Western Conference: What we learned in Game 2 & what comes next | OneFootball

By Matthew Doyle

The Round One Best-of-3 Series grind of the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs rolls on – for some teams.

From the West, two clubs have booked a Conference Semifinal trip while another four await a decisive Game 3 next weekend. For two others, the season has rolled up after a quick, two-game trip and rolled into a long, three-month offseason.

We’ll soon have post-mortems for the eliminated teams. In the meantime, let’s break down what we saw in Game 2.

PORTLAND TIMBERS 2 (3) - 2 (2) SAN DIEGO FC

Game 2 in a nutshell: For about the first 60 minutes, it was a back-and-forth, rhythmless affair. A big part of that was a freaking terrifying injury (fractured cheekbone) to San Diego goalkeeper CJ dos Santos midway through the first half that took the starch out of the game just minutes after Kristoffer Velde had made it 1-0 to the hosts.

But in first-half stoppage time, SDFC finally got their feet under them and did what they do: a nine-pass, back-to-front sequence that ended with Amahl Pellegrino putting the ball into the back of the net. Make it 1-1 at the break.

Then Chucky Lozano – penance made – came on for the second half for his first appearance in a month. He put the ball in the back of the net for the 2-1 lead six minutes later, and it felt like this would be a coronation as San Diego reminded everyone who was the best in the West during the regular season.

Funny thing about that script: It got tossed into the trash when desperation really, truly set in for the Timbers around the 70th minute. Phil Neville made a bunch of attacking subs, his guys dragged the game into the Tactics Free Zone, and before long Pablo Sisniega (dos Santos’ replacement) was under siege. There was nothing San Diego could do with the ball but get it off their foot as quickly as possible.

It was almost enough. But seven minutes and 45 seconds into eight minutes of second-half stoppage time, Gage Guerra – a goalscoring star with Timbers 2, but a barely-used, deep reserve for the first team – rose up to head home Ariel Lassiter’s cross at the back post.

Guerra made it 2-2 and set the stage for a PK shootout, where the final three San Diego shooters took three Carlos Rivas-quality PKs.

And so we head back to San Diego for the decider.

WATCH: Portland save season with stunning victory over San Diego

What to expect in Game 3

From San Diego: They aren't going to change who they are because of one 30-minute breakdown as the game fell off the rails, even though Portland kind of broke Mikey Varas’s calm and forced him into uncharacteristic, ultra-defensive subs.

My guess is the lesson Varas takes from that isn’t to make more or earlier defensive subs, but to have his guys even more ready and determined to keep the game on the rails even as the Timbers go complete goblin mode (the Timbers HAVE TO go goblin mode to get anything out of this one).

There will be personnel changes, though. I’ll be shocked if we see dos Santos again this year, and left back Luca Bombino hobbled off injured early in the second half. Meanwhile, Chucky actually played as a false 9 and made a decent case to start there on Sunday.

From Portland: Portland’s formation for the first hour was nominally a 4-2-3-1 with David Da Costa playing as a No. 10 in front of Diego Chara and David Ayala. But neither Da Costa nor Ayala could really get a touch, and both were pretty constantly behind the play. Which meant that Chara had to drop deeper and deeper to orchestrate more and more, which… I mean, thank god for Chara if you’re a Timbers fan.

I think it’s pretty telling that Da Costa and Ayala were the first two guys who Neville subbed off when he needed to infuse his side with some desperation. Neither guy really exudes that; I think both would be better off in a system like San Diego’s.

Anyway, I don’t think Neville will change the system or the personnel for Game 3. It's too late for those kinds of overhauls (though I should note they did switch to full, almost Matías Almeyda-level man-marking basically all over the field for Game 2, and that certainly contributed to the frenetic nature of the game).

But I wouldn't be surprised if he had a VERY quick hook for those two guys in particular, and anyone who’s playing with anything less than wild-eyed, end-of-days coded zealotry in general.

Portland Timbers show fearlessness in Game 2 thriller 

FC DALLAS 1 (2) - 1 (4) VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC

Game 2 in a nutshell: FC Dallas head coach Eric Quill was angry after Game 1. But it wasn’t a bug-eyed, furious anger; it read more as the cold, determined anger of disappointment mixed with determination.

“Our mentality was missing for whatever reason that is,” he told the press postgame. “We'll take a look at it, figure out as a staff where we got it wrong. We have to get back to that win-or-go-home mentality. So credit to Vancouver, in their quality, in the win tonight, but we're going to come after them on Saturday night.”

