Around The League // Week 12
After perhaps the most thrilling game week of the season so far, it felt natural to get a midseason update from all eight teams. Welcome back to Around The League, your home for numbers and nuance from the past week of action in the Major Arena Soccer League. We’ll make our way up the standings, starting in Utica.
8th: Utica City FC - 13 Points
After a rough week that involved the dismissal of their head coach, Utica dropped two tense games to Baltimore and St. Louis, earning a point in the process. Against the Blast, they put up a valiant fight, forcing overtime and a shootout where they ultimately fell short. In game two, they started strong, but couldn’t close it out as the Ambush came from behind to win 6-4. As a result, Utica sits alone at the bottom of the MASL standings, with just over a third of its season remaining.
With the departure of forward Barbaro Shelier, there’s a chance that Utica is running out of mouths to feed in attack. Mehrshad Ahmadi enjoyed a strong weekend after a horrifically unlucky first half of the season, scoring six goals across the two games. Still, Utica will need to improve its defensive coverage if they want any hope of making the playoffs this year. The odds are slim at this point, but a team with Sergio Pinal, Geo Alves, and Nilton de Andrade will always be competitive.
7th: Tacoma Stars - 20 Points
Tacoma’s difficult end-of-season run is upon them, and from here on out, points are truly a premium. Their home is a fortress no longer after a second loss on their own turf, this time to the Milwaukee Wave, who led from beginning to end. This makes three straight losses for the Stars, who desperately need to turn their fortunes around, and fast.
After this weekend, Tacoma has just three home games remaining and a host of difficult weekends to traverse. They’ll play five more games against San Diego, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Milwaukee, with four more against their rivals in the hunt for the final playoff positions. Among those critical games is a three-game stretch that spans just four days. As a result, the importance of those four games against Empire and Baltimore cannot be overstated.
6th: Empire Strykers - 20 Points
At the weekend, Empire looked rejuvenated; refreshed. Against the Blast on Thursday night, however, their youth and inexperience showed through. As Phil Levanco likes to say, winning is a skill, and Empire’s inability to close out the game despite leading by two goals at the start of the fourth quarter points to a regression from a game plan that worked in the past.
The Strykers took just four shots in the final 15 minutes of regulation, fewer than any other period of the contest, while the Blast continued to push for a way back. We didn’t see Empire’s transition game at all, and while Baltimore’s pressure can explain part of that, it still seems that the Strykers have not fully fleshed out the methodology for countering after a turnover to retain possession and create numerical mismatches in attack. Sixth will do for today, but as the playoff race heats up, those losses need to become wins.
5th: Baltimore Blast - 21 Points
Results have been a mixed bag for Baltimore, with the team’s most impactful wins coming over Utica. Remove those games from the data, and we’re talking about a team that is remarkably average in several key statistics, including Hoxie, Goal Differential, Expected Goal Differential, and both Offensive and Defensive Goals Per Shot. Be that as it may, they’re still winning games and finding ways to climb up the MASL table.
After coming from behind to beat the Strykers on the road, I have much more faith in this team’s ability to secure a playoff spot than I did before this weekend. Their core of veterans lead from the front, setting an example for newer players behind them. Jonatas Melo and Juan Pereira lead their team in both goals and points, with younger players like Oumar Sylla, Chad Poarch, and Alejandro Chavez not far behind. With a tight race for 6th afoot, they’ll likely need to pick up a few results from a tough schedule, including two against Tacoma, which could prove decisive.
4th: St. Louis Ambush - 27 Points
Among all eight teams, none enjoyed as positive a weekend as the St. Louis Ambush, who managed to take down both Baltimore and Utica on that difficult East Coast road trip. They’re somehow flying under the radar as serious MASL Shield contenders, but they deserve to be treated as the serious threat they are. After 15 games, they sit level on points with San Diego and three points behind Milwaukee with a game in hand.
If results go their way on Saturday, they would face the Wave on Sunday with a real shot at taking the top spot in the standings. They’ve already beaten Milwaukee twice this season and pushed them immensely in their lone contest in Wisconsin, so a win is very much on the cards, especially if Paulo Nascimento continues playing to the level that now seems so normal. His play deserves MVP consideration at least, especially if his side clinches a top-two seed for the playoffs.
3rd: San Diego Sockers - 27 Points
At this point in the season, finding wins where they don’t immediately present themself becomes the difference between success and failure. For the Sockers, going into Kansas City, facing a 5-2 deficit, and managing to come away with a win, albeit in a shootout, could prove crucial. With those two points, San Diego remains within striking distance of Milwaukee and maintains control over the Comets, despite sitting a point behind Kansas City.
The Sockers are among the league’s strongest forces, with elite talent in every phase of play. They have immensely swift on-the-ball targets, rapid and deft midfielders, intelligent and powerful defenders, and, of course, a historically great goalkeeper room. When they’re healthy, they’re a force to be reckoned with, but those moments are few and far between. Their contest against the Comets was likely the best lineup they’ve fielded all season, and it was good enough to get a win on the road over a top side. But without those stars in spades, the house of cards is liable to collapse.
2nd: Kansas City Comets - 28 Points
After building a healthy 5-2 lead over the visiting San Diego Sockers, Kansas City imploded, allowing their guests not just to come back, but to take the lead late in the game. Though the Comets forced overtime thanks to a dramatic equalizer with two seconds remaining, their overall play left much to be desired for a team this high in the standings. They eventually lost in a shootout, allowing the Sockers to walk away with two massive points on the road, which could be decisive at the end of the season.
These two teams will face off four more times in March, and it’s fair to say that whoever wins the lineshare of those games has a good chance of securing a top-two seed. For Kansas City, they’ll need their targets and forwards to continue improving, while their defenders join the attack as they have in the past. The transition game has become a bit of an afterthought as of late, but in games where youthful energy can run rampant, it’s important to let it do so.
1st: Milwaukee Wave - 30 Points
Milwaukee’s win over Tacoma and loss to Empire were not quite enough to separate themselves from the trailing pack at this critical juncture. Their performances were significantly better than their results, but against the Strykers, they showed an ability to fight back, no matter how bleak the situation.
Against Tacoma, they managed to take the lead and hold on just enough to fend off a valiant comeback. The following day, their pseudo-sixth attacker, Gerardo Perez, drew attention with a pair of goals to cut his team’s deficit down the stretch in an unsuccessful comeback of their own. They still have a tight grip on the MASL Shield, but they need to get the results this weekend against Baltimore and St. Louis, or risk surrendering the lead they’ve fought so hard to take.