Mexico down USMNT in Pochettino's second match
Mauricio Pochettino's first taste of the US-Mexico rivalry went the way of El Tri, as Mexico won Tuesday's international friendly over the USMNT at Estadio Akron in Zapopan by a 2-0 scoreline.
Canada beat Panama in Marsch's home debut
Jesse Marsch had a victorious home debut as Canada's head coach, with Les Rouges beating Panama 2-1 Tuesday night at Toronto FC's BMO Field.
We’ll start with a technicality. He is almost definitely going to win the 2024 Landon Donovan MVP Award. It’s a near certainty. He has too much star power and too many goal contributions and there are too many voters who will see his name on the ballot and call it a day. That’s just how it goes. It’s not the end of the world.
But are those voters right?
Well…it depends. The problem with Most Valuable Player awards is no one knows what they’re actually voting for. That’s true in every sport that hands out end-of-year awards. “Valuable” or “most outstanding” or “player of the year” all mean everything and nothing and some of whatever all at once. In short: It’s all a little silly. But it’s sports and wholehearted commitment to things that are inherently a little silly is what makes this fun. So we’re going to fight about the MVP award today and I will probably get mad about it.
“Valuable” means “best”
If you’re in this camp, then, yes, Lionel Messi is the 2024 MVP. There’s a clear gap between him and everyone else on the field at all times. I don’t need to explain this to you. But I can quantify it for you.
Per FBref, Messi is averaging 1.73 goals + primary assists per 90 minutes. That’s not even counting the secondary assists he’s had this season. The next closest player, Cucho Hernández, is averaging 1.23 goals + primary assists per 90 for the Crew. That’s an absurd rate. It’s not even really close to what Messi is doing.
“Valuable” means “most productive”
He has a good argument here, too. Messi’s otherwordly goal contributions per 90 rate has him near the top of the league in total goal contributions. In fact, if you take out penalties (I like to, penalties should be their own separate stat) and secondary assists, Messi is tied with Lucho Acosta and Gabriel Pec for the most direct goal contributions in the league this season with 27. If you add in secondary assists and penalties, he’s up to 32 goal contributions on the season. Evander and Acosta are the only two players with 33.
“Valuable” means “valuable”
Here’s where it starts to get cluttered. The problem is he’s done all of the above in just 15 starts. It’s weird to say a player being tied for the league lead in direct goal contributions in just 15 of a possible 33 games so far is actually a bad thing, but how “valuable” can a player be when contributing just 15 starts and 1,453 minutes? Not counting stoppage time, there are 3,060 minutes in an MLS season. He’d have to play close to a full 90 on Decision Day to have been on the field for over 50% of Inter Miami’s playing time this season.
In his 15 starts, Inter Miami have earned 10 wins, four draws and one inexplicable loss to Atlanta. The Herons have 21 wins on the season. As impressive as Miami’s 2.26 points per game pace in Messi’s starts is, that still means Messi has contributed to less than half of Miami’s wins during their run to the Supporters’ Shield.
That being said, does any of Miami’s success this year happen without Messi? Without Messi, there’s no Luis Suárez and there may not even be a Diego Gómez. You can run down the roster and wonder how many folks would have even considered Miami if it weren’t for a chance to play with Messi. You could argue that’s pretty valuable.
It’s also incredibly intangible and probably terrible criteria for an award, but the rules are made up here anyway.
“Valuable” means some combination of all of that plus general gut feelings
I’ll be upfront and say I voted for Cucho. He has 26 direct goal contributions (minus penalties) this year for a Crew team that, in my view, is the best in the league. He also offers so much beyond goal contributions. Here, look.
That’s high-level defensive output from an elite goal scorer and chance creator. As great as he is, Messi isn’t offering that kind of all-around contribution at this stage in his career. And, on top of that, Cucho has made 22 regular season starts while also helping guide the Crew to the Concacaf Champions Cup Final and a Leagues Cup title. Yes, those aren’t technically MLS events, but I’d once again like to remind you about the rules and their existence or lack thereof.
Messi is undeniably incredible. We’re not going to hold a protest when he wins this thing. It’s just worth noting he’s given us an all-time conversation starter on what we value in a player of the course of the season. For me, I think I’ve realized I value long-term high-level contributions to success rather than short-term alien-level contributions.
I have no idea if that’s actually right or not. But this isn’t about being right. This is about being valuable.
It’s…it’s still not totally clear what that means.
Messi delivers hat trick for Argentina: Lionel Messi was in legendary form Tuesday night for Argentina, scoring a hat trick in La Albiceleste's 6-0 demolition of Bolivia in FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifying.
- Here’s your full guide to Decision Day.
- Joe Lowery has some predictions for Saturday.
- Charles Boehm has three takeaways from the USMNT’s loss to Mexico.
- Canada showed "good character" to earn a gritty win over Panama.
- Sacha Kljestan picked out the players set to shine on Decision Day.
- Matt Doyle explained what we learned from Austin FC, FC Dallas, and Toronto FC this season.
- The good folks at Extratime debated who should win Coach of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.
Good luck out there. Get where you’ve been meaning to go.
