Montreal at Seattle in midweek MLS, the US Open Cup semifinals
Tuesday’s soccer news starts with tomorrow’s MLS schedule, highlighted by the 3rd-place team in the East on the road at the 7th-place team in the West. While that might not immediately put that game at the top of the seven on the Wednesday night schedule, Seattle hosting Montreal has more going for it than their current positions in the table.
Let’s start with 3rd-place CF Montreal. Since the beginning of May, Montreal has won four out of seven games beating Orlando City at home, Charlotte on the road, and then Cincinnati and Charlotte at home. They lost the other three, at Nashville and home to Real Salt Lake and Austin FC. While it’s easy enough to point at that run of form and see a team that didn’t take enough advantage of a relatively weak schedule, Montreal is three points behind Eastern Conference leaders Philadelphia. Had they played as expected, it Montreal might already be leading the East.
That’s not the strongest of arguments considering how much this league can change week-to-week this season. Philadelphia drawing seven out of eight games before beating NYCFC, the previous top team in the East, on Sunday. Still, it points to a Montreal team that didn’t dominate yet is very much in the picture at the top of the table. What we know about Montreal vs what we think we know about them could be a question that lasts deep into this season.
The Sounders’ situation in the West may also not be telling us as much as we think. Seattle no longer have a game in hand over the team a point ahead of them. That would be the 6th-place LA Galaxy on 24 points from 15 games played. However, both of them have a game or two games in hand over the teams in 1st through 5th-place.
Say what you will about either Seattle or LA, right now we don’t know where they really fit in the table. Going into Wednesday’s games, three points is the difference between Seattle in 7th and joining 4th-place Dallas and 5th-place Nashville. The Galaxy hosts 12th-place Minnesota where three points could see LA move as high as 4th-place.
What that means for the East at West matchup at Lumen Field is a game with plenty at stake in both conferences. While it’s tempting to load up expectations for any game this season, we’ve seen enough to know that opportunities will last based on other results. This might not be the moment for either Montreal or Seattle, but eventually its these kind of games that should shift a regular season.
Meanwhile, there’s one US Open Cup quarterfinal left with Orlando hosts Nashville on Wednesday. City is coming off of a 1-0 loss at FC Cincinnati in league play. Nashville saw its home undefeated streak ended by Sporting Kansas City on June 19, picking up three points at Audi Field on Saturday. Both teams are in 5th-place in their respective conferences. The winner will host the semifinal against the Red Bulls on July 26 or 27, with Sacramento hosting Sporting KC on the other side of the bracket.
In the soccer scores, Romain Gall wasn’t in the squad for Malmo’s 2-1 home win over Helsingborg in the Allsvenskan. Isaac Thelin scored for Malmo in the 24th with Helsingborg equalizing in the 37th. Malmo’s Patriot Sejdiu scored in the first minute of stoppage time. Malmo is in 5th-place in the Allsvenskan, tied on 21 points with Hammarby in 4th and Djurgarden in 3rd.
MLSsoccer’s Charles Boehm on Lorenzo Insigne joining Toronto FC. The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke asks about Toronto’s defense.
WEDNESDAY’S SOCCER TV
Copa Libertadores on beIN Sport: Cerro Porteno vs Palmeiras at 6:15pm and Deportes Tolima vs Flamengo at 8:30pm. beIN en Espanol has Tallers Cordoba vs Colon at 6:15pm and Velez Sarsfield vs River Plate at 8:30pm. Concacaf U-20 Championship on FS2: Dominican Republic vs Jamaica at 7pm and Guatemala vs Mexico at 10pm. MLS on FS1: LAFC vs FC Dallas at 10:30pm ET.
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