Thoughts and predictions from every opening-round playoff match
After the obligatory long, strange trip, the MLS playoffs are here.
The first round will feature six one-off games, with the higher seeds all hosting. While LAFC and the Philadelphia Union kick their feet up and watch, the remaining playoff sides will try to navigate a first round that is typically volatile. If your playoff predictions are looking pretty chalky, you’re probably off base.
Pro Soccer Wire is ready for the kind of drama MLS virtually always manages to conjure up at this time of the year, and we’re diving into each and every first round match-up with analysis, broadcast information, and predictions.
The Inter Miami coach bemoaned the logistical headache his organization was facing
Inter Miami head coach Phil Neville can’t quite comprehend how, five days before kickoff, his side’s playoff match against New York City FC doesn’t yet have a set location.
The two teams will square off on Monday in a game that is currently scheduled for Red Bull Arena, with NYCFC’s usual home of Yankee Stadium unavailable due to the Yankees’ MLB playoff run.
But when the New York Mets were eliminated from the MLB playoffs on Sunday, suddenly their home of Citi Field became available. Though it’s a baseball stadium, Citi Field does offer the distinct advantage of being located within New York City and, crucially, it’s not the home stadium of NYCFC’s biggest rivals.
An email from NYCFC to season ticket holders on Tuesday purportedly said the game was being moved to Citi Field but as of his press conference on Wednesday, Neville was not aware of any official change.
“I got an email yesterday saying the game was at Red Bull [Arena],” he said. “That was from our official match email that we get every week.”
Neville said the location of the game didn’t matter much to him (“we’d play at the top of the Empire State Building in a playoff game,” he quipped), but the uncertainty was presenting a major logistical headache for the Inter Miami organization and the team’s fans.
“What people probably don’t understand is that we’ve got a traveling party of probably 55 people to get hotel rooms in New York [for] — 55 people with three days to go is near impossible.
“It’s just the logistics, the inconvenience for supporters and for families that have already bought tickets at the stadium. They’re probably staying in hotels out in New Jersey, in Harrison. I suppose that’s the biggest gripe is that we cannot book a hotel or travel yet, and we cannot let, more importantly, our supporters know where the game is.”
Neville ended with a challenge to the league and the larger organizational apparatus in a country that is getting set to co-host World Cup 2026.
“It’s not a preseason scrimmage, this is a playoff game,” Neville said. “In four years time we’ve got a World Cup coming to this great country. And I think things like this need to be looked at because this is organization — it has nothing to do with football.”
Thoughts on every playoff pairing after Decision Day’s drama
It’s officially playoff time in MLS.
Sunday afternoon saw some high tension in the Eastern Conference that ended with Orlando City coming back to secure the final playoff spot over the Columbus Crew. For the Crew, a season of lost leads ended with Facundo Torres netting an 84th minute penalty kick, giving the 2022 US Open Cup champions a win they had to have to get into the playoff spot.
Fans then watched Minnesota United and Real Salt Lake win the race for the last two spots in the West, defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers in what turned out to be effectively an appetizer for the actual postseason. Minnesota largely held Vancouver to little en route to a 2-0 win in St. Paul, while the Timbers controversially dropped midfielder Eryk Williamson and were run over by RSL, falling behind by three goals before a very late goal gave them a more respectable-sounding 3-1 loss.
While the playoff dates and times are yet to be announced, we now know all 14 playoff teams, and what the first round looks like.
After years of tough results, MLS keeps on racking up wins against Liga MX in 2022.
In a match between the defending champions from each league, NYCFC won the very important and definitely not confusing 2022 Campeones Cup 2-0 over Atlas. Alexander Callens struck early for for MLS champs, and Maxi Moralez padded the lead four minutes into the second half.
Between actual competition and informal (but lucrative) meetings cooked up between the two leagues, MLS is on something of a roll. The MLS all-stars beat Liga MX 2-1 earlier this year, one day after also winning the skills competition. MLS also won one of two Leagues Cup Showcase matches, with the LA Galaxy beating Chivas 2-0. Only Club América could keep any Liga MX pride intact, and even that took a penalty kick success after a scoreless draw with LAFC.
Oh, and of course, the Seattle Sounders won the CONCACAF Champions League back in May, posting a 5-2 aggregate win over Pumas UNAM to end an MLS drought in the competition (and its predecessor, the Champions Cup) that ran back to 2000.
Callens put NYCFC into the lead in the fourth minute, finishing off a set piece that worked to perfection. Gabriel Pereira’s free kick from what constitutes long range in the tiny confines of Yankee Stadium found Nicolás Acevedo free at the near post, and the Uruguayan midfielder headed the ball over Atlas goalkeeper Camilo Vargas, leaving Callens the job of smashing the ball home from two yards out.
