MLS is Back Tournament: The Breakdown

Major League Soccer is almost back! MLS will be returning to action on Wednesday, July 8th with a special tournament at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Walt Disney World Resort. All 26 teams will participate in a tournament that will include a group stage, knockout stages and a final. The groups and full list of rules can be found here. 

Two things I find interesting: 

    1) I'm glad there are incentives. I'm sure players and teams could look at this and laugh it off but the fact that group stage points carry over to the regular season is an important feature. Sure, the CCL spot and prize money are nice but for teams that know they won't go all the way (or any team really), this is great motivation.

    2) The idea of a regular season after the tournament intrigues me. Will it have the same amount of matches as the normal regular seasons? When will it end? Will they still have the standard MLS Cup playoffs? These are all important questions that MLS must answer quickly; the tournament will only last so long and once it's over players (and fans) will be wondering about the next steps. Unfortunately, the pandemic has made it impossible to predict the future beyond next week so these questions cannot be answered easily. 

    Additionally, MLS is hoping the regular season can resume in all home markets and not just in Orlando. I don't think this is entirely possible, especially considering how all the states are reopening at different rates with different results. To get all of them to be ready simultaneously for the MLS regular season will be...tough. It's too early to tell but it'll be interesting to keep an eye on. 

I'm going to take a look at the groups and give my predictions and thoughts. 

Group A: Orlando City 

                Inter Miami 

                NYCFC

                Philadelphia Union 

                Chicago Fire 

                Nashville SC

The only six-team group in the whole competition is an interesting one with a diverse set of teams. What's interesting is that none of these teams won either of the two games they played before the season was suspended. Nonetheless, NYCFC and the Union both stand out. They are by far the best teams in this group and I wouldn't be surprised if they finished first and second, respectively. I know NYCFC lost their first two games but they still have one of the deepest, most talented teams in the league.

Beyond that there really is no clear-cut favorite. While Orlando City are the hosts, they are not the greatest team and their time in MLS has been full of disappointment. They scored just once over their first two games under new head coach Oscar Pareja and will be hoping to impress in their home. The Chicago Fire are in a similar boat in that after a fantastic 2017 season, they have not fared well.

MLS' newest teams round out the group: Nashville SC and Inter Miami. It's hard to judge these teams with the small sample size but both are still looking for their first win. Nashville seem to have a defensively competent team but their offense lacks bite (there only goal came from their CB Walker Zimmerman). Inter Miami played a competitive game in their debut loss against the best team in MLS while collapsing after their CB picked up a red card in their second game. Like I said, it's not much. 

Spots 3-6 will come down to schedule strength and returning to form after a prolonged break. Since this is this only six-team group, not every team will play each other (the link towards the top has it available). Based on that and other factors, here's how I think it will pan out:

NYCFC 

Philly

Orlando

Miami

Chicago 

Nashville 

Group B: Seattle Sounders

                FC Dallas 

                Vancouver Whitecaps

                San Jose Earthquakes 

This Western Conference group is similar to the last one in that two teams stick out for me: FC Dallas and the Sounders. Both teams have won and draw a game so far and boast impressive teams with FC Dallas boasting a youthful team full of academy products and the Sounders boasting the title of "2019 MLS Cup Champions." Unlike the first group, however, the gap between these two teams and the other teams isn't as big. 

The Earthquakes have a solid team that finished just outside the playoff bubble last year and, with more experience with Matias Almeyda's man-marking system, I think they could play better this year. As for the Whitecaps, they will be relying on Lucas Cavallini, their record signing, to score lots of goals and  Maxime Crepeau, their breakout goalkeeper. What if Cavallini doesn't live up to the hype? What if Crepeau can't save his porous defense? It's hard to rely on two players because if one (or both) of them doesn't perform then the rest of the team is screwed. 

Seattle

FC Dallas 

San Jose 

Vancouver

Group C: Toronto FC
                DC United

                Montréal Impact 

                New England Revolution 

Honestly, I think this is a pretty close group. While Toronto FC are definitely the front-runners, everything after that is unknown. DC United and the Revolution finished close to each other last season (only five points apart), which each team having strong players. For DC it's Julian Gressel, Bill Hamid and Ola Kamara. For the Revolution, it's Gustavo Bou, Matt Turner and newcomer Adam Buksa. 

Montréal's allure is their new manager, Thierry Henry. While his previous managing stint at Monaco didn't go well, he won and drew his first two games in MLS. If he can get Maxi Urruti, Bojan and Victor Wanyama to play well, then they have a good chance of advancing to the next round. Also, despite the tournament being in Orlando, their Canadian Classique with Toronto should be a ton of fun. 

Toronto FC

DC United 

New England

Montréal  

Group D: Colorado Rapids

                Real Salt Lake

                Sporting Kansas City 

                Minnesota United 

I think this group is actually pretty well-rounded. All four teams are fairly close and even the outlier (looking at you, RSL) isn't completely out of the race; in a tournament like this, anything can happen. SKC should win this group though, especially if their newest signing Alan Pulido can make the adjustment and score lots of goals. They are talented and deep around him. Minnesota United are pretty close with guys like Ozzie Alonso, Ike Opara and Jan Gregus (they made the playoffs last year), but I don't think they'll be able to catch SKC for first place. 

The Rapids are my favorite Western Conference team. I love their players, their style and I think they are always a dark horse; they may not have the biggest names or the flashiest players, but they can still play some solid soccer and score goals. I'm starting to sound a little biased here, but at least I'm not putting them in first. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if they got second place. 

SKC

Minnesota 

Colorado 

RSL 

Group E: New York Red Bulls 

                Atlanta United 

                FC Cincinnati

                Columbus Crew 

If you thought Group D had an obvious outlier, just take a look at this group. FCC are out of their league here and even though they will have the Hell is Real Derby with Columbus, I think it will be a tough and disappointing time for them. The other Ohioan team is quite attractive though. They have depth and talent in every position (Gyasi Zardes, Eloy Room, Darlington Nagbe, etc.) and have greatly improved since last year. 

While they do sound like favorites, they are in the same group as Atlanta Untied. If you think back to before the pandemic, their star striker Josef Martinez tore his ACL in the first game of the season and he won't be coming back anytime soon. Despite this loss, Atlanta are still stacked and have the winning experience. This leaves NYRB who are in a sort of rebuild now. Bradley Wright-Phillips and Luis Robles have left, handing the reins to Brian White, Alex Muyl, and Aaron Long, amongst other talented youngsters. 

Atlanta 

Columbus 

NYRB 

FCC

Group F: Houston Dynamo

                LA Galaxy

                Portland Timbers 

                LAFC 

To me, the last group is fairly balanced for the most part. Sure, LAFC stand as favorites since they are the best team in MLS but the rest of the group isn't too bad either. I think the Timbers are next up, since they always manage to surprise us (2018 MLS Cup Final). They are returning with a lot of the same players, Steve Clark is hoping to continue his success and newcomer Jaroslaw Niezgoda will be looking to prove his DP slot. 

In my eyes, the Dynamo and the Galaxy are sort-of on the same page; they both have deep, talented offenses but glaring defenses. Even though Zlatan is no longer here, the Galaxy still have Cristian Pavón, Sebastian Lletget and Chicharito while the Dynamo have Alberth Elis, Mauro Manotas, Christian Ramirez. I honestly think it's a coin flip between the two. 

LAFC 

Portland

Galaxy

Houston 

Hopefully this gave you some insight into the upcoming tournament. Thanks for going through this breakdown with me and taking a look at this new competition format. I'm really excited to see the league start up again and can't wait to watch some good, entertaining soccer. 

Rules and Regulations: Part 2

Let's continue with some more basics! 

