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Morning update

MLS Morning update: Orlando battles in El Vulcan, Reyna impresses, Dike scores, & more

ASN's Brian Sciaretta kicks off your Wednesday morning wtih his thoughts on Gio Reyna vs. Christian Pulisic, Dike's goal, Orlando impressing, Austin embarrassing, and more. 
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
March 08, 2023
8:05 AM

WE’VE REACHED the middle of the week and mostly the top news right now is about games – and based on how 2023 has gone so far, that is a major relief. It’s a good day when all you have to talk about is the games on the field.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

 

Reyna & Pulisic feature in UCL clash

 

Coming into this game, Borussia Dortmund had a 1-0 edge over Chelsea from the first leg but return trip to London was always going to be difficult. We knew from Monday that Christian Pulisic would be back on the squad for Chelsea. For Dortmund, we expected Gio Reyna on the bench but meaningful minutes for him seemed unlikely since he has rarely played the past month.

That script was completely turned on its head in just the fifth minute when a hamstring injury to Julian Brandt resulted in BVB manager Edin Terzic turning to Reyna to come into the game early.

Chelsea ended up winning this game 2-0 which was enough to advance 2-1 on aggregate. The winning goal came in the 53rd minute on a controversial penalty from Kai Havertz, who had an excellent game.

From an American perspective, the big takeaway was that Reyna was excellent. This was his most extended outing since before the World Cup.

Over his 85 minutes, he was Dortmund's most dangerous player. He completed 42/47 of his passes and created four chances. He was a perfect 3/3 on his dribble attempts and 2/2 on his long balls. He won 6/8 of his ground duels and 2/4 of his aerials.

Will this move him from being a luxury player into being an important player for the team? Only Terzic knows.

As for Pulisic, he made his first appearance for Chelsea in two months and played the final seven minutes plus stoppage time. Unsurprisingly, he was rusty but with the way Chelsea have performed while he has been away, there are probably going to be minutes waiting for him to get him back up to speed and ready to contribute.

 

Other European games

 

West Brom defeated Wigan 1-0 in the Championship. Daryl Dike scored his third goal in three games and it proved to be the winner.

The goal itself required a lucky bounce off the crossbar following a save combined with Wigan’s defense falling asleep. But when you are good, you often make your own luck. What I liked about Dike the most on this was his hold-up play in the build-up. In doing that, he showed a lot more than just a simple finish. If the initial shot went in, he would have had the assist. 



With the win, West Brom is moving closer to the promotional playoffs and is only four points out. As we learned with Barnsley two years ago, Dike can be enough to help a team climb the Championship ladder.

Also in Europe’s Conference League, Djordje Mihailovic and AZ Alkmaar defeated Lazio 2-1 in Rome for a big advantage in their knockout round of 16. The second leg will be in Alkmaar next week. Mihailovic only played the last eight minutes to see out the win at the Olympic Stadium. It’s been an up and down first two months in Holland for Mihailovic who is trying to break into a team that is much better than expected.

 

CONCACAF Champions League Opens

 

MLS teams were involved in three CONCACACF Champions League Round of 16 games. The three results ranged from embarrassing, to fine, to impressive.

Austin FC was the team that looked the worst, by far. And they didn’t bother to show much respect for their opponent Viollete AC. It’s one thing to rotate squads because teams can never play their top lineup every game. But Austin head coach Josh Wolff took things to another level as top players like 2022 MVP finalist Sebastian Druissi, defender Leo Vaisanen, forward Gyasi Zardes, and others didn’t even make the trip to Haiti. Central defender Amo Tarek had a baffling own goal and fullback Nick Lima played in central defense.

The result was an ugly 3-0 loss that was tough to comprehend. Wolff only started two starters in this game and now will be forced to either field a subpar team in the second leg and bomb out, or play the heavy hitters and try to dig out of the hole. But this was a shocking result that exposed the shallow depth of Austin.

Meanwhile, Jim Curtin had no such problems for Philadelphia in El Salvador against Alianza He only started three regulars in Andre Blake, Kai Wagner and Jack Elliott and that was enough to coast to a boring 0-0 draw. That is a perfectly fine result early in the season in road CONCACAF games. Now they can go for the win on a good field in front of their home fans.

 

It was good for Curtin to use the opportunity to play players such as the U.S. U-20 duo of Jack McGlynn and Quinn Sullivan – even if neither made a big impact. Curtin has come under pressure to get his star academy players minutes. The question then becomes what does Curtin do in the return leg? It will be tempting to start players like Daniel Gazdag, Mikel Uhre to put the game away early.

One particularly amusing moment from this game is when a dog got loose in the stadium and then on the field. 

"The dog on the field is a very CONCACAF thing," Curtin said afterward. "I hope the dog is OK. It seemed like a really nice dog."

 


The best result of the night for an MLS team came from Orlando City who traveled to Monterrey and played a very good Tigres team to a 0-0 draw in front of a hostile crowd at El Volcán.  

Oscar Pareja’s team defended well in a tough environment and now has the opportunity to play for the win at home – with no deficit to make up. El Volcan is one of the toughest places to play in Mexico and Pareja’s team handled it well.

“First off, a marvelous atmosphere in El Volcán tonight and in this footballing city,” Pereja said afterward. “A great team that we played, that was obvious, and us with a lot of courage. We had moments when we equalized the game and the volume that Tigres had. In the second half I think we created more chances where we could have potentially walked away with more than a draw. The boys did a great job tonight and of course there were some things we need to improve on. We’re happy. It’s not easy to come to Monterrey and leave with a result.”

 

“I think to keep Tigres scoreless is not easy,” he added. “For our part in our defensive zone, we understood the game, that they like to open the lines, to center the ball a lot and of course it depends on their positioning in the area, but we controlled the game well. I think that’s the success we had tonight, to maintain a clean sheet, obviously Pedro Gallese’s actions tonight as well. But more than that we had moments where we suffered and I’m very happy because we understood how to guard them well and defended their sequences and their football. We had to get through to the times when we had our chances and we did that. A very good game tonight.”

 

Today’s games in Scotland

 

Unless Sergino Dest plays for AC Milan away at Tottenham, the only games involving Americans will be in Scotland.

Cameron Carter-Vickers and league leaders Celtic host Hearts.

Matthew Hoppe and Hibernian host Rangers. Malik Tillman is still injured for Rangers.

Scott Pittman and Livingston host relegation battling Ian Harkes and Dundee United.

Finally, Dante Polvara is heading on loan from Aberdeen to the Charleston Battery of the USL Championship. The loan will run until the summer.

 

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