10 things we learned from MLS Gameweek 17

Here are the ten things we learned from Week 17 of the 2015 MLS season.

1. Rivalry Week worked

The big, weeklong push for MLS’ first rivalry week paid off with some terrific spectacles and terrific soccer over the weekend, and while the corporate branding was somewhat nauseating, expect the rivalry week gimmick to be around for a while.

Of course not every team could play a rival – in the case of Orlando City, who had a bye this weekend, there is no rival, in the case of the Vancouver Whitecaps, who won at New England, the rivals were busy – but the derby games did live up to the hype.

Between MLS’ three marquee rivalry games, the California Clasico, the Hudson River Derby, and the Cascadia Cup clash between Portland and Seattle, there were thirteen goals, two come-from-behind wins, and sellout crowds totaling well over 100,000 in attendance.

Also not to be overlooked is the push that the NYCFC – New York Red Bulls game got. The match was moved from ESPN2 to ESPN, Taylor Twellman and Mix Diskerud were interviewed on SportsCenter in the days leading up to the match, and a full-fledged pre-game show kicked off the coverage from Yankee Stadium.

The New York Derby was the first of seven matches ESPN has moved to their flagship station to finish out the season. Make no mistake – this week was a major success for Don Garber and MLS.

2. The Timbers trend up

For all the glitz and glam and Pirlo of the Hudson River Derby, MLS’ best rivalry is still, by a long way, Timbers – Sounders, and the only matchup of the year between the two at Providence Park didn’t disappoint.

Starting with a stunning tifo display, even for the Timbers Army, Portland went on to throttle their arch rivals with unmistakable flair. It was a match that showcased the best of Caleb Porter, from the team selection to the tactics, but the man who decided the match was Porter’s old protégé.

On days like this one, it’s not entirely unreasonable to call Darlington Nagbe the best player in MLS. No one, maybe with the exception of Giovinco in Toronto, can dominate games with the same combination of drive and attacking efficiency.

It helps that Nagbe is almost indestructible, since he’s set to lead the league again in fouls won, and it helped further that Osvaldo Alonso, who since 2011 has taken great joy in hacking Nagbe every time he’s touched the ball in a derby, missed the match with a hamstring problem for the Sounders.

Nagbe scored a blinder for the first goal, and made the run and the pass that set up Fanendo Adi for the game-winner. There’s a reason that Nagbe is untouchable in Portland, and a reason why he’ll play for the US in the World Cup one day.

3. The Sounders go the other way

Meanwhile, the Sounders were mostly garbage. Sans Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey, for much different reasons, fullback Tyrone Mears appeared to be Seattle’s biggest attacking threat.

As Gonzalo Pineda said after the match, Seattle needs to figure out a different way to play over the next month while Martins is out and Dempsey is at the Gold Cup. Since the pair went missing, the Sounders have three losses and not a single goal from the run of play.

The impending addition of Erik Friberg can’t come soon enough. For all of Sigi Schmid’s good qualities, he’s not the best at adapting tactically on the fly – something that, along with locker-room problems, almost cost him his job in 2013.

Seattle has already been surpassed by the Vancouver Whitecaps, and they have the Timbers and LA Galaxy breathing down their necks in the Western Conference.

Long-term, Seattle’s prognosis is good. But if they don’t figure things out in the next week or so, they can kiss the Supporters’ Shield goodbye. And this humiliation against the Timbers? It’ll sting for a while.

4. The Red Bulls rise from the dead

The New York Red Bulls have had a rough month, and they had a rough first half at Yankee Stadium against New York City, before, out of nowhere, turning things around in a big way.

In the first 45, the Red Bulls were almost unwatchable – pounding in crosses towards a disorganized forward line lacking any sort of cohesion or chemistry, but young forward Anatole Abong improved drastically in the second half and while he didn’t score, his movement and involvement were crucial.

NYCFC’s defense is still a major concern – the fact that Chris Wingert is the team’s best defender speaks for itself – but don’t take anything away from the Red Bulls. Jesse Marsch’s celebration after the go-ahead goal was their moment of the year so far.

The Red Bulls should be a playoff team. If Bradley Wright-Phillips would just convert two out of every three chances instead one out of every three chances he should score, he’d score fifty goals per year. Signing up his brother Shaun couldn’t hurt, and don’t underestimate the importance of having Matt Miazga back in central defense.

The Red Bulls, very quickly a redheaded stepchild in the MLS pantheon of favored clubs, own the Hudson River Derby. For all of NYCFC’s star and drawing power, they can’t take that away.

5. Here come the stars

Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, and Andrea Pirlo (and, whether we wanted to know or not, his girlfriend!) are Stateside, and readying for July debuts. Cubo Torres’ timeline is less clear, thanks to a legal case in Mexico, but he should eventually suit up for the Houston Dynamo as well.

