10 things we learned from MLS gameweek 19 of 2016 season

Here are the ten things we learned from Week 19 of the 2016 MLS season.

1. Timbers Crush Seattle

The best rivalry in American soccer took its 2016 bow at a deafeningly loud Providence Park on Sunday, where the Portland Timbers dismantled the Seattle Sounders by a score of three goals to one.

It’s a rivalry that has been turned on its ear. The Timbers, long the rivalry’s little brother, have the better players, a better coach, and the only trophy that matters: MLS Cup.

On Sunday, it was a mismatch. With Clint Dempsey suspended – more on that later – Seattle was too old and too slow to hang with a Timbers team that was truly at full strength for the first time since Opening Day.

Portland was effervescent. It was Diego Valeri’s show, but Lucas Melano, who pitched in with two assists, has clearly turned a corner. His activity on both sides of the ball pinned back Tyrone Mears, and his speed is unmatched across the league.

Portland’s defense – led by its new #1 goalkeeper Jake Gleeson – has now given up just two goals in four games. What’s more, the defending champions are riding a nine game unbeaten streak and are back in the playoff places.

Don’t sleep on the Timbers. The team has always played its best soccer in the fall under Caleb Porter, and Sunday showed that if it stays healthy, it still has its championship gear.

It also showed that this rivalry has become a mismatch. It was a fantastic advertisement for the league on network television, but Seattle isn’t going anywhere this year. The Timbers might just be getting started.

2. Legends Never Sleep

Here’s the story behind the Timbers’ awe-inspiring tifo.

Before the first leg of a 2013 playoff series before the Timbers and Sounders, the Emerald City Supporters’ unveiled a tifo in Seattle that read “Welcome to Your Nightmare.”

The Timbers won the game 2-1, and then won the series four nights later in Portland. Since then, Welcome to Your Nightmare has been a running joke with and frequent taunt of the Timbers Army.

On Sunday, that Welcome to Your Nightmare got a resounding and unforgettable response: Legends Never Sleep.

And the Army got an assist in their production of the display – Diego Valeri, along with his daughter, stopped by the tifo garage to paint the gold star on the chest of the cowboy.

It’s stories and displays like these that make this rivalry the best in American soccer. Valeri, it should be mentioned, has been the best player in the league this season. He’s also one of its best people.

3. NYCFC Continues To Roll

NYCFC won away from home again on Sunday afternoon in Montreal, beating a shorthanded Impact team 3-1. The three players on the scoresheet? David Villa, Jack Harrison, and Frank Lampard.

Those three, along with Tommy McNamara and Andrea Pirlo, make up what very well could be the best attacking unit in Major League Soccer.

Harrison has gotten plenty of deserved plaudits – and he already looks like a top five winger in the league in his rookie year – while Villa leads the MVP race, but the other three players have been huge of late.

Patrick Vieira fell in love with McNamara from the very beginning of his NYCFC tenure, recognizing the former Chivas’ player’s intelligence and adroitness on the ball, and he’s delivered this season. McNamara already has eight assists this year.

Lampard, meanwhile, is pouring in the goals. He’s scored in five of his last six games, a stretch in which NYCFC has won six times. Lampard’s skills – the impeccable sense of timing and positioning – were always going to translate to MLS. He just had to get healthy.

And Pirlo can still pass. He’s a defensive liability, obviously, and Andoni Iraola has done a nice job covering for him in midfield of late, but NYCFC is best when he’s on the ball.

This group can still be had defensively, but they sure are fun to watch. If only they played in a real stadium.

4. Jason Kreis to Orlando?

Four Four Two’s Paul Tenorio reported on Sunday night that Jason Kreis, out of a job since being fired by New York City FC at the end of last season, is in advanced talks to become the second-ever coach of Orlando City.

If Kreis was the club’s number one target all along, the timing of their firing of Adrian Heath starts to make more sense. Kreis would have been a target for his former RSL GM Garth Lagerway in Seattle had the Sounders fired Sigi Schmid. He’d also have been a likely target for Atlanta United.

If Kreis takes the job, he’d be walking into a turbulent environment in Orlando where owners Flavio Augusto da Silva and Phil Rawlins have reportedly fallen out.

It’d be a risk for Kreis. There are more stable clubs across the league that’d want him. But Orlando’s support, new stadium coming next year, and core of young talent – plus Kaka – makes it a tough job to pass up.

It’d be a fascinating move. Orlando has often measured itself against NYCFC – its fellow 2015 expansion team – and NYCFC is currently leading the Eastern Conference a year after firing Kreis.

5. Another Miserable Weekend in Columbus

The Crew had three crucial points in sight on Saturday night at MAPFRE Stadium thanks to another Ola Kamara goal – only to see Fabian Espindola net an 89^th minute equalizer for DC United after Harrison Afful was sent off.

