable. (And
how the fuck is that not a word? Why is this the first time?) At any rate, I
think this is Portland’s best chance for points so far this season (and, for
what it’s worth, I think the team has a decently soft run coming up). As much
as I’d love to see a two-forward set, I don’t see how that lines up -
especially against Dallas - but I’d take it late (as we have been). I put out a
poll that asked what people want to see next weekend, but my answer was always
a clean sheet, so I’d like to see Portland play this game with that in mind.
And Diego Chara in the starting line-up. But, Jesus, don’t rush it. I’d rather
have him whole for the second half of 2018 and lose the Supporters’ Shield than
risk breaking him forever by gambling on sending him back too soon.
And, after that relevant intrusion, here’s the rest of the
action, starting with the game I watched all of. Though, again, “late.”
Atlanta United FC 4-1 Vancouver Whitecaps
Another game that ended far too few minutes after it
started, Waston’s (again, reasonably justifiable) sending off ended this game
as a contest. Probably. Maybe? Here’s where my beliefs on the Whitecaps trip me
up, in that I just don’t think much of them as a team - something that very
much carries over from last when they limped over the playoff line last season, only to
immediately expire. One of their off-season pick-ups, Efrain Juarez, only
caught screen-time in the spirit of “where is he now?”, while the other,
Anthony Blondell, shot across the game like a comet. Because I don’t see either
of those guys bumping the needle into the sliver of the “contender” wedge of
the meter, I’ll never accept Vancouver’s decently solid start until I have to.
A lot of what happened in this game took place in the
bloodied battle between Julian Gressel and Alphonso Davies. Happily, both
players were fantastic, Gressel in the vein of James-Bond-ian efficiency, and Davies in the spirit of the Charge of the Light Brigade. There really is no way
to cast this game besides a total defeat for Vancouver and, I’m still not sure
that’s not how this game would always end.
More than anything else, this shows the value of a good
forward, Josef Martinez, and in precisely three cases. Seeing Dallas players
(Barrios, Lamah, and Urruti, and more than once) squander chances really
heightens your appreciation for at least two of Martinez’s finishes. And it
remains a fact that Atlanta sputtered after Martinez went down this season.
Vancouver answered back with Erik Hurtado and Brek Shea cocking up another
promising moment, and that’s the divide between these two teams - e.g., those
Martinez goals above, plus Miguel Almiron missing one shot and hitting another.
Expect Atlanta to pick up where they left off last season. And, till further
notice, expect the same from Vancouver. They’ll steal a few, but….
And, to close with some quick(-ish) notes on the rest. In
biological order and the order in which I love them…
Minnesota United FC 2-1 Chicago Fire
Am I a Minnesota hater? Doubter, yes, hater, no. Still, they
pulled this one out, and after Kevin Molino went down. Some Scottish dude named
Sam Nicholson plugged that leak well by scoring a goal and generally looking
active (think I had 7:00 of video on this one?), and Miguel Ibarra played a
pretty damn good game. Know what else? Ethan Finlay looks happy and confident
again, so there’s that. To get a little grotesque, it reads like beating the
other team with your own entrails (e.g. pure desperation), but it’s working. As
for Chicago, I mainly noticed they defended deep, and that’s what led to
Minnesota’s first goal. I think the clearest comment I can give on them comes
from my notes verbatim: “MNFU: Found their legs, or just Chicago?”
And, just to mark the occasion, this win puts Minnesota over
.500 for the first time in their MLS history.
Sporting Kansas City 3-2 San Jose Earthquakes
If they keep this up, this match-up might float to the top
of my weekly MLS playlist. The key to it all feels like SKC going from the MMA
guy who immediately tries to wrap you into a submission hold versus your
top-shelf Artistes de Luchador. They’re fun and, perhaps correspondingly, more
vulnerable at the back. San Jose, meanwhile, looks more vulnerable still (is
that raw?), especially on the third goal they conceded. The ‘Quakes clawed one
back, and late, which speaks to the never-say-die quality that almost all
soccer fans find romantic, even when it’s hideous (this wasn’t). This game
looked reasonably even on paper - good for San Jose - and the recap flagged
Felipe Gutierrez, so maybe watch for him.
DC United 2-2 Houston Dynamo
This game has two tales: 1) a team simply cannot break down
like that (DC); and 2) nothing means a thing if you can’t take your chances
(Houston). If you watched the highlights to this without checking the box
score, you’d think Houston got robbed. Because I have less video to watch, I’m
relying on recaps and box-scores more than I used to, and I’m not sure it’s
gonna be worse. Still, this looked like Houston’s game to fuck up, and they
did: the stat that they missed 8 shots doesn’t show the quality of the set-ups
(at least two were great). At this point, Houston looks like their own worst
enemy. DC, meanwhile, manifests as Ben Olsen in the form of a soccer team. I
think they have clear ideas about how to use Yamil Asad, and Darren Mattocks is good when he’s good, but that doesn’t spell contender in these parts.
Montreal Impact 1-0 Toronto FC
As much as I think Toronto isn’t that worried about losing a
game like this, they’re hardly happy about it either. I’m frustrated by this
game because, distracted as they are by the CCL, it’s hard to know how to read
this game - especially in light of thinking Montreal has some innovative parts.
Ignacio Piatti starred, as always (at least 4-5 shots, but…the box score), and
set up the winning goal, but Toronto came deeply close to tying things up.
Moreover, Sebastian Giovinco showed better in these highlights than he’s shown
in a while, so, how’s that bad for Toronto? All in all, it looked like a useful
win for Montreal, though they could have stood fewer than 5 yellow cards.
Philadelphia Union 0-0 Columbus Crew SC
The most relevant thing the 4:00 “condensed game” showed me
was the piteous crowd on hand. Turns out people from Philly don’t give a shit
about the Union either. I know that Columbus is second in the East, and they do
look all right so far. Better still, Gyasi Zardes found his chances and made
solid use of them. Against that, though, this just looked like a shitty game, like
two college teams straining everywhere but where it would help. For Columbus it’s
probably fine (though I think they’re starting higher than they’ll end), but
Philly looks like an early contender for league worst.
New York City FC 2-0 Orlando City SC
Because the highlight reel for this game was short to the
point of hostility, I’m reluctant to draw a ton from this game - and mostly
because this is roughly what various things taught me to expect. Also, I would
have assumed by the highlight reel that NYCFC dominated start to finish, but
the box score hinted otherwise. That’s all just…filed away, if very loosely. At
any rate, Joe Bendik’s gaffe looked different after I read this game played
tighter than the score-line; it became one of those “but-for” situations that
both don’t always happen and, can pivot a season to glory or perdition
depending on the angle. New York got another goal after, and it rewarded one of
that team’s key, underrated players, Maxi Moralez. And that’s why they’re a
contender this season.
Well, if even 2/3 of that made sense, I’m calling it a win.
Broadly, I think we’ve got a set of false signals (e.g., Toronto playing low,
Vancouver playing high) and true ones (e.g., Atlanta looking like them, Houston
being muddled, and NYCFC raging, which is why their game was the least
interesting above, in spite of confirming a belief). That’s all I got. Till
next week.
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