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| Nothing says "refinement" like wavy Lays. |
With the international break dominating attention (unlike, say, the NFL playoffs during the playoffs), Major League Soccer opted to serve up a small plate, a modest appetizer, if you will, for Match Day 5. Fortunately for me (wait…is it?), I have a personal/hobbyist’s interest in two of the three games on the plate, and the third one just fucking stinks with intrigue. With an eye to minimizing bias, I’ve decided to preview them in the order in which they’ll be played.
Charlotte FC v FC Cincinnati
A modestly revamped FC Cincy have given fans and observers hope and reason (respectively) to believe they might dump to ignominy of a “thrashing” by wooden spoon on another team for the first time in their MLS history. One might naturally see a natural inheritor in new kids, Charlotte FC, and yet…
I haven’t yet had the pleasure of a long visit (aka, a full 90 minutes) with Charlotte, but I suspect most people who follows MLS noted their Week 4 win over last year’s record-breaking/Shield-winning New England Revolution, as well as Karol Swiderski’s role in makingit happen. Lest any doubters think Charlotte beat a rotated Revolution team, they did not; most of the names people know started. Moreover, they went up early and, when the Revs equalized in the 54th minute, Charlotte knocked them back off stride three minutes later with the winner, and then added another just seven minutes later. It bears noting New England was playing on CCL-legs, but this wasn’t a case of crapping out down the stretch.
I did, however, spend 15 minutes watching Charlotte in their inaugural MLS game, a 0-3 loss at DC United, a game in which they looked very much up for it - i.e., that final score plus three fluky goals flattered the bejesus out of a DC team who later revealed more than a few cracks in their chassis. Related, I saw more of the same from DC when they beat FC Cincy in Week 2. Now, about that game…
All the things that brought FC Cincy two straight wins after that loss had their coming-out party in that same loss - e.g., forwards Dom Badji and Brandon Vazquez finding good looks with Luciano Acosta running wild ‘n’ loose underneath, and the central midfield tandem of Junior Moreno and Yuya Kubo moving the ball from the defense to the attack timely, quite possibly for the first time in FC Cincinnati history. All concerned have been doing the same since, and arguably better - definitely better in the case of the forwards - and that has Cincy on two wins on the trot, and without a Geoff Cameron chicken-wing to spoil the outcome. So…who’s gonna win?
Either team, or neither. Look, I want Cincinnati to win their third straight, not least because it would be the first three-game winning streak of their MLS era. There’s also the wisdom/necessity of picking up the points a team should when they can, lest they have to rescue the same from a harder team/venue down the road (aka, the Hungry Hungry Hippo Principle, explained (somewhere in) here). There’s also the fact Cincy is about to, as our former president once said, “go through some things” - i.e., they have v MTL, @ SEA, @ ATL, v LAFC and @ TFC for their next five games - which only ups the importance of playing like, yes, hungry, hungry hippos. All that acknowledged and recorded, this is still an away game and Charlotte doesn't look much like a team to just bend over and take a vigorous wooden spooning. Bottom line, as much as I believe Cincy is good for three points, I won’t lose even a tiny shit over it if they don’t. Next!
Charlotte FC v FC Cincinnati
A modestly revamped FC Cincy have given fans and observers hope and reason (respectively) to believe they might dump to ignominy of a “thrashing” by wooden spoon on another team for the first time in their MLS history. One might naturally see a natural inheritor in new kids, Charlotte FC, and yet…
I haven’t yet had the pleasure of a long visit (aka, a full 90 minutes) with Charlotte, but I suspect most people who follows MLS noted their Week 4 win over last year’s record-breaking/Shield-winning New England Revolution, as well as Karol Swiderski’s role in makingit happen. Lest any doubters think Charlotte beat a rotated Revolution team, they did not; most of the names people know started. Moreover, they went up early and, when the Revs equalized in the 54th minute, Charlotte knocked them back off stride three minutes later with the winner, and then added another just seven minutes later. It bears noting New England was playing on CCL-legs, but this wasn’t a case of crapping out down the stretch.
I did, however, spend 15 minutes watching Charlotte in their inaugural MLS game, a 0-3 loss at DC United, a game in which they looked very much up for it - i.e., that final score plus three fluky goals flattered the bejesus out of a DC team who later revealed more than a few cracks in their chassis. Related, I saw more of the same from DC when they beat FC Cincy in Week 2. Now, about that game…
All the things that brought FC Cincy two straight wins after that loss had their coming-out party in that same loss - e.g., forwards Dom Badji and Brandon Vazquez finding good looks with Luciano Acosta running wild ‘n’ loose underneath, and the central midfield tandem of Junior Moreno and Yuya Kubo moving the ball from the defense to the attack timely, quite possibly for the first time in FC Cincinnati history. All concerned have been doing the same since, and arguably better - definitely better in the case of the forwards - and that has Cincy on two wins on the trot, and without a Geoff Cameron chicken-wing to spoil the outcome. So…who’s gonna win?
