There are two teams in Texas

You remember Houston Dynamo? Perennial playoff team, always solidly organized to time their run just right for the post-season — last seen giving Owen Coyle a hard knocks education in the realities of life on the road in MLS, while watching fellow Texans Dallas FC disappear over the horizon?

Seems that also-ran status has stuck in their collective craw. After five successive defeats to Dallas in the battle for el capitan, Houston ran riot in a wild opening half hour at BBVA Stadium, as their frontline put four past their hapless visitors.

Some notable cameos stuck out. Andrew Wenger in particular looked as positive as he has since his arrival in the league as No1 draft pick in 2012 — a high point that once seemed destined for an endless drift, as successive coaches tried to figure out how best to use him.

Coyle should have one or two ideas after Wenger’s goal and two assists helped cut Dallas apart. And with goals also coming from David Horst, Ricardo Clark, and Will Bruin, he can also feel satisfied about goals being spread across the team, as well as the fact that the defense had tightened up from gifting New England a late share of the points in last week’s 3-3 thriller.

Of course we’re yet to see how Houston’s form translates to their travels, which was, after all, where the Dynamo faltered so badly last year. But after the Dynamo’s tough transition to the Western Conference and Coyle’s tough introduction to the particular rhythms and recovery times of MLS management last year, early signs are that a more balanced roster looks better set up for the rigors of a long campaign.

And Dallas? Beyond the indignity of such an emphatic loss to their rivals, Oscar Pareja will be frustrated because these are the type of games his team should be maturing beyond. As it is, a frustrating habit of coughing up at least one of these games each season has continued for Pareja’s young pretenders. In that vein perhaps we can add this one to last year’s inexplicable 4-0 home loss to Colorado, or the 4-1 loss to DC the year before that.

We should also remember that for all the upward trajectory and accumulating experience of this Dallas team, they are still very young. Goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez had a fantastic season last year, but in this game he looked like the callow 20 year old he is — visibly shaken as the goals piled up. He’ll have to recover quickly — free-scoring Montreal are next up for them, while Houston go on the road to the Red Bulls. We’ll have a clearer idea of where they stand after that, but for this week at least, Houston rules Texas. GP

The Seattle Sounders’ start is cause for concern, but not unexpected

Everything at this stage of the season, just two matches in, is subject to the same caveat – it’s still early. No sweeping conclusions will be drawn right now, and yet after the bleak soccer-less abyss of the off-season it’s difficult not to find deeper meaning in what we have seen so far. As it is, there’s much to be drawn from the Seattle Sounders’ start to the 2016 season.

Two matches into the campaign, Sigi Schmid’s side have yet to pick up a single point – losing at home to Sporting KC last week and suffering a 2-1 defeat to Real Salt Lake on Saturday. It’s just not happening for the Sounders, just as it didn’t happen for them over a large spell of the summer in 2015. But these are new problems for Seattle.

Scmid’s new system doesn’t yet appear to suit the players he has, with Andreas Ivanschitz, Jordan Morris and Nelson Valdez all somewhat uncomfortable with their attacking roles. The loss of Obafemi Martins over the winter didn’t just rob the Sounders of goals – a significant number of them – but their identity in the final third, too. Without the Nigerian leading the line Clint Dempsey in particular has lost the one outlet he could always count on.

Given the fanfare his signing prompted, the early-season spotlight has fallen on Morris, but Seattle’s attacking struggles are about much more than just the 21-year-old’s individual adaptation to MLS. The Sounders’ disappointing start to the season has its roots in strategy and ideology more than anything else. However, this kind of indifferent start shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. There are a lot of moving parts at Seattle, many of which are yet to settle into place.



Of course, a lengthy injury list has hindered the Sounders, with Brad Evans especially missed against Real Salt Lake. The head injury sustained by Morris – forcing his exit after 76 minutes on Saturday – only exacerbated the issues Seattle are enduring, although early indications are that the striker will recover in time to face Vancouver next week. But regardless of how and why the Sounders are struggling, they must find a way to tally points quickly. A difficult start to the season might have been anticipated, but that doesn’t mean it will be tolerated. GR

The weekend was an advert for forced parity

MLS is a thankless league to predict at the best of times, but even without the stunning Houston v Dallas score this weekend’s batch of results turned plenty of expectations on their head. The four conference finalists from the 2015 playoffs all lost — two of them to teams who had missed the playoffs altogether.

The West was a particularly pronounced example of how unpredictable this league can be. All four of the teams who missed the postseason last year won against playoff teams from their own conference.

