Here are the ten things we learned from the 23rd week of the 2015 MLS season.
- New York Is Red
The New York Red Bulls beat New York City FC for the third and final time in the first year of the Hudson River Derby, but this game made the biggest statement. It was the first one in which NYCFC started David Villa, Andrea Pirlo, and Frank Lampard – and it didn’t matter.
The season aggregate score finished 7-2, and it often wasn’t that close. New York’s New Jersey team can, and maybe even should be favored, to win the Eastern Conference and make MLS Cup. Jason Kreis, who is just about ready to lose it, still has a ton of work to do.
The Red Bulls had a banner accusing NYCFC of being Manchester City Lite – fair enough – the irony being that until this season, the Red Bulls were, in many sense, NYCFC Lite.
The Red Bulls cobbled together stars – less famous than NYCFC’s trio, with the exception of Thierry Henry – for years. Not now.
That’s thanks to, uncomfortably enough, the Ali Curtis era, the firing of Mike Petke, the retirement of Henry, the departure of Tim Cahill, and the hiring of Jesse Marsch. The Red Bulls, in one offseason, shifted their entire philosophy as a club to one of youth, team building, playing good football, and spending smart.
That transition gave this new rivalry one of its most crucial aspects: A clash in ethos. Marsch is the coach of the year right now (although Peter Vermes has a shout), but even last year, the idea of the Red Bulls being a likable, frugal underdog in any rivalry would have been crazy.
But it’s worked. That shift in ethos was born both out of necessity and ingenuity, while the transition Petke to Marsch was both brave and unseemly. But it’s also helped fuel a rivalry that is only going to get better as NYCFC begins to figure their end of the bargain out next year and beyond.
- What’s Troubling NYCFC
NYCFC didn’t gel particularly well on Sunday with all their DPs together from the start for the first time. Some of those early hiccups will resolve themselves with time. But some problems will take more than time to solve.
It’s hard to see where Mix Diskerud fits. There isn’t room for him in central midfield, he didn’t look great on the wing, and he’s obviously not coming off the bench. Kreis is a big Diskerud fan, and NYCFC should be eager to hang onto one of their key talents under the age of 53. But Diskerud’s salary is high, and NYCFC has more pressing needs than creative midfield.
A defensive midfielder, for one thing. Andrew Jacobson isn’t one of the better starting defensive midfielders in the league, and Andrea Pirlo – who has pretty much been abysmal since his godly debut against Orlando – is suffering for it.
Pirlo needs good players around him to be effective. He’s the ultimate luxury player – which is absolutely no secret. Pirlo has been exactly as advertised. He’s great when he has time and sees a ton of the ball, and just old when he has to run and is pressed relentlessly.
Pirlo himself began to press against the Red Bulls, with that late run which was busted up by Dax McCarty an unusually inelegant moment that summed up another bad day for NYCFC.
Frank Lampard wasn’t at his sharpest in his first start, but he’ll be fine. His burgeoning connection with David Villa should produce plenty of goals in the next year plus.
But Kreis has serious problems. Whether he wanted any of the DPs he got – especially Pirlo – can be debated, but pressure is going to follow those players in that city regardless. And as those Red Bulls will attest, teams that have poor overall roster construction and big stars very rarely win in MLS.
- Watch Out For Houston
The Dynamo got a big 2-1 over the ‘Quakes in Dom Kinnear’s second match back at BBVA Compass Stadium this weekend, with DaMarcus Beasley getting his first Houston goal.
Owen Coyle’s team has separated itself from San Jose and Real Salt Lake as the only side that can really challenged the six presumptive playoff teams in the West. The Dynamo now trails Seattle by just one point for sixth place, with a game in hand.
Houston has a positive goal differential, which is more than Seattle or Portland can say right now, and they’ve scored more goals than both those teams as well. Purely by the numbers, the Dynamo is the fifth best team in the conference.
Part of Houston’s success so far this year has been luck – who saw David Horst turning into Aurelian Collin? – but the real reason for optimism is that the Dynamo almost certainly still haven’t played their best soccer this year.
This team has struggled all year with injuries and international absences, and has had its marquee player in Cubo Torres for less than a month. Coyle looks like quality, and the more time he has to mold his team, the better it will be.
Houston goes to Portland in two weeks. If they win, they’ll be in the thick of the race.
- DC United’s Magnum Opus
DC United has a well-earned reputation in recent years for winning ugly and getting results against all odds, and in that respect, they painted their masterpiece on Saturday night in Montreal.
DC became the first team to win an MLS match with just a single shot on target, which came when Chris Rolfe scored off a defensive mishap in the 12th minute. After that, Montreal poured in 25 shots and still lost 1-0.
Bill Hamid’s return was the main reason that United won, but if DC actually holds on to win the Supporters’ Shield grinding out these kinds of results, it will simultaneously be the best and worst thing in MLS history.
- LA’s Coronation Begins
LA rolled out it’s finished 2015 team for the first time on Sunday against Seattle, and it’s hard to shake the feeling that everyone is playing for second again this year.
The Galaxy actually played pretty badly against the Sounders. Gerrard and Keane’s on-field bromance notwithstanding, LA also looked like a team that had never played together, and they went behind in the first minute – but still won at a canter 3-1 while getting Giovani dos Santos a debut goal.
There are only a few problems. The main one is that Leonardo and Omar Gonzalez always look like they’ve never played together, but maybe that’s just Bruce Arena keeping things interesting.
