✋ things we learned from the MLS weekend

Featured Image: © Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

The penultimate weekend of Major League Soccer was one to remember, with some teams snatching up the final few playoff spots, while others played spoilers. Let’s dig into some of the biggest stories from matchday 37.

Orlando City are contenders in the east, not pretenders

Orlando will head into the playoff in scorching form, and after storming into Cincinnati and collecting all three points Saturday evening, the Lions have proven themselves to be true contenders in the Eastern Conference.

Óscar Pareja’s side have won 10 of their last 13 games in MLS after a frankly woeful opening few months of the season, and will head into Decision Day with a chance to wrap up fourth place in the conference.

Should Orlando open the postseason with home-field advantage, there is no reason to think they can’t make a deep run purely off the back of their recent form.

Seattle head into the playoffs as a vintage threat

It wasn’t looking great for the Sounders for most of the MLS campaign. But since returning from the Leagues Cup break, Seattle have picked up 19 of 27 available points to race into the top-three of the Western Conference.

Showing they can win tight games, like they did in Colorado on Saturday, or blow teams away when they smell blood in the water, the Cascadia club should head into the postseason as a tough nut to crack, just like they always are when playoff season comes around.

While LAFC have been their kryptonite in recent seasons, most other teams in the west will surely be hoping to avoid the Sounders in the postseason.

St. Louis City may be out, but they won the summer transfer window

After an impressive first place finish in the Western Conference in St. Louis City’s debut campaign last year, they have certainly failed to hit the heights in their sophomore season.

Despite the likelihood they will finish in the bottom three of the conference this time around, they can take some consolation in the fact that they seemingly made some superb signings in the most recent summer transfer window.

All three signings of Simon Becher, Marcel Hartel, and Cedric Teuchert have hit the ground running, and the latter two will finish the campaign top-five for goal contributions for the side. The former had another two goals at the weekend in a thumping of Houston.

If they can keep that trio in town for next season, there is no reason City can’t return to table with the real contenders in the west.

Where this a Benteke, there is a way

It may not be an exaggeration to say that D.C. United would be Wooden Spoon contenders without Christian Benteke, but the Belgian striker’s 23 goals, four more than any other MLS player, seems to have been enough to send the Black and Red to the playoffs.

With another goal in a huge win at New England over the weekend, Benteke leveled the D.C. United single-season goalscoring record, and will have 90 minutes to break it on Decision Day — you’d put your house on him doing so.

Miami have the ‘big-moment’ trait that wins you trophies

It’s no secret that Inter Miami have a leg up on all of their competition with the star-studded, experienced spine of the team that most teams in MLS could only dream of putting together.

But as they showed with a stoppage-time winner in Toronto over the weekend, the newly crowned Supporters Shield winners come up with big moments when they are needed, and the supporting cast chip in as well.

With history at their finger-tips, and more importantly a postseason run right around the corner, a team that can blow you away and steal a winner at the death with ease is a scary prospect for the rest of MLS.