MLS Week 32: The biggest takeaways as MLS hits final three weeks

What we learned from MLS Week 32, featuring Atlanta United, Real Salt Lake and FC Dallas.

With only two weeks left in the MLS regular season, here are some takeaways from what happened in Week 32:

Miguel Almiron is injured

It looks like Almiron will sit for Atlanta United’s remaining two regular season games. He picked up a leg injury in Atlanta’s 2-1 win over New England, which kept them narrowly ahead in the Supporters’ Shield race.

ATL have an established wealth of riches in attack, so starting $15 million prodigy Ezequiel Barco isn’t too dramatic of a drop-off. But Atlanta are only a point ahead of the Red Bulls. They can’t afford to drop any points, and Barco has been mostly underwhelming.

How they replace Almiron tactically will be interesting. They could shift Barco into the middle behind Josef Martinez and keep Julian Gressel and Hector Villalba on the two wings. They could play a 3-4-3, a formation without a defined spot for a central creator, and rely on the midfield and wing-backs. The suitability of the latter depends on the relationship between Darlington Nagbe and Eric Remedi, and whether they have a reliable left wing-back — 16-year-old George Bello was that against New England.

Real Salt Lake are (probably) not for real

RSL shipped four goals at home in a huge game against Portland. The 4-1 loss will make things difficult for Mike Petke’s crew — they’re only a point ahead of the suddenly-good LA Galaxy, and eighth-place Vancouver is three points back with a game in hand. Losing the way they did on Saturday will take more wind out of RSL’s erratic sails.

A month after the stretch of two games in which they outscored Colorado and the Galaxy 12-2, RSL have a frustrating 1-1 draw against Minnesota, a loss in Atlanta, a draw against Sporting KC and now this latest defeat. The attack is inconsistent, the midfield is slow and the defense is mistake-prone:

At some point RSL have to put it all together. They’ve occasionally done it this season, but only against chaotic opposition, rarely against good teams. Partly, they face the consequences of playing predominantly young players, but their issues are often rooted in the veteran pieces — Damir Kreilach hasn’t been the answer in central midfield, Joao Plata’s form is amazingly fickle and Nick Rimando has cost them points at times.

If they make the playoffs, they’d most likely go to LA to face LAFC in the knockout round. They could feasibly concede five. Or score five.

Philadelphia are having fun

Philly have officially overtaken Columbus for the Eastern Conference’s fourth-seed, torching Minnesota United in a 5-1 win. They put up four goals in the first half, humiliating the Loons’ pitiful attempts at defense, and continue to play pretty soccer. David Accam didn’t even make the bench.

Their final two games are against the New York teams. Columbus, who are two points off of fourth-place after losing to Montreal 3-0, get to play Orlando City (and their plentiful supply of mediocre defensive midfielders) and poor Minnesota. Finishing fourth secures a home knockout round game, which historically is much better for your chances of winning.

Almost certainly, Philly and Columbus will play against each other in the postseason. It should be an aesthetically pleasing game.

FC Dallas are having less fun

Dallas don’t play especially entertaining soccer, but they’re good at scrapping results and slowing games down. They did it again at home against Orlando, winning 2-0 with two second-half goals and a long weather delay in the 80th minute.

The concern for FCD is whether they’re creating sufficient chances — Maxi Urruti has been good at times as a faux number 10, with good set piece delivery and a collection of assists, but he’s no creator. Pablo Aranguiz is immensely talented, but it remains to be seen how much Oscar Pareja trusts him, and he barely gets on the ball when he does play. Striker Dominique Badji won’t make things happen on his own.

They defend well and do everything they need to do in the midfield. They’re a no-nonsense team with the occasional flurry of attacking electricity. It might be enough to slip through the Western Conference in the postseason.

Awards

The best team in the league

We’re sticking with the New York Red Bulls in this slot, after they had little trouble dispatching the Earthquakes in San Jose. Bradley Wright-Phillips scored again in the Red Bulls’ 3-1 win, which also featured this cheeky center-back to center-back goal:

Aaron Long and Tim Parker are MLS’s best center-back pairing. Clearly their connection is alive and well.

Chris Wondolowski scored his 10th goal of the year, which puts him at nine(!) straight double-digit goal seasons. Wondo Watch, one of the best parts of this entire MLS season, nears its end, as Wondo is just one away from the all-time MLS goal record, held by Landon Donovan. San Jose hosts Colorado two weekends from now. A brace would do it.

The worst team in the league

With Mikael Stahre out in San Jose and the good players finally playing, the Colorado Rapids take this crown. Colorado, playing at home, had just one shot on target as they got steamrolled by LAFC 3-0. Things are, uh, not great in RapidsLand.

Adama Diomande scored twice for LAFC. It’ll be interesting to see how Bob Bradley distributes the minutes at center forward in the playoffs, between Diomande, Christian Ramirez and Marco Urena. Ramirez is a great poacher to have off the bench, and Urena is the best defender of the three.

Predictable result of the week

Well, it’s obviously Colorado rolling over at home again. But the weird affair in Toronto, in which TFC went down a goal and a man, then equalized, but gave up a winner to Kei Kamara and finally eliminated themselves from playoff contention, deserves a shout. It feels like everything this season for TFC led up to that final, bizarre-yet-quiet whimper.

The Whitecaps have vague playoff hopes as they enjoy one last run with the feeble, bunkering empire (and occasional counter-attacking wizardry) produced by Carl Robinson. Presumably, there will be some turnover this offseason.

Random result of the week

Montreal beating Columbus 3-0 was unpredictable in that it comes a week after the Impact got crunched by D.C. United in their most important game of the season. It was predictable, though, in that the Crew missed a ton more chances because they don’t have anyone besides Gyasi Zardes who has any ounce of finishing ability, and because Zardes misses a bunch of chances too.

I think there’s still a feasible possibility that Columbus does what they’ve done the past two seasons, which is make a big playoff run after an uncertain regular season.

Goalkeeper howler of the week

Andre Blake should have saved this Darwin Quintero near-post attempt:

It was in garbage time, but still.