Nicholas_gioacchini_-_asn_top_-_st._louis_goal_-_6-11-23
MLS analysis

MLS thoughts: Wave of Goalazo's, Miami slumps ahead of Messi, SKC back on track, & more

ASN's Brian Sciaretta writes up his thoughts on the weekend in MLS including - the Messi anticipation, Miami's struggles, the stunning goals (with video), and rapid fire thoughts on each game.
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
June 12, 2023
9:55 AM

THE WEEKEND IN MLS was a fun one because most of the talk was about the greatest player of all time and a ton of goalazos. If only every week could be about Lionel Messi and an impressive wave of spectacular strikes.

Let’s start with my thoughts on the weekend in MLS.

 

Weekend of the Goalazos

 

It’s been years since we had a weekend in MLS with as many high quality goalazos. It’s good that when Messi puts more eyeballs on the league, that you get strikes like these – three of which came from players from Argentina.

 

Miguel Trauco


Any goal that leaves Andre Blake standing still was probably an incredible strike. Trauco’s strike was hard, swerving, and perfectly placed. It also gave San Jose a 2-1 win over Philly.


 

Luciano Acosta

 

Acosta is a candidate for MVP this season for good reason. This was his eighth of the season in a 1-1 away draw over Vancouver. He is a reason why Cincinnati is cruising in first.


 

Franco Escobar

 

The Argentine developed at Newell’s Old Boys, where Messi came from, and he has been a big addition for Houston. Houston is turning around after being a doormat for years. Saturday’s 4-0 win over LAFC was an eye-opener and this final goal from Escobar dipped nicely into the goal past McCarthy.

 

Nicholas Gioacchini

 

The American attacker now has six goals and one assist on the season for a better than advertised St. Louis City team. He’s still only 22 and shouldn’t be discounted for an eventual return to the national team. His last appearance was the win in the 2021 Gold Cup final.

But this goal on Saturday in a 1-1 draw with the Galaxy was tremendous.

 

 

Lorenzo Insigne

 

When you spend a lot of money on players, you get goals like this from Lorenzo Insigne. The Italian’s strike came in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Nashville.

 

 

Lucas Zelarayan

 

The Columbus Crew playmaker showed why he can deliver for Columbus. The game against Chicago was 1-1 in Soldier Field and Zelarayan hit this shot from inside his own half to give Columbus a 2-1 win.

 

 

Raul Ruidiaz

 

Raul Ruidiaz his this goalazo to give Seattle a 2-1 lead in its wild 3-3 away draw against Charlotte on Saturday.

 

 

 

Messi continues to dominate

 

As Doug McIntyre reported over the weekend, MLS and Inter Miami were “blindsided” by Messi announcing he was coming to Miami. All of the PR that has been coming out of Miami and the league is on the fly as MLS was waiting for the deal to be complete. But as McIntyre reports, that could happen this week.

But since then, there has just been a wave of publicity. Everything Inter Miami does right now is getting attention – including losing for the sixth straight time.

Everyone is talking about Messi including the always blunt Bruce Arena who said: "I think bringing Lionel Messi into our league is fabulous,"

Soccer America had these quotes from Arena who was front and center during David Beckham’s era in the league (which was ultimately successful, despite a poor roll out).

"Our league has grown considerably," said Arena. "I had Beckham. I came in LA after Beckham had a tough year and a half. David came in 2007, he came in mid-year and it was a mess. These things aren't easy. And then I came in LA in July or August of of 2008. And we just hung in there for the remainder of the year. We brought in 19 new players the following year and made it to the MLS Cup final. And then we got obviously a little bit better and all of that.

"But it's challenging. It's not gonna be easy for Miami. But Miami has a better roster now than I had in LA coming in in 2008. So they're gonna be fine. And Messi's gonna win games. If Mess was on the field tonight, it would've been a real challenge for us. So it's good for the team, it's good for Miami, it's great for the league."

Arena brings up an excellent point. It would be one thing if Messi was joining a good team – like LAFC, Cincinnati, or Seattle. But he’s joining a team that is mired in last place. In some of the biggest player rollouts in league history, the initial rollouts have been bungled.

  • David Beckham: When he arrived, the team was in a nosedive. Beckham filled crowds, but it would have been even better if he arrived once Arena had taken control – not 18 months later.
  • Lothar Mattheus: his effort with the Metrostars was lacking and after two games, no one cared.
  • Kaka: The Brazilian champion also suffered being on a poor Orlando team when he arrived and wasn’t ever able to be great in the league.
  • Bastian Schweinsteiger: Again, he joined a bad Chicago team and he never really was able to make an impact.
  • Chicharito: He came into the league ready to take the league by storm with his popularity as Mexico’s all-time scorer. People were expecting full stadiums. But he struggled when he arrived and COVID soon hit and that limited the crowd size. By the time, stadiums were allowed to have crowds back, the excitement over his arrival was gone.
  • Zlatan Ibrahimovic: The Swedish megastar arrived and put-up great numbers. But the Galaxy failed to make the playoffs his first year and then were bounced quickly by LAFC in his second year.
  • Steven Gerard, Andrea Pirlo, and Frank Lampard: All came into the league in the same year and were instantly forgettable.

Generally, the timing has been off for each of these big acquisitions. Either the players were sucked down to the level of being on a bad team, or they performed well but not enough to make the team contend.

Now, Messi joining the league is bigger news than any of the above. But it’s not going to be fun if it is going to take awhile to make Miami competitive.