They weren’t all exactly surprises. San Jose beating champions Portland 2-1 is less remarkable when you consider San Jose’s solid home form since opening the Avaya Stadium — though the winning goal coming from an audacious 30-yard chip by Quincy Amarikwa certainly surprised Adam Kwarasey in the Portland net. But a number of results definitely raised eyebrows. Most notably, the star studded LA Galaxy left Colorado with nothing after losing to an injury-time goal from Marco Pappa, while Seattle squandered a lead in Utah against RSL, to go down 2-1.

Add in Columbus going down 2-1 at home to Philadelphia, and the scale of the Red Bulls’ defeat in Montreal and it was something of a dream weekend for the league officials charged with maintaing parity in MLS. Other than a shaky but spirited Chicago team still trying to find their feet, and perhaps the still leaky NYC FC backline, it’s hard to pick out obvious strugglers from the opening games (though let’s see what the Red Bulls do to kickstart their season in the next round of games…).

It was fascinating too to see some of those winning goals coming from what might be seen as “reclamation projects” — Marco Pappa’s talent has never been in doubt, but his arrival in Colorado was not greeted with universal enthusiasm thanks to his injury record and a question over whether he’d thrive in that roster. Likewise Chris Pontius, whose brace for Philadelphia beat Columbus. In a tight league, being the right fit, for the right team, at the right time can represent a more significant advantage than it appears on paper. GP

Montreal Impact are about a lot more than just Didier Drogba

Even before a ball of the 2016 season had been kicked, the Montreal Impact’s championship chances were fiercely debated. It all came down to whether Didier Drogba would remain at the club amid interest from his former club Chelsea.

The Impact’s prospects, if you were to believe the common narrative, depended on whether their Ivorian frontman would stay. We now know that Mauro Biello’s team are about so much more than just Drogba, though.

With Saturday’s comprehensive 3-0 win over the New York Red Bulls, Montreal have emerged from two tricky early season tests shining, six points in hand on the back of the 3-2 road win over Vancouver last week. And all without Drogba, who is still receiving treatment on his still inflamed knees in California. It’s almost as if the Impact are conscious of the point they have to prove.

Ignacio Piatti has been so good over the opening two games of the season there’s a case to be made that he, not Drogba, is in fact the defining figurehead of this Montreal team. Three goals and an assist from just two appearances illustrate the level at which he is playing right now.

It’s not just Piatti who has started the season in such form, either. Harry Shipp has slotted into the Montreal attacking line with remarkable ease, with Calum Mallace also impressing in the prolonged absence of Patrice Bernier. Evan Bush has shone too, making a crucial save (using his throat, as he admitted afterwards) as the Red Bulls looked to equalise with the scoreline at 1-0. The Impact have had to absorb a number of blows early on this year, and yet they have somehow become a better team as a result.

Their outstanding start to 2016 is the culmination of a steady progression under Biello. Impact have now won their last eight MLS matches at home. They are also early frontrunners in the East, and whilst that might not mean much in a play-off format, it does put down something of a marker for the rest of the league. Imagine what might happen when they eventually unwrap their best player. GR

Toronto offer a blueprint for NYC FC

If anybody knew how NYC FC felt after blowing a 2-0 lead to Toronto on Sunday evening, it was Toronto.

Toronto’s defensive failures and general sense of neurosis in their own half of the field have been the stuff of legend in recent years, and for long time watchers of the team, seeing them give up two goals in quick succession at Yankee Stadium, must have looked like the start of a film they’d seen many times before.

It was an impression heightened by the self-inflicted nature of the goals — a clumsy penalty and a poor clearance that gifted David Villa a chance for his second of the game (with a little help from his hand). Lesser teams would have folded at that point, but this Toronto side is showing signs of finally, finally having the character to go with its talent.

And they were up against NYC FC — “three shutouts in 36 MLS games” NYC FC — who may have a new coach in Patrick Vieira and who may have taken the field in a bold 3-4-3 formation designed to dominate the narrow Yankee Stadium field and, briefly at least, confound the opposition, but who currently carry an unfortunate institutional memory of flakiness in defense.

So when Toronto stayed cool after the second goal, and pinched in their wide men to put pressure on Andrea Pirlo and Federico Bravo at the base of NYC FC’s midfield four, they began reaping instant dividends. Suddenly Sebastian Giovinco was a threat again, and Toronto should have had one back before the Italian’s free kick was glanced home by Damien Perquis in the dying seconds of the first half.

Add in a sprinkle of Giovinco magic to find space to turn and fire in the equalizer midway through the second half and Toronto were able to see out the game fairly comfortably, for an encouraging four points from their New York trip.

NYC FC also have four points but their frailties were just as evident as their continued positivity in attack, and when Toronto adjusted to their unorthodox formation, New York did not look like they had the flexibility or confidence to respond in turn — and they seemed to grow more anonymous as the game went on. Toronto meanwhile, with the solidity of the MLS veterans they signed in the off-season, looked like the team NYC FC aspire to be. GP