👋 Good morning!

We’re a bit more than halfway through the season, and despite the underwhelming result on Sunday, there’s a lot to be excited about.

Come with me, won’t you?

🌌 Galaxy: A draw that felt like a loss

We didn’t lose . . . but didn’t we?

The Galaxy played well. But still, we should’ve won. We are halfway through the season and the Gs are sitting bottom of the table. They came to CP and got a draw against the leaders of the Western Conference. They did this without Chicharito, who will be out for the remainder of the season (perhaps the remainder of his career?) with a torn ACL.

I won’t pretend to be a tactician or a technical expert, but I have a couple of thoughts:

First, Scary Jerry Stroud takes some wild shots. He gets a lot of decent looks and he deserves credit for that. But he just doesn’t convert! I’d speculate it’s a mental thing – sh*t be hard when you have 22,000 people counting on you. I don’t know how to fix that. Luckily, nobody asked me to.

In fairness, the stats don’t actually reflect this. He has 3 goals out of 15 attempts. A 20% conversion rate isn’t bad. Those stats, though, don’t jive with what I’m seeing on the field. Perhaps I’m being unfair. Either way, he’s still one of my favorite players.

Second, Nerwinski is not crushing it. I don’t like saying that. I feel incredibly loyal to this squad. But without the right-back’s dribbling error on Sunday, we might’ve eked out three points. We all make mistakes, but to be honest, he’s never really impressed on the pitch. It makes me wonder what will happen when center-back Joakim Nilsson makes his debut. It’s likely he’ll replace Barlett (I don’t see Carnell benching Parker). But unlike Nerwinski, Bartlett has been beast mode lately. It’d be a shame to cage the beast.

Which brings us to ⚠ Speculation Station ⚠: When Nilsson is ready, Carnell may experiment with Bartlett at right-back in lieu of Nerwinski. Of course, Akil Watts could be an option as well.

Now about those refs. The officiating was imbalanced to say the least. That’s an objective fact. CITY got away with nothing and the Galaxy got away with everything. We can, and should, talk about that. BUT – and some people aren’t going to like this – chanting “refs you suck” is a bit much. It comes off as whiny. Nobody hears that and thinks: “Ahhh good point. This record-breaking expansion side has had a tough go in their inaugural season. Poor St. Louis. We should do a petition!” Let’s leave the whining SKC and Vancouver.

On a more positive note, that Niko goal was 👩‍🍳💋. I was at the game and didn’t fully realize how magical it was at the time. I watched the replay when I got home and DAYUUUUUUUM. Niko is now the squad’s leading scorer.

👆 That may have been Goal of the Matchday had Zelarayán of the Columbus Crew not done this 👇

This was Zelarayán’s second 50+ yard goal in the last two years. Dude cooks 👩‍🍳

Speaking of goals, I’ve noticed that when CITY gets one, they want 27 more. A lot of teams find the net and just try to preserve the lead. That’s not the CITY way. We’ve developed a bit of a reputation for being what I’ll call a “AND STAY DOWN!” team. I love it. And it’s evident in the stats. Look what happened to our expected goals against Galaxy after that Nifty Niko:

Anyway, while it wasn’t the result we wanted, we can take solace in the fact that Seattle drew Charlotte and LAFC completely sh*t the bed against Houston. That means we’re still top of the West!

🎸 Nashville: Is Good

I’m not not scared. To know why, take a look at my MVP discussion below. Hany Mukhtar might as well be MLS’s Erling Haaland and his team sits second in the East (and the power rankings). They are 6-1-2 at home. We are 3-3-1 away.

OH AND NOW IT LOOKS LIKE LÖWEN IS INJURED?! ARE WE JUST GOING TO PRETEND LIKE EVERYTHING IS FINE?!

He didn’t practice on Wednesday due to pain in his quad. Carnell said he is questionable for Saturday.

Thank goodness Gioacchini has found his form. Things will be tough at GEODIS Park.

Odds: Nashville -155 | St. Louis +400

📰 CITY News

🏆 Löwen is getting looks

Löwen might be a real MVP contender. It’s “Most Valuable Player,” not “best player” or “most well-known player.” Löwen’s value to our squad cannot be overstated. Klauss gets more attention, but Löwen is our biggest asset. He pulls the strings. People around the league are starting to take notice. As Sam Jones put it: “[Löwen] has been excellent at…pretty much everything so far. He’s one of the league’s best midfielders in several categories so far and is powering St. Louis’ instant success.”

And let’s not forget Bürki.