 

Rapid Fire Thoughts

 

  • Real Salt Lake played NYCFC to an ugly 0-0 draw in Utah. The big takeaway is that both these teams need strikers. RSL has fixed its problem by bringing in Cristian Arango, who showed he can score in this league with LAFC and who had a decent run with Pachuca (11 games, 5 goals). NYCFC never had a plan for replacing Taty Castellanos. They will probably have help incoming soon, but they need someone who can provide instant impact, and that’s hard to find. Arango should help RSL right away. It’s a great signing.

  • Cincinnati played Vancouver to a 1-1 away draw. Cincinnati is a true contender to win everything this year. There simply aren’t many weaknesses and it’s away draw in Canada is fine. It was an interesting game for Matt Miazga, who was having an excellent game right up until he committed a late penalty to gift Vancouver an equalizer. But Miazga has been an underrated addition into the club and his distribution out of the back really opens things up. I like how complete Cincinnati is in the attack, midfield, and in defense. They’ve only gotten better since Brenner left.

  • Atlanta United’s 3-1 win over DC United was interesting. The individual quality of Giakoumakis and Almada bails them out. Midweek, they got a draw with LAFC because of a Brad Guzan masterclass.  In this game they were outshot by DC United but got by because of some great individual efforts. Andrew Gutman was the MOTM for Atlanta. Atlanta is still a playoff team but when watching them play, even in wins, there is always the impression that they should be better.

 

 

  • Toronto should have had a win over Nashville. Bob Bradley’s team had a 1-0 lead on Nashville into the second half until Sean Johnson’s blunder handed Nashville a goal – and a point. Toronto has three draws in a row after a win. They’re slowly climbing since the reports questioned the morale of the team. It’s going to be one to watch in the coming games. Toronto is spending too much money to miss the playoffs. As for Nashville, they’re fine. They’re not deep but they play to their strengths well – letting Hany Mukhtar run in the open field and relying heavily on their defense.

  • If this were a “stock watch” column, I’d suggest buying Orlando City stock. Sitting seventh, they’re undervalued and starting to climb. Their comfortable 2-0 win over Colorado on Tuesday now has them six games without a loss. Meanwhile, Colorado is flat out depressing right now with 13 points and nothing going right. What’s even worse is how little outrage there is. The Galaxy’s putrid season is at least creating anger and forcing changes.
  • Sporting KC defeated Austin FC 4-1 in a matchup between teams heading in opposite directions. Peter Vermes was correct when his team was slow out of the gate. He preached patience and said as soon as the No. 9 situation worked its way through, the results would come. Alan Pulido is back, he had two goals and an assist on Saturday, and Sporting has the most points in the league since May 1. As for Austin, they are a far cry from last season. Yes, Josh Wolff is being questioned – and that’s fine. But this team brought an inadequate defense to the table in 2023 and if they want to return to the postseason, they need to make upgrades this summer. Last season, Sebastian Druissi saved the club with a season that is impossible to replicate. It masked some problems that needed fixing.

  • Houston pounded LAFC 4-0 in a stunning result in Texas. According to Steve Cherundolo: "Didn't show up to play tonight and just got beat.” It’s another reminder how playing extended runs in the CONCACAF Champions League often leads to an emotional letdown after the tournament. It happened to Seattle and Toronto. As for Houston, they’re finally turning things around had four different goal scorers. The playoffs are within reach.
  • Seattle and Charlotte played to a wild 3-3 draw in North Carolina. It was a mix of quality plays, poor defending, and drama. In the end, both teams should feel disappointed. For Seattle, they competed without Nicholas Lodeiro but welcomed back Cristian Roldan (who scored). Seattle will eventually turn things around, but I still think their aging core could struggle in the playoffs after a long season. For Charlotte, Ben Bender had a nice game and looked the best since the early parts of his rookie season last year. But this assist from Karol Swiderski was the pass of the week.

 

  • Montreal defeated Minnesota 4-0 in a game that seemed to be an outlier for both teams. Minnesota is not usually this bad, and Montreal is not usually this good. Minnesota played Emmanuel Reynoso for the entire second half and it will be a process getting him back to speed.  
  • Columbus defeated Chicago 2-1 on a wonder strike from Luca Zelarayan. I think Columbus is going to be very good come the end of the season. Wilfried Nancy is a good manager and he’s only getting starter. Meanwhile, Aidan Morris had yet another solid game in midfield and it’s a good thing he’s going to play for the United States. As for Chicago, when you’re not playing well, these things happen. I think big changes are on the way in the Windy City.
  • San Jose defeated Philadelphia 2-1 in a rare loss for the Union. Cade Cowell returned from the U-20 World Cup and looked sharper. This was just brilliant stuff off a counterattack and this is how Cowell can stretch the field.  Luchi Gonzalez has been doing a great job in San Jose turning things around from years of dysfunction. As for Philly, it was a tough loss on the West Coast and San Jose needed two great goals to beat them. They’re still back on track after a slow start to the year.

 

  • On Sunday, St. Louis and the Galaxy played to a 1-1 draw. Aside from Nicholas Gioacchini’s wondergoal, St. Louis should be disappointed to only play for a draw. Expectations have been increased with the expansion team. As for the Galaxy, it’s a lost season.
  • Portland defeated FC Dallas 1-0 and it was just a poor performance from both teams. Dallas was unable to get anything going offensively. Portland wasn’t exactly strong either and its goal from Franck Boli was just enough to win. Both teams might make the playoffs, but it’s hard to see either going far right now.
  • Finally, New England defeated Miami 3-1 in a game where all the talk was on Lionel Messi. Inter Miami might still be dealing with roster restrictions, but they need to do what they can now to make the most of Messi – that includes finding the right coach.

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