What we learned from MLS Week 26, including how Real Salt Lake and the Portland Timbers trend in different directions.
This week was MLS Rivalry Week, which means we got a lot of interesting and intense games. Here are some winners and losers from those games, and then some takeaways from the others:
Winner: Record-breaking Josef Martinez
Martinez’s breaking of the single-season goal-scoring record was all over the MLS news wire this week, and rightfully so, because it’s big news. No one had outrightly broken Roy Lassiter’s record of 27, set in the inaugural 1996 season, much less done it with more than two months left in the season.
The thing about Martinez is that it’s always felt inevitable. He scores in almost every game he plays, not dominating like Zlatan does or delightfully poaching goals like Chris Wondolowski and Bradley Wright-Phillips. Martinez just tries harder than anyone else and puts himself in a ton of good positions. Someone has to score and it’s pretty much always him.
Loser: Orlando City SC
Poor, poor Orlando City.
Martinez’s goal was the winner in a 2-1 Atlanta win in Orlando, keeping the Lions winless against their rival. OCSC have taken four points from their last 16 games. They looked competent for stretches against ATL, but they’re a long way from identifying a core.
Winner: Real Salt Lake
RSL stomped all over the Colorado Rapids, who looked sleepy from the beginning and then fell off a cliff as the game progressed. The Rapids picked up two red cards in the first half and ended up losing 6-0. Jefferson Savarino, who has earned the title of most inconsistent attacker in MLS, had two goals and an assist, and Joao Plata had a goal and an assist. It was utter destruction.
Mike Petke’s team have struggled on the road, but they now have two consecutive away wins and enjoy fourth-place in the Western Conference despite a -2 goal differential. They have reconciled some of the difficulties that plagued them earlier in the season, notably their struggles transitioning from defense to attack. They don’t open themselves up as much.
But RSL are still slow in central midfield, though the introduction of Sunny next to Kyle Beckerman instead of Damir Kreilach has helped in that regard, and they can’t seem to maintain an attacking rhythm. They’re young and dynamic, and Albert Rusnak borders on elite, but they go cold too often.
Still, they’ll take a cathartic blowout of a rival, helped by Tim Howard’s troubling struggles. (The score isn’t 6-0 of Colorado had started Zac MacMath.) They have Portland and Seattle behind them with games in hand, but RSL might just steal a playoff home game.
Loser: Julio Cascante
Sunday’s nightcap was another edition of the Seattle-Portland rivalry, one with special playoff implications. With a win, the Sounders could jump into the playoffs for the first time in months and knock the Timbers back below the red line. They did exactly that, outlasting a cagey affair and winning on a late Julio Cascante own goal.
It was brutal luck for the Timbers’ center-back, who was starting in place of injured stalwart Larrys Mabiala. Cascante had a chance to clear a low cross in the six-yard box, but scuffed it into his own net, leaving the Costa Rican in despair and the Timbers with a tough-luck 1-0 loss.
Portland, after going unbeaten for 15 straight throughout the late spring and summer, have now lost three straight and have introduced a possibility that they may miss the playoffs. Their games in hand make that drastic scenario unlikely, but they have work to do, something most would not have expected a month ago.
The issue for Giovanni Savarese’s squad is their one-dimensionality, and their inability to take control of games. Their deep-sitting 4-3-2-1 formation, or another similarly narrow variant, doesn’t provide natural width or secondary chance-generating. Counter-attacking is harder if you don’t either have a target forward (like, uh, Fanendo Adi) or the ability to get wingers wide.
Teams have been able to take away some of their outlets with the ball. They’ve tended to stall in the attacking half, too often resorting to low-percentage crosses, and the full-backs aren’t difference-making overlappings, putting further onus on Sebastian Blanco’s weaving dribbles.
Savarese has tried to adjust by using his deeper central midfielders, notably MVP d-mid Diego Chara, in more flexible roles. Chara sometimes split wide right against Seattle, hoping break out of predictability. He resembled N’Golo Kante at Chelsea, except without Eden Hazard around to connect. They’ll rebound from this spell, but Savarese has work to do tactically.
Awards
The best team in the league
Atlanta United were disappointed to see the New York Red Bulls beat D.C. United, keeping pace in the Supporters’ Shield race, but they remain the odds-on favorite to take the regular season trophy. Tata Martino put out his boldest lineup yet in Orlando, pushing Julian Gressel back to right-back and going bold with Hector Villalba and Ezequiel Barco on each wing.
I doubt he’ll stick with that as his go-to lineup, but Villalba is playing too well to sit and Barco is the big-money man. Tata has some options. Look for that star-studded 4-2-3-1 to be what Martino goes with when Atlanta need a goal in the playoffs.
The worst team in the league
I don’t know how many times the San Jose Earthquakes can hit rock bottom this year. They had a comfortable 2-0 lead at home against playoff hopeful Vancouver 15 minutes into the second half. Things were going well. In less than 10 minutes, the Whitecaps stormed back with three goals and won 3-2.
Mikael Stahre has to have the hottest seat in MLS. You don’t play this badly for this long, and never even try to develop your numerous promising young players, and survive.
Random result of the week
The New Look Colorado Rapids have lost some of their charm. That 6-0 loss to RSL was one of the worst losses in MLS this season. It reminds us that while the Kellyn Acosta Rapids look exponentially better than the previous version, their roster holes are very much still there.
Predictable result of the week
It wa tempting to include San Jose’s collapse here, but we’ll go with Thursday’s Texas Derby, in which the Houston Dynamo equalized late to steal a draw against FC Dallas. It was not the most entertaining of games. Neither team attacked very much and things quickly got sluggish in the Houston heat. (I want to bed after the first half, truth told.)
Pablo Aranguiz, FC Dallas’s long-awaited Mauro Diaz Replacement, was again the bright spot. He’s an intelligent, productive player on the ball who has the willingness to try things. He’s rising up the list of most watchable MLS players.
Goalkeeper howler of the week
Andrew Tarbell’s inability to handle this free-kick started that Vancouver comeback:
Dive to the ball, Andrew! He’s been marginally better in recent weeks, but he needs to be stronger with his hands. One thing I’ve liked from Stahre is his willingness to stick with Tarbell. I’d suspect, though, that they’ll be an interesting camp battle between Tarbell and young American JP Marcinkowski, who has apparently played well at the USL level.
Go ahead and watch the highlights of Colorado’s demolition, where there are a few Tim Howard mistakes:
Can we get someone to battle Howard, too?