MLS/Liga MX Season Thread Now Featuring Inter Messi

welp

poor time to be playing bad and running bad...

5 goals from ~1.5xg hurts, but the 0.0xg going forward really is salt in the wounds. couldn't even muster an attempt at goal, just completely smothered and outclassed. what more can you say

i doubt they were intimidated. if i had to guess, this whole playing twice per week thing all year finally caught up to them. cruz azul's preparation must have been better too, and obviously on the pitch they had a perfect game.

thought some of the factors would be somewhat neutralized given that vwfc played in this same stadium a couple months back, butnahhh. literally their worst game all year. this sucks, man. but hey, at least i didn't spend a bunch of money watching it lol

we'll have to see what the coach says i guess...

Messi sacrificed himself for this??

inorite

vwfc prob gonna get **** on by concacaf for the rest of time for smoking him, only to turn up to the final and complete;y **** the bed

still thinking about...

****

damn montreal might win a game, currently up 3-0 in houston

galaxy almost won too in st louis, but this joao klauss dude completed his hattrick with a whopper of a top corner volley in the 95th minute

Montreal has won 2 of 3...and is still 3 pts back of the next worst team in the East (+ MTL even has an extra game played). Still, it's not the worst run club I support. Lyon has been administratively relegated to Ligue 2. Fun times.

what the h?

regardless of how much he has left in the tank, from everything i've ever heard about him he sounds like a good dude / teammate / leader etc who everyone likes and respects (rb or whoever wanna confirm or deny?), so it should be good no matter what, if it indeed happens. also interesting that he's coming here given how alphnso davies left on poor terms, would've guessed he'd put in a bad word or three lol. then again, i think different ppl are in charge now, so

I don't like the guy at all but he's a walking dad joke and seems to be universally beloved for his corny style. Have never heard anyone say he's not respected etc either. Obviously after 15 years in the same dressing room, how much that informs what he'll be like in Vancouver is an open question.

No idea how much he's got left but I'll give him this, he's always competed like a mother****er. Doesn't strike me as a guy who'd move to MLS and mail it in of that's still a thing.

thanks. yeah with the coverage we get over here you never really get an idea of what sort of ppl these guys are, and he kind of looks like a psycho sometimes from a distance, but i was watching a video a while back where someone or a bunch were singing his praises about character stuff. can't even remember if it was a germany nt or bayern vid, but thinking about it now it might have been canada nt thing where davies was talking about him.

should be interesting to see how he fits in. didn't even realize it until i was looking at the roster recently, but the entire vwfc squad is basically u30 right now, so he'll be the oldest guy by some distance. and it seems to be a good natured group that might have something of a leadership void. plus they just sold their starting cam to a mexican team for ~$8m+20%, so they should be able to just slot the raumdeuter in there. it all makes sense, on paper anyway

should also be interesting to see what toronto do, now that they've finally bought out insigne and bernardeschi

the cool thing about making a big signing in mls is that decisions immediately start getting rigged in yout favor. i kinda forgot about this because vancouver has basically never made a big signing in mls before this

vancouver v the best team in the east (philly), without their t2 all-time leading scorers brian white and ryan gauld:

whitecaps goat oat
(happy bday, thomas)

also pretty kool that this elloumi kid scored off the bench right after signing a pro deal this week to move up from the academy

say to say that super ali ahmed's time in mls is coming to an end soon...

also racked up 1g/3a in his last 3.5 games with the national team, and scored 2 goals + won a pk in the can cup final. dude has absolutely been on fire this year.

think he'll probably move to europe in the january window, but it'd be nice if he stuck around until the world cup next year and left in the summer instead, especially given this partnership he's developed with muller already. that could be over in like 2 games + playoffs

decision day yo

eastern teams playing now, wstern teams in 3 hours

guess i'll watch this orlando/tfc match and keep an eye on the scores, then vancouver/dallas later obv

lfg

nice goal by osorio puts toronto ahead early. think orlando kinda need to win this game to make the playoffs, so that should spice things up

oh ****, philly down 0-2 to charlotte. think a philly loss + vancouver win might give the whitecaps the shield, and home field thru the playoffs. one time plz hold etc (if true)

actually thats wrong, didn't peep the format. they can only get bumped down to the wildcard play-in game, but they probably do want to avoid that. other results currently going their way though, with chicago down 0-1 to the revs.

the top9 in the east is already determined actually, they're just jockeying for position. mostly trying to avoid miami, probably

east playoffs

wildcard: 9. orlando @ 8. chicago

(best of 3)
1. philadelphia vs chicago/orlando
2. cincinnati vs 7. columbus
3. miami vs 6. nashville
4. charlotte vs 5. nycfc

the annoying finale that i feared...

