Happy humpday folks,

Thank you to the more than 200 readers who joined us over the last week. There are now 6,761 of you reading this each week. Upwards and onwards. Now let’s get to the footy…

• 4️⃣ MLS Match Day 4 Recap

• 🇺🇸 Yanks Abroad

• ❓️ Is your team over or underperforming?

• 🇺🇸 Nations League Preview

• ⚽️ Goal of the Week

• 😂 Tweet of the Week

MLS Match Day 4

There was no shortage of absolute bangers this week. Like Martin Ojeda’s bullet, Alonso Martinez’s volley, Andrew Gutman’s long-range strike, Eduard Lowen’s free kick, Jovan Lukic’s blast, and Hassan Dotson’s beauty (below). MLS has so much quality right now.

For the first time in club history and only the seventh time in league history, the Vancouver Whitecaps have won four straight games to start the season. They beat FC Dallas 1-0 on the road, with the lone goal coming off Triston Blackmon’s head to remain the only perfect team in MLS. They’ve done this with a first-year head coach, a packed CCC schedule that saw them beat Monterrey, and their best player Ryan Gauld now out. What a freaking start for the Caps.

St. Louis City beat the Sounders 1-0 to become the 3rd team ever to go 4 straight games without conceding a goal. But they’ll now go a month without Roman Burki after he fractured his hand. The attack only has 4 goals, 3 of which came in the route of the LA Galaxy. They’ll have to find a way to muster more scoring chances while Burki is sidelined.

The Colorado Rapids beat San Jose 2-1 to stay undefeated on the year. Zack Steffan was phenomenal in this one, making 12 saves. To start the year, Steffan has been in the best form of his career and may deserve to be our starting keeper for the Nations League matches.

Austin FC beat LAFC 1-0 on the road for their second win of the season. Owen Wolff assisted Guilherme Biro off a corner for the game’s only goal. Wolff became the 9th active player to reach 10 career assists before turning 21. While it was a big win for Austin, they still only have two goals through four matches and neither of their two big attacking signings have scored.

The game of the week was a 3-3 tie between Sporting KC and Minnesota United (goal highlights). Minnesota went up 3-0 and looked to easily have this one in the bag — some Sporting KC fans even started to leave the stadium. But in the second half, Sporting KC mounted an impressive comeback to tie the game, the first time in club history that they’ve earned a point while down by 3 goals in the second half. This snapped their 10-game losing streak dating back to last year.

Yanks Abroad

Christian Pulisic scored his 15th goal of the season, this one from a very tough angle. The last player to score 15+ goals in their first two seasons with Milan was Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2010-2012. Several reports indicate that he’s set to sign a new contract with AC Milan that will give him a raise and tie him to the club for four more years.

Sergino Dest got his first start in over a year for PSV. He ended the game with 6 duels won, 2 interceptions, 1 tackle, and a 90% pass accuracy.

Haji Wright scored a hat trick in his first game back after 3 months out with an injury. It was the first hat trick ever by an American in the English Championship. He broke down his three-goal masterpiece in this interview. He has 10 goals and 1 assist in only 13 starts for Coventry City and has been superb under new head coach Frank Lampard.

Overperforming or Underperforming?

This graph shows how each MLS team has performed based on xP (expected points) per game and points minus expected points. While it’s still so early, this is a good indicator of which teams are playing good footy, which teams are not, and which have been lucky vs unlucky. Let’s dissect a few clubs.

It’s very possible the Rapids are undefeated due to the brilliance of Zack Steffen, because their underlying numbers say they shouldn’t be. He’s saved 2.6 more goals than expected which ranks 3rd in MLS.

San Diego does not look like an expansion team. Mikey Varas has done an incredible job of preparing his squad each week. They joined St. Louis City as the only other expansion club to go undefeated in their first four games.

Ughh… Houston. Diego Luna picked them apart this weekend and showed Houston exactly what they need, a DP caliber #10. It’s going to be a rough season until they add more pieces.

The Portland Timbers got screwed in stoppage time with an obvious penalty that wasn’t called. Regardless, they have yet to look like they can overcome the Evander loss.

Nations League Preview

The USMNT (World Rank #16) plays Jamaica (#36) tomorrow night at 7 pm ET at SoFi Stadium in the semifinals of the Concacaf Nations League. It’s a test run for the World Cup games being played here next summer. The field will feature “the debut of a new grass field technology,” a “hybrid carpet made of both artificial turf and natural grass” that “consists of multiple layers” in order to “give the pitch better strength and stability.” I’m not sure what all that means but it made me excited to see the pitch 🤷 

The roster is comprised of plenty of experience but also 7 players who have under 5 caps. Antonee Robinson, Auston Trusty, and Johnny Cardoso have all been withdrawn from the roster due to injury. Max Arfsten, Brian Gutierrez, and Jack McGlynn have replaced them. Robinson and Cardoso join Sergino Dest, Ricardo Pepi, Malik Tillman, Folarin Balogun, and Haji Wright as near World Cup locks who are not on this squad.

Robinson’s departure leaves a gaping hole at left-back. The drop-off between him and our next best left-back is larger than any other position. Will Pochettino move one of the center backs like Tim Ream to the left? He’s played there a bit with Charlotte. Or will he put a right-back like Marlon Fossey on his weak side?

It’s Mauricio Pochettino’s first opportunity to earn silverware with the US. Even with the missing players, the team has plenty of talent and depth to make that happen.

Goal of the Week

From wayyyy downtown.

Tweet of the Week

😆 

Quick Hits

• US Open Cup announces $1M purse, twice the amount of last year (Link)

• Cavan Sullivan scores a free kick for Union II (Link)

• 14-year-old Mak Whitman becomes the youngest player to ever debut in NWSL (Link)

• MLS All-Star game will be played against Liga MX All-Stars in Austin (Link)

How’d we do? Let us know below :)

Max & Mason