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| Massive lint ball on fire. Who knew? |
To get the mechanics out of the way, I’ve sprinkled the final results for every game in Major League Soccer’s Week 7 somewhere below in this post; I’ve also embedded links to The Mothership’s roundup/data in the final score for each. The commentary includes three featured matches – one of which will always be what FC Cincinnati did that weekend (and almost all good stuff so far), and I'll note how much and where I watched of the other two games – plus a round up the rest at the end in a section titled, “Now...The Rest Of It.” And, yes, I do watch too much Last Week Tonight, but aren't we all aging together in the end? After that, it's whatever insights and agreements I get from Matt Doyle's weekly roundup, whatever stuck from Sam Jones' Daily Kickoff and a bunch of brain lint from previous posts that somehow stick in my head. For good or ill...
Up next, some bullshit...
The Red Bull New York/San Jose Earthquakes game exploded into chaos and ended far, far later than it should have courtesy of a now-confirmed use of a racial slur from Dante Vanzier. I don't want kick around the fact patterns overly - at least not behind noting how much sentences like this, “Further information will be provided upon completion of that investigation,” piss me off, and the fact that the highlights skipped the incident entirely, even as The Mothership gently buries it - but I can't think of one meaningful question that needs answering. Vanzier said what he said or he didn’t and that doesn’t take much investigating. And, per this press release, it’s pretty goddamn clear that he did. What to do about it is less simple.
First and foremost, unless you can prove a toxic culture with the Red Bull organization, the main thing I want is a punishment that communicates to the player, in the clearest possible terms, that he crossed the wrong goddamn line. I saw people call for Vanzier's expulsion from the league and, sure, that's an option, but I would also gently suggest that most foreign players don't fully appreciate just how fraught race relations are in this country right now - and I make that point with real fucking firm opinions as to who's making them fraught (the right wing, the rural and the religious). My own thought is, so long as you believe that even a rabid skinhead can be rehabilitated – and I do because it does happen – you treat Vanzier like something less than an unreconstructed racist. I’m fine with a chunky suspension, something along the lines of a quarter of the season (8 games, basically) and a very rigid probation period that results in the termination of Vanzier’s contract if he fucks up again. And I’d suspend Gerhard Struber for at least four games for his refusal to sub Vanzier out as a gesture toward restoring calm. And, hey, maybe a suspension feels too much like collective punishment for a one-(ish)-man crime, so I'd also be okay with fining the bejesus out of Vanzier; hell, maybe that's what you go with because that's what Vanzier, personally, will feel most. He fucked up, so kick him, but then see where things go from there. [Update: I'm still kicking this around, so think of the above as thinking out loud.] [Update to the Update: Charlie Davies made a case, and a damned good one, for a season-long suspension. Hit this link and scroll down to the video. He's right in my mind.]
I go back and forth on what to do about “rabid skinheads.” God’s honest truth, I spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking they should all be put down for everyone else’s good, probably even their own. And, no, I don’t get the impulse to shout racist shit at random and, yes, that raises real questions about what goes on Vanzier’s head day to day. If they chuck him out of MLS, so be it. If he continues in the league, he’d be wise to put out a damned eloquent statement that shows he gets it, or he may want to spend the rest of his time in MLS watching his six.
Right, back to normal shit...starting with...
Up next, some bullshit...
The Red Bull New York/San Jose Earthquakes game exploded into chaos and ended far, far later than it should have courtesy of a now-confirmed use of a racial slur from Dante Vanzier. I don't want kick around the fact patterns overly - at least not behind noting how much sentences like this, “Further information will be provided upon completion of that investigation,” piss me off, and the fact that the highlights skipped the incident entirely, even as The Mothership gently buries it - but I can't think of one meaningful question that needs answering. Vanzier said what he said or he didn’t and that doesn’t take much investigating. And, per this press release, it’s pretty goddamn clear that he did. What to do about it is less simple.
