MLS parity is a wonderful thing, and it was on full display this past week. Vancouver, winners of four consecutive matches, got one point out of six against two average opponents. Philadelphia, they of the goalkeeping and team management disasters, scored twice (!) to beat New York City FC.
And of course, the lowly Colorado Rapids, who had failed to score in exactly 600 minutes of league play and hadn’t won a match in their last 18, dropped FOUR (!!!!) goals on the road against a strong FC Dallas side.
Had I been able to watch the matches (or at least one, school gets in the way WAY too often), my GIF of the Week illustrates how I would have reacted:
As crazy as this couch-flipper of a week was, we shouldn’t be expecting it to be the norm.
Vancouver:
The Whitecaps may have lost their captain and midfield string-puller Pedro Morales to a silly but deserved red card against San Jose. Their defense may have looked out of sorts against Columbus. And their next three matches may not be the easiest (at RSL, vs DC, at POR).
But when push comes to shove, sustained winning comes down to roster quality. Just ask the LA Galaxy. Vancouver may not be as loaded as some of LA’s recent MLS Cup-winning sides, but they’re definitely a fearsome lineup.
Vancouver has scored in six of their seven matches so far this season, and Octavio Rivero’s scored in five of those. The 23-year-old Uruguayan has followed up his early entry for Miss of the Year by going toe-to-toe with Kaka and David Villa for the Newcomer of the Year Award. He’s also been able to take a huge weight of the shoulders of Vancouver’s less-clinical young attackers and open up space for them to demonstrate their speed and athleticism.
I’m not reading too seriously into the defensive blunders either. I’m not sold on Pa Modou Kah being Kendall Waston’s centre-back partner, but the two have held fairly steady in front of David Ousted in goal. They’re both big, smart, no-nonsense defenders who will have the confidence to regroup and get back to form.
In front of them lies Matias Laba, the man who got away from my Toronto FC. His passing doesn’t draw Morales-like praise, but Laba’s vision and maturity are well beyond his years. And if he can turn some of his rockets into goals, he could really push Morales as the alpha dog of the team.
Philadelphia:
Despite the result against NYCFC, it really isn’t always sunny in Philadelphia.
Rais M’Bohli, veteran of two World Cups, is costing about half a million dollars in salary cap space (still waiting as anxiously as anyone for the MLS Players Union to release salary info and for the league to release the CBA) and has been relegated to being a third-string goalkeeper. Ahead of him now are some guy doing a Petr Cech impression and another guy who was picked first overall in the SuperDraft and has yet to live up to the hype of pushing fan favourite goalkeeper Zac MacMath out of town.
Two kids with a combined two MLS appearances + another guy who has thrown away more points than a guy at a faulty pencil factory = remember that Michael Gspurning “I’m coming back to America” tweet a few months ago? Union fans could only hope, because according to them, Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz isn’t smart enough to make a good deal on paper.
Even if they go out and sign Kenny Cooper, who I am still shocked that nobody has at least taken a flier on, their general scoring issues aren’t near being solved. Their frontline consists of a bunch of secondary options (Andrew Wenger, C.J. Sapong, Conor Casey) and a declining Sebastien Le Toux being played too high up the pitch. Cooper would represent an upgrade, but he’s probably not going to score in double-digits.
A go-to goalscorer, centre-back, and goalkeeper are all in need in Philadelphia if Le Toux and Maurice Edu are to ever be played in their best positions. That’s a big ask if you ask me.
*Note: Cooper has since been signed by the Montreal Impact. Good deal IMO*
Colorado:
The Rapids aren’t good, but they aren’t really as bad as people make them out to be, at least on paper.
Their backline, despite having lost Chris Klute, has an interesting mix of youth (Axel Sjoberg, Shane O’Neill) and underrated league veterans (Marvell Wynne, Drew Moor). Their midfield got two excellent pieces in the offseason in Marcelo Sarvas and Sam Cronin. Dillon Powers is still a workhorse and an surprising offensive threat.
But their real offensive threat, Deshorn Brown, decided to head for the greener pastures of, uh, Norway. And as great as some of Dillon Serna’s outside-the-box blasts can be, they can’t be counted on week after week. Kevin Doyle is coming over the summer, but I’m rating his chances of being a top-drawer goalscorer in MLS the same as the supposed star power he’s bringing with him, which isn’t really that much. Kenny Cooper might be a better fit in Colorado than in Philly, but that’s just because Colorado’s midfielders actually play as midfielders (though it would be nice for Powers NOT to be put on the wing every odd week).
Dallas:
Could this be the moment that Dan Kennedy finally makes his non-Chivas MLS debut? Letting in four goals will always be a blemish, but Chris Seitz didn’t play as badly as that scoreline suggested. On paper, FC Dallas still have two very solid goalkeepers and a great defender in front of them in Matt Hedges.
Mauro Diaz, assuming he gets back from injury in a timely fashion, is still my pick for MVP. He’s got a bit of just about everything, and as long as he has free reign to push forward into the attack he can be electrifying to watch. A front three of Castillo, Akindele, and Perez knows how to score and can punish teams at will.
Dallas are far from dead. Their last two results haven’t been fun, but the fact that their biggest star has been MIA in those matches plays a big part. In the three games Diaz has started in, Dallas has picked up nine points out of nine. In the three he’s missed, they’ve taken one of nine.
When he gets back, FC Dallas are picking up right where they left off. You heard it here first.
In conclusion, read into this past week what you will. But don’t think that this is the beginning of a “bad club uprising”. This was more of an “entropy does exist!” kind of week.
Parity still has a pulse. It’s a week one, but enough of one to keep things entertaining.
Not as entertaining as the first career goal scored by Houston’s Rob Lovejoy against Montreal this weekend:
But still well worth watching.
Main Photo:
