The teams at the top of their respective conference tables took an absolute beating in MLS this week. Montreal Impact and FC Dallas both struggled mightily in shutout losses. Meanwhile, bottom team New York Red Bulls won while producing an impressive 25 shots, 10 on target, with all of those 10 coming from inside the penalty area. Again, we have no idea who’s any good in April. We probably won’t know much at all until September.
Jermaine Jones heard you calling him old and isn’t having it
Week 8 in MLS featured the USMNT’s veteran midfielder running the show in a win by himself -- again.
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
This weekend’s scores
Montreal Impact 0-2 Toronto FC
Philadelphia Union 2-0 New York City FC
D.C. United 3-0 New England Revolution
Columbus Crew SC 1-0 Houston Dynamo
Colorado Rapids 3-1 Seattle Sounders
Vancouver Whitecaps 3-0 FC Dallas
LA Galaxy 5-2 Real Salt Lake
New York Red Bulls 3-2 Orlando City
San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 Sporting Kansas City
Not in action: Portland Timbers, Chicago Fire
Highlights
Jermaine Jones is a one-man wrecking crew
Through some combination of his age, his demands and his abuse of referees, the New England Revolution opted to not re-sign Jermaine Jones this offseason. That the historically inept and cheap Colorado Rapids were the team that ended up with him suggested that the Revs had good reason to pass.
But they were wrong. Everyone was very, very wrong, because Jermaine Jones has been the best player in the league for two weeks in a row. He’s single-handedly running games against very good teams.
If you’re a USMNT supporter hoping Jurgen Klinsmann moves on to younger players, you appear to be out of luck. Jones is still the best version of himself, even at 34. And it’s going to make the Rapids into a very dangerous team.
Luciano Acosta is the league’s best player you don’t know yet
D.C. United has more of a defined style of play than any other team in the league. Unfortunately, the style dubbed “Bennyball” is usually pretty dull. Luciano Acosta is here to change that.
To the displeasure of many, the diminutive No. 10, who is on loan from Boca Juniors, hasn’t broken into the Black and Red’s starting XI yet. But with plays like this, Ben Olsen can’t deny him a spot much longer.
OK, fine, let’s talk about the referees
MLS referees aren’t very good. They never have been. They’ve been improving slowly, but this week was an absolute disaster.
Colorado’s clinching goal was a mile offside. Jair Marrufo missed a clear red card for the San Jose Earthquakes, then the Quakes scored their winning goal five minutes later. Hilario Grajeda ended up in the same situation, missing a clear red for New York Red Bulls’ Karl Ouimette before the Red Bulls scored five minutes later. All of these calls were very clear, with little to no ambiguity. PRO referees chairman Peter Walton knows it.
Lalas mentions that head of PRO Peter Walton confirmed to Fox that Ouimette should have been whistled for foul and shown a red card.
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) April 25, 2016
But while Walton has defended his officials, he's also been open about their mistakes. He's clearly trying to make improvements. He's also very honest about how long it's going to take to improve officiating -- PRO's website states that their goal is "to become the example for World Class soccer officials by 2022." Upon his appointment in 2012, Walton said, "This is not something I'm coming in to turn a light switch on and everything happens overnight."
Walton knows some of his refs aren't up to snuff, but he can't just fire them for various reasons. https://t.co/anNLHiPcGO
— Aaron W. Gordon (@A_W_Gordon) April 25, 2016
Training officials is hard. Convincing new officials to sign up is hard. Walton is going to need a few years.
Weekly MLS Live power rankings
This is not a ranking that has anything to do with how good a team is at soccer. It’s simply about how likely you are to be entertained if you choose to watch their game on MLS Live. This is getting really hard to do -- even the league’s most “boring” teams look capable of scoring bursts. The Revs get this week’s last-place honor after producing zero shots on target taken from inside the box.
1. RSL (up 3)
2. Galaxy (up 3)
3. Dallas (down 2)
4. Orlando (down 3)
5. NYCFC (down 2)
6. Timbers (unchanged)
7. Crew (up 1)
8. Sounders (up 2)
9. Impact (unchanged)
10. Dynamo (down 3)
11. Union (up 3)
12. Toronto (up 3)
13. Quakes (down 1)
14. Rapids (up 5)
15. Sporks (down 5)
16. Whitecaps (unchanged)
17. Fire (unchanged)
18. Red Bulls (unchanged)
19. DC (up 1)
20. Revs (down 7)
Here is a list of takes that are not worthy of an entire column. You should argue with me about them.
1. Sebastian Giovinco should definitely go to Euro 2016.
2. Andrea Pirlo definitely shouldn’t.
3. Gio will randomly quit on the Galaxy after he doesn’t make the Mexico team.
4. The Philadelphia Union are good enough to hold on to a first-round bye.
5. Hey, I was right about the D.C. United thing last week, they can definitely create shots.
6. I was right about the Jordan Morris thing too! He’s good and cool.
Here’s a great photo from this week’s games
Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Have a great week, fam.
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