First and foremost, unless you can prove a toxic culture with the Red Bull organization, the main thing I want is a punishment that communicates to the player, in the clearest possible terms, that he crossed the wrong goddamn line. I saw people call for Vanzier's expulsion from the league and, sure, that's an option, but I would also gently suggest that most foreign players don't fully appreciate just how fraught race relations are in this country right now - and I make that point with real fucking firm opinions as to who's making them fraught (the right wing, the rural and the religious). My own thought is, so long as you believe that even a rabid skinhead can be rehabilitated – and I do because it does happen – you treat Vanzier like something less than an unreconstructed racist. I’m fine with a chunky suspension, something along the lines of a quarter of the season (8 games, basically) and a very rigid probation period that results in the termination of Vanzier’s contract if he fucks up again. And I’d suspend Gerhard Struber for at least four games for his refusal to sub Vanzier out as a gesture toward restoring calm. And, hey, maybe a suspension feels too much like collective punishment for a one-(ish)-man crime, so I'd also be okay with fining the bejesus out of Vanzier; hell, maybe that's what you go with because that's what Vanzier, personally, will feel most. He fucked up, so kick him, but then see where things go from there. [Update: I'm still kicking this around, so think of the above as thinking out loud.] [Update to the Update: Charlie Davies made a case, and a damned good one, for a season-long suspension. Hit this link and scroll down to the video. He's right in my mind.]
I go back and forth on what to do about “rabid skinheads.” God’s honest truth, I spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking they should all be put down for everyone else’s good, probably even their own. And, no, I don’t get the impulse to shout racist shit at random and, yes, that raises real questions about what goes on Vanzier’s head day to day. If they chuck him out of MLS, so be it. If he continues in the league, he’d be wise to put out a damned eloquent statement that shows he gets it, or he may want to spend the rest of his time in MLS watching his six.
Right, back to normal shit...starting with...
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| Not so bad when you're cool with it... |
FC Cincinnati 1-0 Philadelphia Union: Mettle Tested and Proven
A couple things keep me from wanting to oversell this win – Philly’s divided attention among them, which meant starting this game with trying not to lose it in mind – but the sum of Cincinnati’s season is still pretty goddamn impressive. After an opening half where almost nothing happened - the xG graph doesn’t lie and I have no freakin’ idea why they bothered with the first half in the highlights - but the game tipped into more interesting territory around the 60th minute when both teams decided they had to try something. If I had to blow smoke up the ass of Cincinnati fans, I’d point to how little time it took them to take advantage once the game opened up.
Cincy’s goal involved some absurdity – i.e., why didn’t Ted “Drunk” Unkel simply let Brenner’s non-goal stand by playing a clear advantage instead of forcing Luciano Acosta to back it up with a penalty kick? – but you don’t teams make Philly scramble like that often. It took a bit of luck, i.e., Leo Flach scooting the ball forward on a tackle instead of clearing it, but they couldn’t contain the chaos once it broke loose. Still, the warning signs had been flashing for a couple minutes by then.
Due to CONCACAF Champions’ League games on either side of it, the Union opted to keep their big guns – e.g., Daniel Gazdag, Mikael Uhre, Julian Carranza – holstered until the 60th minute. That choice kept open the question of how much the Union could change the game until close to the end. Their young guys – e.g., Chris Donovan, Quinn Sullivan and Jesus Bueno – did a credible job, and even combined to tee up a great look for Bueno, but their better efforts followed more from heart and hustle than outright quality. Philly ended the game with an edge in the total shots and good ones, and they forced a couple saves out of Roman Celentano, but, to the extent Cincy held on for the win, I’d argue they did it with both hands.
I haven’t watched Philly much this season, and for a couple reasons – e.g., they’re distracted and dropping points all over, ergo, they're not them, so what's the point? – so I’m mostly coasting on the fumes of memories from 2022 when it comes to them. The structure still seems to be in place, in that they’re hell to break down, but I’ve also poked around the highlights from previous games and seen the same kinds of things I saw in this loss: a general lack of precision and too much struggling toward instead of getting there. As more than one commentator has pointed out, they’re just one loss shy of the total number of losses in 2022 and they’re 10 points off the pace set by...hey, FC Cincinnati. That has all kinds of implications for where Eastern Conference teams can expect to find and lose points going forward. It’s early, I get it, but this remains a loop people that people didn’t expect to get thrown this season.
