St. Louis-LA close out the weekend
St. Louis CITY SC host the LA Galaxy today at 2:45 p.m. ET on Apple TV and FOX. The Galaxy are trying to extend their lead at the top of the West while St. Louis are hoping for a late playoff push.
Houston pulled off a tone-setting win, Portland took down a rival and absolutely no one wants the last home playoff spot in the East apparently. Let’s talk it out.
Oh boy, this is more like it.
After MLS “experts” like me (?) spent a couple of weeks talking about how Houston had seemingly addressed their biggest needs by signing two key contributors in attack, they came out of the gate last week and immediately fell face-first into the pavement with a 1-0 loss against Toronto. This weekend made me feel a little better though. Houston, on the back of goals from their newest DP Ezequiel Ponce and their newest U22 Lawrence Ennali, took down LAFC on the road.
It’s the first LAFC loss to a team that isn’t Columbus since May 4. They’ve played 23 non-Columbus games in all competitions over that span. For me, that makes this a genuine statement win for the Dynamo. Even if they don’t end up in a home playoff spot, whoever ends up facing them in the post-season is in danger. This is a good team who can take down anyone on their day. Now we just have to see if they can keep having their day consistently. With Houston facing one of the toughest final stretches of any team in the league, we’re going to keep finding out how dangerous they can be.
On the LAFC side, their path to the top of the West just got a lot tougher. They’re five points back with two games in hand and another meeting with Houston on the way this Saturday before a massive El Tráfico.
It only took one moment from an unlikely source to power the Timbers to a massive win. Juan Mosquera ripped a shot from outside the 18 that took a fortunate deflection off of Nouhou and into the back of the net. And that was that. Seattle, even with Pedro de la Vega in the starting lineup, couldn’t break through.
For Seattle, it’s hard to come up with a more depressing stretch of losses. After falling in Leagues Cup against LAFC, they came up short again in the US Open Cup against LAFC and followed it up with a loss to their biggest rival. Now, Columbus are waiting for them on Saturday.
For Portland, man, it’s hard to think of them as anything but one of the best teams in the league at this point. They’re firmly in Tier Two for me. They’ve had an identical record to Seattle this year, but are far more dynamic and dangerous with the ball. They’re likely a little too far back to reach fourth place at this point, but they’re a surefire playoff team barring a collapse. When they get there, absolutely no one will want to face them.
Just your typical Crew game, right? After Monsef Bakrar found the net late to equalize, Columbus, in standard fashion, didn’t flinch. Instead, they found new wingback DeJuan Jones inside the 18 for a winner and let Jacen Russell-Rowe finish the game off for good moments later.
For the second time in as many meetings, NYCFC put up a valiant effort against the Crew and came up short. They’re a good team and Alonso Martínez continues to be the real deal at striker. But there are levels to these kinds of things. There’s ways to go before they’re ready to get the better of Columbus.
That’s the bad news though. The good news is they’re still sitting within three points of a home playoff spot because…
The Union might be back? Are the Union back? Someone tell me if the Union are back?
Mikael Uhre and Tai Baribo blitzed the Red Bulls and suddenly we genuinely have to ask if the Union are back. They’re, at the very least, one of the hottest teams in the league. In large part because Baribo is one of the hottest players in the league. The Union have only lost in regulation once in his last 10 starts over MLS and Leagues Cup play. In his last 11 games, Baribo's scored 12 times.
This win doesn’t quite put them over the line, but they’re one point back of Atlanta and three points back of Toronto and they’re trending towards the kind of heater that Sporting KC got on last year before taking down St. Louis in the playoffs. They might be genuinely scary by the time we reach the postseason.
We’ll try to calm down though. It’s just good to see them looking like themselves again.
Meanwhile, Red Bulls look…kind of like themselves again? In the bad way? They’re fading down the stretch here and, after a disappointing summer window, they’re not looking like a real threat for a playoff run. They have two wins over their last 13 matches. It could be going better. But at least they’re still holding onto fourth place. Which, speaking of…
For the first time since maybe their win over Inter Miami, we’re asking where this Atlanta team has been all year. They looked crisp on the ball, made quick decisions, got numbers forward and generally looked like they wanted to score. It all led to one of their best wins of the year and a win that could have been even worse for Charlotte. Atlanta still found a way to underperform their xG by a significant margin. At least they stayed on brand.
Anyway, Atlanta’s excellent performance likely had a lot to do with new DP Alexey Miranchuk making his start and a little more to do with young midfielder Jay Fortune starting to come into his own. He scored from distance in this one during another impressive outing.
The win has Atlanta United in ninth place, one point ahead of Philadelphia and two points behind Toronto. Charlotte, who started all three of their DPs in this one, stayed in sixth on a night when no one seemed all that interested in taking fourth place in the East.
Luca Orellano took a moment here for an all-time great heat check. Moments after scoring his first goal of the night off a deflected free kick from outside the box, Orellano decided to take a free kick from outside of his own half. He somehow sent it over the keeper’s head and into the back of the net. When you’re hot, you’re hot.
Montréal are not hot. They’ve lost in back-to-back routs and their season is starting to come to a close. Cincy stayed out in front of the Crew for now in the fight for second place, but the Crew still have a couple of games in hand.
Pedro Vite provided the lone goal for the ‘Caps in a big road win. They’re quietly setting themselves up to swipe fourth place in the West here. Vancouver are only three points behind Colorado and have two games in hand. It’s tough to really get amped up for that when we’ve seen them come up short against the best teams in the league so often. But still, finishing fourth would be another impressive accomplishment for this team.
Orlando unofficially hammered the nails in Nashville’s coffin last night. The Lions rolled to an easy win over a team that just doesn’t have any juice left. Nashville are at the bottom of the East and may end up staying there over the rest of the year. They’re five points back of the playoff line now and it’s hard to see a way forward.
On the flip side, everything is coming up in Orlando. The Lions are within touching distance of a home playoff spot now as the New Yorks and Charlotte try to see who can run into a wall the hardest. Orlando are only two points back of fifth place and five points behind the struggling Red Bulls for fourth. I wouldn’t count them out.
Inter Miami took care of business and even won the xG battle. Yeah, they technically still overperformed by about two goals, but we’ll go ahead and say they’re better than the Fire. They’ve got a hand and a half on the Shield at this point.
Chicago are five points back of the line. The dream might be dying.
Dallas looked like they were on their way to getting over the playoff line, but Rafa Navarro and Darren Yapi had other ideas. Instead, Dallas are sitting in 11th, three points behind Minnesota, and the Rapids are hanging onto fourth place in the West with seven games to go. It doesn’t quite line up in their favor with Vancouver in their rearview, but they’re playing as well as any team in the West.
Back to business for Real Salt Lake. Even without Chicho Arango, RSL rolled to a 2-0 win without having to break much of a sweat. They stayed three points ahead of Colorado and six points ahead of Vancouver. The rest of the West is running out of time to catch them.
This game exploded late as D.C. pulled out a solid win over Toronto. D.C. are only two points back of the last playoff spot in the East and are officially closer to the post-season than last place in the conference. I don’t think their defense is going to let them get there in the end, but maybe this is the kind of win that turns things around?
Toronto are just three points above 10th place Philadelphia now, by the way.
Bongokuhle Hlongwane’s brace led the way for the Loons in a key win. They’re back over the playoff line in ninth place with seven games to go.
- Luis Suárez kept the Inter Miami machine humming.
- Luca Orellano grabbed the spotlight in a big Cincinnati win.
- Portland produced their best performance of the season against Seattle.
Good luck out there. Get the band back together.
