Top 5 MLS: Montreal continues its march

Week 27 of the 2022 MLS season is now behind us as Garber Tour teams enter the home stretch of their regular schedule with six or seven games remaining.

And among the teams in the best position for this last stretch, there is CF Montreal, which planted two very beautiful goals in the first half in Chicago on Saturday, before choking the Fire to 10 against 11 in the second. period.

The Fire aren’t an MLS force, admittedly, but the team has some great quality players and was trying to keep themselves in the playoff race in front of their home crowd. The « Impact », however, came to impose its law in all this to leave with three points which allow it to keep in touch with the Philadelphia Union, which has been all fired up lately, and to make the hole with New York City , still third in the standings despite a loss to Orlando.

It was beautiful and good and it sets the stage for the next game, which will take place on Wednesday at Saputo Stadium against the New York Red Bulls.

And without further ado, here are five highlights from the past weekend in MLS:

Two great strikes

CF Montreal put two very nice potatoes to the Fire on Saturday, a few minutes apart in the first half, which essentially sealed the outcome of the match even if the defense and goalkeeper Sebastian Breza, named to MLS Team of the Week, had their say afterwards. Let’s celebrate the very fine technical gestures of Quebec midfielder Ismael Koné and Honduran striker Romell Quioto, who now has 15 goals in what is a very good season for him:

Austin sends a message

Dominating at the start of the season, Los Angeles FC took on big names during the summer in Gareth Bale, Giorgio Chiellini and Denis Bouanga and, paradoxically, is currently going through a sort of slump while the mayonnaise takes (we hopefully in California). Austin, who is on the opposite trajectory, took advantage of it on Friday, offering a spectacular 4-1 against the leaders of the general classification. The generally unprolific Maxi Urruti even scored a brace in what became his best season in MLS:

Another 6-0 for Philadelphia

For the second weekend in a row, the Philadelphia Union, which leads the standings in the East, put an opponent 6-0: this time, it was the Colorado Rapids who tasted medicine in the troop by Jim Curtin, notably being victims of a hat-trick by the excellent midfielder Daniel Gazdag. For the record: since July 8, Philadelphia q obtained three victories of 6-0, and another of 7-0. It’s an MLS record, and quite a:

Again Insigne and Bernardeschi

Toronto FC’s two expensive summer acquisitions, Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi, are worth their weight in gold so far: the two Italian internationals, by virtue of their quality alone, gave the TFC a 2-1 victory against Charlotte on Saturday. This may happen a few times before the end of the regular schedule:

Big Higuain, little Miami

Inter Miami forward and designated player Gonzalo Higuain is going through a great streak these days, and again stood out on Saturday, giving his team the lead with a cannon shot:

On the other hand, his teammate Alejandro Pozuelo then allowed himself a tackle in the chest (you read that right) from a rival which obviously earned him a red card, and the Red Bulls saved themselves with a victory when Miami would have much needed these points in the race for the playoffs:

As a bonus

The Galaxy made a very intriguing and rather impressive acquisition this summer when they got their hands on young FC Barcelona midfielder Riqui Puig. The 23-year-old Catalan distilled some of his quality on Sunday in a 2-1 win against the New England Revolution:

Carles Gil went there with a superb technical gesture in the defeat of the « Revs »:

England’s Ravel Morrison signaled his arrival in MLS in fine fashion on Sunday, even though DC United lost again: