Inter Miami, Vancouver Whitecaps gain momentum before Decision Day | OneFootball

By Matthew Doyle

Let’s spin through all five games from the weekend, because they all had Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs implications in various ways.

Away we go.

Messi & Miami make history (again)

My colleague Charlie Boehm had a postgame feature following Inter Miami’s expected 4-0 thrashing of an Atlanta United side that has to go down as one of the most disappointing teams in MLS history. When you look at the roster spend, expectations, and performance of guys they exiled elsewhere (mostly to Montréal)... it’s got to be tough to take for Five Stripes fans.

Atlanta's loss and the Galaxy’s win (more on that below) means they'll host D.C. United next Saturday with the Wooden Spoon on the line (6 pm ET | MLS Season Pass). All Atlanta need is a draw to stay off the bottom.

I don’t think there’s much deep-diving we want to do with the Herons coming out of this one, so let’s keep it brief:

Cold comfort for what is, to this point, a trophy-less season. But with the win, Miami became only the second team in MLS history to post back-to-back 60-point seasons (FC Dallas did it in 2015 and 2016). That’s not minutiae; that is a significant accomplishment.

Of course, a lot of this has come from beating up on the bottom half of the table. Their most recent loss was that 5-3 to the Fire. Before that it was 3-0 to Charlotte, before that it was 4-1 to Orlando, and before that it was 3-0 against Cincy.

You see the pattern, right? When they’re playing a good team and it starts going wrong, it really can unravel against top-tier competition. Just think about how they fell short in the Leagues Cup final against Seattle, or the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals against Vancouver.

The good news? They get to test themselves against champions one last time before the postseason begins, as they visit US Open Cup winners Nashville on Saturday (6 pm ET | MLS Season Pass). This is also a potential Round One matchup, one that I don’t think either side would be super eager for.

There are other games next weekend with more on the line playoff-wise, but this might be the one most worth watching.

Vancouver’s vibes are unstoppable

Three days after Thomas Müller was announced as Vancouver’s newest signing, on Aug. 9, they lost 2-1 at San Jose.

They’ve played 11 times since then, across two competitions. Sometimes Müller’s been in the lineup, sometimes he’s been out of it nursing a groin strain. Ryan Gauld’s just working his way back; Brian White’s been in and out (still currently out); and they’ve lost both their starting CBs, and then signed two new CBs, both of whom are also now injured.

They have not lost a single one of those games, winning seven and drawing four. And on Saturday night, in their 2-1 win at Orlando, it was Müller’s turn to be the big hero at the death:

Is that terrible from Orlando's defense? Yes. But bear in mind they were down to their fourth-string d-mid and had been getting pummeled for two straight hours. This is one of the built-in advantages of how the Whitecaps play – their tempo is always high, both on and off the ball. And so at the end of a lot of games this year, they’re facing teams they’ve completely gassed.

(Also bear in mind that the Soccer Gods may have been intent upon rewarding a Vancouver side that really did seem to find the winner a few minutes earlier with Sebastian Berhalter's shot).

“I think it was typical us. We keep pushing, and we play at a high pace where sometimes we get dominant the longer the game goes,” head coach Jesper Sørensen said in the postgame presser. Then later, in what was a pretty in-depth answer (he’s great in the postgame), he continued.

“I think that we were strong throughout the game, and I liked the way the players react. We are not panicking, we keep pushing and we believe in ourselves. We believe we can turn things around and we’re not a perfect team; we make mistakes. But I’m happy that the players just keep playing with the right intentions.”

Vancouver are now back atop the Western Conference for the first time since June 25. Given how many games they’ve played, how many players they’ve lost to injuries, and the sheer amount of travel inherent to any team playing out of Vancouver, this is one of the most remarkable seasons I can recall.

Orlando haven’t unearthed those intentions since the final 20 minutes of their 1-1 draw at Cincy a couple of weeks back. The d-mid injuries are a massive issue (they need César Araújo back badly), which was compounded by backline rock Robin Jansson’s first-half injury (if he’s not back to 100% by the playoffs, they’re cooked).

But as I’ve been saying all year, it’s Luis Muriel. When he’s rolling, they look unbelievable. When he’s not, they look like… this.

Muriel has 1g/1a in two months. Orlando are seventh in the East, just a point above the Wild Card spots. They visit Toronto on Decision Day (6 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+), and if they play in that one the way they’ve played in the past two, I would not be surprised if they got passed by both teams behind them (Chicago in eighth; Columbus in ninth).

Seattle keep showing their depth

On the one hand: Seattle's starting central midfield and half the starting backline are out for various reasons, and they still controlled the first 30 minutes of the game to the extent that they absolutely could’ve buried this thing before the break.

