A seven-goal derby thriller in Miami, a 2-0 to 3-2 turnabout in Ohio, and 104th-minute drama out in San Diego. And we haven’t even gotten to the actual craziest game of the weekend yet.
Matchday 11 did not fail to entertain. Tune in, turn on, and try to keep up as we tear through the action of a pulsating few days in MLS.
Purple and pink, an explosive mix
We’ve seen some wild Florida derbies since the in-state rivalry sparked to life when Inter Miami CF entered MLS in 2020. Orlando City’s tormenter-in-chief, Lionel Messi, added a memorable chapter just a few weeks ago, when he snarkily punctuated the clinching goal of the Herons’ stunning comeback from 2-0 down to 4-2 winners with an autograph gesture towards the OCSC bench.
But Saturday’s instant classic at Nu Stadium pushed all that right into the shade, didn’t it?
Still hunting their first victory at their new home, Miami shoved Orlando into a 3-0 hole with barely half an hour played and were pushing hard for more, peppering Max Crépeau’s goal with shot after shot. You’d hardly have guessed what transpired next: A Martín Ojeda hat trick fueling a ferocious fightback from the Lions, who stunned the home crowd by drawing level at three goals apiece with 10 minutes left, then snatched the 4-3 victory at the death with Tyrese Spicer’s delirious injury-time strike.
So the Herons will have to wait a while longer for those inaugural three points at Nu. And Orlando, “little by little,” in the words of interim head coach Martín Perelman, “are getting closer to the team we want to be.”
Lazarus acts from Loons, LAFC
Miami weren’t the only team to blow a healthy lead on home turf this weekend.
Thanks to a banger from homegrown Taha Habroune and a close-range finish from Hugo Picard, the Columbus Crew were two goals to the good against Minnesota United as the clock approached the hour mark at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field Saturday. Then... the Loons’ aerial bombardment began to take its toll.
Flashing the set-piece prowess that was so devastating last year, MNUFC reeled off three unanswered goals – two from Kelvin Yeboah and the last from Anthony Markanich, off a long throw-in, a corner kick and a deep cross, respectively – to steal victory from the jaws of defeat and leave the Crew fuming.
“We just have to be dogs,” Habroune said postgame. “We were just soft going into all those set pieces. They just wanted it more than us, and they got their goals from it.”
LAFC pulled off a similar trick a few hours later out West at Snapdragon Stadium. Even with Son Heung-Min rested, the Angelenos dug out two late goals, the second from (you guessed it) a corner kick, to erase San Diego FC’s hard-earned 2-0 lead and snatch a 2-2 draw, extending Los Niños’ winless skid to nine games across all competitions.
It’s just what Black & Gold fans would want to see as their side prepares to travel into the high-altitude lions’ den that is Estadio Nemesio Díez, where they’ll defend their 2-1 aggregate lead over back-to-back LIGA MX champions Toluca in the second leg of their Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal clash on Wednesday.
Wild in the Windy City
“Sometimes, this stuff doesn’t make sense,” said FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan after his side’s unhinged 3-2 road win over the Chicago Fire on Saturday, and that phrase probably sums up this game more elegantly than anything we can come up with.
Fire marksman Hugo Cuypers scored his ninth and 10th goals of the season to take a joint share of the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi lead alongside FC Dallas’ Petar Musa. A 56th-minute red card to Kyle Smith for a careless boot to the face of Robin Lod gave the home side a numerical advantage for most of the second half at Soldier Field. Then Philip Zinckernagel drew a penalty kick for the Fire in second-half injury time.
Yet all that still wasn’t enough to neutralize the Orange & Blue. Chicagoland native Roman Celentano saved Cuypers’ PK, one of eight saves he made on his homecoming, several of them absurdly good. Then, when the tables turned minutes later, Cincy earned a spot kick of their own in the final seconds, and star playmaker Evander converted to bag his first career hat trick.
It’s the third time this season FCC have come back from a deficit to take points with 10 men.
A Real roasting
What’s that they say about 2-0 being the most dangerous lead in soccer? Don’t tell the Portland Timbers.
The Rose City side’s nascent upswing came to a shuddering halt in the mountain air of Utah Saturday afternoon, as Real Salt Lake dealt out the most one-sided two-goal victory you’re likely to witness in a while.
Zavier Gozo got things going early with a sizzling one-timer, Diego Luna clinched it with a clinical finish not long after and with 13 saves, Portland goalkeeper James Pantemis had to work mighty hard to keep it from getting worse.
As we’ve noted more than once this spring, RSL’s kids are appointment viewing, and for all the chatter about whether Luna will make the US men’s national team’s 2026 FIFA World Cup roster, more people might well be wondering why Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t give Gozo a call, too.
United they stand
Have D.C. United turned a corner?
With Sunday’s well-deserved 2-0 win over New York City FC at Citi Field, one of the league’s chronic underachievers over the past several years has climbed up to fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings. Here they rode a two-goal outing from Louis Munteanu, the club-record winter signing who finally seems to be hitting his stride after injuries slowed his start with the Black-and-Red.
The Romanian’s tallies were nothing fancy: A point-blank tap-in after NYCFC failed to defend a long throw into their box, and a late penalty kick to ice the W. It’s still manna in the desert for a D.C. squad who seem to have fashioned last month’s embarrassing US Open Cup loss to USL League One side One Knoxville SC into a positive turning point, as they’re undefeated in their four matches since, three of them on the road.
Be it in Queens or the Bronx, the Big Apple has been a nightmare destination for United: D.C. carried an all-time record of 2W-8L-2D at NYCFC into this afternoon fixture, which underlines the weight of their performance. Conversely, that’s now seven league games winless for the reeling Pigeons.
Around the grounds
The San Jose Earthquakes remain your Supporters’ Shield leaders, having lost just one match this season while boasting a remarkable 5W-0L-1D record on the road. That was mere inches from changing in Toronto on Saturday afternoon, however. The Quakes gutted out a 1-1 draw at BMO Field most notable for an absolutely unreal goal-line clearance by their young defender Reid Roberts to deny Dániel Salloi a dramatic late winner.
Coaches, parents, aunties, uncles and such – please play this clip for the aspiring ballers in your life to help remind them: Never, ever, ever give up on the play.
Croatian World Cup hopeful Petar Musa’s continued scoring pace for FC Dallas is the obvious story from the North Texans’ 2-0 road win over Red Bull New York. But don’t sleep on what a cool moment their second strike was for MLS NEXT Pro success story Sam Sarver. Not only was it Sarver’s first-ever MLS goal, but it took place on the very same night his role model, mentor and former Columbus Crew teammate Bradley Wright-Phillips was inducted into RBNY’s ‘Legends Row’ at Sports Illustrated Stadium. Just look at what it means to the 23-year-old.
Probably nowhere is the gap between performances and outcomes any bigger than with St. Louis CITY SC, who continue to do so much right in the first 80 to 90 yards of the pitch only to fall apart in front of opponents’ goals.
