Discover more from Metro Soccer Report
Matchday Musings: The Leagues Cup
A slightly too lighthearted look ahead to the Red Bulls' upcoming fixture
Photo credit: Irish Maliborski
It’s that time of year again folks, that magical point of the summer where the MLS season just kind of doesn’t exist. Instead it’s time for the second edition of the Leagues Cup, or the fourth edition depending on who you ask. Honestly one could make a barely coherent case for it being the 5th edition, but luckily I am just slightly lucid enough at the moment to avoid going down that rabbit hole. Last year’s cup was an extremely action packed and exciting month of soccer, but it would be an unfair omission to you the reader if we didn’t address that this year’s tournament, which will involve all 47 MLS and Liga MX teams, is surrounded with significant controversy. MLS’ decision to pull out all but 8 of its teams from the US Open Cup, in what many saw as an attempt to prioritize Leagues Cup, led to widespread backlash from fans across the country. As of the time of this writing, supporter groups for Austin FC, the Chicago Fire, FC Dallas, Minnesota United, Orlando City, the Philadelphia Union, and St. Louis CITY have either announced plans to boycott the competition, or have canceled their normally scheduled events. Among the Red Bulls’ largest supporter groups, the Viking Army and Empire SC will not have an official presence at the games, but have not discouraged their members from going independently. Torcida 96 will continue their regular programming, and will maintain their normal presence at Red Bull Arena throughout the competition. Regardless of where one may fall on this issue, we ask that everyone respects the individual decisions other Red Bull, MLS and Liga MX fans may make.
Bulletin Board
Moment of levity over, it’s time to talk about some soccer. The Red Bulls finally broke their draw streak with a comprehensive 3-1 victory over FC Cincinnati. Admittingly the second best team in Ohio were a shadow of their full potential, but the Red Bulls were missing some pretty important pieces as well, so I’d still call it a good win. Ronald Donkor has quickley matured into a strong midfielder, becoming a steady presence both defensively and in the attacking build up. Dylan Nealis had an excellent game, including a stunning long ball to set up the first goal, while his counterpart on the left side, Kyle Duncan, scored the kind of goal which would have probably been trending on twitter if this was a full on soccer country. Lewis Morgan is back in proper goal scoring form, adding a brace of his own to put Cincinnati’s Supporter Shield chances…well not quite in the morgue, but let’s just say their rivals have an overpriced mahogany box picked out for them. It’s a very encouraging result and the Red Bulls are now undefeated in their last 8 games. Only 2 of those may actually be wins, but for now we’re going to optimistically focus on the unbeaten part of that streak. In a similar vein, the Red Bulls remain the last team in MLS to be undefeated at home this season, which makes it very fortunate that both of their group stage games in the Leagues Cup will be at Red Bull Arena. As a reminder, Leagues Cup games, even in the group stage, can't end in a draw. Well sort of, if the two teams are even after 90 minutes there will be a penalty shoot out, but both teams will get at least 1 point in the standings, with the winner of the shootout getting 2.
There is one controversy in North American soccer bigger than the Leagues Cup right now, and poor Toronto FC have inadvertently found themselves not quite in the middle of it. The discovery of the Canadian Women’s Olympic team using a drone to spy on their opponents New Zealand, has led to reports that this kind of behavior has been widespread for both the men and women’s national teams for years. Which shouldn’t affect an independent club like TFC, except for the fact that their manager, John Herdman, served as the head coach for Canada’s men’s team, and the women’s team before that, during the period reported. Herdman has been fielding questions from the press about what he knew, but it’ll likely be awhile before the public has an accurate assessment of how extensive Canada’s cheating scandal is. In the meantime it’s a pretty major distraction for a club that’s not really stable enough to afford one. The team seemingly broke out of its early summer downward spiral, with 2 wins in their last 4 league games. Combine that with the return of key players, Richie Lareya and Jonathan Osorio from the Copa America, and Toronto fans may have had reason to be optimistic about a turnaround. However, even without Herdman’s drama, the team's weaknesses are still blatantly obvious. A negative 13 goal difference and 47 goals conceded are by wide margins the worst totals for any team currently above the playoff line in either conference. Numbers like that point to a squad that might be a little lucky to be where they currently are, and will probably need quite a bit more luck to stay there. While the wingbacks Laryea and Federico Bernardeschi, who also seem to double as midfielders and wingers, are All-Star quality players, the backline is just far too porous and not strong enough to hold off even a half decent attacking team. If put under pressure, which in case no one’s noticed is what the Red Bulls do better than anyone else in the league, that line will fall apart and make the mistakes necessary to create chances.