It finished 1-1, and while MLS Cup hangovers are common – the Timbers have suffered somewhat this season – the situation in Columbus is getting out of hand. The Crew has now won just three of their nineteen MLS games this season.

To make matters worse, while Columbus was again failing to win at home, FC Cincinnati was drawing more than 35,000 fans for a friendly against Crystal Palace at Nippert Stadium.

Cincinnati, a USL expansion team, now holds the record for single game attendance at a soccer match in Ohio.

If Gregg Berhalter wasn’t so respected in Columbus, or if the team had a different owner, he’d be out of a job. Time is running out for this team, and in truth, they haven’t looked close to pulling things together for months.

6. The Supporters’ Shield Favorites

It’s Dallas and LA.

Oscar Pareja’s team kept rolling on Saturday, walking over the sorry Chicago Fire at Toyota Stadium. Dallas is now unbeaten in sixteen games at home, and with Mauro Diaz healthy, they have the best offense in the league.

The Galaxy, meanwhile, had a tough time on Friday night with the retooled Houston Dynamo at the StubHub Center, but snuck all three points thanks to a goal from Steven Gerrard.

These are the two best teams right now by a long way. The advantage for the Shield has to go to Dallas because of their youth – and because Bruce Arena has demonstrated time and again that he doesn’t particularly care about the trophy – but this should be a fun race to watch down the stretch.

7. Clint Dempsey Isn’t “A Target”

Sounders manager Sigi Schmid was trying to stick up for his player on Friday, but the idea that Dempsey is a target – for referees or opposing players – is ridiculous.

Dempsey was sent off on Wednesday night with his team already 3-0 up on FC Dallas, and suspended for the Portland game on Sunday. Dempsey’s infraction? Grabbing for the face of Dallas’ admittedly punchable Juan Estaban Ortiz.

To say Dempsey knows better is an understatement. You can’t grab players’ faces, just like you can’t grab their crotches, or rip up referees’ notebooks.

No one has it in for Dempsey. He’s a draw for the league and one of the national team’s best ever players. He also happens to be petulant and impulsive, and he’s shown time and again that it doesn’t matter to him that his recklessness on the field often hurts his team.

There’s nothing more to it than that. Dempsey leaves referees few options.

8. Atlanta Making Noise

Kenwyne Jones, the Trinidad and Tobago captain and longtime Premier League player, is someone that MLS teams have chased for years.

Jones is still has plenty of good years left, is well-versed in CONCACAF, understands the league’s travel demands and physicality, and can score goals. Columbus was linked last year – but on Friday, Atlanta United announced that they’d landed Jones as their second ever MLS signing.

It’s a statement of intent. Atlanta is wasting no time in putting together its inaugural roster, and although it’s not yet clear if he’ll be a Designated Player, it’s also clear that the team is willing to spend.

Jones will go out on loan for the rest of this year, and join up with Atlanta next January – and there could be more to come from this team soon. Andres Guardado is a possibility.

9. Disaster for Toronto

It was the most TFC moment of the year: Simon Dawkins’ long-range shot somehow got by Alex Bono to give the nine-man San Jose Earthquakes a most improbable 2-1 win over the Reds on Saturday night at Avaya Stadium.

That’s right – in almost forty minutes up two men, Toronto managed a negative goal differential.

All the credit in the world to the Earthquakes, who unsurprisingly thrived with their backs against the wall and won their first game since mid-May. But for TFC, this was a calamity.

The woes of Giovinco, who is now scoreless in nine games, will grab plenty of headlines, but it’s the other injuries – to Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, Will Johnson, and especially Clint Irwin – that are killing Toronto right now.

Benoit Cheyrou has done his best, but without Bradley and Johnson, TFC’s midfield has very little creativity or drive. Bono, meanwhile, looks like a USL goalkeeper.

The fact that Greg Vanney threw on center back Nick Hagglund as a forward late in the game tells you all you need to know about Toronto’s injury situation right now. At full strength, this is still the best team in the Eastern Conference. But injuries change seasons, and TFC has been hit harder than anyone else so far.

10. Shame on Dell Loy Hansen

Real Salt Lake’s owner, who isn’t good news by any measure, had his club revoke the credential of the Salt Lake Tribune’s columnist Gordon Monson for a column he wrote earlier this year that was critical of Hansen.

In response, the Tribune decided not to staff the game at all. MLS is looking into the matter, and I’d expect Monson to get his credential back soon. Still – this is another in a long line of signs that Hansen is ill suited for ownership.

No team should ever ban a reporter or columnist for doing his or her job, and if they haven’t noticed, banning reporters never works anyway. Shame on Hansen and Real Salt Lake.