MLS

MLS Little Things: Water Soccer In Columbus & Red Bulls Loss In Chicago

MLS Little Things: Water Soccer In Columbus & Red Bulls Loss In Chicago

After a week of blowouts, a high-flying debut, and some of the wackiest weather MLS has seen, let’s look at some Little Things from Week 5.

Apr 1, 2019
MLS Little Things: Water Soccer In Columbus & Red Bulls Loss In Chicago

After a week of blowouts, a high-flying debut, and some of the wackiest weather MLS has seen, let’s look at some Little Things from Week 5, including Alejandro Pozuelo and TFC, the Red Bulls’ loss at Chicago, and water soccer in Columbus.

Pozuelo looks like the real deal

Alejandro Pozuelo, Toronto FC’s new DP, looks the part of a pure No. 10, a player stationed in the middle who shuttles between each flank and skillfully probes. He debuted on Friday night and painted the attacking third.

By the end of TFC’s 4-0 domination of NYCFC, Pozuelo accumulated a pair of goals (a Panenka penalty kick and an elegant chipped golazo) and an assist, in which he Messi’d a bunch of defenders and handed Jozy Altidore a tap-in. It ranks among MLS’s greatest individual debuts. 

Greg Vanney set up TFC’s shape specifically to take advantage of Pozuelo’s strengths. He played what nominally was a 4-2-3-1, but morphed into what sometimes looked like a three-at-the-back as TFC bombed forward. Jonathan Osorio played outside midfield on Pozuelo’s left and inverted heavily when TFC had the ball, tilting the formation and overloading the midfield.

Justin Morrow, playing left back, took the space Osorio vacated as though he were a wing back, piling further numbers for TFC and helping pin NYC deep. Pozuelo had players around him who would combine and occupy gaps, maximizing the Spaniard’s ability to influence the game. On the other flank, Nick DeLeon provided a defensive presence that could offset the funkiness of the Osorio-Morrow dynamic.

The organization and constant rotation reminded of TFC’s 2017 glory days. Marky Delgado and Michael Bradley covered for Osorio and Morrow. Auro overlapped constantly with DeLeon. Pozuelo occasionally drifted to the left wing into the space Osorio vacated. It was fluid and intricate, and the players knew what they were doing.

Pozuelo excelled in a free, creative role, particularly with Osorio flooding the space next to him. TFC have found their centerpiece.

The Red Bulls are looking for answers

Red Bulls fans shouldn’t push the panic button quite yet, but things aren’t peachy in the metro. NYRB have now lost four of five games in all competitions, including a pair of bitter defeats in Concacaf Champions League against Santos Laguna. They’ve lost two MLS games in a row by a score of 1-0, against teams that finished 11th and 10th in the Eastern Conference last year.

Their most recent defeat came in Chicago against the Fire, who have severe defensive issues. The Red Bulls struggled to dominate the game the way they usually do, conceding much of the attacking play to Chicago. Chris Armas wants to possess the ball and re-press hard, but NYRB haven’t gotten around to doing much of that yet.

The biggest, and most obvious, culprit: their inability to replace Tyler Adams. No longer is there a windshield wiper in midfield, capable of winning duels, cleaning up messes, and aggressively distributing the ball forward. Adams is an expert ball-winner and flawless passer, perfect for Armas’ fast-paced, assertive style. He’s obviously hard to replace. New York haven’t come close, and they haven’t found a way to compensate in their style of play. 

Cristian Casseres Jr. was supposed to be the answer at the start of the season, but he went 90 in a Week 1 draw against Columbus and hasn’t played a minute with the first team outside of that. Instead, Marc Rzatkowski, a 29-year-old former Salzburg player, has played in the Adams role alongside d-mid Sean Davis. Rzatkowski is a finesse player with a delicate left foot. He doesn’t have the defensive cover or smart, productive passing of Adams. 

Casseres could prove to be the answer still (at 19, he has time), but until then, they shouldn’t keep rolling with Rzatkowski at the position. Solidifying the No. 8 position would allow Armas’ system to flourish the way it did last season, with the confidence to bound forward and overwhelm teams. 

Beach soccer, Ohio version

I will concede that Saturday’s puddle-bowl between Columbus and Atlanta should have been postponed. Realistically, the conditions were unsafe, unnecessary, and made for a game of something that only vaguely resembled actual grass soccer. 

But, even understanding this, I can’t help but take some joy in watching whatever was going on at MAPFRE Stadium.



