What We Learned: New England surge, Orlando City look for spark | OneFootball

By Joseph Lowery

Vancouver Whitecaps FC are on an 80-point pace, the New England Revolution have won four games in a row and the reigning champs just lost without conceding a shot.

It’s exactly like we all predicted!

Let's look back at the latest slate of MLS matches to examine some of the most interesting things we’ve learned. And if you want to read up on the rest of Matchday 11 in detail, check out Matt Doyle’s column.

Onwards.

1. Columbus Crew prove their contender status

The Columbus Crew are handling just about everything thrown at them this season. The biggest object hurled their way, of course, was Cucho Hernández’s move to Spain before the season’s start. No problem, said the Crew, we’ll go the first eight games of the regular season undefeated with a 5W-0L-3D record.

But it’s not just the big things Columbus are dealing with expertly. It’s the little things, too, like on Saturday when Dániel Gazdag had to be withdrawn from Wilfried Nancy’s starting lineup during warmups. Jacen Russell-Rowe stepped in for Gazdag… and proceeded to get on the scoresheet in a 4-2 win over Charlotte FC. With each team missing a playmaker – Gazdag for the Crew and Pep Biel for Charlotte – Columbus’ impressive home display was their best win of the season.

It was rinse-and-repeat stuff for the Crew, even against a legitimate Eastern Conference threat:

That Columbus can still create the kinds of chances they did on Saturday without Gazdag is a testament to how seamless things have become on the field during Nancy’s third season in charge. Now firmly past the soft underbelly of their 2025 schedule, don’t expect the Crew to slow down much. They certainly didn’t against Charlotte.

2. New England Revolution are red hot

Raise your hand if you had the Revs going on a four-game winning streak after the way they started the season. No one? That’s what I thought.

Despite a difficult beginning to 2025 with four losses in their first six games, the Revs have completely turned things around over their last four matches, all wins.

Most recently, New England traveled up to Toronto and topped the Reds, 2-0, via goals from Carles Gil and striker Leo Campana:

New England Revolution: How they flipped the script

The brilliance of Caleb Porter’s 3-4-1-2 setup, one that’s featured at the start of every game on this winning streak, is that it fits basically every Revs player into their best position. Campana and Ignatius Ganago are both fluid forwards who can flex from the central vertical channel into the halfspaces, Gil thrives in a free No. 10 role, Alhassan Yusuf has the tools to be one of the best box-to-box No. 8s in MLS, Peyton Miller looks better every game in his left outside back spot, and the list goes on and on.

New England’s winning streak won’t last forever, but their ceiling sure looks a heck of a lot higher now than it did a month ago.

3. Orlando City’s attacking worries

No team in MLS has become more synonymous with a single scoreline this year than Orlando City have with a 0-0 draw. Four of their last five games have ended in scoreless ties, including Saturday’s matchup with the Chicago Fire in which the Lions played up a man for an hour following Chris Brady’s red card.

What’s up in the attack for a team that bagged 15 goals through their first six games of 2025? My strong suspicion is that it has less to do with the attack itself and more to do with the lack of support for that attack.

With Oscar Pareja’s first-choice midfield pairing of César Araújo and Eduard Atuesta not having started together in a single one of those scoreless draws due to injury, Orlando City’s attacking foursome has been hurting for service more than normal. The Lions have struggled to move the ball close to goal for long stretches, as shown by how four of their five games with the longest average shot distance have come without that Araújo-Atuesta pairing in the lineup, as per FBref.

As much of the rest of the East rounds into form, Orlando City could do with simply rounding into some health. Once the midfield stabilizes, goals will follow.

4. Seattle Sounders are fun

Allow me, if you will, to quote the excellent Jeremiah Oshan over at Sounder at Heart:

There are a lot of adjectives that can describe the Seattle Sounders during Brian Schmetzer’s tenure in charge. Successful, stout, hard-working, industrious, relatable, reliable. They all work. One word I’m not sure many would use is “fun.” Winning is obviously fun, but that’s not so much about process and something that can only really be appreciated after the fact. “Fun” is something that is almost immediate, that can be witnessed in real-time. For the first time in a long time, that’s the word I’d use to describe Saturday’s performance.

The Seattle Sounders haven’t always done a great job breaking down deep defensive blocks under Schmetzer. They certainly didn’t last season. But in their last two home games? The Sounders have been downright clinical against deeper defensive outfits.

There was that 3-0 win over Nashville SC back on Matchday 9, and then came a 4-1 demolition of St. Louis CITY on Saturday, which featured 31 shots and more xG than in any other Seattle game in American Soccer Analysis’ database. The chemistry that’s developed between Obed Vargas and Cristian Roldan is off the charts, Ryan Kent looked ready to break into the lineup with his two-assist showing off the bench, and Danny Musovski can’t stop scoring goals.

You sure wouldn’t know the Sounders were missing several starters due to injury. They ran right over St. Louis with a level of attacking precision that’s starting to look more like a trend than a fluke.

WATCH: Shorthanded? Sounders climb up table after emphatic win over St. Louis

5. San Diego FC’s wingers are elite

Name a pair of wingers you’d rather have on your team than Anders Dreyer and Chucky Lozano. I’ll wait. And while I do, I might as well watch those two combine on San Diego FC’s second goal from their 5-0 win over FC Dallas:

Dreyer and Lozano were at the heart of Saturday's win, which snapped a three-game losing streak for the new kids on the block – and it’s those two who are at the heart of so much of San Diego’s play in the attacking half.

Lozano, who didn’t score his first MLS goal until last month after suffering a hamstring injury against St. Louis on Matchday 2, is shaping up to be everything SDFC hoped he would be when they signed him as their first Designated Player. Searingly direct, Lozano causes problems for opposing defenders in the open field with his dynamic runs and his one-v-one dribbling. According to FBref, he’s in the 96th percentile for successful take-ons per 90 minutes among his positional peers.

Then there’s Dreyer, who’s no stranger to a run in behind the opposing backline, but makes more of his money with savvy movement between the lines and clever distribution. Really, there’s no better clip to summarize how the two attackers complement each other than that goal up above. They’re both inside the top 10 in MLS for non-penalty xG plus xAG per 90 minutes, according to FBref, and look poised to continue their production throughout 2025.