 |
| No, look, there is a process... |
So, yeah, I’m dicking with the concept again. Results rankings felt good for a while, but now they feel like a word salad with random names dropped in like tomatoes and bacon bits. In this post, I’m bumping that to the preamble - which is 85% about providing some notes on each game plus getting in links to all the Mothership’s game-data (embedded in the score, as always) - and going with a different approach:
A Top 10 Storylines from Major League Soccer Week 12. And it’s “a” instead of “the” because I don’t like being pushy. I’ll round it out with notes on every team that played last weekend. It’ll make sense by the end. Trust me. First, though, here are very short notes on all the games played between last Wednesday and last Friday, organized in the order I think they “matter.”
Los Angeles Galaxy 3-1 FC Dallas
The Galaxy’s prime directive in the here and now: keep pounding points out of punching bags. And, holy shit, did Dallas oblige. Oh, the errors.
New England Revolution 2-3 Toronto FC
There’s a (dangerous) whiff of complacency about the Revs right now; Toronto turned that into 25 minutes of mastery…which they later surrendered.
Club de Foot Montreal 2-1 New York City FC
I’ve been waiting for MLS’s mystery team to send a clear signal; this comes closest to a clear one.
Colorado Rapids 2-0 Minnesota United FC
Everything I saw said Colorado won this clean; Minnesota’s night can be summed up in Andre Shinyashiki scoring after playing a one-man give-and-go.
Red Bull New York 1-1 Philadelphia Union
Two teams that will fight you and both look like they have the quality to land a knockout blow. That's all I've got on both teams for now.
Nashville SC 2-2 Atlanta United FC
Nashville dominated the offense (nearly 3X the shots and 4X the shots on goal), but they allowed two shit goals, so…well, good on Atlanta, for one...but not that good, because they are stalling.
FC Cincinnati 2-2 Columbus Crew SC
I have extended notes on this one - if from a decisively FC Cincy perspective - but this boiled down to eagerness v veteran savvy. Then again…more later.
Chicago Fire FC 3-1 Orlando City SC
This looked more like 2-1, Orlando ran up the numbers, Chicago’s Bobby Shuttleworth had a busy afternoon…and yet Orlando lost and Chicago won. By a couple.
Austin FC 0-2 Los Angeles FC
Respectably even, so this becomes a case of better talent carrying over. The LAFC made the better chances, buried them, and that’s the difference.
Seattle Sounders 2-0 Houston Dynamo FC
I know. The Sounders won. Whaaaa? Apart from the “moral victory” of holding possession, Houston got run over by Seattle with one hand tied behind 11 backs (seriously, no Roldan, no Lodeiro, no Frei, Morris doesn’t count, etc.).
Vancouver Whitecaps 0-4 Real Salt Lake
To cut them some slack, this was the ‘Caps playing a “home game” in their opponents home stadium. To get back to reality, they got their asses handed to them. That’s six losses in eight.
Those are my notes and, again, full disclosure for anyone finding this blog for the first time, I follow two teams (Portland Timbers and FC Cincinnati), so everything else is based on box scores and MLS in 15 videos when they are available. And, for what it’s worth, I think that makes the above vagueness good, wise, and appropriate.
Now, when it comes to conjuring the Top 10 Storylines below, I’m working with (now) 12 weeks of information, a homemade Form Guide, and what can be best described as a loose, lush scientific method. In the order of importance….
1) Shaky Rests the Crown
I pointed this out in a pregame preview thread, but it is well worth noting that Columbus has looked nothing like the team that ran away from MLS Cup 2020 over a Seattle Sounders team that can’t stop kicking ass in 2021 - and that’s without everyone present and accounted for. Their wins have been unimpressive (again, v DC, @ NYC, v TFC, v CHI) and they’re 0-1-3 in their last four (@ PHI, @ ATX, v NE and @ CIN). A tough run, sure, but who expected this Columbus team?
