Evander makes magic, Columbus Crew's concern & more from Matchday 29 | OneFootball

By Matthew Doyle

We’ve got a malaise in Ohio, an M.O. in Charlotte, the end of a streak in Harrison and Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs hopes all but closing in Foxborough.

But let’s start with a dramatic homecoming in Portland.

Eatin' Big Time

I’ve written some version of this about 100 times this year: FC Cincinnati have the kind of talent that can go out and win a match – again and again and again – even when they’re not playing very well. They have a forward who can do it, and they have defenders who can do it. They have a goalkeeper who’s done it on the regular all year, and they have a wingback who can do it.

Mostly, though, they have Evander. And Evander wins them games. On Saturday, in a contentious return to Portland, he did it again:

This is just who Cincy are: it’s not about overall flow, but rather decisive moments. They found three of them in the first 36 minutes, then just barely managed the rest of the game to walk out of Providence Park with a 3-2 win and a perch back atop the Eastern Conference standings.

"That was a playoff environment," head coach Pat Noonan told the press afterward. "Credit to the fans tonight. It makes the game more enjoyable and more meaningful because they were in it from the beginning.

"The second half was what a road game feels like in a great environment in the playoffs. It’s a good experience for us."

That second half was a pure onslaught of Timbers' chances as they desperately tried to claw back into it, but couldn’t quite.

"In the highest level of games, what do you need? Concentration, discipline," head coach Phil Nevill said in the postgame presser. "Do the simple things, do the basic things. That’s what the best players do in the biggest games, and I’d say that a team like Cincinnati, that’s what they did tonight."

Maybe. But before it was Evander finding a half-chance to tear open the match, it was Pavel Bucha. And before it was Bucha, it was Kévin Denkey. Having that kind of talent gives you a cushion, in terms of overall performance, that other teams lack.

But to Neville’s point, here’s a basic, simple thing to highlight: On that clip above, David Ayala plays a blind ball right up the gut that Matt Miazga jumps. I agree with Brian Dunseth’s analysis that it was a hopeful (maybe even reckless) ball to play.

It shouldn’t be. A center forward who’s more tuned into the moment reads that play just as quickly as Miazga does and comes back to the ball to either hold it up or draw a foul. Kevin Kelsy had his most productive game in a while with a brace for Portland, but he really needs to be an outlet there. The simple, basic thing right there is to come back a little deeper because you know 1) Ayala needs an outlet, and 2) Cincy’s center backs love to play for that exact turnover.

Moments like that one are starting to pile up for the Timbers, who have won just once in their past six. Four of their next five are on the road.

They are probably safe in the Western Conference race – they have some padding, and nobody below them is exactly making a furious push. But things are getting tighter than they should be.

Poachers

Toronto FC aren’t going to make the playoffs. That’s been obvious for a long while now.

But there have been signs of life on the field lately, and some signs of a club-wide vision off of it. In the past five games, they’ve beaten San Diego, lost respectably at Nashville and Charlotte, drawn late at Philly last weekend, and drawn again at home against the Crew.

This weekend, new guy Jules-Anthony Vilsaint smashed home a Djordje Mihailovic cross in the 77th minute, finishing off a recycled set piece and giving the Reds another 1-1 result. In total, it was a very commendable five points from about the toughest five-game stretch anybody’s played all year:

Mihailovic’s now got two assists in two TFC outings (and Malik Henry could’ve maaayyyybe been awarded a secondary assist on that play… either way, he was involved in another late equalizer for the Reds). As for Vilsaint, his underlyings have been very good, his physical attributes are excellent, and he passes the eye test every time I see him play.

"A great goal, a great service from Djordje, very good finish," Toronto head coach Robin Fraser said afterward. "But then [Vilsaint’s] work again after that, we had to do a lot of defending after that, and he's willing to do all the work that was asked of him and still getting out on the break on a few opportunities.

"I think it was a really, really good debut for him."

I still can’t believe Montréal essentially paid Toronto to take this kid, and I am delighted for Reds fans that they suddenly have a nice little core of Canadians to put around Mihailovic.

The big story, though, is the Crew. They are now just 5W-4L-6D since their excellent first 11 games of the season. The malaise primarily comes down to goalscoring, and the fans are justifiably pointing fingers at Dániel Gazdag. He’s been there around four months and has yet to score from open play. He had one in the back of the net in this one; it was correctly ruled offside.

Gazdag has been one of the league’s most consistent goal-scorers over the past three years, and while part of that is he’s a bit of a penalty merchant, it’s not like he hasn’t been dangerous from open play. Honestly, I thought he’d be a perfect fit for this team; he’s so good at finding pockets of space in and around the box, combining and moving.