This is the best team again, maybe by a bigger margin than in any year except 2012. All they care about is MLS Cup, but don’t rule them out of the Supporters’ Shield picture just yet either.
- Welcome Back Herculez Gomez
A surprise, last-ditch offer lured US World Cup vet Herculez Gomez away from the grasp of the New York Cosmos and back to MLS with Toronto FC.
Gomez is one of the best characters in the game, and it’s great that he’s back in MLS. But he’s also the kind of signing that will improve the spirit and foundation of a TFC team that is, of course, looking shakier than it should.
Toronto lost 3-1 at home to Sporting Kansas City on Saturday, with Jozy Altidore’s struggles continuing and Greg Vanney livid at his side’s slapstick defense – which is now the second worst in MLS. Michael Bradley appears to be running on fumes after his summer, while Giovinco looked tired as well.
Gomez is a good player, and he’ll get some important goals on a suddenly thin TFC front-line, but he’s also a great locker-room guy. Competitive, experienced, affable, and, in no time, well respected.
Vanney isn’t the kind of coach that can change a culture at this point in his career. He has no credentials, and very little charisma or force of personality. He’s a good company man, which is what Tim Bezbatchenko wanted after the Ryan Nelsen disaster.
So it falls to players to build a culture of winning and accountability in Toronto, and it’s just less likely that TFC goes off the rails again and somehow misses the playoffs with Gomez around.
- Orlando City Is Getting Worse
This team, at full strength, was a legitimate Eastern Conference playoff team. But this team has lost a lot. Kevin Molino is out for the year, Sean St. Ledger was released out of the blue for a serious breach of club policy, and Brek Shea and Rafael Ramos haven’t been fit either of late.
The inability of this club to get the best out of Amobi Okugo was troubling. Orlando looked good when he played with Darwin Ceren and Christian Higutia in central midfield in a 4-3-3, but for whatever reason, that wasn’t a look Adrian Heath stuck with as the season progressed.
The good news is that Tally Hall has been exceptional in goal, and this team’s problems aren’t really in midfield or in defense anyway. It’s the attack that’s really suffering.
Orlando struck out in the transfer market on another offensive weapon – they went hard after both Chicharito and Ganso – and because their young DP Bryan Rochez has been a massive disappointment, there just isn’t enough punch alongside Kaka and Cyle Larin. Carlos Rivas has the skill, but he’s nothing more than MLS’ JR Smith.
The likes of Luke Boden, Lewis Neal, Eric Avila, and Servando Carassco provide next to nothing going forward. This team, bizarrely enough, looks more patchwork now than it did on day one against NYCFC.
With the exception that explosion against Columbus’ league-worst defense, and Larin’s gem at Yankee Stadium, Orlando hasn’t had a multi-goal since June. Those attacking woes are going to cost OCSC a playoff spot that has been very attainable all year. Right now, it’s Montreal’s to lose.
- The End of An Era
Worst goal differential in MLS? That’d belong to the hapless Philadelphia Union. But Real Salt Lake is hot on their heals right now, courtesy of a 4-0 demolishing at BC Place by Vancouver on Saturday night.
Much of the lopsided nature of the match had to do with Jeff Cassar rotating his squad between midweek games in the CONCACAF Champions League and the US Open Cup, but it was also an indication that RSL has just about given up on the league.
Salt Lake is three points back of Seattle right now, but the Sounders will eventually start winning again. They trail Portland by seven for fifth. RSL hasn’t missed the playoffs since 2007, but this looks like the end of an era.
Next Saturday’s home game against the Timbers might be a last stand. If they don’t win, and especially if they make the Open Cup final, the team’s attention might turn fully away from MLS play.
- Chicago Remains A Mess
The Fire are just abysmal. Frank Yallop’s signing of Shaun Maloney pushed Harry Shipp out of his natural position, but his latest formation has pushed Maloney and Shipp out of their natural positions and onto the wings.
Both cut inside plenty and tried to find space on Friday night against Portland, but both failed to impact the game whatsoever. That’s more worrying for Shipp than Maloney, who is just extremely mediocre at soccer, because Shipp was so good last year.
David Accam got hurt in this game and had to come off before halftime, and while the eventual introduction into the team of Gilberto and reintroduction of Mike Magee will make this team look like it belongs in the league a little more, there’s no salvaging this season and little hope for the future right now.
The only real question is whether Yallop has failed more as a coach or general manager. Looking back, it was downright genius of Vancouver not to give the Canadian the power Chicago did.
The Fire looked just as bad in Portland on Friday as they did when they were in Portland for preseason. If I was a fan of that team, I’d be incensed. If I was Matt Polster or Sean Johnson, I’d be looking for an escape route.
- Univision’s MLS Presentation Is Still Offensively Bad
If any American network rolled out the MLS broadcast Univision gets away with for their English broadcast of Viernes de Futbol, they’d be absolutely killed for it.
There is no pregame show to speak of, the lineups are shown on screen and introduced during play, and play-by-play man Ramses Sandoval is a joke. He consistently butchers name pronunciations and basic facts, and calls soccer like it’s a game show for the hearing impaired.
The problems don’t end there. Sandoval often can’t see what’s happening because he’s often calling games out of a studio in LA, while the audio feed was a good second behind the video feed of the Portland – Chicago game on Friday night.
Keith Costigan has been a nice addition to the broadcast of late in place of Paul Caligiuri or Marcelo Balboa, but while it’s been fun to laugh at Univision’s MLS broadcasts for the better part of the year, it’s time to turn things around. The network owes it to its viewers and the league, and most of all, itself.
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