Your Sunday Kickoff: Messi & Miami deliver in front of historic crowd at Arrowhead Stadium

Two matches to close the weekend

Atlanta United host Philadelphia at 2:30 pm ET, then St. Louis CITY SC welcome Austin FC at 4:45 pm ET on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and FOX.

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3-2 scorelines. 3-2 scorelines everywhere. And even the games that didn’t have them were pretty good too. Let’s talk it out.

Evander put on a show in the first half with an outstanding assist to Felipe Mora and an even better volley moments later. But LAFC’s Mateusz Bogusz ruined the day for the Timbers with an excellent first-half goal and even better free kick moments after Portland goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau’s red card. LAFC had opportunities to break through against 10-man Portland from there, but couldn’t find a winner. 

A road point is a good point for LAFC, but they’ll be bummed to have not capitalized on Crépeau’s red. Getting Bogusz going until a reinforcement can take over as LAFC’s No. 9 is encouraging. 

Portland…they are definitely entertaining. Phil Neville would probably like them to be a little less entertaining, but it’s not clear what’s going to fix this defense. They will be living on the edge all season.

It looked for a moment like Toronto and Prince Owusu had spoiled a fun night in Charlotte that saw new DP Liel Abada score his first goal. But Patrick Agyemang redirected a ball into the net just before stoppage time to make sure The Crown’s excellent home record (3W-0L-1D) stayed excellent. Toronto’s losing streak moved to three in a row.

Charlotte have taken 10 points from their first four home games this season and ended Saturday in sixth place in the East. They’re getting the job done in Carolina... but Enzo Copetti isn’t. He made his fourth start last night and is still looking for his first goal. Agyemang, his backup, has two. Charlotte clearly have something to build on here. I keep wondering if the best way to build is to clear a DP spot.

Stop me if you’ve heard it before. D.C. United took a lead in the second half and by the end of the second half that lead didn’t exist anymore. Full credit to the Lions for fighting back and earning an outstanding and much, much-needed road win. But holy smokes, D.C.

The Black & Red have held leads against Inter Miami, St. Louis, CF Montréal, Columbus and now Orlando over the last five games. They’ve only earned five points. We could be talking about one of the best teams in the league and instead, we’re talking about a team whose growing pains are a little too painful right now. Last night’s blown lead is the worst of the bunch.

Anyway, it seems important to note Orlando came out of a bye week and went back to a 4-2-3-1 in this one. Luis Muriel started as the lone striker while Duncan McGuire came off the bench to great effect. This is the way forward for the Lions. Now they need to figure out whether it should be Muriel or McGuire up top.

Well, they finally made it home and Josef Martinez made himself comfy. CF Montréal had reason for concern after new forward Matías Cóccaro came off early, but Martinez came on and put in something close to a vintage performance. His goal and assist powered Montréal to a huge win over the reigning Supporters’ Shield winners.

We said it coming into the day, Montréal had the potential to make a statement against the Shield winners in their first home game of the year. They went out and made it without their best signing of the offseason. They have 10 points through their first seven games and 59% of their remaining games are at home. Montréal are well on track to earn a playoff spot in Laurent Courtois’ first season in charge.

They couldn’t make the most of a first-half red card, but Chicago still earned an outstanding road point against a streaking Red Bulls side. They’ve earned a respectable eight points in their last five games.

Agustín Ojeda and Julián Fernández found the net for New York City as they rolled to a 2-0 win. So far, NYCFC have begun their critical five-game home stand about as well as anyone could have expected. They have four points from their first two games. Anything less than eight points from five will feel like a major disappointment now. They’re doing what they need to do to get back into the playoff conversation.

The Revs are not. Make it five losses through their first seven games. No one has a worse record or goal differential in the East. It could not be going worse.

Just frowning at both these teams. Just so much frowning.

72,610 folks at Arrowhead Stadium got their money’s worth last night. Erik Thommy’s phenomenal brace nearly powered SKC to a result, but an incredible strike from Lionel Messi and a standout performance from Diego Gómez ruined the party.

Full credit to the Herons here for bouncing back from a rough CCC experience midweek and taking a challenge in another wild atmosphere head-on. It’s tough to get a team’s best shot every time you head out on the road. This time, they pushed through it and Sporting buckled under the pressure. 

You have to wonder if this is the start of a change in form for Miami. Messi is healthy and the silver lining of a disappointing CCC exit is plenty of time to focus on MLS. Miami weren’t outstanding on the night or anything, but Messi and Luis Suárez are too good to keep quiet, even if Miami aren’t creating a ton of quality chances.  

It also helps to have a player like Gómez in midfield. He’s turning into a star. 

As for SKC, they only allowed 1.3 xG on the day. They were good enough to earn a point here at least. But there should still be concern about this team’s issues defensively. They’ve given up 10 goals over the last four games.

Sebastian Kowalczyk nutmegged a defender and found the back of the net from distance to score one of the season’s best goals and put Houston on top late in Minnesota.

The Dynamo have now won four of their last five and jumped into a tie for second place in the West. It’s been a remarkable turnaround for a team that seemed to have the universe working against them at the start of the year. What’s amazing is they’ve done this without Héctor Herrera. They haven’t even started to push toward their ceiling.

Minnesota still can’t win at home. They have one home win in four tries this season and five home wins in their last 22 home games. That doesn’t even seem possible for a team as good as Minnesota, but here we are. They’re going to have to figure this out ASAP and they’re likely going to have to do it without Bebelo Reynoso for the foreseeable future.

This is a great point for the Crew. They were playing at altitude after their midweek heroics in Mexico. This could have been a loss and no one would have blinked.

It’s still too early to provide an official time of death for the 2024 Quakes, but we’re close. The Rapids took care of business against the league’s worst team as DP forward Rafael Navarro finally scored from open play.

The scoreline doesn’t flatter Vancouver, but this one stayed close till the end. Newcomer of the Year candidate Joseph Paintsil provided the breakthrough for the Galaxy in a span of match time that saw three goals in five minutes.

It’s a resume-building road win for LA that looks even better in the context of a bounceback from last week’s loss to LAFC. They have three road wins in five games and are on top of the West after eight games. It’s early, but right now the Galaxy appear good enough to stay on top of the conference until the end of the season.

Meanwhile, the Whitecaps have lost at home to the two best teams they’ve faced this year. They’re a high floor side, but I think we’ve already gotten clued in as to where their ceiling is.

• 72k+ attended Sporting KC vs. Inter Miami at Arrowhead Stadium.
• Duncan McGuire was the hero as Orlando City beat D.C. United.

Good luck out there. Hit it clean.