I am flummoxed that it hasn’t worked.

"I didn’t talk to him," Crew boss Wilfried Nancy said in the postgame presser when asked if he had a message for Gazdag amidst the DP’s struggles. "Nothing. Daniel [is not] the most important; this is the team. For me, this is about trying to see what we could have done better. After that, individually, Daniel knows if he did a good game or not.

"This is football. This is not an issue for Dániel. He’ll be back to score another goal."

If not Gazdag, maybe those scoring questions – outside of Diego Rossi – get answered with their new DP No. 9, Wessam Abou Ali. He's finally in training, and I expect he'll debut before the end of the month.

Either way, Columbus have just about faded out of the Shield race. It’s not quite done yet, but the time to make a run was probably four games ago.

A few more things to ponder...

13. Charlotte’s new M.O. – first with Patrick Agyemang, who turned into a national team guy and then a huge outbound sale, and now with Agyemang’s successor, Idan Toklomati – is to let the young guys develop:

That was the game’s only goal in the Crown’s 1-0 win over RSL, their sixth straight in league play. Toklomati now has 7g/3a in just under 1,200 minutes.

He is the starter. There is no DP striker on the way to replace him. This is a healthy approach to roster building.

RSL have lost three of four, and the upcoming schedule doesn’t get much easier.

12. D.C. United’s trip to Montréal ended in a tepid 1-1 draw. Believe it or not, both teams can officially be eliminated from postseason contention next weekend.

11. As I wrote in last week’s column, the Son Heung-Min No. 9 experiment will take some time for LAFC. He’s not a natural there – at least, not in the way that naturally complements Denis Bouanga – so there have been some awkward moments in his very, very limited MLS sample size.

But something seemed to click near the end of the first half of their 2-0 win at New England. And then in the second half…

Not a goal, but that’s some growing chemistry and with it, some legit danger. At least a little bit.

Son had a hand in both goals, leading the press on Mark Delgado’s vicious opener, and then spoon-feeding Mathieu Choinière the second in stoppage time.

The Revs, who got a few spectacular moments from Matt Turner (including an outrageous reflex save to deny Son his first MLS goal), are now 11 points below the line with eight games left. It’s done.

10. The Red Bulls are not done. They finally beat the Union, 1-0, behind a Dylan Nealis goal late in the second half, just minutes after Bruno Damiani (officially giving real Cristian Colmán vibes) had his weakly taken penalty saved.

It snapped an almost impossible-to-believe 16-game winless skid against Philly, dating back to 2019. It was also a small measure of revenge for their midweek US Open Cup loss in Chester. And most importantly (in the moment anyway), it kept RBNY even with the Fire in the three-team race for the two Eastern Conference Wild Card spots.

"It's good to see how consistent we are in our performance first off," head coach Sandro Schwarz said afterward. "And of course, then it's a really good feeling to win this game."

That consistency has not been part of the mix for RBNY this season, and it’s why they’re at risk of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2009. This win was enormous.

Philly have been more consistent overall, but Damiani’s lack of end product is becoming a millstone. They’re now 3W-3L-2D in their last eight in league play, and took just one point from the past two outings when, honestly, they probably should have had all six.

9. Orlando took their sweet time about it, but eventually got a pair of late goals for a weather-delayed 3-1 win over visiting Sporting KC.

The Lions have been scoring a ton, and they’ve needed to, as they haven’t registered a shutout since mid-June. We’ll see how that goes on Wednesday when they face Toluca in the Leagues Cup quarterfinals.

8. Brian Schmetzer both rotated his squad and changed his team's shape – the Sounders played a 3-4-2-1 – for their trip to Minnesota on Saturday night. The Loons, you see, had been having issues against teams that play with three center backs.

And honestly, I don’t think it was the wrong call. The match momentum graphic from FotMob tells a pretty accurate story of what this game was:

But Stefan Frei (in his first match back since suffering that scary concussion last month) had himself a gaffe, flapping at a Joaquín Pereyra cross in the 73rd minute that turned into the game’s only goal. And Dayne St. Clair didn’t – he shut the door on chance after chance from the guests down the stretch.

These are points Minnesota have made a habit of dropping all year. They didn’t this time, though that wasn’t really because of a difference in process, just outcome.

This was Seattle’s first loss since the FIFA Club World Cup in late June. They’ve got Puebla in town on Wednesday for the Leagues Cup quarterfinals.

7. Austin managed to drop home points for the second straight week, this time settling for a 1-1 draw with visiting FC Dallas in what was a pretty rugged, gritty game (as befitting a rivalry).

