MLS week 14: Almiron’s effectiveness, Sporting’s setback

Here’s everything MLS fans should be paying attention to in Week 14.

There are two ways to interpret the current MLS standings. On one hand, you have a clear separation of which teams are likely to contend later in the season (we can reasonably assume that, say, Chicago will stick around above the red line). On the other hand, considering the various scheduling factors, injuries, and potential Seattle-DC-2016 signings is important (Houston and their one road point probably won’t win the Western Conference).

It’s interesting to look at these things, and attempt to somehow use it to assess the current separation of power in MLS and try to predict how the standings will evolve come August and ultimately October.

With that, here are some more interesting things to consider prior to MLS week 14, from individual game previews to rankings to anything else I can come up with.

1. Caught in the Middle

MLS All-Star voting ballots are open, and fans can cast their votes once per day for a 10-player starting XI (the 11th will be decided by FIFA17 goals, which may or may not result in a few Toronto fans slamming their controllers). According to Extra Time Radio, Atlanta United supporters have stuffed the ballot box, and have multiple red-black-and-gold players in the running for a spot.

While deserving players hopefully won’t be snubbed in favor of undeserving Atlanta players, it’s obviously a great sign for the league that the expansion side has such dedicated fans. It would also be pretty great for us neutrals if Alec Kann or Jeff Larentowicz is voted in, but I digress.

Atlanta, as a team, has been very good recently as well. They’ve won their last two games by a combined score of 7-1, scorching the Dynamo 4-1 and then avenging a previous loss to NYCFC in a 3-1 victory. It’s come primarily as a result of Miguel Almiron quickly vaulting himself to the top of league’s ever-growing ranks of dynamic goal-producing attackers.

Almiron put up a hat trick against Houston and added two more against NYCFC, earning MLS player of the week honors twice in a row as a result. The Paraguayan has confirmed to the world that he is indeed better as a central attacker with the capability of shifting wide in the process. His heat map is wide-ranging.

And his role in Atlanta’s attack is one that combines the best features of two other talented South American No. 10’s, Mauro Diaz and Nicolas Lodeiro. He will hit balls into space to get speedy wingers and forwards running into channels — Atlanta are one of the fastest attacking teams in the league, and they like to get out on the counter — like Diaz did to Fabian Castillo and will now do with Roland Lamah and Michael Barrios. Almiron will also be a high-usage player around the box like Lodeiro, and he will poke and prod all over the final third to find the smallest gaps to either hit a killer pass into or squeak through himself. 

American Soccer Analysis has his touch percentage at 9.1 percent, meaning he has 9.1 percent of his team’s total touches in the time he is on the field. That puts him in company with Kellyn Acosta and Andrea Pirlo, and puts him ahead of players like Lee Nguyen, Ignacio Piatti, and Ian Harkes. Considering his role in a team that likes quickfire counter-attacks, that’s pretty impressive.

It shows well his above-average versatility and importance to Atlanta’s squad, one that is thriving on young, exciting attackers who play with energy and put goals on the board. They’re still not perfect and should start running into some classic expansion team difficulties as their schedule balances out, but with Almiron playing like a top-five player in MLS, the key word there is “should.”

2. Fake Happy

I think it’s a fair assertion that Sporting KC are among the two best teams in the Western Conference, along with FC Dallas. Houston needs to start getting results away from home for me to be truly convinced that they’re legit, and everyone below the top three of SKC, FCD, and conference-leaders Dynamo have their own disparaging issues. San Jose have yet to find consistency in a new, ambitious system, Portland need a center back and some balls to bounce their way, and the Galaxy, who round out the top six, had a pretty dreadful start. The East has come out as the better of the two conferences.

Sporting are currently second in the West, sitting on 22 points. The reason for that is their surprisingly clean sheet-filled start to the season, which saw them allow a total of three goals in their first nine games and two defensive stars — center back Ike Opara and keeper Tim Melia — vault to the top of their positional award races. Playing identical starting XIs throughout this stretch, Peter Vermes’s side were scary good at keeping the ball out of the net.

