Soccer Saturday
Soccer games. There are 13 of them today and one tomorrow. You should watch. The full schedule is here.
Seattle star Ruidíaz out with another hamstring injury
Seattle Sounders FC star forward Raúl Ruidíaz will be sidelined for at least four weeks after suffering a right hamstring strain, head coach Brian Schmetzer told reporters after Friday's training session at Lumen Field. The 32-year-old Peru international suffered the injury during Seattle's 4-1 loss at the Portland Timbers in Matchday 8 on the same play he scored his team's lone goal.
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It’s admittedly a weekend without many marquee matchups. But there are still plenty of lessons to be learned. Here are your storylines to keep an eye on today and tomorrow.
That lead-in doesn’t say we’re completely devoid of marquee matchups. We have a pretty darn good one in the Music City tonight as Nashville host LAFC (8:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass). That means last year’s Landon Donovan MLS MVP, Nashville attacker Hany Mukhtar, hosts an early 2023 frontrunner in LAFC forward Dénis Bouanga. It feels like you can expect something special from one or both in this one.
LAFC might just need something special from Bouanga in this one. We all know at this point what Nashville are about. Their plan will be to clutter this game up and make LAFC work overtime to find chances. That kind of defense-first setup can require a little bit of magic to break down, especially on the road.
The good news for LAFC is they have a whole lot of high mana spellcasters capable of magic. If it’s not Bouanga, it might be Carlos Vela or Kwadwo Opoku or whichever “star on any other team” kind of player they’re bringing off the bench these days. But it might be more difficult than normal. And that’s at least enough to make this engaging heading into kickoff. Let’s find out if Nashville have enough in them to slow down the best team in the league.
NYCFC host FC Dallas tonight (7:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass). This is good news for fans of well-played soccer games. Both teams might consistently be the most “Well, they started the game, did a few things, won and that was all I really remembered” teams in their respective conferences. They just play quality soccer and get the job done.
NYCFC are still learning how to do that as effectively as normal with a shifting cast of players this year, but, then again, there they are in fifth place in the East. That’s right around where you can always expect them to be at bare minimum. And, oh, there’s Dallas sitting fourth in the West. Right around where we’ve come to expect them to be under second-year coach Nico Estevez.
So, yeah, that’s kind of all I’ve got here. Good soccer game is good and will feature a collection of good players. Enjoy.
In case you missed it, Cincinnati got varianced to hell and back last week at St. Louis, who put up five goals on them on 1.4 xG in a 5-1 loss. Later that night, Portland and Dairon Asprilla turned a lackluster 1-0 game into a party with a late bicycle kick that sent the Timbers toward a 4-1 win over Seattle. Both teams are entering after two opposite outcomes while sitting in near-opposite places in the standings. It’s… kind of a weird one.
However, I think you can mostly expect things to return to normal. I wouldn’t be too worried about Cincy and I wouldn’t get too high on Portland. Their place in the standings reflects their underlying numbers and two rosters with different levels of quality right now. Especially with Portland’s injuries.
That being said, it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen the Timbers take off after a big win over Seattle. And it’s not exactly like Cincy have been running folks over this year. Both teams’ responses to last week may tell us a decent amount about where things are heading.
I’ve mentioned it a couple of times this week, but the underlying numbers like the Red Bulls way more than the standings do right now. New York have found a decent amount of chances and they’re allowing very few. But they haven’t yet consistently turned that into results.
Well, tonight they get CF Montréal on the road (7:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass). And if they can’t turn that into results against CF Montréal, something may be well and truly broken. CFM are the worst team in the league this year. They’ve lost six of their seven games and have scored in just one game on the season, allowing 17 overall. This darn near has to be a win for the Red Bulls. If they can find it, it might just get them set on the right path going forward.
USA to face Ecuador, Fiji & Slovakia in U-20 World Cup: The US Under-20 men’s national team, via Friday morning’s draw, learned their opponents for the 2023 FIFA Under-20 World Cup that will be staged from May 20-June 11 in Argentina. Head coach Mikey Varas’ team will face Ecuador, Fiji and Slovakia in Group B. The top two finishers in each group, as well as the four best third-place teams advance to the Round of 16. From there, the tournament will feature a knockout bracket to the tournament final.
- Jonathan Sigal has your guide to Matchday 9.
- Schuyler Redpath has your MLS Fantasy and Gaming advice for Round 9.
- Tata Martino didn’t rule out a return to MLS someday.
Good luck out there. Enjoy the little moments.
