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| But is it totaled? I mean, I know a guy. |
To start with the permanent, standing disclaimer that necessarily introduces every Week 1 post in any league, what any given team did over 90 minutes stopped mattering immediately after the final whistle in the, frankly execrable and as yet unmentionable, late show. AHEM. What matters is what they do over the next 33 weeks…
…well, unless you’re an Atlanta United fan, because losing Josef Martinez has real potential to total what looked like a promising 2020. (Pity Martinez and Ezequiel Barco: the croupier has passed on you the dice.)
Welcome to the first in-season Major League Soccer Weekly of the 2020 season. There’s plenty of blah, blah, blah below so I’ll keep the preamble short. Most of each week’s (to be very clear on this) shallow analysis will continue to be results-driven; that’s just what makes sense to me, because it answers questions like how much Martinez’s injury means one week at a time. (Am I still making those monstrous Info-Tables in the shadows? Maybe.) I still want to somehow signal the things that look important, and from within a results-based frame, so I’m going to borrow one of the silliest analytical tools in sports writing: yes, I’ll be ranking results each week, and based on how much I think they establish, alter, bend or break a narrative. Got it?
“On what criteria, you son of a bitch?!”
That’s something someone might be saying, and the initial criteria will be the 2020 season preview I posted a couple weeks back on this site. It’s all in there, typos, good analysis, unconscionable reaches, places where I just sort of drifted off mid-thought a la Joe Biden, etc. I’ll reference it less and less as the results come in, but the notes in that post gesture vaguely to where I think all 26 teams in the league came into the 2020 regular season.
The results from MLS’s Week 1 are all listed or linked to below. I’ll embed a link to The Mothership’s match recap info-pond inside the score of each result – where you’ll get box scores, line ups, the Opta crap, the Audi Index bullshit, etc. – and I’ll dot the narratives I write for each game with the best of the good shit. I’ll close each section with a statement on what I think the result does to each team’s…shit, idiom? No, let’s call it current state of affairs results. (I haven’t landed on a name or mechanism for this piece, so sorry for inserting that cliché inside the larger ranking cliché.) With that, let’s get started…
WHOOPS! One more thing: the only games I’ll reliable watch start-to-end every week are Portland’s and Cincinnati’s. If I go the full 90 with any other game, I’ll put “(90)” after the result. I’ve also decided I’d watch no more than four (4) “MLS in 15” highlights reels each week; for those I’ll put “(MLS15”) after the result. As for the rest of the games, the only thing I’ll review for each will be the highlights, a review of the box score, and whatever stray notes I see floating around the extended MLS-o-Verse. OK, now, let’s get started, because there’s no time like right now to spit a bad taste out of your mouth.
Portland Timbers 1-3 Minnesota United FC (90)
Yep, the Timbers flaccid outing against Minnesota gets the (goddamn call) as MLS Week 1’s biggest result – and, yes, that could be the sense of betrayal talking (see my bitter, bitter review of the game). For their part, Minnesota looked good overall. They had to settle into this one, just like they did 2-3 weeks ago, but that could also be the Timbers’ ever-increasing predictability. Or maybe Minnesota’s just a hard out for them. Regardless, I do think this game qualifies as big, because it pointed two teams most people see as competitive in different directions.
Portland: For visitors who don’t wallow in Timbers content, this result confirmed close observers’ fears about this team.
Minnesota: Score line aside, this doesn’t alter the Loons overall, and appropriately Midwestern sturdiness. That doesn’t mean this wasn’t a good one for them, because it was.
