Hey friends,

We’ve got a jam-packed edition for you. 1,269 words. We’re diving right in.

• 1️⃣ 3️⃣ & 1️⃣ 4️⃣ MLS Match Day 13 & 14 Recap

• 🇺🇸 Yanks Abroad

• 🔢 MLS Stats to Know

• 🌎️ World Cup Rosters Revealed

• ⚽️ Goal of the Week

• 😂 Tweet of the Week

MLS Match Day 13 & 14 Recap

It was a fun week of footy across the league. 58 goals were scored on Wednesday, the most in a single day in league history (watch all here). We’re in the dog days of the season, and depth is becoming increasingly important.

Sporting KC won two games?!?! They beat the LA Galaxy and Austin FC to scrape themselves off the Wooden Spoon floor. The second win was good enough to propel Austin’s brass to fire Sporting Director Rodolfo Borrell and head coach Nico Estevez. Austin sits 13th in the West; a change was coming sooner than later.

FC Cincinnati didn’t have a great week, losing to Inter Miami 5-3 at home, then drawing with San Diego on the road, 3-3 in a chaotic game. They salvaged a point when Tom Barlow scored on the final touch of the game on Saturday. Cincy’s defense is awful. They’ve allowed 35 goals this season, second most in MLS.

The LA Galaxy have struggled to find any consistency this season. They lost for the second time to Sporting KC, then beat Seattle on the road for the first time in their last 11 games at Lumen Field. The one consistency of late has been Gabriel Pec, who has a goal in three straight games.

Nashville SC are your Supporters Shield leaders after beating LAFC 3-2 behind a hat-trick from Hany Mukhtar. It was yet another impressive performance from Nashville, who were missing four key starters. Mukhtar is very much in the MVP race. His non-penalty goals and assists per 90 minutes are outpacing his 2022 MVP season. Nashville has the second-best goal differential (+19), tied for the fewest goals conceded (10), and is undefeated at home. I feel very confident they’ll come away with some hardware this season.

FC Dallas picked up their biggest win of the season, beating San Jose 3-2. Sam Sarver scored the winner in stoppage time on a breakaway. Beer cans were thrown at the Dallas players as they celebrated, and Sarver grabbed a Modelo and shotgunned it. Legendary stuff! The Quakes are all of a sudden winless in their last four after a historic start. They don’t have the depth to weather the injuries to Timo Werner and Niko Tsakiris. At least they got this sick volley from homegrown kid, Beau Leroux.

Yanks Abroad

Austin Trusty and Celtic won the Scottish Premier League after an intense late-season battle with Hearts. Trusty has been integral for Celtic this season, playing nearly every game. He scored above a 7.0 on FotMob in his last 8 games as the season was coming down to the wire.

Chris Richards was assisted off the pitch after an ankle injury. It is expected to be minor, with a potential return later this week. Worrisome for our most important defender, but thankfully, it seems he escaped anything serious.

Ricardo Pepi scored again, making that 16 Eredivisie goals this season, which leads PSV. In total, he has 19 goals and 2 assists in 35 appearances. He played just 1,415 minutes in those 35 appearances, having a goal contribution every 68 minutes.

Antonee Robinson scored his first goal in the English Premier League with this penalty kick.

MLS Stats to Know

0 - The number of league goals Son Heung-Min has this season (he does lead the league with 9 assists). LAFC fans are starting to get frustrated with the star and head coach, Marc Dos Santos. They’ve lost three straight and have just one win in their last eight.

4 - Zavier Gozo scored his 4th goal in the last 4 games on Saturday. There is a legitimate chance that he is the final player on our World Cup roster. That’s right, an uncapped 19-year-old could make this team given his form. In the 2022 World Cup, 10 players made appearances aged 20 or younger with 2 or fewer caps prior to the World Cup. So it’s not that crazy of a scenario. And he’s exactly the type of attacking talent that could help off the bench.

8 - Cavan Sullivan became the 8th youngest goal scorer in MLS history with his first career MLS goal last week.

10 - Hugo Cuypers has scored in 10 straight games for the Chicago Fire. He’s the third player in MLS history to do so.

14 - Columbus Crew head coach Henrik Rydstrom lasted 14 games in his tenure. With just 3 wins, GM Issa Tall decided it was time to move on. Laurent Courtois will be the interim head coach. For those thinking that Wilfried Nancy might be an option, Tall said, “Last I remember, Wilfried has European aspirations. We want to stick to Laurent and give him the best tools to succeed.”

18 - Messi has 18 goal contributions (12g/6a) in 13 games played this season, most in MLS. That includes this vintage assist on Sunday👇️. Inter Miami is starting to heat up with three straight wins.

22 - The Seattle Sounders 22 game home unbeaten streak came to an end on Saturday. It’s also just their second loss at home to a team from North America in the last 39 games. They’ll be fine, though. They're 4th in the West and 7th in the Shield rankings with at least a game in hand on everyone in front of them. Their 10 goals conceded are tied for the least in MLS, but 17 goals for is tied for the least among teams in a playoff position.

World Cup Rosters Released

Countries are starting to reveal their squads for the big dance. Mauricio Pochettino will be announcing our team on May 26th at 3 pm EST.

Until then, here are a few notable teams whose rosters are out:

France (Full Squad) - This is arguably the deepest and most talented team in World Cup history. It’s that good. Eduardo Camavinga, the talented Real Madrid midfielder, didn’t even make the team. Per TransferMarkt, in terms of market value, N’Golo Kanté is the least valuable player on the team at €4.5M. N’Golo freaking Kante is their least valuable player!! Only two other players are valued less than €20M. Only 11 players from the 2022 team will be on the plane to the US to try and win Les Bleus their third World Cup.

Brazil (Full Squad) - Neymar makes the team! The Brazilian legend will play in his 4th World Cup, look what it means to him. Brazil is, of course, ridiculously deep as well. Chelsea’s Joao Pedro, Tottenham’s Richarlison, and Real Betis’s Antony are among those who didn’t make it. Legendary center back Thiago Silva was also left off the roster.

Croatia (Full Squad) - Luka Modric will star in his 5th and final World Cup. Croatia also called up both MLS stars, Marco Pasalic and Petar Musa.

Portugal(Full Squad) - 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo makes his 6th World Cup appearance for Portugal. Cristiano and Lionel Messi will become the first players ever to appear in 6 World Cups. Very fitting.

You can find more preliminary and final squad rosters here, but many are yet to be announced.

Goal of the Week

👏 

Tweet of the Week

Ugh.

Quick Hits

• Tom Bogert reports that Tanner Tessmann could be on the move this summer (Link)

• US Soccer viewership is climbing across every major tournament (Link)

• NCAA approves major changes to college soccer (Link)

That’s a wrap. Thanks for reading, everyone!

Max & Mason