And my god, did they come after the Whitecaps. This was maybe the most physical game of the playoffs, with tackles flying in all over the field. This was obviously by design: Quill has been full of praise for Vancouver’s quality every time the two teams have met, and knows very well that you have to make a team like that – one that’s so good on the ball, and so smart off it – earn every inch.

Dallas, to their eternal credit, did exactly that. Even as the ‘Caps tilted the field in the second half, the hosts hung on, grimly determined to see the 1-0 lead they’d collected via a Petar Musa breakaway.

And, like San Diego, they nearly got there. But like San Diego, they conceded what proved to be a fatal equalizer in second-half stoppage time (pretty as Vancouver are in open play, they’re arguably even better on set pieces).

And so Dallas’s season is over, and the Whitecaps go marching on.

WATCH: Whitecaps come up clutch to send FC Dallas packing

What it means for Vancouver: I straight-up don’t think you can win MLS Cup – or any tournament, really – if you don’t first have to survive a bloodbath like this. Remember what the Sounders went through against Puebla in Leagues Cup, or how Nashville had to repeatedly dig themselves out of trouble in Orlando early in their US Open Cup run?

The ‘Caps have now survived their own version of that, and have an extra week to get Brian White (and White’s back-up Daniel Ríos, who came off with an injury of his own) fit to play.

Injuries aside, I bet Jesper Sørensen couldn’t be happier with how this game played out.

What’s next for Dallas: The post-mortem is coming Wednesday with a look at what I think the shape of their winter will be. Suffice it to say, I don’t think there’ll be a ton of movement, though they have a couple of premium roster slots available and a Lucho Acosta-sized hole in central midfield. Additional playmaking is needed.

But despite all the summertime drama, this season goes down as a success. Quill figured out a ton about this group and earned some top-flight managerial bonafides as well, while pushing along a bunch of academy products once again.

It all feels like it’s headed in the right direction.

Vancouver Whitecaps get gritty to eliminate FC Dallas

AUSTIN FC 1-4 LAFC

Game 2 in a nutshell: Austin weren’t ready. They gave the ball away cheaply for one goal, and were naive away from it for another. Before 30 minutes were up, they were down 2-0 to a team that does murder when they’re leading.

They were then thrown a lifeline when awarded a PK late in the first half, which could have made it 2-1 and kept them in the game; club-record signing Myrto Uzuni scuffed it up the middle for Hugo Lloris to easily collect. Denis Bouanga made it 3-0 to the visitors five minutes later, and the competitive portion of the evening was more or less over.

I’m gonna hand Austin head coach Nico Estévez the mic:

"When everyone was saying we had to be more aggressive, go on the attack, and all that, without knowing the reality that we were playing against the best counterattacking team in the league, with the two best counterattacking players in the league,” Estévez said to the press afterward. "Our players got caught up in that excitement, that message, instead of being disciplined like we were there.

“And that's what made us lose today: not having enough discipline and not being able to understand that we were playing against a superteam, as I said the other day – because they are a superteam, and I'm not saying it sarcastically."

I mean, I cringe at a coach in this league calling an opponent “a superteam” – LAFC really didn’t look all that super to me; they were sloppy and a little bit scattered defensively, and if Jáder Obrian could remember how to score, they’d have been desperately protecting a 3-2 lead over the final 20 minutes instead of cruising to a multi-goal win – and automatically defaulting to a position of “we need to be more defensive” (which is implied in Estévez's comments).

But there’s no question that the story of this game was Bouanga and Son Heung-Min on the counter. I think the answer is not that Austin weren’t defensive enough; it’s that they weren’t good enough.

WATCH: Bouanga & Son masterclass sends LAFC past Austin FC

What it means for LAFC: They conceded two penalties. They handed Obrian that chance on the counter midway through the second half, and then gave up another almost as good a few minutes later when Owen Wolff won the ball high on the re-press.

Son and Bouanga were awesome. I thought Nathan Ordaz was really good – and tireless; always tireless – running up top with them, helping disorganize the Austin defense off the ball. Then Jeremy Ebobisse came on and got a goal he deserved to make it four.

Those are just the attackers. The midfield (save for Mark Delgado) was… kind of missing, and unable to put their stamp on the game? And the backline was disorganized in a way they haven’t been.

I don’t know why, exactly, Nkosi Tafari was benched for Jailson. I suspect it has to do with his flubbed clearance in Game 1 that led to Austin’s lone goal in LA. Message sent, I guess – he has to be better.

But LAFC have looked vulnerable through two games. I don’t think Thomas Müller will be looking at film thinking “this is a superteam, we shouldn’t go on the attack.”