DC United 1-2 Colorado Rapids (90)
I went the full 90 in this one and at least one team impressed me. When you buy a stock – as I did with the Rapids in my 2020 preview – an immediate payout gives a lovely ego massage. Colorado’s super-late win over DC (good on ya, young man!) makes a decent case that they have the fundamentals to support their valuation, with two key numbers in the box score standing out: they beat the crap out of DC on shots/shots on goal and, even better, in duels won. The latter stands out because, once DC got a hold of the game (took ‘em about 20), they made it damned hard for the Rapids to play. Colorado responded by consistently showing they can move the ball, even in the face of cynical opposition. Despite a pair of high profile upgrades like Julian Gressel and Edison Flores, DC scrapped for what they got and never matched the Rapids’ fluidity. More to the point, both sides probably showed their cards as to how they’ll approach the 2020 season: tough, but unspectacular from DC, while Colorado will got out and actually try to beat other teams – that is, until they can’t. Oh, and of course Kei Kamara scored with his head…
DC: With all the wait and see still around the Rapids, you have to believe DC’s cred slips a bit on this one. Most of what I’ve seen has them down as competitive in the East, so...
Colorado: By the same token, and see above. When the league says “show me something,” and you do, that’s a marker..till further notice. Also, yes, I have this result as high as I do because this whole thing will feel like a hot streak in craps for as long as Colorado plays well.
Columbus Crew SC 1-0 New York City FC (MLS15)
I want to keep this one high, because there’s a risk it’ll fly under the radar. If you accept the premise that the Crew are a strong team, you necessarily have to accept they’d beat just about any team at home and a man up from the third minute. That takes nothing away from the way Lucas Zelarayan celebrated his first MLS goal – e.g., with a spirit of camaraderie to give you goose bumps; I don’t even knows that scoring it by muscling around rated highly as Alexander Ring raises its roof more than a little. Columbus put up plenty of shots in this game – one of them, actually internet-worthy awful (and yet no video...) – but NYCFC didn’t give them a ton and generally held together all right. No, they held together well, maybe even very well. I’d call Alexandru Mitrita their greatest, if whelming, threat going the other way, and Maxi Moralez did his usual busy-bee thing (that short fucker’s a hoot, I tell you!). NYCFC kept this game competitive – even after a mid-week CCL game a few nights before. Oh, and I never mentioned, but, yes, Maxime Chanot absolutely deserved his red card.
Columbus: This doesn’t hurt them – and it helped Zelarayan’s stock, who looked a couple steps ahead of the players around him – but it did hint that climbing to the top won’t be easy.
NYCFC: If this didn’t fit their profile as well as it did – e.g., sturdy, a little dangerous, but mostly sturdy – this would have been Week 1’s best. It is a big deal, though.
New York Red Bulls 3-2 FC Cincinnati (90)
This is the other team this space follows, so they got a lengthy review of their own – and both teams got a decent coverage in that one. I didn’t really know what to make of the Red Bulls going into the season, but, to finish the thought from my preview, they’re trending downward in my eyes. And, of course, I fully expected the dumpster to burn another year in Cincy. As such...
New York Red Bulls: Even as they shredded Cincinnati through the first 30-35 minutes, I was thinking, “yeah, but it’s Cincinnati.” (What? Yes, I want them to win. Who asks that?) New York looked like a different, worse, and very winded team by the end of the second half.
FC Cincinnati: As noted in the post, they kept their heads up and battled, the necessary first step. So much turns on how much New York’s fatigue impacted this game.
