Major League Soccer Weekend Review | OneFootball

MLS returned in full this past weekend with 13 games to pick through. Let’s take look at some of the biggest stories from the matchday.

What happened?

In perhaps the biggest story of the weekend, nine-man Inter Miami stunned Philadelphia away from home thanks to a stoppage-time winner against the run of play.

Keeping pace with the Herons, Cincinnati won again, coming from behind against a poor San Jose side to move to within two points of Miami, though Pat Noonan’s side do have two games in hand on the Eastern Conference leaders.

New England won a third straight game, downing Vancouver at home, to attempt an ascent up the conference standings. While they remain bottom for now, the Revs sit just four points behind the final MLS Cup play-in spot.

Finally, LAFC made a statement in the Western Conference race with a win away to Orlando City, while current conference leaders Real Salt Lake drew away to strugglers CF Montréal.

Goal of the weekend

Ryan Gauld’s strike in New England is an easy goal of the season candidate. You may not see such a sweetly hit strike from that distance again the rest of the campaign.

Winners of the matchday

Inter Miami are an obvious choice for winners of the matchday this week. Without both Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez, the Herons could have looked blunt against the Philadelphia Union, but that was hardly the case.

Up stepped 22-year-old Leo Afonso when Tata Martino’s side were already down to nine-men after both David Ruiz and Tomás Avilés were sent off in the second-half.

The Brazilian took advantage of a Miami counterattack to slot the ball home and stun the home crowd, preserving Miami’s lead atop both the Eastern Conference and the Supporters Shield standings.

Miami showed that masking the absence of their stars with supreme guts is workable strategy after all.

Losers of the matchday

The train may just be starting to come off the tracks for Minnesota United. After new boss Eric Ramsey joined, the Loons found themselves red-hot to start the campaign, truly in the thick of the Western Conference race at one point.

But a 2-0 loss to a frankly woeful Seattle Sounders side has capped off a stretch of five MLS games in which Minnesota only picked up one win, slipping down into fourth place in the conference.

At one point United could have skyrocketed all the way into the top spot with a few games in hand over their rivals, but that advantage was seemingly thrown away during this rocky patch.