As for Cincy, it’s hard to criticize an unbeaten team that currently sits atop Mount MLS – and yet what am I here for, if not that? For instance, I could argue they pissed away the first half by attacking too narrowly and failing to use the wider spaces; I could point to the way their Big Three’s numbers continue to bump their ass on the ground; Nick Hagglund had a messy game, Marco Angulo still looks better suited to a 7:30 time slot (i.e., not ready for primetime), and, because it's on my mind, sure, Matt Miazga could dial back the fucking whining: the sum of the parts make up for all of that, I feel good about Angulo improving and Hagglund has good days too. Cincinnati has started strong. Better still, they’re doing it against the meat of the league.
My featured matches are next....don't judge....
DC United 0-2 Columbus Crew SC [Minutes 30-45, 45-60, 75-90]
Not the hottest ticket of Week 7 by any means, but I took this in with a “did they even come close?” from DC’s perspective – and Columbus’, I suppose.
The Crew went ahead on a semi-soft penalty (did Russell Canouse clip Alexandru Matan’s ankle, yes, but) and put insurance on it with a Christian Ramirez goal early in the second half that got Matt Doyle excited on twitter for reasons I don’t fully understand, but it looked like they won the game on their ability to force a disjointed DC team to play backwards. And yet it was by no means inevitable; Lloyd Sam had just finished saying how little goal-mouth action there’d been to that point (and DC had the better of it) and Taxi Fountas made Columbus ‘keeper, Patrick Schulte go all the way across his body with a clip to the back-post literally immediately after the foul that led to the penalty (VAR check came after and took days). You know how it goes – had that gone in, etc. – and DC got more chances than their official xG suggests (0.6, though in-game showed 0.98 at the 60th and what does it mean when xGs diverge?) and right up to the end (early 80s), Lewis O’Brien created a plausible chance for a sadly under-supported Christian Benteke...but it didn’t ever get much better than plausible. Columbus just had to stay composed, keep DC in front of them and watch them flail; the hosts obliged, completing just 70% of their passes all over the field. That leaves DC stalled on the rim of the shitter (on 5 points) thanks to a string of bad results – too many of them at home - and Columbus with their first road win of 2023 and four wins in their past six games. The talent divide is real – Lucas Zelarayan and Matan danced inside DC’s box on multiple occasions (if to little effect) and Aidan Morris continues to force me to reassess him – while also seeming like it shouldn’t be so wide as it is.
Upshot: DC’s whole “competitive, but unlucky” thing continues to slump toward the possibility that they’re simply not good, but Columbus does seem worth keeping an eye on at this point. Steady as she goes in the right direction.
Chicago Fire FC 2-1 Minnesota United FC [Minutes 15-40, 45-60, 80-90+]
I’m going to start by acknowledging I haven’t watched the Loons much, or at all really, this season. And is it just me or does Chicago’s Chris Brady look enough like Nashville’s Joe Willis to be his son?
Very much related, this game could be seen as The Ballad of Chris Brady. After a really strong first half by Chicago (which, here, means surprisingly; more on that later), Brady cracked open the door for Minnesota when he “whoopsed” in a goal by failing to get his hands right on a Kervin Arriaga free kick from miles out. Brady later made up for that with a double-save on the doorstep in the 86th minute; that topped off some general heroics and a goldfish-esque ability to forget the fuck up and get back to work – and this from a 19-year-old ‘keeper. That applies to the Fire as a whole who did a hell of a job playing for one another against a heretofore unbeaten Minnesota team. This counts...I believe the third time I’ve watched Chicago this season and, not unlike DC, they’ve always looked pretty good; only unlike DC, they’re getting results. Gaston Gimenez fell somewhere between good and great in central midfield, ably supported by journeyman Fabian Herbers, Diego Gutierrez provides ideas and execution a couple years ahead of the curve (another 19-year-old) in the No. 10 spot and the clearly ageless Kei Kamara topped it all off with a brace. And for anyone doubting, Kamara still very much has it; it only takes watching the way he moves and combines in the box to see why he’s likely to pass Landon Donovan on all-time goals scored.
Credit where it’s due to Minnesota: they scared the shit out of Chicago with a late push; if anything, they fell victim to starting to play after going a goal down. Even without Emmanuel Reynoso, they have some excellent pieces – e.g., I’m as big a fan of Robin Lod as Adrian Heath and the spine is good – and I’ll probably watch them more to see how yesterday’s debutante, Jeong Sang-Bin, pans out. Tough loss for them, but those happen.