But as Taylor Twellman reported before the NYCFC-Red Bulls game, MLS is working on a fourth DP mechanism to make it easier for clubs to bring in major players in the prime of their careers.

Giovani dos Santos, Javier Hernandez, Salomon Kalou, Shaun Wright-Phillips, and Didier Drogba are all names to watch, and US national team striker Aron Johannsson made waves on Sunday when he said that he wants to come to MLS in the prime of his career.

The fourth DP isn’t far away – the league needs to keep up with the demand of many of its teams to be ambitious in the transfer market, and, just as importantly, the demand of international players to come to the United States.

6. The Rapids are a horror show

Pablo Mastroeni has now won just ten of his 51 MLS games as the manager of the Colorado Rapids, and most of those wins came with Oscar Pareja’s team in the first half of last season.

After two losses this week in which they scored a grand total of zero goals – they’ve only scored twelve all year – Colorado has now won just three of its last 25 games.

More upsettingly, new designated player signing Kevin Doyle isn’t even good enough to start right now. Mastroeni continues to be absolutely clueless tactically, and with the West being as competitive as it is, there is almost no scenario in which the Rapids don’t finish in last place.

Will something give before Dick’s Sporting Goods Park hosts the MLS All-Star game in late July? Maybe – team attendance is poor once again, as fans are fed up with the front office and coaching staff. The situation in Colorado is one step away from getting ugly. The soccer, of course, has been beyond ugly for months.

7. The Earthquakes make their case

Dominic Kinnear’s pedigree should put him as the second best MLS coach of all-time behind Bruce Arena. He has two MLS Cups, four appearances in the final – with two losses to Arena – and he’s done most of his work with a somewhat low budget far out of the limelight.

But on Saturday night at a sold-out Stanford Stadium, Kinnear was in the limelight and finally beating Arena as the San Jose Earthquakes beat the LA Galaxy 3-1.

Kinnear’s team was good – make no bones about it, despite the obvious fatigue that the Galaxy were feeling as they played for the third time in a week. Chris Wondolowski continues to be brilliant, and Kinnear’s choice to move Wondo into a Wayne Rooney-esq central midfield role is paying huge dividends by tapping into Wondo’s passing ability.

Victor Bernardez has settled down next to Clarence Goodson and given the ‘Quakes a rock-solid central defense, and while he’s not quite Valeri, Morales, or Higuain yet, Matias Perez Garcia is turning into one of MLS’ more adept playmakers.

Kinnear can flat-out coach. Going to him from Mark Watson is one of the biggest MLS managerial upgrades in recent memory. The soccer is looking better, and the results are getting there too. It’s going to be an all-out war for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference.

8. Toronto FC’s problem

No team will be hit harder by the Gold Cup than Toronto FC, who loses four starters including Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley.

That will place an even bigger burden on little Italian dynamo Sebastian Giovinco. Problem is, Giovinco has looked mortal the last couple of weeks, getting absolutely pummeled by New York City FC and DC United as both teams got results at BMO Field.

Giovinco is going to need help. The increasingly useless Robbie Findley isn’t likely to provide it, so that help is going to have to come from the likes of Luke More and Jackson, and younger players around them.

The next month will be a major test that Greg Vanney has had the entire season to prepare for, but is still extremely daunting. If TFC can stay afloat, they’ll be a playoff team. If not, well, it’s TFC. Who knows what?

9. How bad is the East?

The weekend’s most staggering statistic is this: DC United lead the Supporters’ Shield race, followed by seven Western Conference teams. That’s right, a team that won’t even make the playoffs in the West is better than the East’s second best team.

The West is good. That much is for sure. There’s only one hopeless team in the conference. Even Houston could foreseeably turn things around once Cubo arrives and everyone returns from summer international duty.

But in the East? Chicago is awful, with Frank Yallop’s job certainly under increasing scrutiny. Philadelphia is getting results, but still playing semi-offensive soccer. Montreal and NYCFC have some potential in places, but aren’t anywhere near the usual quality for MLS playoff teams.

Columbus certainly hasn’t lived up to the hype, and you get the feeling that even the standard-bearer DC would be scrapping for a playoff spot in the West. There is a major, major conference imbalance this year – even worse than in years past. Everyone involved is going to have accept that, and deal with it.

10. Gold Cup absences

The scheduling of this big rivalry week wasn’t an accident – this is the last week that MLS teams will have their full compliment of players.

The better part of the summer, MLS’ regular season heyday, will be lost to the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which runs through the entire month of July. With more MLS players than ever competing for the US and beyond, this marks another unfortunate drawback of a summer schedule – stars missing games for national team duty.

It’s a necessary evil for MLS, and an unintended consequence is that the playing field becomes a little more level: It’s usually the bigger clubs that are punished by having national team quality players that need to leave.

There’s no easy solution for the league, which always wants the national team to do well, although maybe less so now with Jurgen Klinsmann at the helm. This was a big week for MLS – and it came just in the nick of time.