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| This feels closer, actually. Some of us are waiting on...some stuff. |
With word that Major League Soccer will sit calmly, politely and (ideally) criss-cross-applesauce over the upcoming international weekend, I
just realized that I don’t have to produce a Part II to this post, to your
relief and mine, I’m sure. There’s even more upside: I’ve been saving this
segue to the 2016 season’s final days for at least a month now, and it’s time
to dust it off. Eeeee.
First, a little framing ahead of the results for MLS Week…32?
I’ve been trying to come up with better framing for what matters most in MLS
since before the Portland Timbers stormed MLS Cup last season (ah, memories!). “Getting
hot at the right time” always felt a little broad, largely because it is.
Here’s a better phrase: how a team hits the playoffs matters, maybe more than
anything else. By that measure, I’d say the happiest teams hitting this
post-season include: DC United, FC Dallas, and New York Red Bulls; hell, I
might even throw in New York City FC, Seattle Sounders and the New England
Revolution…assuming they last two make it. Seattle feels good right now, New England
too, seeing as they’re playing even ball with everyone above them.
That feels like a good place to start the framing for the particular
weekend just passed, because the Eastern Conference’s trio of insurgent campaigns
makes for one of the better stories right now. It’s not just DC
(who look great) and New England (who definitely feels hotter than their next
two opponents), but Columbus Crew SC has also crashed its way into the mix.
Columbus 110% has to win their next game (at Chicago) for their next two chances
to feel good (and how the hell’d they end up with three road games to end the
season?). Then again, just think what they’ll be if they win all those. DC and
New England, though, look like real threats to the conference leaders, so,
yeah, good times in the East.
Meanwhile, back in the Western Conference…look, don’t any of these teams even want to be good? I mean besides, FC Dallas. Oh, maybe throw Colorado in there,
but, damn, are they dreary. As for the rest, between Real Salt Lake and the Los
Angeles Galaxy on one tier, and the Timbers and Sporting Kansas City on
another, frankly shittier tier, the central question about the West remains: don’t
any of you assholes want this? Well, I’ll tell you who wants it: Seattle does.
Study the East really hard, though, and it’s worth putting
the same question to the Philadelphia Union and, arguably, the Montreal Impact.
I’m mostly convinced the Impact is implodingly awful, even if not quite so
guttingly shitty as Orlando City SC, a team that, right now, defines craptastic
for MLS in the latter days of 2016. Well, maybe Chicago defines it more
sharply, perhaps their limbs fall off when they walk. Then again, Philly’s
recent form is every coach’s nightmare. It’s a house of horrors, really, take
your pick. Getting back to Orlando, though…
I thought fans would suffer a handful of meaningless
games by now, games in which the match up looked pointless and, when it finally
came, the result mean shit. That doesn’t happen much in MLS, as a turns out.
Going into the weekend, I probably would have pointed to Columbus v. Chicago as
meaningless, or even Houston v. NYCFC. I’d say the latter “lived up to its billing,”
and for reasons that I’ll get into below, but Columbus’ win over Chicago buried
the latter and rendered an afterlife for the former at least plausible (sorry, I’ll
cut it out with the former/latter thing). Meanwhile, another two games looked
interesting enough going in, only to prove meaningless in the end – here, I’m
thinking Toronto FC’s groan-fest against Orlando and Dallas’ thin win over LA.
With most of the rest of the games, the stakes felt high and
the games threw gasoline on the drama. There, I’d point to DC’s road win over Toronto,
New England beating up the thugs from SKC at home, Seattle’s confirmation (in
the full Catholic/Protestant (when denominationally appropriate) manner) away
against the Vancouver Whitecaps, and, finally, and as alluded to above,
Columbus’ win over Chicago, which shouldn’t have mattered, and it really might
not matter in the end, but, because it happened, it did. Or does. Follow me? At any rate, let’s start with
those…
The Eastern Insurgencies top the list here, and deservedly
so. Of all these teams, DC looks the most self-assured and sound, with five
goals scored and one allowed over two wins, one home, one away – and the away win
coming against (former?) Supporters’ Shield candidate like Toronto. Toronto
serves a decent poster-child for the whole idea of hitting the post-season at a
stagger: one point from two home games stinks, especially with the one point you pick up coming
against a team in free-fall like Orlando. When you’re playing like that, one of
those fucking hideous pile-on goals (DC’s first) surely cause a team to
question its competence; but allowing the second, at home, that breaks your
back, then your confidence. To DC’s credit, it feels like they can throw
anything out there and it’ll work (Nick DeLeon at right back? Yeah, why the
hell not?).