Upshot: Chicago has played with real confidence every time I’ve watched them and this gets them on the right side of the playoff line and in the thick of it. And, yeah, I do need to keep an eye on Minnesota, who may be better than I think.
Now, the Rest of It
Los Angeles FC 3-0 Austin FC [Glance]
Inter Miami CF 0-1 FC Dallas [Skipped]
New England Revolution 4-0 Club de Foot Montreal [Glance]
Red Bull New York 1-1 San Jose Earthquakes [Glance]
New York City FC 1-1 Atlanta United FC [Glance]
Houston Dynamo FC 3-0 Los Angeles Galaxy [Glance]
Sporting Kansas City 0-1 Colorado Rapids [Glance]
Nashville SC 0-0 Toronto FC [Skipped]
Real Salt Lake 3-1 Charlotte FC [Glance]
Seattle Sounders 3-0 St. Louis CITY FC [Glance]
Vancouver Whitecaps 0-1 Portland Timbers (my Match Report, where positivity meets perversity)
To be clear, the more games I watch, the more I realize how guttingly far behind 90% of the league the Timbers are right now. Oh, the incompetence!
To start with the games I skipped, Miami’s face-planting hard enough to make the “pay no mind” list, but good on Dallas for getting all three points. I was told nothing happened when Toronto went to Nashville and was happy to decline the invitation...Jesus, I gotta start skipping more games. For instance, no, I can’t tell you why I took any interest in Colorado’s win over SKC, and yet Diego Rubio scored as close to a true solo goal as a man gets, so long as you ignore Michael Barrios run.
A couple things keep me from wanting to oversell this win – Philly’s divided attention among them, which meant starting this game with trying not to lose it in mind – but the sum of Cincinnati’s season is still pretty goddamn impressive. After an opening half where almost nothing happened - the xG graph doesn’t lie and I have no freakin’ idea why they bothered with the first half in the highlights - but the game tipped into more interesting territory around the 60th minute when both teams decided they had to try something. If I had to blow smoke up the ass of Cincinnati fans, I’d point to how little time it took them to take advantage once the game opened up.
Cincy’s goal involved some absurdity – i.e., why didn’t Ted “Drunk” Unkel simply let Brenner’s non-goal stand by playing a clear advantage instead of forcing Luciano Acosta to back it up with a penalty kick? – but you don’t teams make Philly scramble like that often. It took a bit of luck, i.e., Leo Flach scooting the ball forward on a tackle instead of clearing it, but they couldn’t contain the chaos once it broke loose. Still, the warning signs had been flashing for a couple minutes by then.
Due to CONCACAF Champions’ League games on either side of it, the Union opted to keep their big guns – e.g., Daniel Gazdag, Mikael Uhre, Julian Carranza – holstered until the 60th minute. That choice kept open the question of how much the Union could change the game until close to the end. Their young guys – e.g., Chris Donovan, Quinn Sullivan and Jesus Bueno – did a credible job, and even combined to tee up a great look for Bueno, but their better efforts followed more from heart and hustle than outright quality. Philly ended the game with an edge in the total shots and good ones, and they forced a couple saves out of Roman Celentano, but, to the extent Cincy held on for the win, I’d argue they did it with both hands.
I haven’t watched Philly much this season, and for a couple reasons – e.g., they’re distracted and dropping points all over, ergo, they're not them, so what's the point? – so I’m mostly coasting on the fumes of memories from 2022 when it comes to them. The structure still seems to be in place, in that they’re hell to break down, but I’ve also poked around the highlights from previous games and seen the same kinds of things I saw in this loss: a general lack of precision and too much struggling toward instead of getting there. As more than one commentator has pointed out, they’re just one loss shy of the total number of losses in 2022 and they’re 10 points off the pace set by...hey, FC Cincinnati. That has all kinds of implications for where Eastern Conference teams can expect to find and lose points going forward. It’s early, I get it, but this remains a loop people that people didn’t expect to get thrown this season.
As for Cincy, it’s hard to criticize an unbeaten team that currently sits atop Mount MLS – and yet what am I here for, if not that? For instance, I could argue they pissed away the first half by attacking too narrowly and failing to use the wider spaces; I could point to the way their Big Three’s numbers continue to bump their ass on the ground; Nick Hagglund had a messy game, Marco Angulo still looks better suited to a 7:30 time slot (i.e., not ready for primetime), and, because it's on my mind, sure, Matt Miazga could dial back the fucking whining: the sum of the parts make up for all of that, I feel good about Angulo improving and Hagglund has good days too. Cincinnati has started strong. Better still, they’re doing it against the meat of the league.
