Week 19 brought us a curb stomping of the Galaxy in their own building courtesy of the NorCal rivals the quakes, FCC getting a rare road win, Orlando getting a rare win, a controversial and hotly contested Hudson River Rivalry, Philly getting thrashed by RSL at the RiOT, The Revs unbeaten run and Arena bounce continues, & LAFC dominating on the road in H-Town. Week 20 is nearly here, and brings us some more mid week action! Highlights include the first El Traffico of the 2019 season, a Cascadia Rivalry clash between the Timbers and Sounders, a tasty game in Sandy, Utah between RSL and the Loons, FOUR games on ESPN, & SIX total national tv games! As always all game times are Eastern. National TV games are noted. All other games can be seen on ESPN+. This is the MLS N&A play by play thread, keep it NEUTRAL. All rivalry-esque ish (name calling, "cute" renames of players/refs/team names) belong in the team specific threads. Wednesday, July 17 ATL vs HOU 7:00PM NER vs VAN 7:00PM TFC vs NYR 8:00PM CHI vs CBS 8:00PM Thursday, July 18 FCC vs DCU 8:00PM ESPN POR vs ORL 10:00PM ESPN Friday, July 19 LAG vs LAX 10:00PM Saturday, July 20 CBS vs MTL 7:30PM PHL vs CHI 7:30PM TFC vs HOU 7:30PM SKC vs FCD 8:30PM COL vs NYC 9:00PM RSL vs MNU 10:00PM VAN vs SJE 10:00PM Sunday, July 21 ATL vs DCU 4:00PM ESPN FCC vs NER 6:00PM ORL vs NYR 7:30PM FS1 SEA vs POR 9:30PM FS1
LAG are 12 points behind LAX. Rather than thinking about catching LAX, LAG should think of stopping LAX from having the best regular season ever. LAX is on pace for 78 points, which is 7 more than the NYRB's record last year. LAX is on pace for +61, which is over double the NYRB's +29 last year. The goal differential record is +41 by LAG in 1998, and the record in a year without shootouts is +37 by TFC in 2017. In 2016, the sum of the five best goal differentials was +61. MLS is known for parity compared to Europe, but in the 2018-2019 Bundesliga the goal differentials ranged from Bayern Munich's +56 to Nurnberg's -42. With FCC on pace for -43, MLS is on pace to be more extreme in both directions. I compared MLS to the Bundesliga because both play 34 games. Imagine if both Conference Finals are derbys. It's unlikely, but you can't rule out NYRB vs. NYCFC and LAX vs. LAG.
At this point, Galaxy may want to stop worrying about catching LAFC and start worrying whether or not they can keep a home playoff game...or even any playoff game. Houston is only 7 points back...and they're in 8th.
FYI, if you have a way to get Altitude, the Arsenal-Rapids (well Switchbacks) friendly is on in just under 2 hours. (Rapids recalled all 3 players they loaned to the Switchbacks, plus are loaning in 6 Switchbacks, for tonight's game)
Straight scrubs for both teams starters pretty much. Kellyn Acosta (suspended last week/suspended next week) the only Rapids starter in the XI with part-time starter Cole Bassett next to him, Rosenberry and Abubakar the only starters on the bench. Bunch of names in the Arsenal starting XI I don't recognize, and Arsenal fans here are saying they don't recognize them either.
The only outcome I want out of this is a Rapids fan to go on Arsenal Fan TV and talk about the Rapids the way they talk about Arsenal.
Expect a better line-up from Aston Villa tomorrow. They are trying to shape a first team for the EPL [which is only a couple of weeks away], and need to put out candidates for that first team to get some real information and develop cohesion. And I hope Minnesota also puts out at least a mixed team. "The Game of Scrubs" plays out in the Kroenkian Badlands.
Our first teamers need the break. They looked tired against Dallas Saturday...of course, given that it was our 5th game in 15 days, yeah, they were tired. I expect it'll be Forward Madison vs. Aston Villa tomorrow.
My totally unbiased suggestion: start the whole first team against Aston Villa, and then rest them against RSL this weekend (altitude and all being what it is).
When your Thursday double-header features FC Cincinnati in the first game and Orlando City in the second, well...I guess it was a no-brainer for ESPN's marketing department.
I watched maybe two minutes of Fiorentina - Chivas last night between innings of the Twins game... A lot more empty seats in Bridgeview that I would have expected with Chivas involved. There's a lesson in there for the ICC organizers, but I'm not quite sure what it is.
6 minutes in and Dynamo down a man. Elis gets a yellow for a foul and then gets in the face and bumps Penso for a second.
I think the red was technically a straight red. Looked that way to me anyway. It was about as light a bump as you can have, to the extent that I am not sure "bump" is the right word. But if you're that close to the ref it's the risk you take.
They've been reading too many of my comments across the web about how this will be a 5-0 blow out loss...wanted to make it a reality I suppose.
Given the very tight state of affairs in the Western Conference playoff race, that could be a season-altering moment for Houston.