Here are the ten things we learned from Week 26 of the 2016 MLS season.

1. Shakeup in San Jose

This column mused last week on the future of Dominic Kinnear as San Jose’s 2016 season continued to spiral, and on Monday, the Earthquakes made a major move. Kinnear was granted a reprieve. The club fired General Manager John Doyle.

Understand: This wasn’t a decision that San Jose took lightly. Doyle has been the club’s GM since its reboot in California in 2008. He played for the club in the 90s, and was an assistant coach before the move to Houston in the mid-2000s.

In many respects, John Doyle is Earthquakes soccer. But in every respect, he wasn’t doing his job well.

The ‘Quakes highlighted their ineffectiveness in the DP market over the last several years as one of the reasons for Doyle’s departure, and a glance the careers of Matias Perez Garcia and Innocent Emeghara make that point clearly enough.

But Doyle fell short in more places than DP acquisitions. This team made the playoffs just twice in his eight seasons as GM, and this year could make it two in nine.

The hire of Mark Watson as manager after Frank Yallop was fired in 2013 was a disaster, and not once have the Earthquakes ever played engaging soccer. The increasing number of empty seats around Avaya Stadium might not be unrelated.

Between San Jose’s lack of success and their, frankly, rudimentary style of play, someone was bound to pay. Kinnear’s cache allows him another year. Doyle, it seems, ran out of time.

2. Nigel de Jong’s Abrupt Exit

It happened very suddenly. Just before the close of the European transfer window, it was reported by Taylor Twellman that the LA Galaxy were close to a deal to send Nigel de Jong to Galatasaray in Turkey.

Less than 48 hours later, the deal was done. After eighteen games, a red card, one of the worst tackles in league history on Darlington Nagbe, no goals, no assists, and plenty of hand-ringing, the Nigel de Jong era in MLS ended almost before it began.

LA’s reasons for moving de Jong before the deadline were clear enough. If he had appeared in 23 games for the Galaxy this season, de Jong would have triggered a clause in his contract that would have made him a DP on 3.25 million dollars per year for the next two seasons.

The Galaxy felt that de Jong wasn’t worth that kind of money. The truth is that, at least when he was on the field, de Jong was excellent for LA. He was, as he has always been, a top destroyer and solid distributor.

But de Jong wasn’t any better than Diego Chara or Osvaldo Alonso, and with LA’s other two DP spots locked up in the form of Robbie Keane and Gio dos Santos, this move gives the club much-needed flexibility this winter.

The move also saves LA a number of PR headaches, and the very real danger of relying on a player with such little competitive self-control.

In truth, the real loser here is de Jong himself. The Dutchman seemed to be happy in LA, having started against Vancouver last weekend, was unaware that he’d be leaving the club until early this week. Galatasaray is a big club, but now certainly isn’t the best time to be going to Turkey.

Not that de Jong can expect any sympathy. He’s walked a fine line in football since the 2010 World Cup Final, and that tackle on Nagbe – not to mention de Jong’s aw shucks response – was worth all the vitriol de Jong received and more.

3. Amateur Hour for MLS

Then, shortly after de Jong’s sale was made official, this: A video from MLS slamming de Jong on his way out the door and explaining why the move was an excellent one for the LA Galaxy.

However you cut it – and there’s no question that de Jong made plenty of enemies around the league and possibly even inside of his own club – this was a classless move that served zero purpose for MLS.

The video would be removed by the league from its website and social media accounts, but the damage was done.

Clearly, though, there’s no love lost between de Jong and MLS. The video was virtually unprecedented in coming from official league channels. There’s little chance we’ll ever see de Jong back in America. This bridge has been burned to a crisp.

4. LA’s Week Ends on High

In the last week, LA sold de Jong, lost Gyasi Zardes for the year with a broken foot, saw Jelle Van Damme and Steven Gerrard go down with more minor injuries, and lost Robbie Keane for the striker’s Ireland sendoff.

With the Galaxy winless in five, it seemed just for a moment like LA’s season might be unraveling. Then, though, the Galaxy did what the Galaxy does best: Win.

Saturday night’s game against the Columbus Crew at the StubHub Center was very nearly a must-have, and after 77 tight minutes, LA midfielder Baggio Husidic broke the seal with a belter of a goal.

SEE MORE: Schedule of MLS games on US TV and streaming

Giovani dos Santos would make it two just moments later, and LA would hang on to win 2-1. The victory was Bruce Arena’s 200th as an MLS coach, and it was a sorely needed bright spot after what has been a tumultuous stretch.

With Zardes and de Jong gone, LA will most likely be a 4-2-2 team from here on in. One player to watch is Sebastian Lleget, who started Saturday’s game at central midfield and acquitted himself very nicely.

There exists the possibility that the winless streak, the sale of de Jong, and the Zardes injury might just invigorate a Galaxy team that was being flattered by its results for much of the season. You wouldn’t bet against Arena.