My featured matches are next....don't judge....
DC United 0-2 Columbus Crew SC [Minutes 30-45, 45-60, 75-90]
Not the hottest ticket of Week 7 by any means, but I took this in with a “did they even come close?” from DC’s perspective – and Columbus’, I suppose.
The Crew went ahead on a semi-soft penalty (did Russell Canouse clip Alexandru Matan’s ankle, yes, but) and put insurance on it with a Christian Ramirez goal early in the second half that got Matt Doyle excited on twitter for reasons I don’t fully understand, but it looked like they won the game on their ability to force a disjointed DC team to play backwards. And yet it was by no means inevitable; Lloyd Sam had just finished saying how little goal-mouth action there’d been to that point (and DC had the better of it) and Taxi Fountas made Columbus ‘keeper, Patrick Schulte go all the way across his body with a clip to the back-post literally immediately after the foul that led to the penalty (VAR check came after and took days). You know how it goes – had that gone in, etc. – and DC got more chances than their official xG suggests (0.6, though in-game showed 0.98 at the 60th and what does it mean when xGs diverge?) and right up to the end (early 80s), Lewis O’Brien created a plausible chance for a sadly under-supported Christian Benteke...but it didn’t ever get much better than plausible. Columbus just had to stay composed, keep DC in front of them and watch them flail; the hosts obliged, completing just 70% of their passes all over the field. That leaves DC stalled on the rim of the shitter (on 5 points) thanks to a string of bad results – too many of them at home - and Columbus with their first road win of 2023 and four wins in their past six games. The talent divide is real – Lucas Zelarayan and Matan danced inside DC’s box on multiple occasions (if to little effect) and Aidan Morris continues to force me to reassess him – while also seeming like it shouldn’t be so wide as it is.
Upshot: DC’s whole “competitive, but unlucky” thing continues to slump toward the possibility that they’re simply not good, but Columbus does seem worth keeping an eye on at this point. Steady as she goes in the right direction.
Chicago Fire FC 2-1 Minnesota United FC [Minutes 15-40, 45-60, 80-90+]
I’m going to start by acknowledging I haven’t watched the Loons much, or at all really, this season. And is it just me or does Chicago’s Chris Brady look enough like Nashville’s Joe Willis to be his son?
Very much related, this game could be seen as The Ballad of Chris Brady. After a really strong first half by Chicago (which, here, means surprisingly; more on that later), Brady cracked open the door for Minnesota when he “whoopsed” in a goal by failing to get his hands right on a Kervin Arriaga free kick from miles out. Brady later made up for that with a double-save on the doorstep in the 86th minute; that topped off some general heroics and a goldfish-esque ability to forget the fuck up and get back to work – and this from a 19-year-old ‘keeper. That applies to the Fire as a whole who did a hell of a job playing for one another against a heretofore unbeaten Minnesota team. This counts...I believe the third time I’ve watched Chicago this season and, not unlike DC, they’ve always looked pretty good; only unlike DC, they’re getting results. Gaston Gimenez fell somewhere between good and great in central midfield, ably supported by journeyman Fabian Herbers, Diego Gutierrez provides ideas and execution a couple years ahead of the curve (another 19-year-old) in the No. 10 spot and the clearly ageless Kei Kamara topped it all off with a brace. And for anyone doubting, Kamara still very much has it; it only takes watching the way he moves and combines in the box to see why he’s likely to pass Landon Donovan on all-time goals scored.
Credit where it’s due to Minnesota: they scared the shit out of Chicago with a late push; if anything, they fell victim to starting to play after going a goal down. Even without Emmanuel Reynoso, they have some excellent pieces – e.g., I’m as big a fan of Robin Lod as Adrian Heath and the spine is good – and I’ll probably watch them more to see how yesterday’s debutante, Jeong Sang-Bin, pans out. Tough loss for them, but those happen.
Upshot: Chicago has played with real confidence every time I’ve watched them and this gets them on the right side of the playoff line and in the thick of it. And, yeah, I do need to keep an eye on Minnesota, who may be better than I think.