If there was some mild controversy over that goal—Atlas appealed for offside, with some imperfect replay angles appearing to show Acevedo and Callens just barely on—there could be no complaints about the second.
Talles Magno and Santiago Rodríguez combined brilliantly through the midfield to open Atlas up, and the veteran Moralez provided a precision finish that just barely fit through a window where neither Vargas nor midfielder Jeremy Márquez could intervene.
Despite a wide-open game that produced 37 total shot attempts, NYCFC held on for the shutout, becoming the second straight MLS team to win the Campeones Cup. The Columbus Crew beat Cruz Azul in 2021, also by a 2-0 scoreline.
On one hand, for NYCFC, any kind of win is good news. A side that at one point this year lost just once in 17 league matches has, since July 30, gone 1W-2D-7L. That includes home losses to expansion strugglers Charlotte FC and D.C. United, who will probably “win” this year’s Wooden Spoon.
On the other hand, striker Héber—more or less the club’s only natural striker after 2021 Golden Boot winner Taty Castellanos moved to Girona in the summer transfer window—left what is still just a showcase friendly in the 29th minute due to injury.
While NYCFC’s early-season success has made it nearly impossible for them to fall out of the playoff places, losing Héber (who, in positive news, was well enough to make it out for the trophy lift) or failing to turn a win over Atlas into genuine momentum over the final three games of the season will be signs that they’re destined for a quick postseason exit.
MLS was, even by MLS standards, completely bonkers Saturday night
Summer in MLS can be a rough time. You’re too far away from the real pressure of making or missing the playoffs, it’s hot and humid everywhere, teams are figuring it out after transfer window moves. It can feel very much like everyone’s biding their time for September and October.
Not August 6. MLS Madness™ took hold in nearly every corner of the country, with goals galore, teams scoring and conceding in the deepest depths of stoppage time, big-name stars scoring bangers, and everyone basically went bananas. It was a perfect advertisement for the league: fun, flawed, weird, and inexplicable.
For one thing, MLS broke a league record for goals scored in one night. Across 13 games Saturday night, teams combined for 57 goals, an average of well over four per game. The old record of 46 was left in the dust.
⚽️Record-Setting Saturday⚽️
In 13 @MLS matches played on Saturday, August 6, a total of 57 goals were scored.
The 57 goals scored are the most in a single day in the history of Major League Soccer, besting the previous record by 11 goals. pic.twitter.com/pyoPRt7pcv
Castellanos scored 53 goals and added 19 assists during his time with the MLS Cup champions
New York City FC has announced that Valentín “Taty” Castellanos has been loaned to La Liga side Girona FC through June 2023.
Castellanos, last year’s MLS Golden Boot winner, has been publicly aiming for a European move for months and has now been sent to another team within the City Football Group family.
“I came to New York City four years ago and this experience has been everything I could have wanted. It was here where I grew up and took my game to the next level. MLS is a strong and extremely competitive league with fantastic quality,” Castellanos said in a NYCFC statement.
“While it is difficult to leave this club, I strongly believe that this is the right time for me to move to Europe which has always been a personal dream of mine. I feel confident and ready for a new challenge. I would like to thank NYCFC and Girona FC for giving me this opportunity and for finding a way for me to continue my journey and prove myself.”
Girona was promoted to La Liga after winning last season’s promotion playoffs in the Segunda División.
Castellanos won the 2021 MLS Golden Boot by scoring 19 regular-season goals, and then added three more in the postseason as NYCFC clinched an MLS Cup title.
This season, Castellanos again tops the league’s scoring charts with 13 goals.
The ex-NYCFC midfielder and current Everton boss says many Brits don’t understand how strong the league is
Frank Lampard has said MLS doesn’t get the credit it deserves back home in England.
Lampard ended his illustrious playing career in the North American top flight, playing for New York City FC in 2015 and 2016 after a trophy-filled career spent mostly with Chelsea.
The ex-England star is now back in the U.S. as Everton manager, as the Toffees embark on a preseason tour that will see them face Arsenal in Baltimore on Saturday and then Minnesota United in St. Paul on Wednesday.
Lampard said it’s difficult to follow MLS closely nowadays due to the demands of his job with Everton as well as the lack of matches on English television, but says fans in the U.K. should give the league more respect.
“In England we don’t get to see a great deal of MLS,” Lampard told ProSoccerWire. “I feel fortunate I came to play here and realized the growth of the game when I was here playing.
“I think it has continued to grow, fans in the stadiums in MLS, the level of quality in MLS. In England it’s quite a dated view, like MLS is down here and European football is up here. Now that gap might take time to close but I think the football here is a lot better than people at home give it credit for.”
