Dearest gentle readers, welcome back to storylines.
The date is Friday, September 27, and the Claret-and-Cobalt currently sit second in the MLS Western Conference standings, with a lingering eye still to the top of the table, but with a playoff position now officially guaranteed, and for a fourth consecutive year.
By all accounts, life seems to be good. However, like most things in football, advancements always remain to be made. Progress never ceases, and such remains the subject of the club’s undying agenda for glory and continental conquest - the consistent, relentless pursuit of excellence.
Pablo Mastroeni’s charges confirmed their playoff qualification last Saturday in a goal-laden, blockbuster 3-3 draw with the Portland Timbers at America First Field where new signings Dominik Marczuk and Diogo Gonçalves both got off the mark with their first goals in Claret-and-Cobalt colors.
The result marked an end to a grueling mid-September match series and meant that RSL have now sealed a post-season spot in all four years under the tutelage of its much-beloved head coach, as well as in six of its last seven seasons, and 14 of its last 17. This year’s success also marks the club's first streak of four consecutive playoff berths since its streak of seven successive campaigns between 2008 and 2014.
But alas, no sooner had the team completed one grinding gauntlet than another reared its menacing head on the horizon. The season’s end, it seems, brings alongside it its own unique, continuous set of tribulations.
RSL head into yet another arduous three-game/eight-day sequence beginning with a trip to Central Texas to take on Austin FC on Saturday, its third Texan opponent in four games. Kickoff for this contest is slated for 6:30 p.m. MT.
Next Wednesday then sees the team return to America First Field for a home clash against Minnesota United, before a separate trip to the West Coast for an away date with San Jose.
The end is nigh, and the stakes are set in what promises to yet be another entertaining climax to the MLS regular season. As always in storylines, we preview some of the most compelling information and narratives that could swing the pendulum in our favor.
Storylines
- Time for a new streak? The team’s final set of regular-season games presents a perfect opportunity to arrest its recent fluctuation in form and build some much-needed momentum ahead of playoffs.
- Defensive inconsistencies have continued to plague the team throughout much of the MLS restart. A final, definitive solution will need to be found heading into its final run of games.
- Team rotations set to continue? With three games in eight days, healthy personnel rotations will surely prove pivotal in the teams’ pursuit of success. New signings Marczuk and Gonçalves also look primed to potentially become major contributors.
Where to Watch
You can catch RSL vs Austin FC on Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass right here https://tv.apple.com/
Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. MT on Saturday, Sept. 28.
The Deep Dive
- Time for a new streak? The team’s final set of regular-season games presents a perfect opportunity to arrest its recent fluctuation in form and build some much-needed momentum ahead of playoffs.
Around midway through the season, Pablo’s boys did the unthinkable, the nigh impossible, the seemingly unimaginable. For 103 days, between March 9 and June 22, RSL went a total of 15 games undefeated in the league, including 10 matches on the road, setting a plethora of records in the process, and heralding a new age of Claret-and-Cobalt dominance, as one of the most in-form teams in American football’s top division.
The resumption of domestic play, however, on August 24, has since seen things take a slight downturn. Since the team’s elimination from the Leagues Cup at the beginning of August, RSL have now played five regular season games since the MLS restart, suffering two fatal losses, and a draw, and recording two wins in the process. Hardly any cause for panic, and thankfully so, but still far from the same level of form that saw the Claret-and-Cobalt lay a four-month siege atop the West standings between mid-March and mid-July.
Now the pretexts to this are no doubt complex and not so simple to easily decipher. Chief amongst them though surely alludes to the Club’s much-praised transfer activity which saw a record-breaking five new additions to the team’s ranks in the summer, as well as the departure of star player Andrés Gómez, in what was the busiest transfer window in the Club’s history.
With such a host of incoming new faces, a bedding period, naturally, is to be expected, providing time for the new signings to be fully acclimatized, and the overall new-look team to fully adjust to one another on the pitch.
Still, with a postseason berth now officially already secured, these final few games present a much-needed opportunity for the team to put together a good run of form and rediscover their best football ahead of what is surely expected to be an unforgiving playoff contest.
The team’s record-breaking early-season form has provided a necessary buffer for its late-season struggles and inconsistencies, and deservedly so, but such reprieve will expectantly wear out and not count towards results if performances continue to falter after the commencement of playoffs.
RSL’s qualification for a postseason spot, and in landmark time with four games to go, certainly constitutes a duly impressive feat and stands as a prelude to yet even greater successes seemingly on the horizon. But resolving the team’s immediate form issues, quickly, will certainly represent one of the first orders of business for Pablo and his coaching staff if the team hopes to maintain its success throughout the 2024 campaign, and the first step en route to turning things around will be addressing its recent defensive malaise.
- Defensive inconsistencies have continued to plague the team throughout much of the MLS restart. A final, definitive solution will need to be found heading into its final run of games.
It may perhaps feel like we persistently rehash discussions regarding RSL’s defensive shortcomings, at least every other week, in new iterations of storylines. It’s not for a lack of ideas, this author assures you, but you probably already suspected that.
Analyzing last weekend’s performance as an isolated incident, and without the context of the result that preceded it, there were a lot of evident promising factors from the Portland stalemate that would’ve pleased Pablo, but perhaps equally just as much he’d have been displeased with. This, surely, falls under the latter.
“Looking back on it, we had numbers behind the ball but just fell asleep at the back post,” RSL’s head coach explained to the assembled media in the aftermath of Saturday’s draw.
“… In the last two games we’ve given up three poor set pieces, so we need to go back and evaluate that, and consider in training what we can do better in those moments. But again, it’s about experiencing those moments and understanding how important they are.”
