MLS Takeaways: Week 7
Photo by Kirby Lee from USA Today Sports
I got to spend Saturday watching some sweet, sweet MLS action with my new dog.
Can’t imagine a better way to spend it.
Cincinnati defeats Philadelphia 1-0
Another week, another 1-0 win for Cincinnati.
It’s been such a weird season compared to last year where they scored at will but couldn’t keep the ball out of the net.
Speaking of weird seasons compared to last year, Philly has got some issues to sort out, even if this was a difficult opponent to face.
Columbus defeats DC United 2-0
Yeah, DC United isn’t very good.
Columbus under Wilfried Nancy, though, look great.
LAFC defeats Austin 3-0
Chicho Arango left and I was worried LAFC would score goals.
Denis Bouanga has made me look really stupid, with a hat trick performance being the capper to it all.
Can’t be right all the time, but LAFC sure was.
FC Dallas defeats Miami 1-0
Miami started hot with a big win over Montreal and beating Philly and then?
They don’t look great.
One of the main questions I had was that of Josef Martinez replacing the production Gonzalo Higuain left behind after he retired.
So far, through 6 games, Martinez has zero goals and zero assists.
Not good!
New England defeats Montreal 4-0
Yeah, Montreal isn’t very good.
Probably should’ve kept Wilfried Nancy around.
New York Red Bulls draw San Jose Earthquakes 1-1
This game had a break of almost half an hour due to an alleged racial comment made by Red Bulls player to San Jose forward Jeremy Ebobisse.
Racism has no place in sports or society in general, and I hope the investigation finds out what happened and takes the correct actions to fix it.
As for the product on the field, the Red Bulls benefited from that time break by scoring the latest regulation goal in MLS history due to the added time from the incident.
And that feels a little icky.
New York City FC draws Atlanta United 1-1
Atlanta went down to 10 men, scored on a corner and then held on for a “snatch & grab” road point.
With 9 teams making the playoffs this year, that’s good enough.
Chicago defeats Minnesota 2-1
Minnesota was unbeaten, as everyone expected they would be, and their first loss came at the hands of Chicago, as everyone expected it would.
If it wasn’t obvious, that was clearly sarcasm.
What a job Ezra Hendrickson has done in Chicago, though.
He’s been great this year.
Houston defeats LA Galaxy 3-0
The Galaxy are imploding.
They had a very bad start, and on Saturday had a player get a second yellow card to be sent off because he was bothering the ref during a VAR check.
It’s a stupid, boneheaded move, and that simply comes from coaching.
Greg Vanney can coach. We’ve all seen it. His style and coaching ability was the entire reason I picked the Galaxy to find their way to MLS Cup Final before the season started.
But, quite frankly, he’s done a putrid job so far this year.
If they get embarrassed by crosstown rivals LAFC this weekend, it might be curtains for Vanney.
Colorado defeats Sporting Kansas City 1-0
In a shocking turn of events between two teams who struggle to score goals, both teams had less than 1 expected goal and Diego Rubio’s winner was the only one of the game.
Man, these teams are boring!
Robin Fraser at least has the excuse of an owner who doesn’t fund the team.
Peter Vermes? It might be time to go.
Nashville draws Toronto 0-0
I could not tell you one single thing that happened this game.
Real Salt Lake defeats Charlotte 3-1
Man, RSL needed that one.
Not only was it a quality win at home, but it came after being down 1-0.
Could it be a turning point? I guess we’ll see.
Seattle defeats St. Louis 3-0
This score line may look like St. Louis was exposed a bit, but that’s not doing them justice.
The Sounders first goal was an absolute screamer by one of the least expected goal scorers on the field, the second was a small mistake by St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Burki, and the third was an own goal off a corner.
A lot of it was simply bad luck for City.
This Sounders team does look night and day from the one last year, though.
Vancouver defeats Portland 1-0
Portland’s early season struggles continue with a loss to Cascadia rival Vancouver, and 1-0 was a flattering score line for them.
It could have been worse.
Much, much worse.
