Stop and think about what makes for an especially entertaining 90 minutes of soccer. Undoubtedly, there would be goals. Ideally, at least a few of those strikes should leave a neutral observer unable to resist leaping to their feet. Leads should never feel insurmountable.
MLS’s parity and emphasis on investment in attacking players makes it tailor-made to deliver contests like that regularly. So while one might assume that the best games will involve the league’s glamor clubs in places like LA, Miami, Seattle, Atlanta, Toronto or New York, the actual thrill rides pop up a bit more randomly.
This weekend’s instant classic between Real Salt Lake and the Colorado Rapids was proof of that. While the headliners of Rivalry Week played earlier in the day, RSL and Colorado kicked off at 9:30 p.m. Eastern — and what a potent nightcap it turned out to be.
Colorado came out with a point to prove, taking advantage of some RSL miscommunication as Cole Bassett cooly curled a 44-yard shot around the backline for the opening goal. The Rapids doubled their lead 20 minutes later, as Brazilian forward Rafael Navarro scored in a fourth consecutive fixture.
RSL answered swiftly to reignite their home faithful, first through MVP contender Chicho Arango and again before halftime as a Diego Luna corner found 21-year-old Andres Gomez for a cooly placed volley over Zack Steffen’s head and outstretched arms.
Advertisement
Colorado appeared unfazed by the blown lead after halftime; Djordje Mihailovic reopened the scoring and for nearly half an hour afterwards, it appeared that the Rapids had an answer for every RSL attempt. That is, until Arango continued doing what he’s done throughout 2024: score key goals when RSL needs him most.
After a corner elicited a shot off the crossbar, the resulting bounce caromed off Steffen’s head, back off the bar, and then to Arango for a looping header — 3-3 in the 85th minute. From there, RSL took what the rattled Rapids defense gave them; Gomez finished an incisive cut into the box with an outer-footed finish past a sliding Steffen, then Anderson Julio capped the fixture deep into stoppage time with an impressive one-man counter-attack.
Best game in Rocky Mountain Cup history? 🍿@continentaltire pic.twitter.com/WXw53SmNvQ
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 19, 2024
Real Salt Lake has been among the league’s best sides in 2024 — no qualifiers needed. The win ensured that RSL is one of four teams averaging at least two points per game, along with Inter Miami, FC Cincinnati and Minnesota United. An already prolific academy is now bolstered by promising prospects arriving from South America and the USL. Ultimately, RSL’s leap into contender status feels right on schedule for this roster’s evolution.
The same can’t quite be said for how swiftly the Colorado Rapids have gone from last year’s conference cellar to firmly sitting in playoff contention. They won’t like watching the final 15 minutes vs RSL, but there’s no shame in sitting sixth in the West after 14 games.
The Rapids were aggressive in revamping the roster and staff this winter, with Chris Armas taking over on the touchline while new acquisitions like Mihailovic, Omir Fernandez and Zack Steffen raised the roster’s ceiling with plenty of MLS experience.
Advertisement
East coasters would be wise to work in an early afternoon cup of coffee most Saturdays — these days, MLS’s best viewing requires staying up for a Mountain time marquee.
Jeff Rueter
In case you missed it…
- Charlotte FC in talks with Marco Reus
- The most interesting takeaways from the MLS salary release
- Why Jesse Marsch has “MLS” in his Canada job title
Nashville SC 2.0
For just the second time in club history, Nashville SC has kicked off a coaching search, grappling with how to take the next step as a club without losing the gains made under solid leadership (in their case, inaugural head coach Gary Smith, who was let go this week).
Nashville made the playoffs in each of Smith’s first four seasons at the club, one of four teams to do so in that timeframe. The club also won the eighth-most cumulative points in the league during that span. The feats are all the more impressive considering they include Nashville’s debut MLS season in the COVID-19-impacted 2020. Only the Seattle Sounders experienced similar success in their first four seasons in the league. Atlanta and LAFC, two other successful recent expansion sides, missed the playoffs in their fourth season – but both Atlanta and LAFC won MLS Cup.
Nashville hasn’t quite broken through from “very good” (the 2021 and 2022 seasons) to “great.”
They made the 2023 Leagues Cup final but lost in penalties to Inter Miami. The back half of 2023 showed warning signs, but the start of the 2024 season made one thing clear: Nashville was decidedly trending in the wrong direction under Smith.
“It got to a certain point where we needed to have a new voice and a fresher perspective,” GM Mike Jacobs told media. “As we continue to look at the league and teams that grow and evolve, we have to do the same ourselves.”
Even at the best of times, Smith’s Nashville teams were criticized for lacking attacking ambition. That’s an easy tradeoff to accept when the team was picking up points and when Hany Mukhtar was a one-man attack, but over the last 10 months, things went sideways. They won just two of their final 16 MLS matches last season, then both of their playoff games, then just three wins in their first 12 MLS games this season.
