Looking at the thriller between Montreal and Orlando and rounding up the top three teams in each conference after week 16.
The best part of MLS week 16 had to be, unless you’re a Timbers fan, Alan Gordon’s second consecutive last-second game-winning goal. Legend.
Some thoughts on the week:
Montreal-Orlando was wonderful
If you didn’t get an opportunity to catch the Montreal Impact-Orlando City match on Saturday and you happen to own a subscription to MLS Live, I very much recommend you go back and watch it on replay. It was filled with goals — 3-3 was the final — and it was as intriguing a tactical battle as I’ve seen in MLS this season.
And by “intriguing tactical battle,” I mean “I’m not completely sure what happened there.” When Orlando went into halftime with a 2-1 lead and looked to be firmly in control of the game, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what was going on, and I was pretty set on what I was going to write. Then Jose Aja made some more errors and Ignacio Piatti took over, and all of a sudden it was 3-2 Impact within a three minute span in the middle of the second half. OCSC salvaged a point on a last-gasp set piece goal, but it did nothing to validate my preconceived tactical notions.
Let’s start from the beginning: Montreal played a 5-3-2 formation, as they did last week when they were missing three quarters of their team due to international duty. They got a result on the road in KC last time, so it’s reasonable to assume the philosophy was “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” This was a better-looking lineup, though, given that it was close to a first XI (except for Ambroise Oyongo, who went down for the year in Cameroon).
Orlando, playing in front of a motivated, rainbow-filled crowd, played a 4-4-2 that didn’t include suspended star forward Cyle Larin. The Impact’s formation was the more noteworthy of the two given Mauro Biello had previously been married to the 4-3-3. Tactical flexibility from the Impact is welcome, especially considering their spot well below the red line.
The 5-3-2 makes sense on paper. Montreal’s midfield is old and immobile, and it also can’t be creative with only one true playmaker (one of Blerim Dzemaili or Patrice Bernier) on the field. You can’t have both at the same time with only three central players behind them — as they did in the 4-3-3 — because Marco Donadel is 34 and doesn’t run very fast. So they put three center backs behind Donadel and let Bernier and Dzemaili play at the same time, with Piatti and Matteo Mancosu playing striker.
This look clearly tailors itself toward sitting deep and countering, which is what the Impact are good at anyway. That’s exactly what they did early against Orlando, as the Lions kept a ton of possession (up to 85 percent at one point) and spent the whole time passing the ball around the attacking half. Within the first 10 minutes, Montreal relented, with Kaka eviscerating Hassoun Camara down the wing and Matias Perez-Garcia tapping it in at the back post. It was a defensive disaster from the visitors, and violates the first rule of bunkering, which is play really good defense or lose immediately.
At that point, the flaws of the 5-3-2 became evident. Camara and Daniel Lovitz, the wing-backs in the formation, had no desire to venture forward, so when trying to break out, the midfielders had no passing options other than the forwards. Piatti was hounded by various players at all points, and Mancosu isn’t much of a hold-up striker, so that meant very little options for Dzemaili and Bernier. Exhibit A:
In part because of this weakness, Orlando pinned the Impact back and for the most part kept them there. The exception, though, turned out to be Aja, who gave the ball away and Montreal took advantage to equalize in the middle of the half. That felt like an anomaly, especially after Orlando scored again not long after to secure their 2-1 halftime lead.
Orlando’s home commentators raved during the break about how well the hosts played, and how much better they were than the Impact. They weren’t wrong.
But the Purple Lions sleep walked out of the locker room and played much worse in the second half, allowing the Impact to gradually start touching the ball more and push them back into their own half, something that doesn’t usually happen when a team is playing a five at the back. The game flipped in the 57th and 58th minutes, though.
Piatti scored twice in that brief span to quiet the crowd and make the score 3-2, and I would have paid to hear Jason Kreis’ thoughts at the moment Piatti scored his second. Joe Bendik flubbed the first goal, letting a breakaway shot squirt through. The second came from another defensive error, courtesy of, you guessed it, Aja, who got pulled Jelle Van Damme-style for Tommy Redding minutes later.