2) Stumbling Courtiers
Fortunately for Central Ohio’s favorite team (Columbus), several immediate rivals - New England and Orlando, specifically - have tripped in weird ways in recent weeks. For the Revs, it looks like a case of sleeping on shitty teams - e.g., how you lose at Dallas and at (fucking) home(?) to Toronto - but we’ll see. Orlando is the trickier case because they’ve got three wins before the last two losses. Look closer and you see that Orlando hasn’t won a game against top-tier opposition all season, but it takes losing to Red Bull at home and Chicago away back to back to raise real questions about Central Florida’s favorite team (Orlando).
3) LA Rising
First things first, I’m aware that both LA teams have…well, died against the West’s better (on occasion) teams - e.g., your Seattles and your Sportings Kansases Cities - but also Portland (for the Galaxy) and New York City FC (for LAFC), but, they’re both over the playoff line (unlike, say, Portland) and they keep winning against teams they “should” beat…which pretty much erases the “should” in that thought. Basically, these are two teams on a present playoff trajectory and with resources/room for adjustments. Full disclosure: I come at this as a Timbers fan seeing two more times cluttering the game of musical chairs that is the post-season...at which point anything is, in fact, possible. About that...and Portland.
4) The Great Divide in the West
The line doesn’t run straight either up or down - e.g., Austin’s (poor) goals for/(good) goals allowed and the Galaxy’s (good) goals for/(not great) goals allowed - but there is a clear correlation between having a good/consistent defense and being above the playoff line in the Western Conference. Also, related…
5) Zone-In/Zone-Out
Two weeks after convincing the small circle of people I follow that they’d found their feet, Minnesota has laid two eggs that won’t do for a team with any kind of elite pretensions (the same goes for the Timbers, but...y'know, bye week....what're you guys doing?). They’re a hard team to read so far (much like the team below), especially with beating the Timbers at home as their (literally) one notable feat of 2021…look, the more I’m talking out loud, the more I remember how hard I’d argued that the West would be messy in 2021. So far, Minnesota has been the humid, mosquito-y mess at the heart of the tangle.
6) Les Habitants Rocher?
Until this week’s win over NYCFC, and at home, Club de Foot Montreal hasn’t done a damn thing worth noticing. And yet they’re fourth in the Eastern Conference and with just five points between them and a points-dropping New England side, plus a game in hand. Montreal’s doing what LA is doing so far - i.e., beating the teams they should - but they're also picking the odd point of the heavies (e.g., Nashville away twice, plus Columbus at home). The rubber will burn into the road when the stronger tests come, but, between their record and the thoughts above (the section on LA mostly), Montreal belongs at the peasants’ end of what makes an elite team in MLS in 2021. [Ed. - I can’t wait to see them host FC Cincinnati next weekend. So much to learn…]
7) A Breeze Blowing in the Windy City
On the one hand, yes, Chicago is one point under FC Cincinnati in the Eastern Conference table and, yes, Cincy is unbeaten in four while the Fire have just three unbeaten. And, and, Cincinnati beat Chicago at the start of their unbeaten streak and in Chicago. The difference is, Chicago built their seven-points-from-nine run against Philly, Atlanta, and Orlando; they played all of those at home, sure, but they also became part of all those teams’ stumbles. I’m not attempting an apples-to-apples comparison between Chicago and Cincinnati, but the Fire’s late success raises a question: e.g., how much competition can Cincy get through to make the playoffs in 2021?
8) Lessons from Vancouver, Utah
What’s happening with Vancouver this season gives a object lesson in why you look at results before punditry. I’ve read more things about how they’re improving than I’ve seen, but they really are reliably stubborn, they keep games tight and they’ve got that Lucas Cavallini guy, so surely. The reality: they haven’t won since Week 4 and their record since then is LLLLLDDL. God knows I get the impulse to be the first person to see “X” - it’s a distressingly large fraction of why I do this - but, entirely reasonable excuses about playing an eternal away schedule aside, Vancouver is dying. As is Toronto…hmm…wait, then there’s Montreal…
9) The Best Worst Team in MLS…or the Worst Best
I’ve seen Nashville SC outplay multiple teams in 2021, not whistle-to-whistle, but for extended periods - and yet they are 4-1-(fucking)-7 on the season. That’s good enough for 5th in the East right now, not to mention the top half in goals against, not to mention a positive goal differential…but that’s playoff form, not title winning form. The point of interest here is that teams will struggle to get points out of Nashville. That only makes it more of a damn shame that Nashville looks doomed to keep struggling to get points out of games.
