Hey friends,

Contrary to many reports Mbappe is not coming to MLS 😉. Could you imagine?? We’ll keep dreaming. Until then, here’s what we got for ya.

• ⏯️ Match Day 17 & 18

• 🇲🇽 MLS Concacaf Disappointment

• 🏠️ Home Field Advantage

• 🇺🇸 June International Window

• ⚽️ Goal of the Week

• 😂 Meme of the Week

Match Day 17 & 18 Recap

Quick Recaps after two matchdays:

LAFC has overcome its early season inconsistencies and won five straight, all with a clean sheet. Watch this gorgeous buildup from Saturday. They’ve hopped Minnesota and the Galaxy in the West and sit 3 points behind Salt Lake with a game in hand.

Speaking of Salt Lake. Chicho had his second hat trick of the season to lead the squad to their 13th straight unbeaten. His first one was a goal-of-the-season candidate(see below). He’s passed Messi in the MVP race for now and is only one goal away from tying Real Salt Lake’s record (17).

Just when you thought Atlanta might turn things around after a 3-1 win over Miami they lose to Charlotte. They won the xG (expected goal) battle in their last 3 games but it’s not enough to save Gonzalo Pineda’s job. Unsurprisingly he was fired Monday morning. With Giakoumakis likely headed to Cruz Azul Atlanta’s season looks to be a total dumpster fire after high expectations to start.

The Houston Dynamo have two wins in their last nine games but have managed to stay in playoff position in the West. Overall it’s been very meh. Hector Herrera had a sick assist but they’ll be upset that they blew two one-goal leads against Portland.

MLS Goes Down in CONCACAF

Cincy fans might be the only ones happy about this result. The Columbus Crew lost to Pachuca 3-0 in the Concacaf Champions Cup Final.

MLS had high hopes for the Crew to bring home the league’s second-ever trophy in this tournament. Instead, Pachuca wins it for the 6th time.

We don’t want to be the ones to make excuses BUTTT…

• The game was played at 8,000 ft of elevation (each Crew player used an altitude sleeping tent to prepare).

• The entire Crew team had diarrhea 🤢 Did no one tell them not to drink the water down there??

For real though, Pachuca dominated and deserved it. They’ve never lost a home game against an MLS squad (7W-1D) and have outscored them 26-5.

A big piece of Pachuca’s success story is its academy, known as Pachuca Tuzos Academy.

Notable Pachuca Graduates

• Hirving Lozano: Currently playing for PSV in Eredivisie, future MLS player for San Diego FC

• Héctor Herrera: Formerly of Atlético Madrid and now with Houston Dynamo.

• Erick Gutiérrez: Midfielder for Guadalajara in Liga MX.

Pachuca joins the Seattle Sounders, Monterrey, and Club Leon as the 4 Concacaf representatives at next summers Club World Cup. One other MLS team will join them as the host country gets a final club.

Home Field Advantage

The chart below shows the points-per-game each team is averaging at home vs away and what the difference is between the two.

Main Takeaways:

• Philadelphia have been uncharacteristically bad at home but have made it up with a decent away record

• LAFC thrive at home. BMO is a hard place to play for visitors

• The Crew don’t care where they play you. They’re showing up no matter what

June International Window

When International duties calls, you answer 🫡 

Over 100 MLS players are being called up for friendlies, World Cup qualifiers, UEFA Euro’s, and Copa America games. Full list here.

Expect players at your club to miss games in the coming months. A few notable stars include Xerdan Shaqiri, Emil Forsberg, Denis Bouanga, and Walker Zimmerman.

Messi could miss at least six matches if Argentina were to advance to the Copa America final. Inter Miami have won just 3 of the 14 matches they’ve played without Messi since he joined the club. Their depth is about to be tested.

It’s an action packed summer of footy. Copa America, Euro’s, Olympics. We can’t get enough. As always we’ll cover it all for ya.

Goal of the Week

OHHHH MYYY 😍 

Meme of the Week

LOLOL

Quick Hits

• LeBron James tweets about the USL. The goalscorer is his High School Basketball coaches son (Link)

• Cavan Sullivan makes his first professional start (Link)

• Tanner Tessmann and Gianluca Busio are promoted to Serie A with Venezia FC(Link)

• San Diego set to finalize deal with Chucky Lozano this week (Link)

• LA Galaxy in advanced talks with Dortmund/German Midfielder Marco Reus, no open DP spot could halt this deal (Link)

• Austin FC sign defender Mikkel Desler (Link)

Let’s chat again next week!