The next 30 minutes were mostly even, even though Orlando should have been throwing numbers forward and chasing a goal. It was intense only thanks to the fans.
Kreis’ most ambitious attacking sub was Luis Gil for Will Johnson, which constitutes an attacking sub just as much as a Dorito counts as spicy. They were saved in stoppage time by Jonathan Spector, who headed a corner past Evan Bush to secure themselves a point. Overall, it was a bad result playing at home against lower-tier conference opponent who were a tactical tire-fire for large stretches.
As for the Impact, I don’t know what to tell you. There was good (three road goals and another result) and there was bad (watch the above, and the lack of good wing-backs should probably be a concern). They’re on the road again next week, so Biello will have some interesting choices to make.
Taking stock of the top three
We’re very quickly approaching the halfway point of the MLS season. Most teams have played somewhere around 16 games, so we’re getting close to actually having an idea of what the standings will look like in a few months. A clear hierarchy has asserted itself in each conference — the one in the East is better for the first time in a while — and after this week’s results affirmed that hierarchy again, we’re going to look at the six teams claiming top three in points per game on each side of the standings. Are they legit contenders, or are they products of an easier schedule?
Eastern Conference
Toronto FC (first in the East) — TFC just recently got Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore on the field at the same time again, and with the closest they’ve been to a full-strength squad in weeks, they coasted by D.C. United, 2-0. Giovinco had two assists and Altidore had a goal.
Since that six-game win streak pole-vaulted them over the rest of the league, Toronto have been mostly sitting pretty. They’re easily tops in the league in points per game and in the regular standings, they’re built for the long haul with the best depth in MLS and they’re just now seeing the best player in the league round back into goalscoring form after a choppy first three months.
Beating D.C. at home is no great accomplishment, but consistently taking three points from conference opponents is what wins you the Supporters’ Shield. TFC are on pace for a few more points than Shield-winning FC Dallas accumulated last year.
Chicago Fire (second in the East) — I wrote about them before this week’s slate, and on Saturday, they didn’t throw away everything I said, which is good. The Fire walked into Gillette Stadium and took three points from the Revolution, with goalscoring machine Nemanja Nikolic scoring and assisting.
Bastian Schweinsteiger has turned out to be the distributor they needed, and Nikolic is the complement to David Accam they had been missing for ages. Chicago are just one point behind TFC.
New York City FC (third in the East) — NYCFC picked up another three home points against the Sounders this week, keeping them five points off Toronto’s pace. David Villa continues to put the ball into the net, Jack Harrison is quietly rising to the top of the MLS U-20 pool, and NYC’s backline continues to hold firm and fire off bullet headers from corners.
They have some work to do to get back into the Shield race, but there’s no doubting they’re one of the three best teams in the league, and there’s a very good argument they’re a better team than the Fire. Patrick Viera is a very good manager.
Western Conference
FC Dallas (first in the West) — Dallas are fourth in the conference in terms of pure points, but points per game elevates them to the top spot. FCD spent a lot of the season as the consensus best team in the league, but even as their best player, Mauro Diaz, returns to fitness, they’ve struggled to get wins. That games in hand advantage is growing smaller.
Sporting KC (second in the West) — SKC have played more games than the rest of the top six teams, helping them take their spot on the top of the conference in points. They seem to be back to what found them success early in the season, which was a strong defense. In their past four games in all competitions, they’ve allowed one goal.
0-0 was the score in San Jose on Saturday night, a solid road result and one that adds to their tally of six draws on the season, tied for the most in the league. SKC grind out results.
Portland Timbers (third in the West) — The Timbers come into this spot just ahead of the Dynamo, who are on 24 points through 16 games like Portland. After a stretch of bad results that saw their attack stagnate, Portland rebounded with three straight wins in all competitions, including a 2-0 home result against Dallas.
On Saturday, they somehow managed to lose to the Rapids, which is pretty rough to say the least. Gordon scored another last second header, yes, but those are games the Timbers should be winning. As cliche as it is, consistency seems to be the issue.