Vancouver Whitecaps part ways with Sartini
Vancouver Whitecaps FC have parted ways with head coach Vanni Sartini. Sartini led Vancouver since August 2021, when he was named interim head coach before officially taking over in November 2021. He steered the Whitecaps to the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in three of four seasons and to three straight Canadian Championship titles.
New York City FC part ways with Cushing
New York City FC have parted ways with head coach Nick Cushing. Cushing led NYCFC since June 2022, initially as interim head coach before getting the permanent role in November 2022. He posted a 40W-40L-27D record across all competitions.
Nagbe receives 2024 Audi Goals Drive Progress Impact Award
Columbus Crew midfielder Darlington Nagbe has been named the recipient of the 2024 Audi Goals Drive Progress Impact Award – an honor presented to MLS players who are dedicated to fostering equity and inclusion, enriching lives, and improving communities across the U.S. and Canada. During MLS Cup presented by Audi, Audi will award Nagbe a $150,000 contribution to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio, a community organization personally selected by the player.
New England announce end-of-year moves
After conceding 74 goals this season (third-most in league history), the Revs have just six defenders under contract. Center backs Xavier Arreaga, Jonathan Mensah and Tim Parker are no longer on the books. Same for fullback Nick Lima. New England's other big decision: declining the 2025 contract option for Dylan Borrero. Check out the full list of moves here.
The odds are your team isn’t going to win MLS Cup. Even if your team is one of the four teams left, they still probably aren’t going to win MLS Cup. And in typical Daily Kickoff fashion, I’m here to tell you why. Because we’re nothing if not haters around here.
Well… we can’t start without mentioning the decade-plus-long precedent they’re going to have to break just to make it to MLS Cup in the first place. And they’d have to break a nearly 30-year streak of not winning MLS Cup if they got there. So. There’s that.
If we’re focusing a little more on the year at hand, it’s fair to say there’s danger lurking for the Red Bulls. They’d obviously have to win on the road twice to get this done. That’s a tough ask for any team. But what has me really concerned is there’s a decent chance they’ll be up against two teams happy to dive headlong into a rock fight.
Orlando City are just fine with playing against the ball when they need to. Seattle are just fine playing against the ball when they need to. The Crew and New York City FC aren’t about that. Even as they’ve tweaked their game model, it’s still true that if you aren’t going to overwhelm the Red Bulls on the ball you better start getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s been especially true in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs. The Red Bulls have made their way to the Conference Final with possession totals of 28%, 39.5% and 37% in their three wins.
Orlando and Seattle won’t even flinch at having to cede possession and win a few bar fights across the field. They’ll do what it takes if they need to get New York out of their own comfort zone.
The Galaxy are another story. But, man, if any team is going to find a way to break down a stout defense right now, it feels like it’s the team that’s put up 15 goals in three playoff games.
There’s also the fact the Red Bulls have been second-best in xG in all three games so far. Yeah, yeah, game state. I know. But still. It’s no way to live and keep living.
Orlando City just won their biggest game in club history. They’ve got their new biggest game in club history coming up this Saturday. And then maybe an even bigger one after that. There’s plenty of reason to believe they’ll get that game. Other than one lackluster road performance against Charlotte, they’ve been excellent this postseason. Even when they struggled to find the net in Game Three against The Crown, they still racked up 3.9 xG.
No matter what happens, this has been a special run. If it ends, it ends because they’re only really good at everything without being great at anything. New York are the better counter-attacking side right now. Seattle are the better defensive side. The Galaxy are the much better attacking side.
Ok, fine, the New York thing is a bit of a stretch and probably not all that important, but the Galaxy and Sounders things are real. Seattle have elite defensive numbers, Orlando have very good defensive numbers. The Galaxy have elite attacking talent, Orlando have very good attacking talent. Those are slight differences but they’re the kinds of differences that can tilt the scale in a team’s favor in matchups like this. The good news is Orlando are the most balanced team remaining. There aren’t clear weaknesses. But sometimes you need more than that to shift high-leverage moments in your favor.
There’s the whole “best defensive side in MLS” thing. That’s real. But so is the whole “it’s not at all clear who’s going to score when they really need to score” thing. That’s also real. If they come up short of yet another semi-surprising but not really run to MLS Cup, the same weakness that has slowed them all season will stop them here.
There’s the whole “best attacking quartet in MLS history” thing. That’s real. But so is the whole “being totally liable to give up a goal at a moment’s notice under any circumstances” thing. That’s also real. If the Galaxy come up short of being officially, 1000% all the way back, it will be because the remaining teams are good enough defensively to slow them down in attack (They are!) and because the Galaxy gave up avoidable, game-defining goals at the worst possible times (They could!).
Well, another head coach is out. Just when we think the carousel has slowed, it picks up speed again. No one really expected Vanni Sartini to be the one speeding it up, but here we are.
We’ll be quick. First, it’s a total bummer we might be losing his personality from MLS. The list of coaches who have been more quotable than Sartini is very, very short and possibly non-existent. The list of coaches who have sung onstage with Nickelback is Sartini and Sartini alone (as far as I know).
Second, it seems like an odd choice for Vancouver. They obviously haven’t gotten over the hump as a team, but the tactics have always seemed secondary to the roster at hand. No matter how they’ve set up, they haven’t had the players to out-pace a team like LAFC when it mattered most.
That seemed to be changing. Or at least trending toward changing. They brought in a third DP this summer in midfielder Stuart Armstrong and subsequently took LAFC to Game 3 in the playoffs after pummeling them at BC Place in Game 2. A full year of Armstrong, Ryan Gauld and Brian White in 2025 should be a good-to-great year.
The roster still needs work, though. Maybe they feel a change at head coach will help spark something new. But until they can compete with elite teams at each position on the field, the same issues are going to keep popping up. Same as it ever was for any team deciding to make a change in leadership. If Sartini still had the faith of the locker room, it’s not clear yet what a new coach is going to bring that Sartini didn’t. It’s going to be an interesting offseason for the ‘Caps.
New England Revolution re-sign Farrell: The New England Revolution have re-signed defender Andrew Farrell through the 2025 MLS season. The 32-year-old is entering his record 13th season with New England, making 341 appearances (most in club history) since being selected No. 1 overall in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft.
- Joe Lowery laid out each team’s key to victory in the Conference Finals.
- Matt Doyle looked at what we learned from LAFC and what we learned from NYCFC in 2024.
Good luck out there. Arrivederci e andiamo.
