MLS IN REVIEW, Matchday 5: How to survive 109 minutes of 90-minute football, with CF Montréal
Matchday 5 of the 2024 Major League Soccer season saw two Canadian outfits succumb to defeat while the Vancouver Whitecaps cruised to a 3-1 win over FC Dallas. And elsewhere throughout the league, Canadian stars continued to shine, too. Here are our 3 (Canadian) takeaways for the week:
MLS: Major League... Sometimes
At its best, Major League Soccer is a big-time product, capable of dazzling and thrilling, upsetting giants, dominating Concacaf, and putting out incredible goals that go hyper-viral in the big, wide world of footy. But... MLS is not perfect, as two of our Canadian outfits saw first-hand over the weekend.
First, to CF Montréal, who found themselves on the butt-end of that aforementioned viral moment when Kellyn Acosta's shot (?) sailed toward the mass collective of attackers and defenders battling to secure a result in a 3-3 tilt. Apropros of the nickname given to Chicago, the ball caught a gale of wind and poor Jonathan Sirois could do little to prevent what was truly a one-off miracle in the Windy City.
#MLS GK coaches in training this week#CFMTL | #CF97 pic.twitter.com/vA2Y0t3SWH
— Armen Bedakian (@ArmenBedakian) March 17, 2024
I'm not particularly concerned about this moment, though. Strange things like this happen in football all the time. It's no knock on Sirois either, who rightfully earned his CanMNT call-up for his good form of late and will look to quickly bounce back from this bizarre moment. No, I'd like to focus, instead, on the other three goals Montreal conceded, and more specifically, the circumstances that led to Chicago winning this match 4-3 in the 99th minute (of 109 total minutes played in a 90-minute match).
Matías Cóccaro did well to draw two early penalties against Chicago, and Montréal were probably pretty happy going into the last few minutes of the first half... before the referees showed 10 minutes of added time, and Chicago's Maren Haile-Selassie scored from an offside position. No VAR, either. Fine. It didn't bother Laurent Courtios' side too much, as they would go on to add a third in the 70th minute and go up 3-1.
At this point, you've got to imagine Montreal are cruising to victory, but a red card / penalty double to Raheem Edwards for a soft elbow off the ball and a subsequent equalizer in the 95th minute from a corner kick that was actually supposed to be a goal kick (oh, did we mention the referees added NINE more minutes to the end of the second half?), saw the match back at 3-3 before Acosta scored his dramatic winner.
Why the referee added 19 additional minutes to this match across two halves – within which Chicago scored three of their four goals – we'll never really know. But CF Montréal players were none too pleased about it after the final whistle:
Some #CFMTL players confronted the officials after the full-time whistle today 🔵#MLS | 🎥: u/_bonez on Reddit pic.twitter.com/TE0jSvJ8nh
— TrueNorthFoot ⚽️🇨🇦 (@truenorthfoot) March 16, 2024
If you haven't heard, MLS is currently embroiled in a CBA dispute and lock-out with PRO – the Professional Referee Organization that usually officiates all these matches. As a result, the current crop of match officials aren't quite up to the standard that we're used to seeing. So that's maybe something the league should get sorted out.
Meanwhile, Toronto FC had to play on the ridiculously-undersized lawn bowling green belonging to the small town outfit of *checks notes* New York City FC again. Shame that such a small market has to play in these digs for this long but kudos to Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty for scoring a pretty decent goal on this fake soccer surface.
Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty opens it up for @TorontoFC 🔥
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 16, 2024
📺 Free on Apple TV: https://t.co/hQA7U4m3Sp pic.twitter.com/Kr6NebYyRV
The value of first-hand experience
There were so many Canadian strikers scoring goals leading up to the Trinidad and Tobago match so you could be forgiven if you didn't have Columbus Crew's young forward Jacen Russell-Rowe in your predictions. But there's a good reason the 21-year-old earned the nod, as he showed off for a second straight week:
Clinical finish from Jacen Russell-Rowe. 🎯 pic.twitter.com/OpcEZPci9J
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 17, 2024
Just like last week, Russell-Rowe was in the right place at the right time and finished cool as you like while bursting forward with pace. It's the kind of run-and-gun football that has defined the Crew under Wilfried Nancy, and this week's effort, just like last week's, gave shades of the sort of finishing that Columbus fans saw, quite frequently, from Cucho Hernandez.
In fact, watching Russell-Rowe run at goal and go for power and dip or low on the ground in back-to-back weeks made that comparison even more jarring; he's now tallied two goals by scoring the exact kinds of goals that Cucho Hernandez likes to score, too. Cucho isn't a physical presence in the box – he's got a poacher's mentality, with positioning and pace his two primary characteristics. But standing a full foot taller than his mentor, Russell-Rowe is evolving away from being a back-to-goal striker and turning into the same kind of ball-at-his-foot, power-dribbling, finesse-shooting finisher.
This, I think, is the perfect example of why young players need great mentors to learn from, first-hand. The little tips and tricks you pick up along the way, the lessons learned in observations from training, the trials and errors, they all compound over time. Keep an eye on Russell-Rowe; there may be a case to be made come 2026 if he can keep learning and growing at his current rate.
Liam Fraser in for Jonathan Osorio
When Mauro Biello dropped his CanMNT roster for Trinidad and Tobago, fans circled in on Mathieu Choiniere over Ali Ahmed in midfield as a debatable talking point... so when Toronto FC's Jonathan Osorio dropped out due to injury, the natural assumption would be that Ahmed would be called in. But with a 17-minute cameo against FC Dallas – his third short appearance as he comes back from injury – the next man up is Liam Fraser, who was an unused sub against Vancouver but has started three times so far this season.
#CANMNT Roster Update 🚨
— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) March 17, 2024
Canada Soccer can confirm that Liam Fraser will join the group ahead of their crucial 2024 Copa América Play-In match vs. Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday, 23 March.
Jonathan Osorio will no longer be selected due to injury. pic.twitter.com/pjcyXIBorX
There's not much more to say about this other than the fact that the number of Canadian midfield options in MLS isn't quite as robust as even the once-lacking centre-back pool used to be, which is how Fraser – who, let's be honest, has been decent to servicable in the past but isn't exactly playing at the same level or standard as other CanMNT call-ups – gets the nod here. Besides Fraser and an injured Ahmed, there's Mark-Anthony Kaye, Victor Loturi and Harry Paton, and maybe Ralph Priso to consider here.
Meanwhile, Scott Arfield is busy doing his own thing, too.
So if you're a young Canadian hopeful looking to carve out a position for yourself with CanMNT considerations down the line?
Maybe a quick chat with coach about playing in midfield wouldn't hurt!
