USMNT need win versus Iran to advance to Round of 16
The US men’s national team face a must-win game at the 2022 FIFA World Cup on Tuesday, closing Group B play against Iran in hot pursuit of a Round of 16 place. Kickoff is set for 2 pm ET on FOX, Telemundo, Foxsports.com and Peacock.
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Not a whole lot of news to dig into today. Instead of looking forward, let’s look back.
Every season is filled with thousands of hinge points and moments that alter the course of the season for better or worse. After a little distance between us and the 2022 season, I think we can look back at some of the most critical of those and wonder “What if?”
I’m sure I’ll forget some others, but here are a few of the biggest “What Ifs” of the 2022 Major League Soccer season.
A handful of these are going to be injury-based. It kind of feels like cheating because injuries happen to every team every year. But you can’t deny some stand out more than others.
For Atlanta United, we’re not talking about a solitary injury — we’re talking about one of the most absurd stretches of horrible injury luck in league history. In the span of about a month, Atlanta United lost Brad Guzan, Ozzie Alonso and Miles Robinson for the season. And those are just the season enders. That’s not even mentioning the weirder ones like Brooks Lennon slipping during warm ups in Toronto and missing a month and a half.
Anyway, you can’t help but wonder what the league’s most injured team would have looked like with even a slightly above-average amount of injuries instead of a higher power sending a plague upon their house. The Five Stripes finished eight points below the playoff line this year and 13 points below a home playoff spot. As good as they are, it’s hard to say Robinson and Guzan would be worth 14 points. With a few less crippling injuries, this is probably just an Audi MLS Cup Playoffs team that, like last year’s team, doesn’t have the overall quality across their roster to compete with the best of MLS.
The whole point of these is we’ll never know for sure. Which means I can say things like “LAFC would have set the points record, but lost MLS Cup” and no one is allowed to really question it.
When Bale and Chiellini arrived, LAFC were on pace to challenge for the points record set by New England last season. That dream dissipated shortly after their arrival when some lineup tinkering and generally bad form led to some stunning losses. But that tinkering led to LAFC finding their eventual Best XI and the group that would win MLS Cup.
Without Bale and Chiellieni’s arrival, it’s probably a safe bet to say some of that tinkering never happens in the regular season and things are a little more straightforward. Maybe, just maybe, that means LAFC get the points record. They only needed seven more points.
Without Bale in the playoffs… well, I don’t know if y’all remember, but he scored a pretty important goal.
New England pulled off a deal with Arsenal that kept Turner through the summer and through their planned challenge for CCL. But an injury in training (and a whole bunch of rumors about frostbite from a USMNT game) contributed to keeping him sidelined for a good chunk of his last few months with New England.
That includes New England’s miserable collapse against Pumas in the Concacaf Champions League, where the Revs blew a 3-0 lead. That’s not to put it all on that day’s goalkeeper, Earl Edwards Jr. It’s just to say a healthy Matt Turner has the ability to cover up some serious flaws. Maybe that would have been enough to escape from Mexico City with a result and New England wouldn’t have fallen so far short of all their goals this season.
In what seemed like the span of a few days in July, Toronto brought in Lorenzo Insigne, Federico Bernardeschi and Mark-Anthony Kaye. The trio hit the ground running in Toronto, thumping Charlotte FC 4-0 in their first game together. However, Kaye picked up a knock and didn’t start again until mid-September. At that point Toronto were in a hole too big to climb out of.
Would Kaye being healthy have been enough to salvage one of the league’s worst defenses? Maybe not, but it couldn’t have hurt. I’m not saying every game would have been like the 4-0 over Charlotte, but Kaye’s injury killed the momentum from that win. We could have been talking about a very different Toronto team down the stretch.
You might have forgotten rumors were swirling around Brenner’s status in Cincy last offseason. And even in the summer.
Thank goodness he didn’t leave though. Otherwise we wouldn’t have had one of 2022’s best redemption stories. In part due to Brenner’s outstanding 13-goal second half of the season Cincinnati made the playoffs for the first time in club history. It’s hard to see them getting over the line without him.