Advertisement
Ironically, one of those wins was Smith’s last game in charge before being fired.
“As we move into (Nashville) 2.0 and the evolution of our club on the field, we have to take advantage of the things that our league allows us to do,” Jacobs said. “Whether that’s utilizing players in the U-22 initiative, whether it’s being able to identify players from areas of the country and parts of the world that will generate high resale value, you know, we have to make sure that we’re malleable and we’re flexible ourselves.”
Nashville hasn’t developed many young players, with center-back Jack Maher being the only strong example. Their lone key U-22 initiative signing was Uruguayan winger Rodrigo Pineiro. He played a total of nine MLS minutes and was routinely left off the matchday squad, then departed after a season.
They have had a rotating cast of high-priced potential partners for Mukhtar, from Jhonder Cadiz to Ake Loba to now Sam Surridge. The most successful running mate for the MVP was MLS veteran C.J. Sapong.
Nashville is indeed into its era, but the roster still has Smith’s vision and preferences all over it. It may take a little time to realize the evolution they’re searching for.
“It’s about not only who’s the best manager,” Jacobs said, “it’s who’s the best manager for Nashville.”
Tom Bogert
San Diego sporting director hire falls through
San Diego FC is back to the drawing board. The proposed deal to bring in AS Monaco’s Carlos Aviña as the club’s first sporting director has fallen through, sources briefed on the deal tell The Athletic.
Aviña’s hire was viewed as a foregone conclusion as recently as a few weeks ago and was expected to be announced at some point soon after the end of Monaco’s season. Instead, Aviña will remain with the Ligue 1 club and San Diego needs to find a new inaugural sporting director.
Advertisement
The good news for San Diego is that it has sporting infrastructure to lean on. Their ownership includes the Mansour Group, which also owns Danish club FC Nordsjælland and the Right to Dream Academy. For now, with no sporting director, they still have plenty of soccer people helping build the inaugural squad.
The club’s deal to sign Hirving “Chucky” Lozano is unaffected by Aviña not coming to the club. Sources say Lozano’s deal is all agreed and expected to be signed in the coming days. Lozano is likely to stay at PSV until the winter.
Lozano will be San Diego’s fourth player ahead of their 2025 debut. The club has already announced deals for young American goalkeeper Duran Ferree plus Danish veterans Jeppe Tverskov and Marcus Ingvartsen. The latter duo currently play for Nordsjælland and will join ahead of preseason in January of 2025.
Tom Bogert
Five-a-side team of the week
In this segment, we’re picking five notable names from across the weekend of MLS – players can make the team for good performance, a key on-field moment (good or bad), an interesting off-field moment, or anything else we decide.
Luciano Acosta: The reigning MLS MVP is in the midst of an explosive run of form, which continued this weekend with a goal and two assists vs St. Louis. He has seven goals and nine assists in 1,179 minutes this year and has scored or assisted each of the club’s last seven games and 12 of the last 13. He became the 15th player in MLS history to record 150 goal contributions as well.
Robin Lod: Lod became the Loons’ all-time top goalscorer in its MLS era, snapping a tie with Emanuel Reynoso and Darwin Quintero. The milestone moment also catalyzed a comeback win for Minnesota, which overcame an early Portland Timbers goal to win 2-1 at Allianz Field. Cue Wonderwall!
Eduard Löwen: Löwen returned to the pitch for St. Louis City for the first time in two months and did so with the support of both clubs and all around MLS. Not only was he battling injury, but Löwen opened up this week to share that his wife, Ilona, has been diagnosed with brain cancer. Cincy players wore white armbands with her initials on them in support.
Advertisement
“Everything else is secondary,” STL head coach Bradley Carnell said after the game.
Nouhou Tolo: Entering stoppage time, it appeared that the Seattle Sounders had done enough to notch a much-needed win over a Cascadian rival the Vancouver Whitecaps. However, the always-unpredictable left-back lunged to block a shot with his arm high above his head; when the ball touched his hand, it was an undoubtedly unnatural motion. That infraction was something of a triple-whammy: a red for Nouhou (who has struggled throughout 2024 to date), a penalty kick goal for Ryan Gauld, and a vital away draw for the Whitecaps.
Federico Bernardeschi: Bernardeschi has been rejuvenated this season and his hat trick in Toronto FC’s thrashing of CF Montréal 5-1 was the Italian at his best… at least in terms of his technical prowess. We’ll leave you to form an opinion on his new hairstyle.
Federico Bernardeschi … with cornrows! pic.twitter.com/c7gukAOlzG
— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) May 18, 2024
(Top photos: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports, Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports)