Matt Turner’s last Audi MLS Cup Playoffs appearance took place in 2021, a few months before his $6 million-plus transfer from the New England Revolution to Arsenal was finalized. Ricardo Pepi’s first and only postseason run came in 2020, when he was a rising teenage phenom with FC Dallas (he scored, by the way, as is so often the case for the striker).
Both have long since adapted to the European landscape. But they continue to keep an eye on the action back home, they revealed on Tuesday from US men’s national team camp in Orlando, where the Yanks are preparing for Thursday’s Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal first-leg visit to Jamaica.
“I still watch, still captivated,” Turner, now at Crystal Palace on loan from Nottingham Forest, told reporters when asked about the MLS playoffs. “My parents are still very heavily interested in MLS as well. Not sure about this three-game playoff series [format], I can't lie, but otherwise, I think things are pretty exciting, and it’s been fun to see some upsets and things like that.”
Amid several surprising upsets of higher-seeded sides, Atlanta United’s seismic Round One shock of Inter Miami CF has sparked substantial buzz across the league and beyond, including among the alums now representing MLS abroad.
“I just think it's crazy with what happened with Miami,” said Pepi, who's scored six goals and added one assist for PSV Eindhoven in the Eredivisie this season. “They were winning the whole thing, and then all of a sudden, first round, they're eliminated.”
Turner got a bitter taste of a similar situation in his last playoffs run: The Revs won their first Supporters’ Shield in 2021, only to fall to fourth-seeded New York City FC on penalties in their first postseason test. With Miami’s elimination, only three Shield winners since 2010 have gone on to win MLS Cup (the 2011 LA Galaxy, Toronto FC in 2017 and LAFC two years ago).
“I experienced that as well,” Turner noted to Pepi. “Winning a Supporters’ Shield is almost like a curse right now in MLS.”
Responded his teammate: “It’s crazy.”
Goalkeepers' Union
Turner paid extensive tribute and sent a message of support to ATLUTD goalkeeper Brad Guzan, a key architect of Miami’s undoing and a valued colleague of his on the national team.
“I definitely follow along all MLS happenings pretty closely, coming from that league, I think it's exciting to watch and to follow along. So to see Guz play the way that he did was truly spectacular,” said the 30-year-old shot-stopper. “You can tell when he's flowing and he's in that mental zone. So I was happy for him. He was a great mentor for me when we were together in the Gold Cup in 2021 and somebody, obviously, at 40 years old - but not only that, a lot of people at his age, if they had the injury that he had [Guzan suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2022 and a torn MCL in his knee last year], might call it a day.
“He obviously has a passion for the game, he can still play at a high level, and it's great to see a pathway forward for a goalkeeper in his 40s, because that's always been my dream, to make it into my 40s and just keep plugging away. So keep going, Guz, man, congratulations and good luck in the playoffs.”
Another day at "The Office"
The USMNT aim to avoid an upset of their own during this international window, their second under new head coach Mauricio Pochettino. The Yanks have won all three editions of the CNL to date, and history, recent form and player pool make them marked favorites against Jamaica in this two-legged aggregate series, which opens in Kingston and concludes at St. Louis CITY SC’s Energizer Park on Monday.
The US men are 19W-3L-10D all-time vs. the Reggae Boyz and have lost just once in 10 visits to “The Office,” as their atmospheric National Stadium is known. As US Soccer noted in its announcement of Pochettino’s roster on Sunday, however, seven of their last 10 meetings have been decided by a goal or less as the islanders dialed up the talent at their disposal in recent years.
Jamaica’s squad includes MLSers Andre Blake (Philadelphia Union) and Tayvon Gray (New York City FC) as well as highly-rated English Premier League regulars like Michail Antonio, Ethan Pinnock, and Leon Bailey. Notably, Pochettino has had precious little time to continue installing his methodology before Thursday, his first competitive match in charge following a win over Panama and a loss at Mexico in last month’s friendlies.
“I think for us, the messaging is clear, that tactics are the tactics. But the overarching theme is, we're going to win the game,” said Turner. “So we want to go down there and play our game, and earn the right to play within the game, and then hopefully our quality will shine and we'll be able to get the result that we all want leading into the second leg. We know it's going to be a difficult game again.”