west playoffs

wildcard: 9. salt lake @ 8. portland

(best of 3)
1. san diego vs portland/salt lake
2. vancouver vs 7. dallas
3. lafc vs 6. austin
4. minnesota vs 5. seattle

these games are today btw

i'd watch, but they appear to only be on appletv, which i don't have. oh well

game 1 of miami/nashville today

related: apparently messi signed a 3-year contract extension. there was some talk that he might leave, or retire, especially after alba and biscuits retired or whatever, but i guess he might stick around for a bit longer. should be interesting to see who else they bring in next season

and yeah, he's casually still the best player in the league by a mile

bored so i decided to do a little writeup covering the first round of playoff games

wildcard round

chicago 3-1 orlando
3.32 xg 0.33
hugo cuypers scored a brace, philip zinckernagel had a motm performance, and brian gutierrez also had a great game. absolutely dominant from the fire.

portland 3-1 salt lake
1.83 xg 1.10
a closer game here, with felipe mora's brace leading the timbers to victory. center backs kamal miller and justen glad also traded goals, and it looks like deandre yedlin had a good game in a losing cause for rsl.

round 1

miami 3-1 nashville
2.34 xg 0.62
messi doing messi things with a casual brace to take the match, and rb ian fray had a good one and added an assist. hany mukhtar notched a 101st minute consolation goal, but midfielder edvard sandvik tagseth might have been their top performer on the day.

philadelphia 2-2 chicago (4-2 pens)
1.50 xg 1.33
this one wasn't on tv here but i was following the score, stopped paying attention or closed the tab when philly was up 2-0 with 10 minutes left. union seemed to do the same, as the fire scored twice late to force a shootout. chicago's jonathan bamba was motm with 1g/1a, but a huge missed opportunity for a smash+grab road win vs the #1 seed as they fell in pks.

vancouver 3-0 dallas
3.60 xg 0.38
absolute beatdown where dallas failed to do basically anything, and would have been ever worse if their goalkeeper michael collodi wasn't on a heater (prevented almost 2 goals over expected vs the whitecaps this week). thomas muller was pulling all the strings as motm, deserved an assist, but was rewarded with yet another pk.

san diego 2-1 portland
2.74 xg 0.89
would be interesting to see how much of the xg was piled up after this timbers goof jímer fory managed to get booked in consecutive minutes, but obviously this scoreline flattered portland. anders dreyer's goal made him motm, but midfielder aníbal godoy might have been their best. goalkeeper james pantemis was strong between the sticks for ptfc.

cincinnati 1-0 columbus
1.25 xg 0.62
i watched a lot of this one, but managed to miss kévin denkey's goal lol. not much to say here, goalkeeper roman celentano and forward brenner were cincinnati's best, while columbus was led by their goalkeeper patrick schulte and midfielder maximilian arfsten.

minnesota 0-0 seattle (3-2 pens)
1.07 xg 2.40
i half watched a lot of this one, and yeah it did seem like the sounders were getting more chances, especially late they had some good ones. weird that the loons gk dayne st. clair didn't notch a higher sofascore rating seeing as how he apparently prevented 1.8 goals, they say that midfielder nectarios triantis was better. while on the seattle side midfielder cristian roldán was motm, but forwards jordan morris & albert rusnák and center backs yeimar gómez & jackson ragen were also good. another big missed chance to take a (deserved) road win here.

charlotte 0-1 ny city fc
0.49 xg 1.50
*spoiler* the only road win so far, and deserved. coming into this i was worried that star loanee wilfried zaha idiotically getting a 2nd yellow for arguing in the 90th minute of their last game (a 2-0 win) would cost them, and ... yeah. bro better have a big game 2 to make up for it. watched a lot of this one as well, and saw alonso martínez's goal thinking golazo, but then saw some of the woat defending on the replay lolol. anyway lets shoutout nycfc's rb tayvon gray & goalkeeper matthew freese, and midfielder ashley westwood for charlotte.

los angeles fc 2-1 austin
2.15 xg 1.14
heung-min son was motm despite 0 scorepoints, pulled the strings to the tune of 8 key passes (2 big chances created). midfielders owen wolff and daniel pereira were the best from the texans.

5 games tomorrow. in order:
charlotte @ nycfc
philly @ chicago
miami @ nashville
vancouver @ dallas
san diego @ portland

last 2 games appear to be kicking off at the same time, for some reason

sunday:
cincinnati @ columbus
lafc @ austin

monday:
minnesota @ seattle