Columbus really only deserves honorable mention in this
group, because they have only nine points left to earn and they need seven of
them, plus a total stall by Philly to get there. It’s a shame, really, because,
one of the alleged failings for Columbus this season included slow-downs in production
by Justin Meram and Ethan Finlay (and one of those was rectified this past weekend, by way of a definitive Meram-special). New England, though, is on an undeniable tear and that's a lot of what Columbus is up against. SKC helped the Revs by their ongoing reliance on the strategy
of jamming a square peg through a round hole (this happened between their
equalizer and the own-goal the Revs forced, plus the insurance goal), but, when it comes to Columbus, the
phrase “too little, too late” springs to mind for both players and team. The same can’t be said for New England, not with Philly slumping (though
Montreal’s pair of back-to-back wins probably saved their Quebecois asses!). The
key differences there include Philly having one soft spot (v. Orlando), while
New England has two (at (doomed) Chicago, v. Montreal); and if Kei Kamara has just one more good game (see, “insurance goal” link above), or if New England
as a whole keeps playing the way they have, it’s hard (though not impossible,
because MLS) to see how the Revs get locked out.
If teams rising from the depths to catch the up-currents at
the right time tells a meaningful story, then Seattle has to join this conversation. Four straight wins, home and away split
evenly, two of them in the same goddamn week (and one of them after a
weekend where your draft pick, the guy you sold your season tickets on, blows up?): yeah, life looks good up in Seattle right now, as good as it does for any
team in the Western Conference. Sure, it took a pair of (dire) mistakes from
the ‘Caps – and Pedro Morales punctuated an unhelpful season with a pointlessly
unhelpful moment in a crucial game - but good teams make their own luck, and
faith builds on faith. Even if the goal he scored relied on sleepwalk-defending
(Matias, buddy. C’mon), Osvaldo Alonso looked great against Vancouver, and him
rounding into form, Roman Torres coming back, Brad Evans coming back (looking
like a drunk, but still, scoring), and with Nicolas Lodeiro still in their
arsenal. Shit. Just shit.
Seeing as the order doesn’t matter a ton on the last games,
I think I’ll just start with the game that simmered with playoff intensity: Red
Bulls' 3-2 win over Philly. I tuned in for, oh, 65-70 of the full 90 and, as tweeted in the
moment, that game entertained like a roller coaster with go-go dancers and best
music you ever heard blasting over the PA. These teams mirror one another’s
worst habits – e.g. free-scoring, free-choking - but there never was a question
of who would win, even when Philly went up early, and drew level after going
down. Even with Philly’s Andre Blake heroing the shit out of this game, the
result always favored The Team That Doesn’t Lose, aka the Red Bulls. And nothing
defined the loss like the utterly errant headed goal the Union gifted to Dax
McCarty.
As for the rest of the results, I guess the ones that matter
most include Portland’s, well, stupid fucking boring, and like-a-herpes-rash
terrible loss to Colorado, I mean, what a shit-show (elaborated upon, here),
but full credit to Colorado and, again, can I just explain why I see a player
like Sam Cronin as an MVP? I say that because he defines how Colorado plays, for
good or ill. For instance, his omnipresence in defense makes him close to a
third (fourth?) central defender for the Rapids, while, at the same time, he’s
pushed into the attack a fair amount, where he produces…less than a fair
amount. Basically, there’s a reason why Colorado’s ceiling sits so low, but they're getting results, might even win the Shield. And Cronin was the biggest part of that, at least arguably. Just sayin'. As for
Portland…look, just hit that “here” link above, I said more than enough.
San Jose, now there’s an interesting case. They started Week
32 by losing by winning at Montreal (e.g. carrying the game, but losing it
by goals; which is losing it), and ended it with a question-begging win over RSL.