Well, if that happened…
… Folks, I’d like to introduce your 2022 Supporters’ Shield winners.
No, really. CFM finished just two points behind Philadelphia and LAFC. They also finished the year with the league’s best expected goals against total. Essentially, they allowed fewer quality chances than any other team. Yet they allowed 24 more goals than Philadelphia. Part of that is just bad luck and part of that is the fact Montréal’s shot-stopping numbers were abysmal. League average goalkeeping would have certainly been worth three points (and probably much more) along the way.
You might remember Nashville began the year on a lengthy road trip before heading home to their new stadium. They passed the initial road test with flying colors but, oddly, never regained the home form they had at Nissan Stadium.
After losing just one home game over their first two seasons, the Coyotes lost five this year. Maybe a more traditional schedule would have helped them keep their swagger at home? Or maybe that initial road stretch wouldn’t have existed and they would have found points on the road even easier to come by.
Just one point would have put them in a home playoff spot this year. And if they had kept some that home form, well, maybe then they would have gotten past the first round (and more).
Seattle would have made the playoffs. Next question.
I have nothing definitive here. But it’s hard to imagine RSL being worse with Kreilach, one of the league’s most underrated stars. Kreilach missed the majority of the season after picking up an injury in April.
Maybe the pieces don’t fit together as well with him in and the team misses out on the playoffs. Or, the more likely scenario is we’re talking about a player who’s at least worth three more points. RSL would have been a home playoff team and you never know what could have happened then.*
*Ok, yeah, LAFC probably still win everything.
Or maybe found a way to make it work more often? Look, the core of this question is simply: What if Chicharito and Dejan Joveljic were on the field together for the majority of the time? How many goals does Joveljic have in him? Does he have nearly the same impact against fresh legs? How much do LA truly suffer defensively? Do they turn into an attacking juggernaut and the whole defense thing doesn’t really matter? Is that enough to stop LAFC in the playoffs? Does Chicharito not meet the performance threshold that extended his contract through 2023? What do we think of the Galaxy’s high-priced wingers at that point and do LA decide to move on from one or all of them?
I have a lot of questions here. Maybe we’ll get the answer in 2023?
Ok, yeah, LAFC probably still win everything. But Rubin’s absurd red card against Austin likely kept RSL from pulling off the upset. And that would have been really funny. This is the one that will haunt me for years.
St. Louis CITY SC sign defender Nerwinski in free agency: St. Louis CITY SC have signed right back Jake Nerwinski in free agency. The 28-year-old defender joins the expansion club through the 2024 MLS season with an option for 2025. Nerwinski previously played for Vancouver Whitecaps FC, spending the 2017-22 MLS seasons at the Canadian club after being selected in the SuperDraft.
LA Galaxy sign homegrown player Pérez to contract extension: The LA Galaxy have signed homegrown player Jonathan Pérez to a four-year contract extension through 2026 with an option for 2027. The 19-year-old winger, who made his Galaxy debut in 2021, has played seven matches (two starts) in all official competitions – most notably logging 128 minutes over three appearances in the 2022 U.S. Open Cup.
New England sign US youth international Suárez: The New England Revolution have signed 17-year-old defender Santiago Suárez to a multi-year, multi-layered contract. The 6-foot-5 center back, a US youth international, arrives from USL Championship side Sacramento Republic FC and will spend the 2023 season with Revolution II in MLS NEXT Pro. He'll then be added to New England’s MLS roster as a homegrown player for the 2024 campaign.
Inter Miami CF sign homegrown midfielder Cremaschi: Inter Miami CF have signed US youth international midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi as a homegrown player. The 17-year-old joins through the 2025 MLS season with options for 2026 and 2027. He’s the fifth Inter Miami CF Academy product to sign for their first team.
- Charlie Davies has your USMNT lineup prediction against Iran
- Check out USA-Iran predictions from the experts
- Joe Lowery took a shot at predicting who will score the USMNT’s do-or-die World Cup goal against Iran
Good luck out there. Don’t forget the reason for the season.