What’s next for Austin: They're mostly locked in with this roster, which is aging and super-reliant on Brad Stuver being awesome. He was in the first half of the year; in the second, and then in this series, he definitely was not. I don’t think it’s anything – I would put my money on Stuver being a top six-ish goalkeeper again next season – but it’s the job of the front office and coach to plan for worst-case scenarios.

That’s what they got with their three attacking DPs, by the way. Brandon Vazquez got hurt, Osman Bukari (also injured, though not as badly) never looked like a difference-maker and Uzuni drastically underperformed. Will all three be back next year?

Seems a worthwhile question to ask.

LAFC put on a show to advance past Round One

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC 4-2 MINNESOTA UNITED FC

Game 2 in a nutshell: For literally 45 minutes, the Sounders were juuuuuust about pitching a perfect game. They were on the ball constantly; their shape when they lost it was good; they were taking appropriate risks off the ball (note d-mid Cristian Roldan’s movement on the second and third goals); and they were lethal in front of net.

It was 3-0 as the game headed into first-half stoppage time, and they were good for it. I don’t think it was a misleading scoreline at all.

By the time the first-half whistle sounded, though, it was 3-2 and Minnesota, out of nowhere, were very much alive. First Jordan Morris and then Yeimar Gómez Andrade – two quality, decorated veterans who should be above such foolishness – decided they wanted to try to Pedri themselves out of pressure on the ball. Both times it turned into lightning Loons counterattacks in the other direction, with Stefan Frei eventually picking the ball out of his own net.

I will say that in the moment it felt tense, and in the second half it always felt like the Loons were on the verge of taking control of the game. They never did, and in retrospect, I think you could argue the viewers were more thrown off by the stoppage-time fireworks than the Sounders were, because they actually kind of shut it down in the second half:

There were no more fireworks. There was just collective calm on the ball and grim, structured determination off it until Obed Vargas iced it in the 86th minute to complete his brace.

That is how you protect a lead, right down to committing very few fouls against a team that lives for restarts. Frei was never really threatened.

Textbook win for the Sounders. Except, you know, for that eight-minute stretch where they lost their damn minds.

WATCH: Seattle Sounders top Minnesota United in 6-goal thriller

What to expect in Game 3

From Seattle: Well, I don’t think Morris or Yeimar will be dribbling into traffic any time soon. And I don’t think head coach Brian Schmetzer will find many reasons to change out of the lineup or the blueprint that got them to Game 3 in the first place.

That lineup featured one big personnel change: Danny Musovski started up top. That pushed Morris to the right wing and Jesús Ferreira to the left, with Paul Rothrock sent to the bench.

How it worked out: Ferreira had two assists, Morris and Musovski each got a goal, and Rothrock came off the bench – his energy is invaluable any time the game is stretched – to provide the helper on Vargas’s coup de grace.

That note about Rothrock is the thing here: he's an excellent player against teams that are ragged or are chasing the game. Against teams that are going to sit in a tight, low block, he adds far less value. That’s what we saw in the first hour of Game 1 of this series, which didn’t really open up until Musovski came on and started putting pressure on the Minnesota center backs with his movement through the central channel.

Let’s put some numbers to it:

So the one change to the starting lineup I’d expect to see is Kalani Kossa-Rienzi at right back from the start, given Alex Roldan had to be subbed off with a groin issue. And it says everything about who the Sounders are as an organization – how they ID and develop players through MLS NEXT Pro and up into the first team – that Schmetzer can plug this kid into the XI for one of the best right backs in the league with zero expected drop-off.

From Minnesota: They're back to the 5-4-1, which is good. But no matter how many defenders you’ve got out there, you have to solve for this kind of combo play in the channels if you’re facing Seattle:

They do this – create chances via possession from these intricate wide overloads, with scripted movements and patterns of play – more than any team in the league, and they’ve done it against the best teams in the region (and some of the best in the world; they were creating looks against PSG and Atlético Madrid with this stuff). Protecting the seam against that run Cristian Roldan makes to the pullback zone on the side of the 18… if you’re not ready for that, then you’re just hoping Dayne St. Clair’s got a miracle in him.

They’ve got to fix that, but Eric Ramsay’s not going to change his overall blueprint. The Loons are who they are – set pieces, long throw-ins and hopefully a few turnovers thrown into the mix.

There are, however, personnel choices to make:

It’s a lot of uncertainty for a team at this point in the season. But if you’d offered the Loons this – 90 minutes at home (and then potentially a PK shootout they’d almost certainly win) for the right to go to the West semis – back in preseason, I’m sure they would’ve grabbed it with both hands.

Now it’s up to them to make it a reality.

Seattle Sounders: Has Obed Vargas ascended to superstar status?