Soccer
MLS: NYCFC Finally Shows up for the Season and Shocking Sackings for D.C. United and San Jose Earthquakes on This Week’s ‘MLS Soccer Show’
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
Get to know Tim Crean betterPublished22 Apr 2022
Matchday 8 of the 2022 MLS season brought fans the good, the bad, and the ugly of Major League Soccer.
The good involved reigning MLS Cup holder New York City FC finally showed up for the 2022 season and demolished a usually-feisty Real Salt Lake side 6-0. NYCFC striker and 2021 Golden Boot winner Taty Castellanos threw his name back in this year’s race with four goals in the game.
On the bad side, four games went scoreless this week. Atlanta United vs. FC Cincinnati, Houston Dynamo vs. Portland Timbers, FC Dallas vs. New York Red Bulls, and Chicago Fire vs. LA Galaxy combined for zero goals in 360-plus minutes of soccer.
Finally, the ugly was the first two manager sackings of the 2022 campaign. Both were surprising for their own reasons.
San Jose Earthquakes fired manager Matias Almeyda, which isn’t a shock seeing that he’s threatened to quit on his team multiple times, per a report from ESPN.com’s Jeff Carlisle. What makes this eyebrow-raising is that the organization did it after a gutsy 2-2 draw with Nashville SC.
D.C. United also canned their skipper, Hernán Losada, after a 3-2 loss to Austin. The team is now dead last in the Eastern Conference, but the team made the move quicker than most expected.
The 5 Best Young Players in the MLS Right Now
Major League Soccer used to have the reputation as a retirement home for European stars. However, that has changed dramatically in recent years. The league is stocked with more young talent than ever, which makes picking out the five best at the moment exceedingly tricky.
On this week’s MLS Soccer Show, co-hosts Tim Crean and Mike Calendrillo took up this challenge, and each gave their top five Under 22 players in the MLS right now. The rankings shook out like this:
| TIM CREAN | MIKE CALENDRILLO | |
| 5 | Thiago Andrade (21) / Talles Magno (19) — NYCFC | Ben Bender (21) – Charlotte FC |
| 4 | Efrain Alvarez (19) — LA Galaxy | Alan Velasco (19) – FC Dallas |
| 3 | Mamadou Fall (19) — LAFC | Cesar Arajuao (21) — Orland City SC |
| 2 | ????? | ????? |
| 1 | ????? | ????? |
To find out who the best Under 22 players in the MLS are right now, check out this week’s episode of the MLS Soccer Show.
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