Now, the Rest of It
Los Angeles FC 3-0 Austin FC [Glance]
Inter Miami CF 0-1 FC Dallas [Skipped]
New England Revolution 4-0 Club de Foot Montreal [Glance]
Red Bull New York 1-1 San Jose Earthquakes [Glance]
New York City FC 1-1 Atlanta United FC [Glance]
Houston Dynamo FC 3-0 Los Angeles Galaxy [Glance]
Sporting Kansas City 0-1 Colorado Rapids [Glance]
Nashville SC 0-0 Toronto FC [Skipped]
Real Salt Lake 3-1 Charlotte FC [Glance]
Seattle Sounders 3-0 St. Louis CITY FC [Glance]
Vancouver Whitecaps 0-1 Portland Timbers (my Match Report, where positivity meets perversity)
To be clear, the more games I watch, the more I realize how guttingly far behind 90% of the league the Timbers are right now. Oh, the incompetence!
To start with the games I skipped, Miami’s face-planting hard enough to make the “pay no mind” list, but good on Dallas for getting all three points. I was told nothing happened when Toronto went to Nashville and was happy to decline the invitation...Jesus, I gotta start skipping more games. For instance, no, I can’t tell you why I took any interest in Colorado’s win over SKC, and yet Diego Rubio scored as close to a true solo goal as a man gets, so long as you ignore Michael Barrios run.
 |
| Always heroic... |
Moreover, I only dipped into a couple games for the sadism. For instance, who didn’t know LAFC would beat Austin or that any team above a quality U-12 level wouldn’t light up Montreal? LAFC rested a few regulars (e.g., Carlos Vela, Ilie “Metronome/Calm Blue Ocean” Sanchez, and Ryan Hollingshead), but still drubbed Austin out past city limits. Rumors of the Denis Bouanga are, in fact, real and he really challenged people to choose which goal was his best (I’m partial to his third, fwiw), but the big narratives didn’t change: LAFC looks ominous in 2023, Austin....whatever one calls the opposite. And if I had to sum up the low bar New England had to clear to rout Montreal, I’d point to either Bobby Wood managing a shot out of a pass he didn’t even see coming, or Giacomo Vrioni drunken-goose run and finish. Montreal failed to stop the imminently stoppable, and as a unit to boot. That said, a word of caution about the Revs’ early stride; they built that 5-1-1 record on a soft schedule – e.g., @ CLT, v HOU, v NSH, @ DC, v MTL – and got their asses shredded by...hey, LAFC. Turns out, ominous and good aren’t synonyms....
Bad as Montreal defended last weekend, I saw worse. Apart from the moment of superlative idiocy that saw LA’s Martin Caceres get his second yellow for hassling the ref during the VAR check (on the other hand, hero, because who hasn’t begged that bullshit to end?), the Galaxy’s defending on Houston’s third – and Amine Bassi’s better goal, fwiw – saw them lose everything but the rats in the stadium. In Caceres’ defense, he may have earned his little fit of pique given that the Galaxy didn’t get one of two plausible penalty shouts earlier in the game. Going the other way, LA needs more than a penalty kick to right their sinking ship. And yet, Charlotte allowed two goals thanks to defending that shamed the concept of going through the motions – e.g., did even one defender clock the movement of Anderson Julio and Jefferson Savarino (a wall-pass?!) for RSL’s 2nd and 3rd goals, respectively? Both results mean different things – e.g., I doubt beating a bad team at home changed anyone’s mind about RSL, but I think most people agree it’s worth watching Houston in 2023, both practically and aesthetically – but I just want to linger, if I may, on the front 6 Charlotte played on Saturday. From right to left, starting with the deeper bank of three: Benjamin Bender, Brandt Bronico, Kerwin Vargas, Kamil Jozwiak, Enzo Copetti, and Karol Swiderski.
Think there's a novel worthy of Faulkner in there, but keep your own counsel.
Elsewhere, Atlanta looked like the sharper team against NYC – and, on a more granular level, Giogios Giakoumakis looks legit (big, mobile, he’s scored a couple now) and Brad Guzan still has it – but NYC still looks like they’re hell to play against and good for landing one or more blows (say, a peach of a Gabriel Pereira goal from range). That is, I expect both teams to fight for the space above the playoff line in the East. And, to finally engage the substance of San Jose’s draw in New Jersey, everything I saw says the Red Bulls should have won it. They had good chances early and plenty of late shots before the equalizer (they forced a great save out of Marcinkowski at the 94th), but a bigger part of me wants the league to award the three points to San Jose in this one – and on the specific grounds that a team shouldn’t be allowed an equalizer in the extra time caused by a racist outburst by one of their players.
