MLS Week 24: Four Teams, Two Games, Two Levels

I held true to my viewing schedule for once: my Saturday featured Red Bull New York’s gutsy draw against the Chicago Fire and the New England Revolution’s (at-long-last-hallelujah) sharp win over visiting FC Dallas. By coincidence, both games threw two roughly equal teams into contention. By lesser coincidence, the gap in quality between the respective teams showed in the quality of the games - simply put, FC Dallas and New England look playoff-primed. Chicago and New York…eh, less so.

Dallas and New England went at one another with unrelenting pace and energy. Dallas, in particular, aggressively pressured every ball anywhere inside their half - defenders attached not only to the player on the ball, but the team as a whole shifted quickly to cover any nearby players as well. The amazing thing: quick movement and passing generally allowed the Revs to play out of that pressure, while smart, well-executed dribbling took care of the rest. Dallas, facing similarly intense attention, very nearly managed as well…the final score, of course, speaks to where they failed.

Individual efforts on both teams added still more to the equation. Khano Smith ran the Dallas right side stupid, while Pat Noonan’s general unpredictability in the area sporadically unhinged Dallas defenders. James Riley served as the shaky presence in the Revs’ back-line, which Carlos Ruiz exploited a couple times; bustling efforts by Dax McCarty and Abe Thompson demanded the studied attention of the rest of New England’s defenders. In fact, it’s worth wondering whether the Revs’ defense is their greatest weakness going into the post-season; with Dallas, that’s less a question than a living example of an Achilles’ heel.

In the big picture, though, both Dallas and New England appear confident enough with most their players not just singing from the same sheet, but singing a decent song and well. Sure, Dallas would have looked that little bit better with Juan Toja on the field and they’re still figuring Denilson into the attack, but they’re up to beating any given team on the right day…obviously, Saturday wasn’t it for them. As for New England, let’s just say that was something else: a win they fully earned through hustle, smarts and coordination, as opposed to God punishing Carlos Mendes for…I dunno, idolatry or some such…

Because MLS.live.tv’s live video feeds run sandpaper smooth, I wound up watching Red Bull versus Chicago before Dallas and New England - and that’s not insignificant. In fact, sitting through that game prompted one of those doubting spells about Major League’s Soccer’s (MLS) basic quality. Where Dallas and New England made some beautiful music, one had to watch closely for the odd harmonious moments during New York’s visit to Chicago. The talent is there, though not everywhere, and players on both teams clearly know their parts, but the work of bringing it all together remains.

Sometimes, the identity of both teams’ MVP’s says everything about a game: on Saturday, that would have been ‘keeper Ronald Waterreus for Red Bull and Gonzalo Segares for Chicago. In other words, disrupters - e.g. defensive players - won the day. Where brilliant defense began and offensive struggles ended it’s hard to say; the main thing is, unlike Dallas or the Revs, both teams had trouble playing around team defenses that were well up to the job. Overall, possession changed too frequently and the middle of the field seemed the place where attacks went to die.

With four goals scored, it’s clear both teams managed to get some things right - and, in truth, both got it right more than those four times. And a couple players did stand out last Saturday: for instance, Dane Richards gave Colombian new-guy Wilman Conde snarling headaches to the point of getting him sent off; going the other way, Chad Barrett posed the most persistent offensive threat for home-side Chicago. Cuauhtemoc Blanco, being who he is, had a hand in both goals, but, for the first time I’ve seen, he also appeared tapped out physically late in the second half; I’ll also admit, however, that Blanco surprised me with a couple tricky bursts out of that somnolent stroll even in the game’s latest stages. With all that acknowledged, both teams’ attacks suffer from disjointed, even ragged play. Referring back to what made New England’s game so impressive - e.g. hustle, smarts and coordination - both these teams rely far too much on that first attribute; Red Bull, especially, suffers from relying on Richards for that game-changing offensive spark. But the most troublesome thing for both teams arises from the coordination piece; each have their smart players, but, for long stretches, they seem to play in isolation. They’re a little like soloists in search of the rest of the band.

I’ll stop there before beating the music metaphor into the ground. Once again, though, these two games gave some credence to the sometimes times fuzzy separation between MLS’s best teams and their bubble teams. That’s not to say New England or Dallas should start running the numbers to see whom they’ll face in the conference semifinals - after all, any team in this league can lose to any other on the right, or wrong, day. At this point in the season, though, the key difference between MLS’s best and MLS’s bubble has everything to do with having personnel and tactics nailed down.