On the other hand: They again didn’t bury this thing – Jordan Morris drew a penalty and then had it saved by Rafael Cabral, who has that quality where certain goalkeepers seemingly become a giant when facing a PK – and again they had to hold on down the stretch. Happily for them, this time they managed it with the 1-0 final over a desperate visiting RSL side.

I thought playing out of a 3-4-2-1 ended up making a lot of sense, as Seattle’s two outside center backs could control RSL’s center forward pairing, while Jackson Ragen swept everything up in the middle:

The network passing graphic is a fair representation of Seattle’s shape. This isn't something I’d expect to see from them again unless players get injured and things get desperate, but it’s a real club they have to play.

Back to Morris: he has struggled since returning from his shoulder injury. He’s neither getting on the ball much (none of Seattle’s other 9s do either, to be fair) nor finding many chances. Brian Schmetzer’s got a choice to make next week, and if I were in his shoes, I think I’d go with Danny Musovski up top. He’s been better.

RSL are running on pure desperation because so many of their signings over the past three windows have missed the mark. Ariath Piol, who started up top, has one goal in 24 appearances. Rwan Cruz, who started next to him, has none in nine.

Diogo Gonçalves has underwhelmed. Dominik Marczuk (on loan) and Lachlan Brook (permanent) are gone. Victor Olatunji has looked good in moments, but they’ve just been moments. There’s nothing that’s been sustained from one appearance to the next.

They've won just three of nine games since Leagues Cup ended, which has somehow been enough to pull them into ninth in the West. Win one more that’ll make it five straight postseason trips, but it again doesn't feel like they’re built to stick around for long.

Danger looms for FC Dallas

I’m gonna pass the keyboard to Calen Carr, who was on the mic for FC Dallas’s 2-1 loss at the shorthanded Galaxy:

With Logan Farrington suspended (I didn't agree on the broadcast with the red card given to him in the 16th minute) and Petar Musa now suspended as well (a rush of blood in the second half saw him pick up his fifth yellow card this season; he’s out on yellow accumulation), that means FC Dallas head to Vancouver without the two players Eric Quill’s entire system has been built around. Now they need to find another way to qualify for the playoffs on Decision Day (9 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+).

Additional salt to the wound: right wingback Ramiro also picked up a yellow and will also be suspended, meaning some moving pieces along the backline, with Shaq Moore more than likely moving back to the right side instead of the left center back position he’s been quietly very effective at (Quill already made this switch to begin the second half on Saturday).

The defensive structure for Quill’s side is now their best path forward. Anderson Julio and Sam Sarver are defensively active; both came in and immediately combined for the then-equalizer, and both bring pace, but are more naturally wingers than true No. 9s like Farrington and Musa. Those two consistently demand center backs’ attention in the box, while Sarver and Julio are more about open spaces.

Quill has consistently called Musa the best No. 9 in MLS, if that gives you an idea of how difficult he is to replace. Still, Julio's pace and Sarver's energy will have to do in place of his quality and physical box presence as Dallas will surely find themselves on the counter. To get there, they’ll need cleaner play from central midfield duo Christian Cappis and Kaick to break the pressure of a ‘Caps side who are 10W-2L-4D at home and haven’t lost in months. With LAFC's loss on Sunday night, there's no hotter team in MLS.

It’s going to take a nearly perfect defensive performance and an unlikely hero in the attack for Dallas to make the playoffs on Decision Day.

Ok, it’s Doyle again. With RSL and Dallas losing, the door is somehow still open for Colorado and San Jose. And honestly… the Quakes aren’t in a bad spot here. They host a beatable Austin side, while RSL are at St. Louis, Dallas are at Vancouver and Colorado host LAFC.

If Bruce Arena's side wins and two of the above lose, San Jose somehow sneak into the postseason.

Mirroring & set pieces

There’s a thing called “mirroring” that certain coaches do, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: If the opponents play a 3-4-2-1, then you line up in a 3-4-2-1 of your own to 1) turn it into a series of individual battles all over the field, and 2) make sure there are no numerical shortcomings anywhere.

Austin’s Nico Estévez has been a proponent of mirroring for a while. And with LAFC coming into town on Sunday (even an LAFC team shorn of their two prolific goalscorers due to the international break), riding high and blitzing through just about all comers in recent months since their switch to the 3-4-2-1… I mean, I never doubted what this game would look like. Nor did I doubt that the decisive moment would come via a set piece, if it were to be decided at all.

Anyway, Owen Wolff rose up and headed home at the back post on an 83rd-minute Austin corner kick. It was the decisive moment in a 1-0 game that was otherwise pretty short on entertainment:

That’s it from the full game. Eight shots. Woof.

Still, what it lacked in entertainment value it absolutely delivered in instructive value, as what we saw on Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire (from Austin) will surely be the blueprint should these teams meet again in the playoffs.

As of right now, they would: LAFC are currently third, and Austin are now locked into the sixth seed out West.