For instance, did Simon Dawkins accidentally define the ‘Quakes’ season, by
which I mean, had he shown up more often (as he did against RSL; and that's just pretty, honestly), would he have
given San Jose a better season. Also, why didn’t San Jose use Anibal Godoy as
an attacking player more often, because they already know what Khari Stephenson
can do on a good night, and why the Hell doesn’t Shea Salinas start every game,
no seriously? As for RSL, they’re among the most confidence-crippled teams
coming into the MLS post-season. In spite of the press (not my fault; I’m too
small to matter), the Armenian Burrito Plata never came out of the kitchen, so
RSL’s offensive potency never went fully erect (sorry). RSL’s defensive mess/confusion
shows more and more down the stretch. This team has no answers right now, only
probing.
OK, as for the rest, Orlando v. Montreal looked pretty damn
boring. Kaka ran wild early, and he had a couple nice moments late when Julio
Baptista came on, still; Orlando might have looked the better team, even clearly,
but they never looked like they’d score (Cyle Larin had a great shot, tho). All
it took, in the end, was a couple good performances by guys like Ambrose Oyongo
and Wandrile Lefevre, somewhat anonymous ploggers in the grand scheme of the
team, and even smaller on the league stage. Boom, 0-1 win (?) to Montreal. I don’t think any team’s in
free-fall quite like Orlando…well, except maybe RSL. Well, Philly’s pretty
shitty, too, and so’s Chicago. At any rate, this matters because Montreal owes
its success to some narrow circumstances. Put another way when they beat
Toronto in Montreal. Where they’ve been bad. And that’s weird. It’s just weird.
Finally, Dallas beat LA 1-0 by keeping them the hell away from
their goal and by dominating, like, 20 minutes of the game, then sending that
big oaf Walker Zimmerman in to score. And probably to make weird faces. If you're looking for something stronger, more defining, consider how Michael Barrios terrorized the crap out of LA's old dudes. At any rate, Dallas
is good. The standings show it. Also, LA has only two wins in their last 12 games.
And those happened v. Columbus and v. Orlando. Pretty sure that says something.
Due to time/flow constraints, I’m going to close this post
with a random number of observations. Won’t take long. Promise.
- I think Columbus has a dilemma with Gregg Berhalter, and I
mean behind the two “g’s” in his first name. With Crew SC ending strong enough,
can they fire him before the end of next year? Should they?
- Was the arrival of the “youth movement” – e.g. Jay
Chapman, Jonathan Osorio, Marky Delgado, and…others, the false flag of Toronto
FC’s summer of love?
- Can you see the current NYCFC club in the CONCACAF
Champions’ League? Me neither.
- Call Dilly Duka my primary argument for squad rotation. A guy that
marginal needs more playing time, more reps. That goes double when a team knows
a key player (Federico Higuain) as well as they do. What happens when Higuain
goes down (as he has). And Duka scored. From a central role. And he’s playing
behind Tony Tchani (who is where? concussed?). Duka looked good in spite of it all, but how much better could he have looked.
- Oh, while I’m on it, Philly’s two injuries against the Red
Bulls seemed bad. I should check on those. (At a glance, they look pretty meaningless.)
- I’m utterly fascinated to see how Jason Kreis’ journey
pans out. We know what he did with RSL, we know what happened at NYCFC (as well as what's happening after under Patrick Vieira), now we get to see what happens in Orlando. The Floridians ain't soarin' (as pointed out above), but I have to think he’s the
guy telling them to play that (again, disastrous; the central defenders, especially, fell behind the play twice, at least) high line (bit again; twice, too),
but I also think he’ll get a shot at a re-haul. Still, how long does he have?
Two more questions related thereto…
- While in Orlando, does Kreis go with the “DP-model” (e.g.
Kaka, Baptista) or the team-based model (e.g. RSL, lots of teams)? I’m guessing
he goes team-based.
- How long are the following coaches leashes (listed in
order of their expected demise): Craig Robinson, Berhalter, Mauro Biello, Jim
Curtin, Dominic Kinnear, Jay Heaps, Caleb Porter, Ben Olsen? I see bloody
thrones in the year ahead…
- Finally, if I advised an MLS team (c’mon, Caleb; just pick
up the damn phone), I would tell them they should never buy a DP over 34, not
unless using his name getting asses in seats is literally all you expect to get from the season ahead. Put another way, and tying in a number of points above, if you’re
not planning for at least two years out, at least two years, why bother?
OK, all for next week. I’ll squeeze in a preview post next
week sometime. Off for the weekend, YAY!!
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