MLS & MLS Next Pro round-up, March 22-24

The MLS weekend got off to a brilliant start for schadenfreuders like myself when New York Red Bulls gave Inter Miami a shoeing at the Red Bull Arena on Saturday afternoon. Sure, Miami were without Lionel Messi but the rest of their stars were there and unable to prevent Sandro Schwarz's side romping to a 4-0 win, mostly thanks to a hatrick from former Miami striker Lewis Morgan (who declined to celebrate his goals). Wikelman Carmona got the other goal on a night on which Miami had 70% of possession but none of Red Bulls' penetrative power. New England Revolution earned their first point of the season at the fifth attempt when they drew 1-1 at home with Chicago Fire. On a night when just about every team (save, ironically, for Inter Miami) was hit by international call-ups, Hugo Cuypers opened the scoring for Fire in the 20th minute, only for Nacho Gil to bundle in an equaliser from point blank range in first-half stoppage time. That's how it stayed and a draw was probably a fair result at the end of an often bad-tempered game.

New York City got their first win of the season last week but must have travelled to FC Cincinnati more in hope than expectation on Saturday. The Garys thought they'd gone ahead in the 20th minute when Lucho Acosta fired home but VAR ruled an earlier offside cancelled that out and the first half ended goalless. Acosta made amends 12 minutes into the second half with another fine strike and the home side were unlucky to have a penalty chalked off by VAR in the dying minutes of the game. Still, 3 points leaves last year's Supporters Shield winners sitting atop the table once more, a point ahead of Columbus Crew, who went to Charlotte FC on Saturday knowing a win would put them top. Charlotte have stuttered this term but were given a boon midway through the first half when VAR upgraded a yellow card shown to Crew's Derrick Jones to a red. In the end, Crew didn't manage a single shot on target and a corker from Ashley Westwood gave the home side the lead with seven minutes left on the clock. Patrick Agyemang added a second two minutes later to send most of the 30,000 crowd home happy.

Toronto FC are also on 10 points after 5 games after a fine 2-0 win at home to Atlanta United on Saturday. With nine shots on target, it could have been more, especially with Lorenzo Insigne a menace in the first half but it was just Tyrese Spicer's goal that separated the teams at the break, when Insigne went off injured. Prince Owusu added the second in the 71st minute but if Insigne's injury is as bad as first feared, it will be an expensive win for the Reds. Also winning 2-0 at home were Orlando City who were lucky to have Austin FC as visitors on a week in which Duncan Maguire was missing from the Lions' line-up. Jack Lynn was a fine deputy, though, and scored his first goal for the club after 34 goals in 44 games for their B side to fire Orlando ahead shortly before the break, with Nicolas Lodeiro grabbing his first since his move from Seattle with a beautiful free-kick in the 64th minute. Sebastian Driussi started for Austin but they were once again a damp squib. 

Vancouver Whitecaps are celebrating 50 years since the club began life in the old NASL and welcomed Real Salt Lake to BC Place on Saturday for an early kick-off on the West Coast. Everything looked to be going according to the celebration plan at half-time when the Caps led through Damir Kreilach's 33rd minute opener, but Real fought back in the second half, levelling through Anderson Julio on 70 minutes and then going ahead thanks to an Alexandros Katanis goal. It finished 2-1 and both teams are among a clutch of sides with 7 points in the Western Conference. Both St Louis City and DC United have played good, attacking football this season and it was no surprise that their clash at City Park was full of goals and incident. Joshua Yaro put the home side ahead in the 19th minute, only for United to go straight up the other end and equalise through Theodore Ku-DiPietro. Christian Benteke put DC in front on 38 minutes and that's how it stayed through to half-time, with Jackson Hopkins missing a chance to put the visitors further ahead. On a night when the scab officials didn't xcover themselves in glory across the league, VAR awarded St Louis a penalty midway through the second half, despatched by Joao Klauss to draw the sides level, and despite some heavy pressure from the home side and 15 minutes of time added on, they couldn't find their way past Alex Bono in the DC goal and it ended 2-2.

It looked like City's Missouri rivals Sporting Kansas City were heading for an unexpected 2-0 win over a Los Angeles Galaxy side in good recent form when Nemanja Radoja and William Agada gave them a 2-0 lead at half-time, despite Sporting missing the mercurial Johnny Russell. Galaxy are a different side this tear, though, and Eriq Zavaleta - in at centre-back thanks to Martin Caceres's red card last week against St Louis, began the fight back when he turned in a corner in the 72nd minute. After having two goals disallowed for offside earlier in the game, Dejan Jovelic scored his fifth of the season to pull the sides level three minutes later, and Sporting were shocked by Martin Delgado's VAR-checked goal with ten minutes to go. The game finished 3-2 and Galaxy remain unbeaten this season. As do Philadelphia Union, who finally recorded their first win of the season after three straight draws (and an abandonment) away at Phil Neville's Portland Timbers. Union were missing a hatful of players due to international call-ups and Timbers were giving a debut to new signing Jonathan Rodriguez, but it was the visitors who led at half-time thanks to Julian Carranza's 28th minute header from a corner. Thirteen minutes into the second half, Philadelphia increased their lead through Quinn Sullivan and, when Carranza added a third midway through the half, it looked like Timbers were done. Rodriguez was lively on his debut and grabbed a smart headed goal with ten minutes remaining, but Union saw out the game for a 3-1 victory.

Colorado Rapids versus Houston Dynamo was one for the hardcores only, with each side recording just two efforts on target before Brad Smith's 96th minute winner for Dynamo. Contrast that with the game at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles where Los Angeles FC put five past Nashville SC with no reply. Some generous officiating allowed Timothy Tillman to open the scoring after just nine minutes, with another decision going aginst the Coyotes when Taylor Washington was adjudged to have fouled Tillman in the 18th minute, Denis Bouanga stepping up to convert the spot kick for his first goal of the season. Bouanga added a smartly taken third three minutes into the second half and things got much worse for Nashville when Joe Willis was red-carded for handling outside his area, VAR upholding a tight decision by the referee. Substitute goalkeeper Elliott Panico made some smart saves but couldn't prevent Cristian Oliveira and Eduard Atesta completing the scoring to finish a night Nashville would probably like to forget.

The weekend's final game came from PayPal Park where San Jose Earthquakes were hoping to avoid five defeats in a row to start the season. They were somewhat fortunate in that Seattle Sounders have been ravaged by injury this year but there were still some surprised faces in the crowd when the Quakes went into the break 2-0 up, through Vitor Costa and Cristian Espinoza, the latter given by VAR. As depleted as they are, Seattle still have some fight in them and Raul Ruidiaz reduced arrears with his first of the season on 72 minutes, and substitutes Cody Baker and Danny Musovski combined for the latter to level things with nine minutes to play. The parity lasted just one minute, however, as San Jose went straight up the other end and grabbed a winner through Jeremy Ebobisse to lift them off the foot of the Western Conference, leapfrogging a Seattle side without a win so far.

The two non-MLS reserve sides that compete in this MLS reserve league were both in action over the weekend, with Chattanooga FC hoping to bounce back from a midweek defeat in the US Open Cup to Miami United. They faced FC Cincinnati 2 at Finley Stadium and two goals from Jesus Ibarra and a third from Mehdi Ouamri gave them their first three point win of the season in what looked like a decent crowd. Carolina Core won in midweek but were brought back down to Earth with a bang when they travelled to Georgia to play Atlanta United 2 at Kennesaw State University Stadium yesterday. A nine-minute hatrick from Luke James Brennan gave United a 3-0 lead after just 33 minutes and there was no way back into the game for Core, conceding a fourth from Karim Tmimi to cap a miserable afternoon.