TFC will likely line up in a 3-4-2-1, a formation that favors their strong attacking players and wingbacks, but relies on their central midfielders to keep their center backs from getting exposed. In theory it should give Toronto the numbers to control the midfield, and it is probably the best formation to make use of Laryea and Bernadeshi’s skills/speed. In practice, the Red Bulls have already torn through it before in a dominating 3-0 victory in June. The formation might be a concern if Donkor hadn’t transitioned as seamlessly to a starting role as he has. TFC might have the quantity in that area of the field, but between him and Daniel Edelman, the Red Bulls will have the quality. Toronto has a lot of individually talented players, but they’ve never really seemed to jell together as a unit. If the Red Bulls give the wingbacks and forwards Osorio, Lorenzo Insigne, and Prince Owusu the proper respect, they should be able to keep them in check. This one shouldn’t be too different from a simple Medieval battle strategy; protect the flanks, hammer the center until it breaks and victory will be ours.
Stats Circle
New York Red Bulls MLS record: 10-11-4 (4th-E)
Toronto FC MLS Record: 9-3-14 (8th-E)New York Red Bulls Last Leagues Cup Result: 1-1 vs Philadelphia Union
Toronto FC Last Leagues Cup Result: 0-1 vs. AtlasNew York Red Bulls Top Scorer: Lewis Morgan (12)
Toronto FC Top Scorer: Federico Bernardeschi (8)The Red Bulls won the two teams’ last matchup, 3-0.
Fun Fact: On June 10th, TFC lost in the Canadian Championship (the far North’s equivalent of the US Open Cup) to Canadian Premier League side Forge, the first time the club has lost to a CPL team in its history.
Players to Watch
Sean Jonhson
An old Red Bull enemy in the form of Sean Johnson will be suiting up in goal for TFC. Johnson was the captain for Hudson River Derby rivals NYCFC, leading the Pigeons to an MLS Cup in 2021 where he was named the final’s MVP. It was a pretty immense playoff run for the keeper, as he pulled off huge saves to win penalty shootouts against both record breaking, Supporter Shield winning New England and in the final against Portland. While he’s certainly lost a tick on his reaction speed in the last few years, there really isn’t a keeper in North America with his success in high stakes penalty shootouts. With CONCACAF champions Pachuca on deck for both teams, there’s a fairly decent chance a penalty shootout in this game could ultimately decide which team advances. If it comes down to that, Johnson's experience could very well send the Red Bulls home early in this tournament. That said, I think the Red Bulls can wrap this up in the standard 90 minutes, so hopefully it won’t come down to that.
Sean Nealis
Honestly, I am not very confident Sean Nealis plays this game, but we’ll be talking about him nonetheless. The last few weeks have been rough to say the least. He scored a goal in Colorado, that would’ve been very impressive if he hadn’t put it in his own net, and conceded a late penalty against Montreal. He also wracked up two yellow cards in the latter game, which led to him being suspended for last week’s victory against Cincinnati. Both goals he was responsible for ended up being the difference between the Red Bulls walking out with draws instead of victories. The question is, were these just two flukey results, or are we in the early stages of slump. No one knows what Nealis is thinking right now but him, however it isn't a stretch to think that a decent game would do him a world of good right now. The Leagues Cup is a competitive tournament, but teams seem to have a mixed idea of how high the stakes are. Everyone can agree that they want to win the tournament, but no one’s getting fired over an early exit here and no one’s going to remember a poor run come playoff time. Could be the perfect game for Nealis to get his mojo back, though Sandro Schwarz could just as easily start Andres Reyes and Noah Eile, who played well as the starting center back pair last weekend.
Matt Miagza Model of the Week
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds is not associated with TFC in any way, shape or form. However, he's Canadian, owns a soccer team, and is famous for dressing in red, so that’s good enough for me. I’m also really looking forward to seeing Deadpool & Wolverine this weekend. Actually I’m pretty busy at the moment, so I'm probably going to see it on Monday. Plus he was 2010’s Sexiest Man Alive, so is anyone really gonna argue with me about this.
Prediction
The Red Bulls cruise to another 3-1 victory as Elias Manoel, Lewis Morgan and Ronald Donkor all make the score sheet.