The problem is the same as it’s been all year for the Verde & Black, who finished the weekend in eighth place and are suddenly fighting for their playoff lives: they do not consistently generate good chances with the ball. That makes their margin for error very, very thin.

6. Colorado, in the new 3-4-2-1 they’ve deployed since selling Djordje, grabbed their second straight win, this time 3-1 over visiting Atlanta. Rafael Navarro had 2g/1a, and Darren Yapi seems to have found his happy place actually playing underneath the striker a little bit.

They've gotten out into transition A LOT in these past two games. I wonder if that’ll continue to be the case now that there are 180 minutes of post-Djordje film out there.

Spectacular moment here from the Five Stripes:

5. When Marcel Hartel got loose at the back post and gave St. Louis a 2-1 lead in Bridgeview on the hour mark, my heart actually sank for the Fire. This team has been playing good soccer; this fanbase has been suffering for so long. Yet here they were, seemingly desperate to blow another one at home and finish the weekend below the red line.

But this year’s Chicago Fire have Philip Zinckernagel, and Philip Zinckernagel is one of the very best attacking players in the league. He drew Chicago level within 10 minutes, punishing a CITY backline the Fire had disorganized via the repress, and then he teed up Brian Gutiérrez for the 87th-minute winner:

Make it five unbeaten, though they now go on the road to Philly and Miami – which is to say, it was absolutely essential for them to get all three points here.

4. Pascal Jansen did something clever after his team’s rough first 15 minutes, during which they couldn’t get a handle on the game and spent most of their time chasing Nashville: he inverted his midfield triangle, turning the typical 4-2-3-1 into a 4-3-3, pushing Andrés Perea up a little further on the left and dropping Maxi Moralez into more of an orchestrator’s role rather than that of a pure playmaker.

You can see it in the network passing graphic from his side’s 2-1 win:

And it worked really well, not just in terms of structure but end product, as Perea got forward to score the Pigeons’ first goal and Maxi orchestrated the second – the game-winner – from deep, picking up a secondary assist in the process.

NYCFC are now 4W-1L-1D in their past six in the league. They’re up to eighth in the East, three points behind Charlotte but with two games in hand. They are coming.

Nashville are sliding in the other direction, with three straight losses and four defeats in their past six. The good news: they are finally home for their next two.

3. The Quakes did a reverse-Goonies. Instead of hanging on for dear life, then somehow scratching and clawing a win from the jaws of defeat, they inverted that, playing damn near a perfect 80 minutes before shutting off for the final 10 of their Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire encounter with San Diego. Sitting on a 1-0 lead courtesy of a BAD WPIOOTBGW moment from San Diego, the Quakes had done everything Bruce Arena could’ve asked, and done it well. They’d dragged San Diego into the mud and forced them into one of their handful of worst performances of the season.

But San Diego are not where they are in the standings – officially first place, folks, all the way up at the top of the table – by accident. You shut off, they turn on, and they punish you:

That’s 1-1. Three minutes later, Anders Dreyer made it 2-1 on the break after Bruno Wilson forgot (???) about the half-field of space behind him. And that’s how it ended.

Three straight wins for San Diego, up there in their ivory tower. Just one victory in their past eight for the Quakes, who are hanging onto that final Wild Card spot by a rapidly fraying thread.

2. The talk, following Vancouver’s 1-1 draw with Houston late Sunday night:

My favorite moment from the German legend’s debut, though, illustrates why I think he’s going to juice what’s already one of the smartest, most prolific attacks in the league:

Müller is so good at this type of early movement, off-ball work meant to scramble the opposing defense (look how much space Brian White has if there’s just a little more bend on that cross), creating time and space for his teammates even more than himself. It’s his primary job as he’s always seen it, and why he coined the term “Raumdeuter” – literally “space interpreter” – to describe his role on the field.

Of course, that didn’t matter to the Dynamo, who found their desperation late on and used it to spoil the night for a huge, borderline euphoric crowd in BC Place.

1. And finally, I’m giving Leo Messi our Pass of the Week for this outrageous backheel into Luis Suárez’s stride for the capper in the Herons’ 3-1 beating of the Galaxy:

Messi came off the bench at halftime and marked his return from a brief injury absence with a goal – the game winner, as it turned out – in the 84th minute, and then that brilliant assist five minutes later.

Miami looked ready for their Leagues Cup date with Tigres on Wednesday. The Galaxy… will have to play much better against a Pachuca side that will be furious after picking up their first loss of the Apertura this weekend.