5. Why Can’t The Timbers Win On The Road?

In 2014 and 2015, the Portland Timbers were MLS’ best road team – racking up fourteen regular season victories away from Providence Park and winning MLS Cup in Columbus last December.

Since then? The Timbers haven’t won a single game away from home.

With Chicago snapping their years-long road winless streak several weeks ago in Montreal, the Timbers are the only team in the league this year to have not won a single away game. In fourteen attempts in 2016, Portland has six draws and eight losses.

It’s a situation that has completely baffled Caleb Porter, and while it’s true that the Timbers dropped several leads on the road earlier this year, Portland’s recent away form has been especially abysmal.

The Timbers have gone down 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, and 3-0 in their last four road games, a stretch that hit a low point on Saturday night when Portland was swept aside in pitiful fashion by FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium – the venue in which the Timbers won the Western Conference last season.

Portland is still in decent shape to make the playoffs, but there is zero question that, either before the playoffs or in a road Wild Card game, this inability to perform on the road will torpedo the Timbers’ title defense.

6. Here Come The Red Bulls

The New York Red Bulls would leading the Eastern Conference right now if they could close out their road leads, and closing out a road lead – thanks in no small part to Erik Hurtado – was exactly what the Red Bulls did on Saturday night in Vancouver.

A second half Bradley Wright-Phillips goal was enough for the Red Bulls to take three points in a game that they probably didn’t deserve to win, after failing to win a series of road games that they unquestionably deserved to take three points from.

It’s the kind of thing that tends to even out of the course of the season. New York is now tied on points with Toronto and just one point back of NYCFC for the Eastern Conference lead.

Only two of those teams will get first round buys in the playoffs, but with Dax McCarty returning to the lineup, the Red Bulls are as healthy as they’ve been all year. You wouldn’t bet against them.

Vancouver, meanwhile, must feel like they’ll never win another game. The ‘Caps have lost five of six in MLS play, and haven’t won since mid-July.

7. Frank Lampard

The Lampard renaissance is only getting better and better.

NYCFC’s truly bonkers Thursday clash with DC United at The Stadium ended up serving as another showpiece for Lampard, who scored in the 85th minute to give NYC a 2-1 lead, and then scored again in the 93rd minute to win the game 3-2 after Lamar Neagle had equalized.

Lampard’s second – the game-winner – was a thing of absolute beauty. Excellent run in the box, superb cut, clinical finish, a celebration with feeling. He’s always been a clutch player, but if NYCFC fans can’t love the Londoner now, they never will be able to.

8. Rays of Hope for Chicago

First-year Chicago Fire boss Veljko Paunovic said that he wasn’t giving up on his team’s chances of making the playoffs, and while the postseason is still a long way off, Paunovic got another terrific result on Saturday as the Fire beat the Philadelphia Union 3-0 at Toyota Park.

All of the sudden, Chicago looks like a legitimate team. Luis Solignac has been a solid addition up top, Matt Polster and Razvan Cocis form a worthwhile central midfielder partnership, and Michael de Leeuw looks like the real deal.

The Fire did most of their damage on Saturday on the counter, a style that suits them – especially if David Accam, who was linked to Nantes during the window, sticks around long-term.

Slowly but surely, it’s all coming together in Chicago. The club still needs a good winter if it wants to be a playoff team next year, but Nelson Rodriguez and Paunovic are both good at what they do. The future is brighter in Bridgeview than its been in some time.

9. Colorado Continues to Slide

The Rapids were 2-0 losers against a New England Revolution team that was without a goal in its last four games on Saturday. It was a bad loss, and one that pushes Colorado down to third in the West – tied on points with LA.

Pablo Mastroeni’s team has now won just twice in its last eleven games, with just two goals scored in its last four.

This team badly needs Jermaine Jones back. Colorado hasn’t been shutout in any of the games Jones has played this year. Without him, though, this side isn’t scaring anybody.

10. Poor Handling of International Breaks

MLS should follow the lead of every other major soccer league around the world and break for FIFA international windows.

That being said, if MLS – citing scheduling concerns – continues to play during international breaks, then it should continue to play.

This match week, played through the annual September international break, only saw twelve of the league’s twenty teams in action. The clubs who played this weekend did so without key pieces, while the clubs who were off will likely play or likely played the equivalent game with a full compliment of players.

The Portland Timbers, for example, had to travel to play Dallas on Saturday night without Darlington Nagbe and Alvas Powell, while their rivals for the Western Conference’s final playoff spot – the Seattle Sounders and San Jose Earthquakes – sat idle.

Had Seattle and San Jose played, both teams would have been without key starters. Instead, they got buys while the shorthanded Timbers lost 3-1.

The obvious solution is for MLS to break for international windows. But until that happens, the league shouldn’t treat these weeks as half measures. There should have been a full slate of games over the weekend.