Alright alright alright,

Why does the USMNT have to have 10:30 pm kick-offs for us East Coasters? Beats me but you know we’ll get you the goods like we always do.

• ⏯️ Decision Day Up Next

• 🇺🇸 Poch’s First Impression

• 🏆️ Best XI and End of Year Awards

• ❓️How much space does each team allow their opponent?

• ⚽️ Goal of the Week

• 😂 Meme of the Week

Decision Day Up Next

Just two games this weekend. Decision Day is on Saturday.

Columbus Crew 4 - 0 New England Revolution

The Crew celebrated the anniversary of the Save the Crew movement and honored it by dismantling the New England Revolution. Both squads were missing players on international duty but it didn’t matter for the Crew, they’re so deep. Alexandru Matan scored a hat-trick against his former coach and after his first goal jogged past Caleb Porter and went straight to Wilfried Nancy to celebrate. The Crew have now set a single-season club record for goals (69) and look like favorites to repeat as MLS Cup Champions.

As for the Revs… well, it was the perfect encapsulation of their season. That is… abysmal. They’ve allowed 68 goals, the second most in the league and have allowed multiple goals in 20 of 33 games. They’re 0-16-2 when giving up the first goal. Signs that a team has no fight in them. Caleb Porter’s first season was a disaster. With a true MVP-caliber DP and young studs like Peyton Miller and Bajraktarevic they have the building blocks to get back to their 2021 form. But will Porter be the long-term leader?

LAFC 2 - 1 Vancouver Whitecaps

This one also ended how you’d expect. Mateusz Bogusz opened up the scoring with the fastest goal in LAFC history (34 seconds). Ilie Sanchez scored the winner in stoppage time to wrap this up. And now LAFC are only 3 points behind the Galaxy for the top spot in the west and they play San Jose on Decision Day. The Galaxy must get a point against Houston to lock it up.

Vancouver are jostling with Minnesota for the last non-wildcard spot. They need to beat Salt Lake on the road and get help from St. Louis to get it.

Poch’s First Impression

The Pochettino era is off to a so-so start. Started with excitement, and ended with disappointment.

USMNT 2 - 0 Panama

After the players talked all week about the intensity of Poch’s training sessions we saw that intensity ooze into the game. The team was active and pressing high on Panama. The players seemed to have more freedom to move where they wanted compared to Berhalter’s rigid system.

Yunus Musah opened the scoring with an assist from his club teammate Christian Pulisic. It was Musahs first goal for the US and Pulisic’s 17th assist, which ties him for 5th all-time. Ricardo Pepi scored the second off a Haji Wright assist and the first win in the Poch era was solidified.

Before heading to Guadalajara to face Mexico Christian Pulisic, Ricardo Pepi, Weston McKennie, Marlon Fossey, and Zack Steffen were sent back to their clubs due to rest and/or injury.

USMNT 0 - 2 Mexico

After watching the first half the only feeling you could have was disappointment. The team looked slow, lacked creativity, and couldn’t connect even a few passes. The icing on the cake was Raul Jiminez's masterpiece of a free kick to put Mexico up 1-0.

The second half started much the same, with Mexico putting away a second in the 48th minute. Tim Ream had an awful giveaway on the edge of our box that will take some time to forget. It’s hard to say where if any we played well. Substitutes like Vazquez and Zendejas added energy but overall we didn’t show much quality.

It sucks we were missing key players, but to look this bad without them was embarrassing. Toothless.

Poch can fix this though.

MLS Best XI + Season Awards

Feel free to reply to this email and rip us a new one for the guys that were left off this Best XI. It was so damn hard to choose. And yeah we went with a wonky formation just to squeeze those attackers in there.

🏆 MVP: Cucho Hernández

Since the league changed to a 34-game season no MVP has played less than 2,000 minutes. Does that count out Messi who’s played 1,453? No, because it’s Messi. But because of that, we’re going with Cucho. He has 32 goal contributions (19g/13a) in 2,056 minutes and has the second most match-winning goals with 8.

👶 Young Player: Diego Luna

Sorry Diego Gómez this one goes to the Real Salt Lake youngster. Luna’s 19 (7g/12a) goal contributions were 9 more than the Inter Miami striker.

⚡️ Newcomer: Gabriel Pec

This will go to either Pec, Orellano, or Suarez. All of whom played in the Brasileiro last season. Pec had 29 goal contributions in 32 appearances in his first season and has been a massive part of bringing the Galaxy back to prominence.

🏃🏽‍♂️‍➡️ Comeback: Lewis Morgan

After playing in just 5 games last year due to injury Morgan scored 13 goals for the Red Bulls and has gotten himself a call-up from the Scottish National Team.

🙅🏻‍♂️ Defender: Steven Moreira

Wilfried Nancy knows exactly how to get the best out of every player. That includes Moreira. Columbus has conceded the 3rd fewest goals this season thanks in large part to his play at right center-back.

🧤 Goalkeeper: Matt Freese

Yes, you can make an easy argument for Kristijan Kahlina. But Freese is playing with a worse defense and is 5th in goals prevented and 4th in save percentage. He probably should have gotten that call up to the USMNT instead of Zack Steffen.

🧠 Coach: Wilfried Nancy

Of course this one could go to Tata Martino. Four of the last five coaches to win this award won the Supporters Shield. But the Crew has just been so good. They made it to the Concacaf Champions Cup Finals, won the Leagues Cup, and are locked into the second spot in the East. Oh, and we’re also picking them because they play the best brand of football this league has probably ever seen.

A Fight For Space

This graphic is fascinating. It shows how much space each team allows their opponents in every part of the pitch.

Here are a few things that stood out:

It’s interesting that Charlotte allowed so much space in their defensive third of the field given they’ve allowed the second-fewest goals (37) all season. Kristijan Kahlina was a brick wall this year.

Real Salt Lake and FC Cincinnati can suffocate their opponents with constant pressure.

It's not the best look for Atlanta, Austin, or Nashville. With coaching changes for all three teams, it’ll be interesting to see how this changes.

Goal of the Week

The D.C. United and Cameroonian midfielder with an absolute screamer from 30 yards out 😲 

Meme of the Week

This comment on the USMNT Instagram post 🤣 🤣 

Quick Hits

• Ronaldinho joins the ownership group of USL League One side Greenville Triumph SC (Link)

• Two Americans were named to the 60 Best Young Talents in World Football by the Guardian (Link)

• MLS is ranked as the 9th strongest league in the world by Opta (Link)

• Antonee Robinson continues to make the EPL Team of the Season (Link)

Alright, we’re out. Give us a rating below and see ya’ll next week.

Max & Mason