Lampard said that the league will continue to snap up its fair share of older European stars – a category he once fell under – including the recent signing of Gareth Bale, but said that the increasing quality of homegrown North American players is what will see the league truly thrive over the long term.
“I think the more important thing than the DPs (Designated Players), and it’s great seeing Gareth here, it’s great to watch, but the important thing for the league is growing from within,” Lampard said.
“When you look at the national American players now, [Christian] Pulisic, Tyler Adams and more traveling and playing in Europe and creating this great team, and they’re putting everything together. I think it shows you that it’s going to get much stronger. The talent is already here and the sport is growing so I only see it going in one direction.”
One of the wildest games in years in MLS took place Wednesday night, as NYCFC and FC Cincinnati played to a bonkers 4-4 draw.
FC Cincinnati stormed out to a 3-0 lead, with Lucho Acosta opening the scoring in the 15th minute before Brenner—who just scored his first league goal of 2022 on the weekend—bagged a brace in a six-minute span, striking in the 24th and 30th minutes, and that second goal was something special.
As fans at TQL Stadium partied, NYCFC saw things get even worse, with Maxi Moralez saw his penalty kick saved by Roman Celentano.
However, incredibly, this disaster for the MLS Cup champs was flipped on its head in a wild seven-minute span, as the teams went to the locker room level. Talles Magno scored a 45th minute goal, and then Héber somehow managed to score two more goals in first-half stoppage time to equalize.
NYCFC didn’t let the halftime break end the madness, with Gabriel Pereira waltzing through the Cincinnati midfield before unleashing a 52nd minute rocket. A game that was 3-0 Cincy in the 44th minute was now 4-3 NYCFC.
Stunningly, though, Cincinnati pulled themselves up off the mat, equalizing in the 70th minute. Brenner did it again, netting the first-ever FC Cincinnati hat trick with a low shot from outside the area.
Because no game would be complete without some VAR drama, Brenner thought he’d scored a fourth in the closing minutes, only for the goal to be called back for offside after a VAR check, resulting in a 4-4 draw that was pure MLS madness.
The Norwegian led the club to its first ever trophy by winning MLS Cup in 2021
New York City FC has announced that head coach Ronny Deila has left the club to take over Belgian side Standard Liège.
Assistant coach Nick Cushing has been named interim head coach.
Deila led NYCFC to a MLS Cup title last season but departs midway through the club’s title defense.
“This was certainly not an easy decision for me and my family. However, I feel this is the right time to take on this new challenge and return to Europe,” Deila said in a release.
Deila took over NYCFC prior to the 2020 season and helped the club become one of the league’s best during his time in charge, posting a 46-29-15 record in all competitions and defeating Portland in MLS Cup last year.
Jim McElderry’s Thanksgiving plans includes the usual dose of food and family. But for the Rutgers men’s soccer coach, there with a healthy mix of soccer as well. McElderry plans on hitting up academy and club games over the holiday weekend as he turns his focus from on the field to recruiting.
One major reason for the growth of the program is a budding relationship with the local MLS academies. His roster includes several players who were developed through the academy system of the New York Red Bulls and the Philadelphia Union.
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“I don’t think we worry too much about their style and our style and it’s a little bit different. But what they both do – and we can include NYCFC as well – they attract good players, serious players, players who know how to balance their time well,” McElderry told ‘Rutgers Wire’ this week in a phone interview.
“You’re getting someone who is dedicated.”
The MLS academy system is unique in professional sports, taking players as young as middle school and developing them with an eye towards playing professional soccer at the MLS level. Some players will opt for the college system and McElderry has certainly done a good job of targeting those players who want an education before potentially signing with a professional team.
Jackson Temple, named this season to the All-Big Ten Second Team, came up through the Union academy. Joey Zalinsky and Matthew Acosta, both named to the conference’s freshman team, are Red Bulls academy products. Nico Rosamilia, a surprise omission from the Big Ten freshman list, also played for the Red Bulls.
Rutgers is ideally situated between three MLS academies, allowing the program to benefit from three professional clubs that have a tremendous track record of scouting and developing players.
McElderry said that “Our location is really important and also the new facilities we have here.” He also highlighted the new Rodkin Center as well as the team’s recently developed soccer practice fields as key components in recruiting these academy players.
The Union and Red Bulls have among the best academy systems in MLS, producing multiple professional players including several currently part of the United States national team. NYCFC, although having arrived just a few years ago, is already producing quality players including Gio Reyna and Joe Scally, both starters for good teams in the German Bundesliga.
The quality of the facilities, a major upgrade for Rutgers in recent years, is a selling point for players used to training and playing at an MLS club’s practice center.
“They want to play. When they come and visit, they realize it is the next step for them,” McElderry said. “If they don’t get that pro contract then we become a good place for them to get that education and play at a high level.”