⭐ A team of rising stars

In Tuesday’s edition of The Daily Kickoff, Sam Jones took a look at some of the league’s rising stars. The list includes Giorgos Giakoumakis, Dénis Bouanga, Cristian Espinoza, and THE ENTIRE ST. LOUIS TEAM:

🎁 Most surprising team

Joe Lowery tucked his tail a bit on Wednesday and admitted that CITY has surpassed expectations: “St. Louis have a clear and effective style of play under manager Bradley Carnell. They’ve identified and added depth. And they hit on most of their initial top-end signings, especially Eduard Löwen.” He did quality his praise, however, stating that it will be difficult for STL to carry this momentum. Let’s prove him wrong.

🥅 More CITY stuff!

• 5️⃣ We’re still number 5 in the power rankings. I’m kinda surprised we didn’t drop.

• Nilsson watch 2023: Dude be training!

• Blom got the call-up for Bufana Bufana. Congrats to him! Unfortunately, that means he’ll be out for the Nashville match.

• Parker on the bench for Team of the Matchday

• Sam Jones makes his picks for a “people’s choice” MLS All-Star lineup: Carnell as manager and Löwen in the midfield.

🦩 Más Messi

I’ve been thinking a lot about this Messi thing and how it will affect CITY. Without question, Messi’s presence will draw millions of new eyes to the league. That’s already clear from the uptick in followers Miami has gained since Messi announced his intentions. Pre-Messi, the team had about 1 million followers on Instagram. Now they have 8 million. That’s more than any NFL, MLB, or NHL team. Only the LA Lakers and Golden State Warriors have more followers.

🚨 A pro soccer team in America has more followers than any NFL team 🚨

I’d be willing to bet large sums of money – which is exactly what Apple is doing – that Messi will bring hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new subscribers to MLS Season Pass. These fans will come with Messi and many will leave with Messi. But not all. And that’s where the opportunity lies.

1️⃣ MLS needs a plan to keep these new fans on board even after Messi disappears—presumably in a magical burst of smoke and glitter, never to be seen again. Surely Don Garber has thought about this. It’d be a colossal waste of resources to bring the GOAT and then let the league shrink back to size when he leaves.

2️⃣ CITY needs a plan to capture some of these new fans. Like I said, a lot of these new viewers will come and go with Messi. But Messi fans like soccer and MLS does soccer and CITY plays soccer. Soccer. You get it. No team has created more buzz in the league this year (except now Miami). We are a shiny new team with a shiny new stadium and a reputation for grit. What’s not to like? I think I’ve alluded to this in every email so far, but Carolyn Kindle wants CITY to be a global brand. That’s lofty. But if she’s serious, Messi’s arrival opens up a giant wormhole to that destination and we should jump right in.

Tl;dr: If there aren’t at least 20 people wearing CITY gear in Buenos Aires next year, daddy will be angry.

Here are some additional stream-of-consciousness Messi Morsels:

• If Messi win’s the Ballon d’Or in October, he’ll do so as an active MLS player. In other words, he is not a has-been. This guy just won the World Cup for Argentina.

• This isn’t the end. We should expect more big signings. What’s good enough for Messi is good enough for [insert other major soccer star here].

• With San Diego entering the league in 2025, there’s a decent chance CITY moves to the Eastern Conference. If that happens and Messi is still playing, we can expect to face him twice a year.

• MLS is gonna “ope just gotta squeeze on past ya” the NHL.

• Inter’s revenue last year was $56 mill. PSG generated $130 mill on Messi jerseys alone in that time. I bet Miami sells more. I think the Herons could triple their revenue from last year just from jersey sales.

• Messi won’t be the only good Argentine in the MLS. He’ll be joining the likes of Zelarayán, Reynoso, Driussi, Almada, and Acosta. It’s almost like Argentina produces great footballers.

• Look how far MLS has come since adding Beckham. In 2005, Real Salt Lake paid $7.5 million to join the league. San Diego will become the league’s 30th team in 2025 for $500 million. Now imagine what the Messi Effect could do.

• Things may be awkward at first:

↪ CITY-Adjacent News

🐴 Is it time to take the reins off this beast?

I know it’s annoying when people share paywalled content, but there was a good piece in The Athletic this week about how it’s time to bid farewell to MLS’s archaic roster rules. Paul Tenorio writes: “[T]o miss this moment, and to limit the impact of Messi in MLS to what he does on the field, would be a massive mistake.” I tend to agree. Let’s eff around and find out.

🏆🏆🏆 The other City

With their win against Inter Milan on Saturday, Manchester City became the second English club to win the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League in the same season (aka the treble). The last team to win all three were City’s crosstown rivals, Manchester United, in 1999.

One last thing. I usually include timestamps for any CITY-related discussions on Extratime and The Total Soccer Show. I’ve come to realize that by the time this email hits your inboxes, some of that content is stale. Going forward, I’ll be tweeting those timestamps as soon as I have them. I hope you’ll follow me on Twitter.

Best wishes,

Blomless in Brentwood