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MLS Notebook: We're going to go ahead and count Gold Cup as part of MLS

Originally posted on The Striker  |  By Phil West  |  Last updated 7/3/23

There's so much soccer happening right now, and though we could just focus on MLS, it'd be criminal for us not to weave in the United States' 6-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago (with Jesus Ferreira getting a first-half hat trick in a particularly impressive performance) — plus there's Qatar's insane 1-0 win over Mexico to talk about as well. 

I mean, things did happen in MLS, including a well-fought draw between the East's two best teams, a continued resurgence of an SKC team left for dead, and an FC Dallas team who didn't have Ferreira for the obvious reasons blanking an LAFC team that might still be feeling the effects of a deep but ultimately fruitless CCL run. 

Let's get to the notebook items. 

If the playoffs started today

FC Cincinnati's cooling off a bit, and by cooling off, we mean they're only on 2.2 PPG with a 13-2-5 record, drawing against New England in one of the marquee matchups of the week. Both teams were helped (maybe?) by Atlanta knocking off Philly in a bit of a surprise, thought Nashville did hop over the Revs for the No. 2 spot thanks to a win over D.C. United.

In the West, Seattle beating Houston and RSL beating Toronto did the most to shuffle the deck — RSL's now got a home playoff spot and all of a sudden, they look to be building an MLS Cup dark horse candidate. 

West

  1. St. Louis
  2. LAFC
  3. Seattle
  4. Salt Lake
  5. Dallas
  6. San Jose
  7. Houston
  8. Austin
  9. Vancouver

East

  1. Cincinnati
  2. Nashville
  3. New England
  4. Columbus
  5. Philadelphia
  6. Atlanta
  7. Orlando
  8. Montréal
  9. D.C.

Surprise of the Week

Since May 28, Sporting Kansas City has won 14 of a possible 24 points, capped off by a 3-0 win over the Whitecaps where Peter Vermes noted, "I just think that we got back to being ourselves again." They're now just below the playoff places after getting just 10 points our of their first 14 matches, improving their PPG to a 1.09. They're still behind Minnesota in the category — a surer playoff thing with a 1.26 PPG — but they're far better off than they were.

Goal of the Week

Thiago Almada keeps doing it on free kicks even when he's not doing it on free kicks. 

He's a treasure. Gonna be sad when he goes off to Europe. 

Quote of the Week

From Steve Cherundolo, who doesn't like playing in Texas much, per our Justin Ruderman. 

"Extremely fatigued, it was our 29th game of the season. I think everybody can understand what that means at this stage already on the first of July. It’s a lot of games. I’m not sure any other club has had that many games in the history of MLS up until July 1, so a lot of games. Fatigue has set in, which is normal.”

So what he's saying is they've played a lot of games. Big game coming up Tuesday, though. 

Number of the Week: 0.05

That was Qatar's xG against Mexico (which had a 2.27). 

They got off one shot compared to Mexico's 25. This was the shot. 

Still a remarkable game, though we're dismayed that Concacaf didn't enforce its own protocol about a certain chant that was clearly audible in the late stages of the match. 

What we’re looking forward to this weekend

In addition to more Gold Cup action on the weekend, it's a double-game week. On Tuesday, it's the big battle between LAFC and the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl that was supposed to open the season before weather had other ideas. (There are other games Tuesday and one on Wednesday, but El Trafico is the one that understandably stands out. 

Then, on the weekend, it's a full slate of games. Suddenly, RSL-Orlando looks intriguing, and there's also The Other Cali Clasico at LAFC, in a match with San Jose that could have a bearing on who gets a home playoff match (or more) come October. 

This article first appeared on The Striker and was syndicated with permission.

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