Passing: 

Whenever a player kicks the ball to another player, it's a pass. Players on the field can pass with their feet, their chest or their head: anything but the hands. As I stated in Part 1, only the goalkeeper can pass with their hands. 

Long passes across the field (usually from one side to the other) are known as crosses. These are useful for drawing attackers towards the recipient, stretching the field to make room for smaller passes and setting up goals for the strikers. 

This is one of the Bundesliga games from this past weekend (you can check my Bundesliga articles for more info). If you look more closely at the first goal, you can see Hazard cross the ball to Håland who scores. It's a nice, long pass that's not too high and sets him up perfectly for a goal. 

There's another type called a through ball. In this instance, the pass isn't sent directly to the recipient. Rather, the ball is sent further ahead in the hopes that the recipient will be able to catch up and receive it. These passes are great to watch, especially if the recipient can beat his defenders and score.

This is a compilation of clips from my favorite team in Major League Soccer. If you skip ahead to 1:00, you'll see a great example of a through ball and a phenomenal pass in general. RJ Allen sees David Villa moving forward between two defenders and sends a curler that nestles right in between the defenders and that the recipient is able to receive and score.

Offsides: 

However, not all passes are valid. In soccer, there is the offside rule which states that a player cannot pass to another player if the recipient is positioned ahead of the final defender before the goalkeeper. I know it sounds a little confusing, but I'll try to explain with some images. It's basically a way to stop attackers from sitting by the goal, waiting to get a pass and easily score. 

Here's an introductory video that helps explain it visually: 

Remember that this rule applies to the moment a ball is passed. If an attacker realizes they're offside and adjusts themself to go onside before they receive the pass, then they won't get called offside. However, if a player leaves too early in anticipation for the pass and is offside when their teammate passes to them, then they will get called offside. This video does a nice job of explaining the concept with concrete examples from different games. 

To help trigger this, defenders will use the offside trap. In other words, they will purposely position themselves to make the attackers go offside. For this reason, attackers must always be aware of their position. If they score a goal but received the pass in an offside position, then the goal is disallowed. The rise of Video Assistant Referee ("VAR;" I'll discuss this in the future) has turned this process into a meticulous one by hyper-analyzing player positions. 

As you saw in the video, an assistant referee stands on the sideline keeping an eye out for possible offside calls. If/when they see one, they raise their flag and point it; this lets the players, coaches, fans and other referees know that the pass is void. 

Fouls: 

What many people don't realize is soccer is a tough sport. Great players must be fast, quick with the ball and aware of what's going on around them...BUT physical presence is just as important for imposing it and standing up to others. Sometimes a little push or shove is allowed but anything greater than that is a foul. It is up to the main referee's discretion whether or not to award a foul. 

When a foul is given, the player who received the foul is awarded a free kick; play is stopped and the ball is placed where the foul occurred. The recipient then passes to a teammate and play resumes. If the free kick is closer to the goal, then the defending team can set up a wall of a couple players to make it more difficult to score. If the foul occurs so close to goal that it's within the penalty box (the large rectangle surrounding the front of both goals), then the fouled player is awarded a penalty. 

In this example, the wall in front of the attacker only has two defenders. As soon as the ball is kicked, both of them jump to try and block the shot. 

In this example, the first goal is scored from a penalty. Harry Kane is fouled in the box and you can see the referee immediately call for a penalty kick. The ball is placed in front of goal and it's a duel between the goalkeeper and the attacker. If you keep watching to the end, you'll see a couple highlights from a penalty shootout which I mentioned back in Part 1. This game was tied after regular and extra time, meaning it had to end this way. Jordan Pickford saves a shot for England and then Eric Dier scored one for them; England wins the game because they scored more goals during this shootout (4-3). 

 

That concludes Rules and Regulations: Part 2! Thanks for reading and I hope you'll stick around for my next Level 1 article: Yellow Cards vs. Red Cards.