It was prolonged madness. It was like this from around the 30th minute, when the teams returned from a long storm delay, until the end of the game, with rain pelting throughout. No one could dribble effectively without the ball getting stuck up in their feet. Booting it long—as the goalkeepers constantly had to do on goal kicks—was an unusually difficult endeavor. At one point, the Crew were so wary of a turnover-causing mishit that they had a center back take a free kick just outside their defensive box, so their goal wouldn’t be left open if Zack Steffen muffed it.

Players adjusted in various ways. Those attempting to dribble the ball focused on the simple act of pushing the ball forward, slowing the game to a crawl as they tried to methodically prod it in front of their feet. Sometimes players receiving a pass tried to turn quickly and move the ball, out of habit, until realizing the ball wasn’t moving fast enough for that. Slide tackling produced a small tsunami.

My personal favorite was when Pedro Santos decided it more efficient to juggle the ball forward in the air instead of dribbling it.



Note how he ended up on a slip-and-slide when the ball descended back to his feet. He might still be sliding.

Columbus won, 2-0, and very well might have won regardless of the weather. Santos had the Crew up 1-0 after the 30 minutes of actual soccer that was played. 

But Atlanta will rightly feel hard done by. Referee Joseph Dickerson, a young official without much of center experience in MLS, didn’t seem to know what he was supposed to do. The players likely would have accepted a postponement, considering the obvious injury risk of playing soccer in a giant puddle. MLS probably won’t let something like this happen again.

In spite of all that, it was a fascinating sight.

Sporting KC make it all look easy

I couldn’t go without giving SKC their due for annihilating Montreal. Sporting put up a touchdown and added an extra point against the poor Impact, who had no answers as Johnny Russell, Gerso Fernandes, Krisztian Nemeth, and Felipe Gutierrez walked all over them. 

Usually, when blowouts like SKC’s 7-1 extermination happen in MLS, the losing team either picks up one or two early red cards or simply does not try at all. Montreal had all of their players the whole time and never really seemed to stop trying. Outside of a pair of crucial absences from the Impact lineup (superstar Ignacio Piatti and starting center back Zakaria Diallo), this blowout was Sporting’s doing.

Montreal went in with a cautious, “we’re completely fine with a 0-0 draw” game plan, which makes a certain amount of sense, considering the aforementioned absences and their organized, defensive style of play. Saphir Taider, usually the midfield bulldog, played where Piatti plays on the left wing. The Impact were going to sit deep and counter.

SKC had their foot on the gas pedal from the start and threw Montreal’s plan out the window with a pristine Russell strike in the 10th minute. They waited until the 43rd minute to double the score, but the floodgates were open after that. Everyone, including 16-year-old substitute Gianluca Busio, got in on the action.

Sporting were aggressive and purposeful on the ball, making runs and combining around the box. They didn’t send in useless crosses, nor did they rip low-percentage long-distance shots. Elite MLS teams tend to struggle against bunkered opposition—Atlanta have for pretty much their entire existence, and the Red Bulls lost in the CCL semis last year because they couldn’t figure out Chivas’s shell. SKC just produced a blueprint for doing it successfully.

Chris Mueller, rounding out the rough edges

Orlando’s Chris Mueller, as other raw-skill types have tried to do, is figuring out how to turn his innate abilities into difference-making attributes on the field. It is a process that turns out differently for every player. 

We’re watching Mueller make these progressions in real-time. He converted his fast-twitch, straight-ahead dribbling tendencies into an impressive assist for OCSC against D.C. United on Sunday.



When he receives that pass into the box from Nani, Mueller knows he wants to bypass his defender and reach the end-line. He swerves to the ball and pushes it forward with enough force that he can run on to it with the defender on his back. Once there, he knows he wants to put a cross in. He settles for a split second, taking the blinders off, and hesitates briefly without putting a foot on the ball. That hesitation gains him a crucial bit of separation, allowing him the sliver of space needed to place a carefully-calculated cross on Dom Dwyer’s head.

It was an expert move. Mueller displayed calm comfort in a tight, fast-moving situation, minimizing extra touches and movements and keeping his head in the game. He knew what he wanted to do and he accomplished it with in-the-moment adjustments that originated from perceptive thought, rather than nervousness or franticness. 

These are the kinds of attributes Alphonso Davies developed in his age-17 MLS season, the breakout campaign that earned him a Bayern contract. Mueller is not Davies, but he should start to see more consistent starting minutes and could enter the USMNT pool.

Harrison Hamm is a sportswriter who covers American soccer and MLS for FloFC. He also covers sports for FanSided and The Comeback, and has freelanced for the Washington Post.