2023 Ballon d’Or Resides in the MLS

Messi became the first active MLS player to win the Ballon d’Or on Sunday. He brought home the one trophy that’s always alluded him and with that cemented himself as the greatest player ever. Erling Haaland was very deserving as well, but this was Messi’s award once that World Cup was in his hands.

It does feel odd that an MLS player took home the Ballon d’Or, a league which forever has been clowned on by fans all over the world. But at the same time it shows just how far this league has come.

Oh and while the tweet below is kinda meaningless it’s still fun to see.

Playoff Round One Games Recap

Philadelphia Union (3) vs New England Revolution (1)- Union we’re dominant in the first half. Philly were physical defending Carles Gill as he had to leave in the 23’ minute.

LAFC (5) vs Vancouver Whitecaps (2) - LA clearly the better team. Bouanga continues his scoring ways with two goals and Hollingshead also nets a brace.

Houston Dynamo (2) vs Real Salt Lake (1) - Hector Herrera scores and continues to be one of the best signings in recent MLS history. Houston dominates possession and shots.

Cincinnati FC (3) vs NY RedBulls (0) - Lucho and Barreal are too much to handle for NY. Cincy clearly the better team and should easily advance.

Sporting KC (4) vs St. Louis City (1) - STL has 57% of possession but 5 less shots on target. STL now has to show up big on the road.

Orlando City (1) vs Nashville SC (0) - Orlando has 18 more shots than Nashville and Cartagena scores an absolute banger from range.

Seattle Sounders (2) vs FC Dallas (0) - Ferreira misses two prime chances. Seattle have 9 more shots and 7 more chances created.

Columbus Crew (2) vs Atlanta United (0) - Who else but Cucho? A brace from the Colombian caps off a dominant performance. Atlanta had one shot. ONE!

One thing to note. Only ONE game was won by the lower seed, with Sporting KC beating St. Louis 4:1.

Lucky or Bad?

This is an awesome graphic Ben Wright created from research done by American Soccer Analysis. Based on each teams expected points and points minus expected points we can see which teams got lucky and which teams were actually good. Luck is quantified by how much of your expected points you took away.

Teams like the NY RedBulls who snuck into the playoffs with a Wild Card win can look at this and at least be confident in their teams performance this year (although Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Cincinnati was tough).

MLS Expands SuperDraft Eligibility

For the first time in MLS History college sophomores and juniors will be draft eligible. College players are still able to sign Generation Adidas contracts so no change there but this opens up the player pool to a lot more young talent.

I love this move for the league because it allows the youngest most talented players to enter the MLS earlier and develop faster. Let’s be honest… college soccer in the US isn’t particularly high-quality so getting the best players into the league sooner will be better for their development. Of course, that is, if they’re okay with forgoing a degree.

This is the new list of eligibility requirements:

Tweet of the Week

Goal of the Week

An absolute screamer from the Peruvian midfielder 🚀 

Quick Hits

• Douglas Costa announces he will be departing LA Galaxy (Link)

• MLS launches investigation into Kai Wagner’s alleged racial slur (Link)

• MLS Next Pro’s experiment to cut down time wasting yields incredible results (Link)

• World Cup 2034 goes to sport-washing Saudi Arabia (Link) 😢

• Inter Miami have reached an agreement with 36 yr old Luis Suarez on a one year deal (Link)