Their flaws were exposed in Minnesota back on May 7, when squad rotation saw them remove Opara, Graham Zusi, and others from the lineup and they were soundly beaten by the Loons 2-0. As it turns out, Kevin Ellis and, especially, Igor Juliao aren’t sufficient fill-ins for the starters, and without the three core midfielders (Illie Sanchez, Roger Espinoza, and Benny Feilhaber), they are unable to execute their strategy of playing high lines and overwhelm opponents with athleticism.

This is pretty telling:

They get another shot at Minnesota this week, playing on national TV again. They’ll need more consistent production from Gerso Fernandes, who has had his moments this season but in SKC’s last two games (2-0 and 1-0 losses at Vancouver and Colorado), he’s been quiet. Dom Dwyer’s been without support for a couple of years now, and it’s Gerso’s job to change that.

Whatever depth they have will have to show themselves soon, as Zusi and Matt Besler will go out with the US this week for World Cup qualifiers and could be gone later this summer in the Gold Cup along with Espinoza and possibly Feilhaber and Opara. They’re already hurting hard at center back depth.

3. Best winger in MLS?

Is Justin Meram the best winger in MLS? That’s the case Andrew Wiebe made for MLSsoccer.com a couple of weeks ago. He certainly has a case: the Iraqi international has eight goals and five assists so far for Columbus and has hit a hot streak recently as the Crew switch between winning blowout games and losing blowout games.

But I’m not convinced. Here are my top 10 current MLS wingers:

*A few caveats:

• Wingbacks (i.e. Justin Morrow, Steven Beitashour) are not included
• Inverted creators like Almiron and Lodeiro are not included
• Only players who primarily play on the wing are considered — meaning no Hector Villalba, Mauro Manotas, Kelyn Rowe, Julian Gressel, Sebastian Blanco, etc.
• No San Jose or Toronto players were considered, because neither of those two teams actually employ wingers. And yes, Diego Fagundez in New England’s diamond does count as a winger, while, say, Cristian Higuita in Orlando’s diamond doesn’t. Depends on the way the teams play and how they employ wide players
• I’m also not considering players who have played sparingly this year for reasons other than injury; meaning no Kekuta Manneh or Ethan Finlay.

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10. Romell Quioto (Houston Dynamo)

He’s missed time, but he’s brutally effective on the counter.

9. Diego Fagundez (New England Revolution)

The 22-year old feels like he’s been around for a decade, and he almost has. He’s picked it up recently for the Revs.

8. Emmanuel Boateng (LA Galaxy)

Exceptionally underrated, Boateng will slice apart defenders 1v1. 

7. Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers)

Less of a clear ‘winger’ than others on this list, but he does his job for Portland and he does it well. A USMNT regular at this point.

6. Jack Harrison (NYCFC)

The Englishman is scoring goals left and right for NYCFC, who sit near the top of the league.

5. David Accam (Chicago Fire)

It was really hard not putting him higher. Accam has been hugely important for Chicago, who have seen Nemanja Nikolic get most of the recognition.

4. Alberth Elis (Houston Dynamo)

Quioto’s teammate both for club and country, Elis has the length to outrun and outmuscle defenders and the ball skills to put them on the ground. He’s incredibly clever with the ball at his feet.

3. Romain Alessandrini (LA Galaxy)

Alessandrini has been great all year for LA and has shown an ability to score in many ways.

2. Justin Meram (Columbus Crew SC)

For me, he’s not the best winger in the league, but he is the best secondary creator in the league as well as the best true inverted winger this league has seen in a long time.

1. Ignacio Piatti (Montreal Impact)

Let’s be honest: Piatti is the best winger in MLS all day.

Honorable mentions: Joao Plata, Michael Barrios, Yamil Asad, Miguel Ibarra, Rodney Wallace, Chris Pontius.