Either team, or neither. Look, I want Cincinnati to win their third straight, not least because it would be the first three-game winning streak of their MLS era. There’s also the wisdom/necessity of picking up the points a team should when they can, lest they have to rescue the same from a harder team/venue down the road (aka, the Hungry Hungry Hippo Principle, explained (somewhere in) here). There’s also the fact Cincy is about to, as our former president once said, “go through some things” - i.e., they have v MTL, @ SEA, @ ATL, v LAFC and @ TFC for their next five games - which only ups the importance of playing like, yes, hungry, hungry hippos. All that acknowledged and recorded, this is still an away game and Charlotte doesn't look much like a team to just bend over and take a vigorous wooden spooning. Bottom line, as much as I believe Cincy is good for three points, I won’t lose even a tiny shit over it if they don’t. Next!
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| We can only know after a full spin. |
Sporting Kansas City v Real Salt Lake
I don’t have any special insights into either team - though, for funsies, I do see that Charlotte currently sits higher in the overall standings thanks to scoring one more goal and allowing one fewer than SKC (i.e., they’re both on three points after four games, but Charlotte has a -3 goal differential to SKC’s -5). I’m not totally current on SKC’s injury situation, but I see key players like Khiry Shelton, Johnny Russell and Daniel Salloi still listed as questionable (though The Mothership doesn’t keep that data rigorously updated and/or the teams involved don’t report it timely), and that could spell trouble, even if they're hosting. And, as everyone knows, RSL is off to a flyer, and that’s without an even more extensive list of walking wounded - e.g., players like Aaron Herrera, Damir Kreilach show as questionable, along with some other familiar names, and if Zac MacMath’s “questionable” becomes an absence, especially with regular starting ‘keeper David Ochoa showing as “out,” RSL could roll down to the Middle Midwest powerfully depleted.
Still, the main thing I’m looking for here is a(nother) SKC loss. I’ve seen teams climb out of deep holes in this league, but that would leave SKC chasing a fairly impressive pack. And, finally…
Portland Timbers v Orlando City SC
It’s no secret that Portland has got off to its traditional slow start - I have no doubt that some Timbers fans have yet to fully shake off last week’s road defeat at FC Dallas - but it’s also nothing fans haven’t seen before and the team has recovered from the same or worse more than once. Going the other way, why put it off? Or, to allude to a principle introduced above: how confident are you that the Timbers have another recovery in them this season?
I’ve had the pleasure of watching Orlando this season and, whatever comfort the average Timbers fan might take from Cincy’s 2-1 win over them in Week 3, I’m hereby cautioning against complacency. They have solid personal - e.g., fullbacks Ruan and Joao Mutinho who will pressure Portland’s divergently inconsistent fullbacks (as much as I like the kid, Ruan could make a meal out of Claudio Bravo’s lunges), I’ve always liked Junior Urso at d-mid (scrappy fucker; vaguely resembles Diego Chara), new kids Facundo Torres and Ercan Kara got rolling against LA last weekend and Torres impressed when I watched them, plus there’s still Mauricio Pereyra keeping things moving through midfield - and, to carry that final thought outside the long middle passage, Orlando breezed through Cincy all the way up to the point they compacted into a two-banks-of-four brick. And they created at least a couple chances they really should have put away.
Without attempting any sort of equivalency between Portland’s and Cincy’s defense from front-to-back, I generally expect that the Timbers will let Orlando play and that, therefore, Orlando will generate their share of chances. As such, one thing I’ll be counting on Sunday (assuming I can get in front of a TV for the game) are the total number of decent looks/shots on goal the Timbers defense allows (Cincy allowed six on 18 total shots, fwiw). Related, I’m mindful that circumstances (a recovering(?)) Larrys and no Bill (Forza Kiwis!) are likely to force the Timbers to debut a Zac McGraw/Dario Zuparic center back tandem and, given the fullback situation flagged above, all that could end in a busy day for Aljaz Ivacic. My only thought there: it is what it is.