FC Dallas 2-0 Philadelphia Union (MLS15)
First, I like how the Dallas broadcast team goes full pro-wrestling, skips the niceties and just calls Zdenek Ondrasek “Cobra.” Just “Cobra.” Also, hearing the interview with Dave Dir in 3-second snippets was a blast. As for the game, it looked good for Dallas – as the cliché goes, if Dallas can get a reliable forward, etc., so seeing Cobra score felt like a win. Paxton Pomykal – who I still haven’t seen for a full 90 – wrapped things up with a second goal that bordered on insulting (you be the judge). Philly posted more shots, but the 15-3 divide between shots and shots on goal broadcasts a real signal in my book. And, because I’ve got the xG thing on the brain, I need to sit in the room with whoever’s calling that shot, just to hear how he/she thinks. Why? Because the shots Philly put on goal looked marginally better than what I recalled from watching Portland, but The Mothership pegged the Timbers (hee hee hee) at 1.68 xG, while posting a .71 for the Union (fwiw, Dallas got only a .75). To get to the actual thought, Philly never looked much like they’d score; Brendan Aaronson put up the best shot I can recall (and Sergio Santos looked more active than good). Dallas, meanwhile, got the usual production out of Michael Barrios (short fucker’s reliable AF; and the save he forced outta Andre Blake), Thiago Santos had a moment, Jesus Ferreira didn’t, and so on. In fewer words, Dallas looked good. As for Philly, they were on the other side of that and on the road, so…
Dallas: Good start, better result, but Dallas has a history of those. Still, do mind all the above…
Philadelphia: This confirmed my doubts on them, aka, the long-distance theory they gave up too much in the off-season. I just saw Alejandro Bedoya may no longer be a DP, and that sounds like the first step in…some moves.
Nashville SC 1-2 Atlanta United FC
Yes, this result would have been less interesting, standard even, without Josef Martinez’s injury (and damn Atlanta for having two players named “Martinez”). Walker Zimmerman’s goal had a certain animalistic power to it, so respect, and I heard pretty bright comments about Nashville (which runs against some weird shit, e.g., a Victor Ulloa and Wil Trapp midfield pairing?). Atlanta took all three points, and they’ve got improved play from Ezekiel Barco (helluva goal, kid) and Pity Martinez to compensate, and then Emerson Hyndman came out of the blue with a dipping golazo. The ExtraTime podcast spent way too long on this, but that gave them time to demonstrate via argument how hard replacing Martinez (fuck it, the other guy is “Pity” from here on out) will likely be. Nashville dominated every other key indicator, to their credit, and that’s probably something of a warning shot to the rest of the league. Also, I don’t know who Randall Leal is, but he looked all right out there too.
Nashville: Just about everything I feel comfortable saying about them is above. Pending…
Atlanta: Their defense will matter a little more now and, for what it’s worth, I think Atlanta can find a way if Frank de Boer can figure out how to get enough out of Pity or Barco.
Montreal Impact 2-1 New England Revolution
a fine celebration could not stand, but offside is offside and Wilfred Zahibo was real-world offside (those who know me, know that I am soft on the offside rule). In the bigger picture, the box score hints that New England tried to counter L’Impact and they had their chances. Montreal responded with the performances from the right – e.g., Clement Diop (‘keeper), Maxi Urruti (who had several good looks to go with his glorious sneaky-shit of a goal), and Romell Quioto, and does he look refreshed after leaving Houston (I’ve heard that happens). It’s hard to out-poach a poaching team like Montreal, but the Revs came very, very close (see, Buchanan, Tajon). Both teams ultimately started all right, but Montreal almost certainly needed it more.
Montreal: With Montreal stumbling through the CCL, this looks like a great result for them; add another DP signing (interesting spot on the field, but I’m listening), and they become a team you can’t write off so easily.
New England: I’m not going to knock ‘em that hard for this – and that goes against the lofty (yet fragile) esteem in which I hold them. Again, had Bye scored that goal, all this would sound very, very different.
Vancouver Whitecaps 1-3 Sporting Kansas City (MLS15)
More exposition on why I don’t get/believe the xG stat. I didn’t see anything from Vancouver that looked better than the literally greater number of shots that SKC fired toward the ‘Caps goal. So, when The Mothership put Vancouver’s xG at 2.16 and SKC’s at…sure, .52, I have no idea what that stat communicates. This was the result SKC needed to start the season, and there’s no point denying that Gadi Kinda hit the actual GOTW of Week 1. It only helps he pulled it out his ass. As for the ‘Caps, it looked…fine, and that’s much like Hwang In-Beom. (Oh!). Cheap shot, sure, but I’m making a point: if he’s your guy, your team’s quality control, I wouldn’t feel confident about my team’s chances based on what I saw from In-Beom. David Milinkovic arguably dropped the game’s highlight with his beefy run around Graham Zusi up SKC’s right. As I see it, this result tracked with each team’s comparative quality and, as such…
Vancouver: I still don’t think they’re good.