Finally, there’s Seattle’s win over a lately humbled St. Louis squad. As much as it would have been seismic had St. Louis won, they clearly didn’t – something that still holds even if took Seattle 60 minutes to break away. I don’t want to take anything away from St. Louis – away wins at Austin and RSL deserve praise (hell, Charlotte couldn’t do it) – but none of the teams they beat have done great in 2023 (v CLT, v SJ and @ POR are their other wins), and that makes two straight losses against teams that have even some of their shit together.
And that’s it for MLS Week 7. Seeing the league have to reset the whiteboard that reads “[__] since the last racist incident” genuinely sucks. I hate leading with shit like that, but I think I keep doing it because it pisses me off that I have to. All in all, though, I’d call Week 7 a good one. A couple upsets and some budding narratives can do that to a fella.
Till Week 8. Oh, and I will take a weekend off somewhere in the near-future. Just sort out when. Till the next one...
Bad as Montreal defended last weekend, I saw worse. Apart from the moment of superlative idiocy that saw LA’s Martin Caceres get his second yellow for hassling the ref during the VAR check (on the other hand, hero, because who hasn’t begged that bullshit to end?), the Galaxy’s defending on Houston’s third – and Amine Bassi’s better goal, fwiw – saw them lose everything but the rats in the stadium. In Caceres’ defense, he may have earned his little fit of pique given that the Galaxy didn’t get one of two plausible penalty shouts earlier in the game. Going the other way, LA needs more than a penalty kick to right their sinking ship. And yet, Charlotte allowed two goals thanks to defending that shamed the concept of going through the motions – e.g., did even one defender clock the movement of Anderson Julio and Jefferson Savarino (a wall-pass?!) for RSL’s 2nd and 3rd goals, respectively? Both results mean different things – e.g., I doubt beating a bad team at home changed anyone’s mind about RSL, but I think most people agree it’s worth watching Houston in 2023, both practically and aesthetically – but I just want to linger, if I may, on the front 6 Charlotte played on Saturday. From right to left, starting with the deeper bank of three: Benjamin Bender, Brandt Bronico, Kerwin Vargas, Kamil Jozwiak, Enzo Copetti, and Karol Swiderski.
Think there's a novel worthy of Faulkner in there, but keep your own counsel.
Elsewhere, Atlanta looked like the sharper team against NYC – and, on a more granular level, Giogios Giakoumakis looks legit (big, mobile, he’s scored a couple now) and Brad Guzan still has it – but NYC still looks like they’re hell to play against and good for landing one or more blows (say, a peach of a Gabriel Pereira goal from range). That is, I expect both teams to fight for the space above the playoff line in the East. And, to finally engage the substance of San Jose’s draw in New Jersey, everything I saw says the Red Bulls should have won it. They had good chances early and plenty of late shots before the equalizer (they forced a great save out of Marcinkowski at the 94th), but a bigger part of me wants the league to award the three points to San Jose in this one – and on the specific grounds that a team shouldn’t be allowed an equalizer in the extra time caused by a racist outburst by one of their players.
Finally, there’s Seattle’s win over a lately humbled St. Louis squad. As much as it would have been seismic had St. Louis won, they clearly didn’t – something that still holds even if took Seattle 60 minutes to break away. I don’t want to take anything away from St. Louis – away wins at Austin and RSL deserve praise (hell, Charlotte couldn’t do it) – but none of the teams they beat have done great in 2023 (v CLT, v SJ and @ POR are their other wins), and that makes two straight losses against teams that have even some of their shit together.
And that’s it for MLS Week 7. Seeing the league have to reset the whiteboard that reads “[__] since the last racist incident” genuinely sucks. I hate leading with shit like that, but I think I keep doing it because it pisses me off that I have to. All in all, though, I’d call Week 7 a good one. A couple upsets and some budding narratives can do that to a fella.
Till Week 8. Oh, and I will take a weekend off somewhere in the near-future. Just sort out when. Till the next one...
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