RSL’s three-goal concession last weekend represented a new total of nine goals conceded across the team’s preceding three games against Houston, Dallas, and Portland respectively. Since the restart of the MLS domestic season at the end of August, the team has now conceded 11 goals across its five games, an average of 2.2 goals conceded per game, with one clean sheet recorded during that period, and only two in its previous 15 games in all competitions. A worrisome stat, but such has been the consistency of the team’s rearguard inconsistencies over the past few weeks.
“… You can’t concede three goals a game,” Pablo admitted on Saturday. “You cannot win anything [in terms of silverware] when you’re conceding two to three goals each game. At this level of football that’s impossible. The hardest thing to do in football is to score goals, so when you’re conceding that many so easily there’s no attack that’s going to be able to consistently make up for it, so that’s another area that we’re going to have to address.”
Central to Pablo’s defensive philosophy is the importance of defending from the front as a cohesive unit, a core tenet of his enduring principles of teamwork and mentality. This also emphasizes concentration and focus, both crucial for being fully alert during set pieces and rearguard situations - phases of play where the team was found seriously lacking last Saturday.
The team’s recent defensive struggles have proven to be a perpetual theme for much of its games since the season’s end-of-August restart. What once functioned as an impregnable foundation for early and mid-season success now perhaps seems like a vulnerable weakness, a soft underbelly opponents relish the opportunity to exploit.
Changing this narrative is crucial, and it’s certainly not impossible. Even during its recent mixed run, the team has shown it still possesses the maturity and discipline to replicate and return to its impenetrable defensive standard so often seen for much of the preceding parts of the season, and evidenced again in its 2-0 win against New England on August 31. Replicating this on a much more consistent scale now constitutes the major task ahead for Pablo and his coaching staff as perhaps the first step in returning the team to its early season form and getting the players back to their best ahead of the commencement of what promises to be a grueling playoff bout.
- Team rotations set to continue? With three games in eight days, healthy personnel rotations will surely prove pivotal in the teams’ pursuit of success. New signings Marczuk and Gonçalves also look primed to potentially become major contributors.
Against FC Dallas last Wednesday, RSL fielded a starting team with a total of seven positional and personnel changes made to the one that had lost 4-1 away to Houston only four days prior. Three days later, against Portland, that number changed to three, with several starters against Dallas rewarded for their disciplined, quality displays in a hard-fought 3-2 win.
With the team set to embark on yet another gauntlet with three games in eight days, RSL’s results over the next week could very well be also defined by the team rotations made by Pablo against Austin, Minnesota, and San Jose respectively. Midfielder Emeka Eneli played every minute of the Club’s recently concluded mid-September series and could represent one of the first players in line for rotation, with teammates Noel Caliskan, who impressed against Portland, and Nelson Palacio, recently returned from injury, being the two most immediate beneficiaries who could replace the Cornell graduate in the starting line up.
Striker Anderson Julio will surely also be raring to go following his recent impressive form which included a two-goal and goal-of-the-season contending performance against Dallas last week which rewardingly saw him named to the team of the matchday. Defenders Javain Brown, Andrew Brody, and Bode Hidalgo, as well as midfielders Matt Crooks, and Diego Luna, and new signings Lachlan Brook, Diogo Gonçalves, and Dominik Marczuk, will also all be expected to see sufficient minutes in what certainly promises to be an arduous, unforgiving succession of games. Efficient distribution of game time, thus, will be pivotal.
Attackers, Marczuk and Gonçalves both also recently netted their first goals for the club in last Saturday’s draw with Portland and will be looking to continue and build on their recent forms in the team’s final four games and heading into the post-season. 20-year-old Marczuk was rewarded with consecutive starts against Dallas and Portland, following his fine performance and assist against the former, and duly delivered the opening goal on Saturday, and in pristine fashion.
As early as the 10th minute, RSL’s new number 11 found ample time and space at the right far post to receive a lofted cross from teammate Julio, taking two touches to steady himself and evade the challenge of an opposing defender before sidestepping and cooly slotting home past Maxime Crépeau and into the back of the net for an early lead.
His assist against Dallas though was arguably even better, showing great awareness and skill to burst past his close marker on the right before displaying his searing pace to dribble down the line of the opposing right flank and deliver a sublime low cross into the penalty area and towards Julio for an easy tap-in.
In his later address to the media that same night, RSL’s head coach was even more effusive in his praise for Marczuk, explaining,
“Dominik, for me, is a lot like Andrés, but I think he’s acclimating quicker. His role is so comfortable to him, he’s making good decisions on the ball, and he has ideas from his wide position, and I think when you score and assist, you start to build confidence of belonging.”
“… But I’ll also add that his defensive work rate is top-notch, and he’s honest as the day is long, and when you put all that together you have a fantastic teammate and player.”
27-year-old Gonçalves also got to celebrate a goal this past weekend with a low, powerful effort from just outside the box which rifled past Crépeau and into the bottom right corner to get off the mark for the Club.
“I think it [his quality] was on full display for his goal,” Pablo explained during the press conference after the game. “He had another great opportunity too and I think that’s his class. It’s definitely a performance to build on, and I think it gives him confidence within the group.”
Good things take time, and RSL’s much-praised, highly successful summer transfer window is primed to deliver bountiful fruits at the time of harvest, but patience, again will be required. On the back of such brave, positive starts though, 20-year-old Marczuk and 27-year-old Gonçalves look to be the first set of major contributors from the Club’s summer haul and the upcoming set of games will surely provide even more tests and opportunities for yet more greatness on the horizon.
There’s a lot to watch out for this weekend, and the Claret-and-Cobalt go on the March yet again, best not to get left behind.
Get behind us one more time, and may the odds be ever in our favor.
