All-Star break? What All-Star break?
After the fun and festivities in Charlotte, Matchday 19 rolled in with a bang, reminding everyone across MLS that the stretch run is approaching and nothing can be taken for granted.
With the final crop of FIFA World Cup participants returning to the pitch, new signings finding their feet and several teams clambering back into the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs reckoning, it’s all kicking off around the league.
Here’s what you need to know about the weekend's soccer smorgasbord.
Lewandowski finds breakthrough
After two understated appearances last month, Robert Lewandowski introduced himself to the Windy City in earnest on Saturday night, opening his MLS account on his home debut with a match-winning brace in Chicago Fire FC’s 2-1 defeat of Charlotte FC.
“He sees the game and reads the game very well. Most importantly, in the box, he's an absolute killer,” marveled head coach Gregg Berhalter. “This is hopefully the beginning of a lot of goals.”
The very best Designated Players have a knack for not only shining in their own right, but also lifting the levels of those around them, and there were signs of that here.
When Charlotte hosted the 2026 MLS All-Star Game presented by Chime, Chicago winger Philip Zinckernagel revealed that CLTFC head coach Dean Smith had joked about playing him all 90 minutes in order to tire him out ahead of this match.
Imagine what Smith was thinking, then, as ‘Zinck’ balled out of his mind here, producing an absurd, game-high nine chances created, including a key role in the buildup to both Fire goals after Pep Biel's early banger.
World, meet Mijahir Jiménez
Orlando City’s dramatic renaissance under the influence of Antoine Griezmann was always going to hit a speed bump sooner or later. Still, who thought it would arrive at the hands of a young, inconsistent Red Bull New York side – with the coup de grace applied by an unheralded teenager?
From MLS NEXT Pro and a short-term contract with the first team to brace-bagging hero – that’s the weekend Mijahir Jiménez had against Griezmann & Co.
The Panamanian striker scored twice in his first MLS start to pace RBNY's 3-2 win over the Lions at Sports Illustrated Stadium, vindicating the admirable faith invested in him by first-year head coach Michael Bradley and the club’s ‘Play Your Kids’ ethos.
“We’re really happy for Mijahir,” said Bradley, “and it’s also the reason that we as a club believe so strongly in the pathway and connection between the first team and the second team and the academy.”
Brais stuns Miami
Inter Miami CF welcomed Argentine World Cup stars Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul back to Nu Stadium for Saturday’s visit from the Columbus Crew, and it certainly felt like a festive night when the ageless Luis Suárez pulled off this absolute stunner from miles out:
Suárez, 39, would also assist on Miami’s second goal, a Noah Allen header from near the penalty spot. Yet the Crew have gotten much harder to beat under interim boss Laurent Courtois, and twice they rallied to draw level, the second arriving late in the evening via a clever cross-shot free kick from their new Designated Player Brais Méndez, a promising start to MLS life for the Spaniard.
“It was a game that slipped away from us in the closing moments,” said IMCF head coach Guillermo Hoyos afterwards.
Still, the Herons are 6W-0L-1D in their last seven, with only two league losses on the year, and have duly climbed up to second place in both the Eastern Conference and Supporters’ Shield standings.
Evander goes atomic
“I don't know how he does it. It's like a video game for him.”
“Whenever he decides to bless you with one assist, you get it.”
There’s maybe nothing I can write about Evander and his performance in FC Cincinnati’s wild, weather-delayed 4-2 win over San Jose that sums up the Brazilian’s excellence as well as the words of his awestruck teammates.
The above quotes are from Tom Barlow and Obinna Nwobodo, who each linked up with him for one of Cincy’s four goals, three of them assisted by the No. 10, the other scored by him… and goodness gracious, what a thunderbolt it was:
Evander actually apologized to head coach Pat Noonan for taking this shot, if you can believe it, recognizing that it was not the textbook correct decision in that situation.
Those sorts of conventions don’t necessarily apply to a wizard like him, though. The maestro just became the fifth-fastest player in MLS history to reach 100 career goal contributions, behind only Messi, Sebastian Giovinco, Robbie Keane and Carlos Vela – all icons who led their sides to multiple major trophies.
Insanity in Philly
Things were even weirder at Subaru Park.
That’s where the Philadelphia Union – who won one single, solitary league match before MLS’s World Cup pause – extended their winning streak to three games with a last-gasp comeback from 2-0 down to 3-2 winners over Atlanta United thanks to injury-time goals from teenage homegrown Neil Pierre and previously snakebit newcomer Ezequiel Alladoh, both via pinpoint crosses from recent returnee Kai Wagner.
“I hope at least that the guys believe in each other,” said interim coach Ryan Richter, who’s gotten every call right since taking over from Bradley Carnell in May. “This part of the game is still the most important: that fighting spirit, the never quit, the push to the last minute.”
The most dangerous lead…
Drama also reigned in Washington and Montréal, where that old truism about the perils of taking a 2-0 advantage reared its grizzled head yet again.
Trailing league leaders Nashville SC by two goals is not where anyone wants to be. So D.C. United deserve enormous credit for storming back to snatch a share of the points in a 2-2 draw before a sell-out Audi Field crowd, thanks to tallies from Silvan Hefti and Tai Baribo, the latter arriving from one of the most resourceful assists you’ll see this year, Louis Munteanu pulling off a sort of scorpion kick from a prone position:
Up in Québec, hosts CF Montréal clawed back a 2-2 draw from their near-neighbors New England in similar fashion, and the indubitable highlight here is the Brayan Vera rocket that started the fightback:
If you’re into expected goals, this game’s xG numbers are a pretty hilarious read – the Revolution nearly tripled MTL’s total, yet walked away with just one point, and Vera’s golazo is a big reason why.
Around the grounds
The host Whitecaps absolutely dominated this top-of-the-table clash between Western Conference heavyweights in every statistical category as well as the eye test, only to be held to a 1-1 deadlock thanks to Son Heung-Min's fourth goal in four games that vindicated the Californians’ bunkering approach.
Questions remain, however, as to whether this is a formula that can power LAFC to MLS Cup glory.
While Puget Sound basks in glorious peak summer weather, it’s gotten quite dark around the Seattle Sounders. The Rave Green let an early lead over bitter rivals Portland Timbers slip away at Providence Park and fell 2-1 via a late Brandon Bye winner in Saturday’s nightcap, a Cascadia Cup clash that opened with a simply jaw-dropping tifo from the Timbers Army.
That’s Seattle’s sixth straight loss, the first skid of such magnitude in the entirety of the Sounders’ existence across multiple leagues over the past five decades. Conversely, the Timbers are undefeated (3W-0L-1D) under interim coach Jack Cassidy and have hauled themselves back above the West's playoff line.
Colorado’s 1-0 win over Austin got overshadowed by news that the Rapids are reportedly close to completing a massive sale of their teenage phenom defender Lucas Herrington, one of the youngest players at this summer’s FIFA World Cup, to English Premier League outfit Hull City for one of the biggest fees in MLS history, somewhere around $23 million, massively more than what they paid Australian side Brisbane Roar for him.
Assuming it gets done and dusted, that’s a landmark transfer, one I suspect we’ll be analyzing for quite some time to come.