And I guess that goes for Timbers v Orlando writ large. I’d like to see Portland stand up Fortress Providence Park sooner rather than later - especially with a handful of typically gettable home games en route (e.g., v LA Galaxy, v RSL, v (ideally, the current iteration of) SKC) - but, the bigger, broader point is this: a season will come where the Timbers can’t recover from a shitty March. I’m fairly sure they’ve already had one (my money’s on 2016…and, nvm; looks like the whole thing wasn’t great).
Big picture, I’d call myself more hopeful than optimistic when it comes to both Cincy’s and Portland’s games in this rump-MLS Week 5, but without calling optimism entirely misguided in either case. And I just want to have fun with the other one…and RSL heaping more woe on SKC is my idea of fun. We’ll see how the world turns once it gets going…
I don’t have any special insights into either team - though, for funsies, I do see that Charlotte currently sits higher in the overall standings thanks to scoring one more goal and allowing one fewer than SKC (i.e., they’re both on three points after four games, but Charlotte has a -3 goal differential to SKC’s -5). I’m not totally current on SKC’s injury situation, but I see key players like Khiry Shelton, Johnny Russell and Daniel Salloi still listed as questionable (though The Mothership doesn’t keep that data rigorously updated and/or the teams involved don’t report it timely), and that could spell trouble, even if they're hosting. And, as everyone knows, RSL is off to a flyer, and that’s without an even more extensive list of walking wounded - e.g., players like Aaron Herrera, Damir Kreilach show as questionable, along with some other familiar names, and if Zac MacMath’s “questionable” becomes an absence, especially with regular starting ‘keeper David Ochoa showing as “out,” RSL could roll down to the Middle Midwest powerfully depleted.
Still, the main thing I’m looking for here is a(nother) SKC loss. I’ve seen teams climb out of deep holes in this league, but that would leave SKC chasing a fairly impressive pack. And, finally…
Portland Timbers v Orlando City SC
It’s no secret that Portland has got off to its traditional slow start - I have no doubt that some Timbers fans have yet to fully shake off last week’s road defeat at FC Dallas - but it’s also nothing fans haven’t seen before and the team has recovered from the same or worse more than once. Going the other way, why put it off? Or, to allude to a principle introduced above: how confident are you that the Timbers have another recovery in them this season?
I’ve had the pleasure of watching Orlando this season and, whatever comfort the average Timbers fan might take from Cincy’s 2-1 win over them in Week 3, I’m hereby cautioning against complacency. They have solid personal - e.g., fullbacks Ruan and Joao Mutinho who will pressure Portland’s divergently inconsistent fullbacks (as much as I like the kid, Ruan could make a meal out of Claudio Bravo’s lunges), I’ve always liked Junior Urso at d-mid (scrappy fucker; vaguely resembles Diego Chara), new kids Facundo Torres and Ercan Kara got rolling against LA last weekend and Torres impressed when I watched them, plus there’s still Mauricio Pereyra keeping things moving through midfield - and, to carry that final thought outside the long middle passage, Orlando breezed through Cincy all the way up to the point they compacted into a two-banks-of-four brick. And they created at least a couple chances they really should have put away.
Without attempting any sort of equivalency between Portland’s and Cincy’s defense from front-to-back, I generally expect that the Timbers will let Orlando play and that, therefore, Orlando will generate their share of chances. As such, one thing I’ll be counting on Sunday (assuming I can get in front of a TV for the game) are the total number of decent looks/shots on goal the Timbers defense allows (Cincy allowed six on 18 total shots, fwiw). Related, I’m mindful that circumstances (a recovering(?)) Larrys and no Bill (Forza Kiwis!) are likely to force the Timbers to debut a Zac McGraw/Dario Zuparic center back tandem and, given the fullback situation flagged above, all that could end in a busy day for Aljaz Ivacic. My only thought there: it is what it is.
And I guess that goes for Timbers v Orlando writ large. I’d like to see Portland stand up Fortress Providence Park sooner rather than later - especially with a handful of typically gettable home games en route (e.g., v LA Galaxy, v RSL, v (ideally, the current iteration of) SKC) - but, the bigger, broader point is this: a season will come where the Timbers can’t recover from a shitty March. I’m fairly sure they’ve already had one (my money’s on 2016…and, nvm; looks like the whole thing wasn’t great).
Big picture, I’d call myself more hopeful than optimistic when it comes to both Cincy’s and Portland’s games in this rump-MLS Week 5, but without calling optimism entirely misguided in either case. And I just want to have fun with the other one…and RSL heaping more woe on SKC is my idea of fun. We’ll see how the world turns once it gets going…
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