Your Sunday Kickoff: Messi-less Miami do the unthinkable, Revs & Fire wake up 

A few teams at the bottom of the standings are waking up. A few teams at the top are still pulling away. Let’s talk it out.

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Man…are you…I mean… come on.

Inter Miami. On the road. Without Messi. Without Suárez. With multiple injuries. Down to nine men. GET A STOPPAGE-TIME WINNER ON THE COUNTER FROM THEIR SECOND-ROUND SUPERDRAFT PICK.

I…I just…I need to sit with this one a bit. I’ll be back in like an hour…

Noel Buck hit the everliving hell out of the ball, Giacomo Vrioni got on the end of a through ball and Esmir Bajraktarevic got some help from a deflection as the Revs earned THEIR THIRD STRAIGHT WIN.

I need a nap.

I’ll power through though. The Revs are still at the bottom of the East, but only barely. They were trending hard toward Wooden Spoon contention just a few weeks ago and now, with another win, could be one point away from a playoff spot. What a league we live in.

Full credit though, not many teams could drag themselves out of the hole they were in and actively digging for themselves. I’m not sure much has changed (and the schedule hasn’t been a gauntlet) but you can only play who’s in front of you, right?

It’s doubtful this means the season is saved or anything like that, but they always felt like too good of a roster to be down so badly. They may not have a contender’s roster, but they certainly weren’t as bad as their “worst numbers since 2013 Chivas USA” statistics suggested. Congrats to the Revs on pulling themselves up and out of the pit of misery.

For now anyway. We’ll see if they avoid falling back in over this next four-game stretch. They face Cincinnati, Columbus, Atlanta and Seattle.

So…the Revs and Chicago are…good now? Or something. Crazy soccer league.

Anyway, what a win for Chicago. They completely ripped apart Toronto here. The Reds were totaly overwhelmed as the Fire rolled to their second-straight win (both over playoff sides) and their fourth-straight game without a loss. They’re just a couple of points out of a playoff spot. It’s not time to start believing in this group, but, hey, maybe they can keep this up until they can replace Xherdan Shaqiri outright. They’re unbeaten in the four games since he left for Euro 2024.

Toronto head coach John Herdman said he’s never been more disappointed in a team during his 30 years of coaching. So. Uh. Toronto could have done better here.

Oh, hey, we were just talking about bottom-of-the-standings teams starting to get their life together. Seattle haven't quite gone full New England/Chicago, but this is a start. You take what you can get at this point. Maybe a win over an excellent Minnesota side can be a starting point for righting the ship? Maybe? Ok, I’m not really convinced yet, but good win.

Facundo Torres missed an early penalty and Denis Bouanga didn’t. Orlando got back in it with pretty team goal, but, c’mon, you knew how this one ended. Mateusz Bogusz found the winner and Bouanga slalomed his way to an insurance goal as Orlando lost their fourth home game in five tries.

LAFC lost their clean sheet streak in this one, but didn’t lose what’s now a six-game winning streak. They’re one point behind RSL for the top spot in the West with a game in hand. We’ve been saying it for a while now, but it’s getting harder by the week to envision anyone else winning the Supporters’ Shield. They’re too good and their schedule looks pretty gentle these days. Oh, by the way, Bouanga has 12 goals and six assists on the season now.

Orlando…it’s starting to feel like it’s not “if” but “when” for major changes, right?

Not quite the road performance RSL probably had in mind. And they almost certainly noticed LAFC earned all three points in Orlando. But a road point is a road point. They’re still one point ahead of LAFC in the standings.

Yuya Kubo went to another plane of existence (with a little help from Lucho Acosta’s three assists) at the 78th-minute mark of this one. Kubo, who had four goals coming into this one, scored three in 26 minutes of play to hand Cincinnati a big cross-country road win. Acosta is unreal, but y’all knew that already. Cincy are still on top of the league on points per game and they’re finding different ways to pull out wins. This Shield race rules, folks.

Speaking of the Shield race, when do we start to consider the Galaxy a genuine player in it? I’m really asking.

It sure seems like their defense may still be holding them back too much, but my goodness this attacking front is unreal. Dejan Joveljic, Gabriel Pec and Joseph Painstil all found the net in a typical 2024 Galaxy beatdown here. They didn’t even have Riqui Puig guiding them along. Only RSL and Miami have scored more goals this year. LA are only three points out of first place in the West.

Sporting KC are very much not three points out of first place. In fact, they’re 20 points out. Only San Jose have a worse record in MLS.

Kerwin Vargas found the net off a corner and Charlotte did Charlotte things defensively against a D.C. team missing Christian Benteke. The Crown are sitting fifth in the East and are just three points out of third place. They have a conference-high six wins at home. They won’t be a true contender until they add two high-quality DPs, but it sure seems like that’s coming this summer. If they can stay close to the top of the conference—and they probably will considering their defense—they’ll be one of the most fascinating teams in the league when the summer window opens.

A new manager bounce for Dallas then. Jesus Ferreira and Nkosi Tafari delivered the first win of Dallas’ post-Nico Estevez era and kept them within touching distance of the playoff line. They’re actually a totally respectable 4W-2L-2D at home this year. Now if they could just find a win on the road.

Not quite a new manager bounce for Atlanta then. Latif Blessing snuck in behind Atlanta’s back line in the 89th minute to earn a road point for Houston. The Dynamo are still hanging out in the middle of the West. Atlanta are still down at the bottom of the East.

The Rapids took care of business here thanks to goals from Cole Bassett and Rafa Navarro. Navarro has 10 goals on the year now (four from penalties but still) and is reportedly set to earn a permanent deal. The Rapids needed a win and really, really needed a clean sheet. Things were getting a bit harrowing defensively. They jumped Austin and Houston to move to sixth in the West with the win.

Austin have lost three straight. They’ve been outscored 9-1 in that stretch.

Happened.

Ok, ok, I think I’ve recovered here. But still. Holy smokes. Are you kidding me with this? We talk about Miami being Walter White (smarter and luckier than you) all the time these days, but I’m not sure how much I truly believed it until this moment. Full credit to Leo Afonso for making his way onto the most-watched MLS team of all time and making his mark this year. Full credit to the other nine then eight dudes on the field for holding onto a draw long enough for that counter. But my goodness, they’ve given up the first goal of the game 13 times this season. And yet, here we are.

Anyway, I’m willing to make the moment Afonso’s shot hit the net the official time of death for this era of the Union. Julian Carranza is on the way to Feyenoord and the rest of the group needs a reset. There were always dangers in running it back with the same roster the way Philly did this year and they’re all apparent right now. They need a big summer window to get this righted and they’ll probably need some time after that.

The Union have one home win in nine tries this year.

• LAFC and Denis Bouanga are starting to feel inevitable.
• Leo Afonso saved the day for Inter Miami.
• Chicago Fire FC are channeling a "must-win" mentality during their unbeaten streak.
• The New England Revolution believe they’re "scratching the surface" of their potential.
• The Crew rallied for a "massive" win on Friday.

Good luck out there. Find a moment to be the center of attention.