RBNY mutually part ways with Gerhard Stuber
The New York Red Bulls and head coach Gerhard Struber have mutually parted ways. Assistant coach Bernd Eibler has also departed the club. The changes come with New York sitting last in the Eastern Conference table with a 1W-4L-6D record and seven goals scored (second-worst in MLS).
Chicago Fire part ways with Ezra Hendrickson
Chicago Fire FC have parted ways with head coach Ezra Hendrickson after Matchday 11 of the 2023 MLS season. The club currently sits 14th in the Eastern Conference table (second from last) with 10 points from a 2W-3L-5D record. This past Saturday, they suffered a 3-0 defeat at Nashville SC and have struggled to hold onto leads late in games.
Sporting KC stun Seattle
Erik Thommy and Alan Pulido scored first-half goals to send Sporting KC past Seattle in a 2-1 road win. SKC finally have their first win of the season.
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I couldn’t really think of an opening for this one, so I dunno…I hope you have a great Monday, especially if you’re Josef Martinez.
Sporting KC beat Seattle yesterday. It took 11 Matchdays to get a win from SKC, and it came on the road against the reigning champions of the dang continent. Does that mean Seattle are doomed for the rest of the year? Are SKC back??? No. Stop. All of this is just fake. No one knows why any of this happens. And anyone who pretends they actually know what’s happening next in a sincere way instead of a “well, I mean, we have this prior evidence, but could be anything tbh” kind of way is someone who hasn’t been following the league for long enough. Things happen because something has to happen and even nothing happening is something.
Thanks for reading.
No, they can’t win on the road. Yes, there are concerns about depth and concerns about the back line. But, like, name three teams in MLS that don’t have those concerns and you’ll probably get to LAFC and stop. Even then, you’ll never guess who the Quakes beat this weekend. In front of 45,000 people too.
If you’ve been following along at The Daily Kickoff (or any consistent national coverage of the league) you’ve probably noticed Saturday’s win over LAFC didn’t come as a surprise. At this point, everyone has recognized how good this team is and how Cristian Espinoza is a legitimate MVP candidate. And if you haven’t, well now is your chance to come to the altar and offer your commitment to joining the “San Jose, good team actually in 2023” club. It’s fun here. Low stakes too! All you’re hoping for is that a good team keeps playing good ball and ends up in a home playoff spot. Seems like a good bet right now.
We have to note that Josef Martinez, against his old team, scored his first two goals of the season this weekend. The first came via penalty like 30 seconds or so after he came on the field. Did he force an Atlanta defender into the clumsiest possible decision to foul an Inter Miami player in the box just by his sheer presence? Probably not, but it’s way more fun if you believe he did. At the very least, he took the penalty well.
The second goal has to be genuinely encouraging for Inter Miami though. First off, it came from open play. Second, it came from the kind of off-ball run in behind we used to see every week from Josef. I’m not sure we’ve seen one like it in about four years to be honest. The question now is if he can keep that going on a consistent basis without the added motivation/existential strangeness of going against a team from a city that still has multiple murals of him around.
Look, I’ve said it before, but I don’t think anyone has put more hagiography of Josef on the internet than me. I also think he’s been generally ineffective as a striker for a long while now. I said it before the game this weekend, and I don’t really think that’s going to change, even after a pretty definitive middle finger to everything I wrote about him last week.
For a moment though, we got to see Josef, long after the excitement of his initial coronation in Atlanta evaporated, look like royalty again. It was one of the best (and outright weirdest) moments of the season.
They followed up a 3-1 beatdown against Atlanta by announcing that, finally, they’d parted ways with Ake Loba. Now, I’m not here to applaud them for successfully ending what, objectively, is the worst DP signing in MLS history. But I am here to say giving Nashville another shot at a proper DP No. 9 makes them a scary, scary team.
I mean, just imagine what their 3-0 win over Chicago this weekend would have looked like with one. They would have maybe won 5-0 instead of 3-0. They generated 4.5 xG worth of chances, so it actually would have checked out.
Look, the Coyotes are thriving right now, even without the missing piece that everyone recognizes they need. That’s an excellent sign. They have another couple of months without that striker, but they’re going to be just fine until then. Even if things end up being a bit up and down. If they get that signing right – and, with the amount of time they’ve had to prepare for exactly that signing, they really, really need to get it right – we’re looking at a no-doubt contender in the East.
We’ve talked a bit lately about two teams in particular with great underlying numbers and not so great positions in the table. Vancouver have been one of the best teams in the league when looking at the chances they’ve created and allowed. The Red Bulls have been the same.
With a win over Minnesota United this weekend, the Whitecaps have now won three of their last five and haven’t lost outright since March 4. They’re firmly in the San Jose category of “normally middling teams who clearly have the quality to break previous trends this season”. Coincidentally, their last loss actually came on the road to San Jose.
Anyway, a lot is going right for the 'Caps, and every indication is it will continue to go right. Now, change pretty much all of that, and you have whatever is going on with the Red Bulls right now. The underlying numbers still look great. The actual numbers have them dead last in the East. Dead last. And a loss to the Union this week means they’re still looking for their first win since March 18.
Do the excellent underlying numbers mean that New York’s record is lying to us? I’m not convinced. Things just seem…bad. I know how vibes-based that is, and I know it’s the general philosophy of The Daily Kickoff to avoid choosing vibes over data, but that’s where I’m at with this team right now. I’m open to hedging though. Always. Maybe things can turn around once Lewis Morgan gets back. In the end, last place in the East means you’re just five points off a playoff pace for now.
- NYCFC just kind of make me frown a lot right now. They clearly have great pieces. They clearly are going to need some time (maybe a lot of time) to put those pieces together. Kind of like Charlotte seems to be doing? At least at home? Their 3-2 win over NYCFC this week gave them two straight home wins against probable playoff teams. They haven’t lost in Charlotte since their 3-0 defeat to Atlanta. Putting Karol Swiderski behind Enzo Copetti like they said they were going to do months ago (and then just didn’t) probably helps.
- Atlanta is just a normal Tier 2 team doing normal Tier 2 team things right now. That’s a very, very not good loss on the road to a depleted Inter Miami team, but sometimes you just have to say “road games are hard” and concede the roster still has a long way to go before things start to feel like 2018 again. They’re still in a home playoff spot after 11 games.
- Bold bet of the week: The Union will start to look a lot more like the Union with CCL out of the way, and the Red Bulls win was just the beginning. Hold your applause, I know.
- Shoutout to Colorado and CF Montréal for dragging themselves out of early gutters to put together some really solid results as of late. Both have gone from looking like Spoon contenders to teams on the very fringe of playoff spots. Not-shoutout to the Galaxy for doing not that. But thanks for the Kevin Cabral goal this weekend. Somehow we got a “Goal against a former team” funnier than Josef’s.
- Austin FC showed "grit and resiliency" despite Sebastián Driussi's injury in their 2-2 draw against Portland.
- New York Red Bulls’ frustration reaches an "outstanding high level" after another loss this weekend.
- Chicharito sounded off this weekend, saying "something needs to change" for the Galaxy.
- San Jose and Cristian Espinoza are thinking big after their win over LAFC showed "flashes of our potential."
- Hany Mukhtar reminded everyone why he's the reigning MVP with his hat trick against Chicago.
- Philadelphia Union responded to their CCL exit with a "street fight" win at Red Bulls.
- Alan Pulido and Sporting KC earned their first win of 2023.
- Matt Doyle’s Sunday column is up and good.
Good luck out there. Surprise some folks.