10) Fort The Dick
This might be (nah, c’mon man, it is) a personal obsession, but I also sewed Minnesota’s failure to continue its momentum into my narrative that the Rapids will be (more of) a force at home in 2021 than usual. It’s 4-1-1 so far…and it’s Houston, Dallas, and Minnesota twice (which goes back to prior notes about some teams matching-up just so) for the four wins, but with a 1-1 draw versus Seattle in the mix (and they didn’t lose to Austin at home…shhh..sshhh…sshhhhh…). Look, I have a certain amount of faith in the way Colorado plays, but that’s also why they’re all the way down here - i.e., faith does not equal proof. Just…humor me and watch for it.
And…that’s it. That’s my Top 10. Did I get everyone? Eh, not quite. So, to sum up…
Both Toronto and Cincinnati had 45 minutes’ worth of fantastic against two of the league’s best teams, whether by form (New England…mostly) or bones (Columbus), but that’s quite possibly the only good 45 minutes of the year for one team (Toronto), and the other team running into a wall (Cincinnati), but who really can tell? Moving on, in case it’s not clear, Dallas looks terrifyingly awful so far - honestly, the defensive breakdowns against the Galaxy would make their moms turn against them - that I see no reason to count on them for anything but failure till further notice. Houston is the low-side of middling, in case that didn’t come through, and NYCFC has “sturdy, yet unspectacular" written all over them so far. From there, I guess it’s a matter of forwarding questions either in the comments or on twiiter (@JeffBull5) and I’ll answer to the best of my ability.
One final thought, and this is on the teams who skipped Week 12:
DC United: I’m still betting on upward, but what happened to Paul Arriola?
Sporting Kansas City: Seattle good, but with a glass jaw (and how that turns out)
Inter Miami CF: You and Dallas should totally hang
Portland Timbers: Won’t lie, I’m getting worried. And I’ll admit it if they prove me wrong
San Jose Earthquakes: Worse than you think, honestly.
That’s the week. Talk at ya next time. Bug me with clarifications. Till then.
A Top 10 Storylines from Major League Soccer Week 12. And it’s “a” instead of “the” because I don’t like being pushy. I’ll round it out with notes on every team that played last weekend. It’ll make sense by the end. Trust me. First, though, here are very short notes on all the games played between last Wednesday and last Friday, organized in the order I think they “matter.”
Los Angeles Galaxy 3-1 FC Dallas
The Galaxy’s prime directive in the here and now: keep pounding points out of punching bags. And, holy shit, did Dallas oblige. Oh, the errors.
New England Revolution 2-3 Toronto FC
There’s a (dangerous) whiff of complacency about the Revs right now; Toronto turned that into 25 minutes of mastery…which they later surrendered.
Club de Foot Montreal 2-1 New York City FC
I’ve been waiting for MLS’s mystery team to send a clear signal; this comes closest to a clear one.
Colorado Rapids 2-0 Minnesota United FC
Everything I saw said Colorado won this clean; Minnesota’s night can be summed up in Andre Shinyashiki scoring after playing a one-man give-and-go.
Red Bull New York 1-1 Philadelphia Union
Two teams that will fight you and both look like they have the quality to land a knockout blow. That's all I've got on both teams for now.
Nashville SC 2-2 Atlanta United FC
Nashville dominated the offense (nearly 3X the shots and 4X the shots on goal), but they allowed two shit goals, so…well, good on Atlanta, for one...but not that good, because they are stalling.
FC Cincinnati 2-2 Columbus Crew SC
I have extended notes on this one - if from a decisively FC Cincy perspective - but this boiled down to eagerness v veteran savvy. Then again…more later.
Chicago Fire FC 3-1 Orlando City SC
This looked more like 2-1, Orlando ran up the numbers, Chicago’s Bobby Shuttleworth had a busy afternoon…and yet Orlando lost and Chicago won. By a couple.
Austin FC 0-2 Los Angeles FC
Respectably even, so this becomes a case of better talent carrying over. The LAFC made the better chances, buried them, and that’s the difference.
Seattle Sounders 2-0 Houston Dynamo FC
I know. The Sounders won. Whaaaa? Apart from the “moral victory” of holding possession, Houston got run over by Seattle with one hand tied behind 11 backs (seriously, no Roldan, no Lodeiro, no Frei, Morris doesn’t count, etc.).
Vancouver Whitecaps 0-4 Real Salt Lake
To cut them some slack, this was the ‘Caps playing a “home game” in their opponents home stadium. To get back to reality, they got their asses handed to them. That’s six losses in eight.
Those are my notes and, again, full disclosure for anyone finding this blog for the first time, I follow two teams (Portland Timbers and FC Cincinnati), so everything else is based on box scores and MLS in 15 videos when they are available. And, for what it’s worth, I think that makes the above vagueness good, wise, and appropriate.
Now, when it comes to conjuring the Top 10 Storylines below, I’m working with (now) 12 weeks of information, a homemade Form Guide, and what can be best described as a loose, lush scientific method. In the order of importance….
1) Shaky Rests the Crown
I pointed this out in a pregame preview thread, but it is well worth noting that Columbus has looked nothing like the team that ran away from MLS Cup 2020 over a Seattle Sounders team that can’t stop kicking ass in 2021 - and that’s without everyone present and accounted for. Their wins have been unimpressive (again, v DC, @ NYC, v TFC, v CHI) and they’re 0-1-3 in their last four (@ PHI, @ ATX, v NE and @ CIN). A tough run, sure, but who expected this Columbus team?
2) Stumbling Courtiers
Fortunately for Central Ohio’s favorite team (Columbus), several immediate rivals - New England and Orlando, specifically - have tripped in weird ways in recent weeks. For the Revs, it looks like a case of sleeping on shitty teams - e.g., how you lose at Dallas and at (fucking) home(?) to Toronto - but we’ll see. Orlando is the trickier case because they’ve got three wins before the last two losses. Look closer and you see that Orlando hasn’t won a game against top-tier opposition all season, but it takes losing to Red Bull at home and Chicago away back to back to raise real questions about Central Florida’s favorite team (Orlando).
3) LA Rising
First things first, I’m aware that both LA teams have…well, died against the West’s better (on occasion) teams - e.g., your Seattles and your Sportings Kansases Cities - but also Portland (for the Galaxy) and New York City FC (for LAFC), but, they’re both over the playoff line (unlike, say, Portland) and they keep winning against teams they “should” beat…which pretty much erases the “should” in that thought. Basically, these are two teams on a present playoff trajectory and with resources/room for adjustments. Full disclosure: I come at this as a Timbers fan seeing two more times cluttering the game of musical chairs that is the post-season...at which point anything is, in fact, possible. About that...and Portland.
4) The Great Divide in the West
The line doesn’t run straight either up or down - e.g., Austin’s (poor) goals for/(good) goals allowed and the Galaxy’s (good) goals for/(not great) goals allowed - but there is a clear correlation between having a good/consistent defense and being above the playoff line in the Western Conference. Also, related…
5) Zone-In/Zone-Out
Two weeks after convincing the small circle of people I follow that they’d found their feet, Minnesota has laid two eggs that won’t do for a team with any kind of elite pretensions (the same goes for the Timbers, but...y'know, bye week....what're you guys doing?). They’re a hard team to read so far (much like the team below), especially with beating the Timbers at home as their (literally) one notable feat of 2021…look, the more I’m talking out loud, the more I remember how hard I’d argued that the West would be messy in 2021. So far, Minnesota has been the humid, mosquito-y mess at the heart of the tangle.
6) Les Habitants Rocher?
Until this week’s win over NYCFC, and at home, Club de Foot Montreal hasn’t done a damn thing worth noticing. And yet they’re fourth in the Eastern Conference and with just five points between them and a points-dropping New England side, plus a game in hand. Montreal’s doing what LA is doing so far - i.e., beating the teams they should - but they're also picking the odd point of the heavies (e.g., Nashville away twice, plus Columbus at home). The rubber will burn into the road when the stronger tests come, but, between their record and the thoughts above (the section on LA mostly), Montreal belongs at the peasants’ end of what makes an elite team in MLS in 2021. [Ed. - I can’t wait to see them host FC Cincinnati next weekend. So much to learn…]
7) A Breeze Blowing in the Windy City
On the one hand, yes, Chicago is one point under FC Cincinnati in the Eastern Conference table and, yes, Cincy is unbeaten in four while the Fire have just three unbeaten. And, and, Cincinnati beat Chicago at the start of their unbeaten streak and in Chicago. The difference is, Chicago built their seven-points-from-nine run against Philly, Atlanta, and Orlando; they played all of those at home, sure, but they also became part of all those teams’ stumbles. I’m not attempting an apples-to-apples comparison between Chicago and Cincinnati, but the Fire’s late success raises a question: e.g., how much competition can Cincy get through to make the playoffs in 2021?
8) Lessons from Vancouver, Utah
What’s happening with Vancouver this season gives a object lesson in why you look at results before punditry. I’ve read more things about how they’re improving than I’ve seen, but they really are reliably stubborn, they keep games tight and they’ve got that Lucas Cavallini guy, so surely. The reality: they haven’t won since Week 4 and their record since then is LLLLLDDL. God knows I get the impulse to be the first person to see “X” - it’s a distressingly large fraction of why I do this - but, entirely reasonable excuses about playing an eternal away schedule aside, Vancouver is dying. As is Toronto…hmm…wait, then there’s Montreal…
9) The Best Worst Team in MLS…or the Worst Best
I’ve seen Nashville SC outplay multiple teams in 2021, not whistle-to-whistle, but for extended periods - and yet they are 4-1-(fucking)-7 on the season. That’s good enough for 5th in the East right now, not to mention the top half in goals against, not to mention a positive goal differential…but that’s playoff form, not title winning form. The point of interest here is that teams will struggle to get points out of Nashville. That only makes it more of a damn shame that Nashville looks doomed to keep struggling to get points out of games.
10) Fort The Dick
This might be (nah, c’mon man, it is) a personal obsession, but I also sewed Minnesota’s failure to continue its momentum into my narrative that the Rapids will be (more of) a force at home in 2021 than usual. It’s 4-1-1 so far…and it’s Houston, Dallas, and Minnesota twice (which goes back to prior notes about some teams matching-up just so) for the four wins, but with a 1-1 draw versus Seattle in the mix (and they didn’t lose to Austin at home…shhh..sshhh…sshhhhh…). Look, I have a certain amount of faith in the way Colorado plays, but that’s also why they’re all the way down here - i.e., faith does not equal proof. Just…humor me and watch for it.
And…that’s it. That’s my Top 10. Did I get everyone? Eh, not quite. So, to sum up…
Both Toronto and Cincinnati had 45 minutes’ worth of fantastic against two of the league’s best teams, whether by form (New England…mostly) or bones (Columbus), but that’s quite possibly the only good 45 minutes of the year for one team (Toronto), and the other team running into a wall (Cincinnati), but who really can tell? Moving on, in case it’s not clear, Dallas looks terrifyingly awful so far - honestly, the defensive breakdowns against the Galaxy would make their moms turn against them - that I see no reason to count on them for anything but failure till further notice. Houston is the low-side of middling, in case that didn’t come through, and NYCFC has “sturdy, yet unspectacular" written all over them so far. From there, I guess it’s a matter of forwarding questions either in the comments or on twiiter (@JeffBull5) and I’ll answer to the best of my ability.
One final thought, and this is on the teams who skipped Week 12:
DC United: I’m still betting on upward, but what happened to Paul Arriola?
Sporting Kansas City: Seattle good, but with a glass jaw (and how that turns out)
Inter Miami CF: You and Dallas should totally hang
Portland Timbers: Won’t lie, I’m getting worried. And I’ll admit it if they prove me wrong
San Jose Earthquakes: Worse than you think, honestly.
That’s the week. Talk at ya next time. Bug me with clarifications. Till then.
No comments:
Post a Comment