Sporting KC: Someone on the ExtraTime broadcast declared himself underwhelmed by SKC’s win, so I’m just noting that. As a Timbers fan, I can assure you, SKC created decent chances.
Houston Dynamo 1-1 Los Angeles Galaxy
First and foremost, let the record show that Joe Corona got screwed on what should have been a game winner; whichever defender he hit with his shot didn’t know a damn thing about it. The teams traded goals in this one and, if they adjusted the value of goals according to degree of difficulty, LA would have edged out Houston, but that’s not how this works. Cristian Pavon’s highlights stood out (and he set up Corona’s shot), but the result doesn’t really change the script on either team; in that sense (and the extent to which I did or didn’t overrate LA), it looms larger for the Galaxy…and why does that line-up suddenly look smaller to me?
Houston: When you don’t expect much from a team…
LA: The ExtraTime crew dumped hard enough on LA’s outing to, 1) interest me, and 2) put them back on hold. If they could have won this game and looked bad doing it, that’s more interesting than anything that’s below.
San Jose Earthquakes 2-2 Toronto FC
Oswaldo Alanis rescued a point for the ‘Quakes with a damned solid alternate for Goal o’ the Week. The ‘Quakes took their first step out of a two-goal hole when Cristian Espinoza pinged a ball off Andres Rios, but, despite what looked like Tsubasa Endoh’s best efforts, Toronto was lucky to have that thick of a cushion (this looked like a tight one). TFC did earn its penalty (and right in front of the ref), but the overall result and the details I have in front of me says neither team did any real harm to its chances.
San Jose: They’ll always have fight – it’s like a semi-trademark by now – so every little bit of skill only helps the cause, and they've got a piece or two. Sticking with good, but not dangerous.
TFC: They got a draw on the road, and it is fine.
Seattle Sounders 2-1 Chicago Fire
I’m pretty sure Jordan Morris was offside for Seattle’s winner – and just a step too – but I don’t roll like that and he was close enough. He was totally the hell on-side for Seattle’s first goal in the 56th minute, but no matter: this is as close to a normal result as one would expect to see in MLS, so there’s not much to say beyond that. While there’s no indication that Chicago did much, they scored a nice goal and put up respectable numbers against a team that, per most observers, rates as a league-elite team. Again, these are the games you file away…
Seattle: Morris continues his run, and they’ve got weapons besides. No evidence of slippage…
Chicago: A day at the office that was destined to fail. Stay tuned…
Los Angeles FC 1-0 Inter Miami CF
First, holy shit, what a goal by Carlos Vela. After that, let the record show that this was the one and only time I’ve checked a line-up for any team on Week 1. Miami’s a biggest enough blank slate for me that I can’t see a name like “Lewis Morgan” without figuring out the climes from which he came (Scotland, apparently; and a little back-story). I’m confident that most people (present company included) expected LAFC to kick the holy shit out of expansion team ass, but that didn’t happen, not even in the box score. Even the highlights let slip that Miami had some chances. Again, file that away…
LAFC: Sure, a wipe out would have tracked expectations better, but I heard talk of CCL fatigue, and it’s not like LAFC lost its star player, so…
Miami: See Nashville. I don’t think I’ll have much to add on Miami or Nashville till Week 10.
Orlando City SC 0-0 Real Salt Lake
Apparently, the highlights show (nearly, but not really) all the shots taken by both teams; it’s not so much that they looked so bad than there was so (comparatively) few of them for both teams. Without crapping on either team further, I’ll care when either of them makes me care. I don’t see any reason to pay attention to either team till further notice.
Orlando: Eh.
RSL: Eh.
And that’s it for MLS Week 1. See you next week and, gods willing, one day earlier!
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