Sam Mbonu
Houston, Texas - Welcome to the match day 12 review. Match Day 12 brought lots of fireworks. It produced 35 goals, Colorado Rapids, Minnesota, and New England are the only 3 teams that won on the road on match day 12 and if you are reading this piece right now, I am sure you know by now that Lionel Messi set a handful of MLS records on match day 12.
Just the greatest player doing remarkable things here in the MLS.
Messi is having fun with ruthlessness.
Inter Miami are the real deal in the eastern conference after they hammered RBNY 6-2 to set the pace in the conference.
Messi set two records this weekend with one goal and five assists against the New York Red Bulls in a 6-2 demolition. Miami now leads MLS with 32 goals scored, 11 more than their next closest competitor.
They have won four straight games, and it seems nobody can compete with them for 90 minutes (about 1 and a half hours). Messi is a magician, the best ever, the GOAT, and every other superlative you can think of to describe him. Enjoy him while we still can.
At the Audi Field
D.C. are finding their feet with a 2-2 home draw with Philla Union.
While Christian Benteke leads the team with 8 goals in his last 9 starts for DC United, Jared Stroud leads the team with 5 assists, and DC United is 9th in the eastern conference.
DC United needs Benteke to show consistency in front of the goal if they want to compete and challenge this season in the Eastern Conference.
Also, Philla Union is struggling this season. They are winless now in 3 games.
The last time they won a game was 2-1 away in Nashville on April 14th on match day 9. Since then, they have slumped to 8th in the east, 14 points from 11 games.
For now, I think their top players have been underperforming.
This is not the Philla Union that we know that reached the Eastern Conference championship game twice in two seasons under Jim Curtain.
Daniel Gazdag leads the team with 6 goals this season.
In Northern California
The San Jose Earthquakes are gradually grinding out results in each game.
The Quake's 3-1 home win over LAFC is a warning shot to other Western teams that Pay Pal Park is a slaughtering ground.
For LAFC, their inconsistency this season is mind-boggling.
Dennis Bounaga, last season's Golden Boot winner, is still potent but it seems we may have a new goal king this season as Messi and Suarez lead the race for the Golden Boot with 10 goals each.
In Utah
RSL are finding three more points to strengthen their hold at the top of the Western conference table with a 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas.
Manager Peter Vermes maintained a defiant stance as to how his team lost concentration in the dying minutes of the game only to concede a late goal when Chicho Arango scored from set pieces in the 80th minute, his 10th goal this season.
RSL finished the weekend atop the West on points and second in points per game. They have the second-best goal difference in the league at +9, and Chicho Arango is part of the MVP and Golden Boot conversation.
They have two DP slots open that they can use this summer. Emeka Eneli has been one of the biggest SuperDraft steals in recent memory. Brayan Vera provided the assist on Arango’s game-winner and does stuff like this:
At the BMO in Toronto
Toronto FC kept defying expectations, and this time it was the Federico Bernardeschi show in a 3-1 win over FC Dallas.
It’s amazing how even scoring a goal that gets called offside can-do wonders to a player’s confidence.
That was exactly what happened when Bernardeschi saw the ball hit the back of the net in the first half, only to be called back.
But this would be the catalyst for him.
Bernardeschi then finished off a rebound from his penalty miss and followed that up with an absolute banger from outside the box to the top corner.
That is Toronto's No. 10 at its best and John Herdman will be hoping for more in the weeks ahead, as they're now third in the Eastern Conference on 19 points. It's now three straight wins, all with Lorenzo Insigne still recovering from a hamstring injury. On match day 13, Toronto will be at home to NYCFC.
In St Paul, Minnesota
The Loons went on the road... again and won... again. This time, it was 2-1 at Atlanta United.
Winners of four out of five road games this season, Eric Ramsay is getting the best out of his squad. They have quality all over the pitch and can win in different ways.
Robin Lod is pulling the strings in midfield, Tani Oluwaseyi has been the biggest revelation in MLS this season, and they have been dangerous on set pieces as well.
Minnesota has won three straight and sits second in the Western Conference on 20 points, just a point behind Real Salt Lake.
At the TQL in Cincinnati, Ohio
The quietest team in MLS that continues to get three points is FC Cincinnati who won tons of games by one goal last year and they're finding ways to do it again in 2024.
Even though DP striker, Aaron Boupendza is out with a jaw injury.
He had surgery this Thursday on his broken jaw that he suffered in an off-field injury, and he is estimated to be out for 6-8 weeks.
But his absence doesn’t matter for FC Cincinnati because they have the reigning MVP, Lucho Acosta doing MVP things who scored just 17 seconds in their game against Orlando City SC and his goal was the difference maker in that game. Then the defense took care of business to keep the clean sheet.
After two straight losses, Cincy has won three straight and is firmly in the mix for a Supporters' Shield repeat.
Let’s watch a clip from Pat Noonan's post-match press conference after the 1-0 win at Orlando City FC
At the Shell Energy Stadium
Houston and St. Louis combined for 41 shots with, in total, about 3.5 expected goals. Fourteen of those shots were on target.
None of them went into the net.
Houston is on a three-game winless skid, while St. Louis has won just twice all year. These teams both badly need an infusion of attacking quality in the summer window.
To say the Houston Dynamo was wasteful in front of the goal is an understatement.
The final 3rd was missing against St. Louis City FC, Aliyu Ibrahim was guilty, and Blessing Latif was also guilty, in fact all those Dynamo players who had their moments to score or make killer passes but were hesitant were all guilty of the wastefulness against St Louis City FC
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