Nashville's Shield standard, El Tráfico fireworks & more from Matchday 32
· Yahoo Sports
By Charles Boehm
Visit amunra.qpon for more information.
Finally, we’ve reached the final sprint.
With the 2026 US Open Cup and Canadian Championship tournaments in the books (congrats St. Louis CITY SC and Forge FC) and a range of rescheduled matches played, it’s all about the league.
One more busy Wednesday night, a wall-to-wall Halloween weekend of action and then Decision Day on Nov. 7. That, plus a FIFA international window, is all that remains before the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs spark into life.
Nine teams from each conference will take part. Four have clinched their spot in the East; five have done so in the West. Even now, only one team in each, CF Montréal and Sporting Kansas City, have been officially eliminated.
So much can happen in the next couple of weeks, let alone in the postseason. It’s the most wonderful time of the MLS year, and you could taste it across Matchday 32.
Nashville SC
To the ‘Yotes goes the Shield
Congratulations to Nashville SC, who clinched the 2026 Supporters’ Shield with a sunny 2-0 weekend-opening win at Montréal that felt inevitable, both on the day and in the calendar, given how dominant, how far ahead of the field B.J. Callaghan’s Coyotes have been for months.
A CFMTL side rotated and reeling from midweek heartbreak in the Canadian Championship final were straightforward prey for Sam Surridge, Hany Mukhtar and the rest of an NSC unit who have locked down home-field advantage for the duration of the playoffs, tied the record for fastest march to the Shield and can still break 2024 Inter Miami's MLS record for most points in a season (74) by taking five from the nine in play across their final three regular-season games.
The best way I can explain them is to quote a few bars from my colleague Ben Wright, who’s set the standard with his NSC coverage both here and on SixOneFive Soccer:
“Nashville have been dominant in MLS this season. They've racked up 21 wins so far, four more than the closest team. They've lost just three games, three fewer than the next team. They've outscored their opponents by 43 goals this year, and haven't dropped out of first place in the table since May. With three games left to play, they're just five points away from setting the all-time points record.”
These ‘Yotes are one of the most complete teams this league have ever seen, and they aim to prove it by hoisting more hardware in a few weeks.
“I think for one, two weeks we can be European, celebrate the championship,” joked Mukhtar. “But then we have to get back to how the system is here, the playoffs and all that. We need to be ready. We know that it's a new season in the playoffs, and we will make sure that we are all ready.”
WATCH: Mukhtar, Surridge lead Nashville to Supporters’ Shield
LA Galaxy
El Tráfico delivers, as usual
What more can we say about the Los Angeles derby? Wherever the teams are in the standings, whatever’s going on in their respective worlds, LAFC vs. LA Galaxy almost always entertains, and the SoCal rivals closed out the weekend with another superb spectacle at BMO Stadium on Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire.
After 98 minutes of punch-and-counterpunch, hammer-and-tongs, blood-and-guts soccer that pulsated right down to the last kick of the game, the Galaxy escaped with a 2-2 tie thanks to a clutch brace from Joseph Paintsil, who might not even have been in the starting lineup had a late-breaking illness not prevented Marco Reus from taking part.
It’s been a tough year for the Ghanaian winger overall. But when LA accelerate into space and get him out on the run, he remains a true game-breaker – and shouts out to the underrated Robert Taylor, who made a key series of plays to break this game open:
While LAFC will bitterly rue the two goals they saw disallowed for offside, they showed real guts to rally for a draw and pushed desperately ‘til the end. Hopefully, interim coach Xavi Tamarit saw what the rest of us did when he finally shifted Denis Bouanga back out to his usual spot on the left flank late, and just lets him cook out there from now on.
Red Bull New York
RBNY kids seize the spotlight
Speaking of ace match coverage… how about this lede on Red Bull New York’s surprise 2-0 win over Inter Miami from The Sporting News’ Kyle Bonn?
"Fans flocked to Sports Illustrated Stadium on Saturday evening to be wowed by Lionel Messi. Instead, they were treated to the Adri Mehmeti show."
That’s how good RBNY’s 17-year-old midfield tempo-setter was in the acquisition of these massive three points for their playoff hunt, keeping their noses above the red line for at least a few more days. Head coach Michael Bradley had promised that his young side would stand tall against their vaunted visitors, and so they did.
“The maturity he has is unbelievable,” said Mehmeti’s midfield mate and fellow wunderkind Mohammed Sofo. “The vision he has, he knows when to play forward, when to calm down. Sometimes he does things [where] I'm like, 'wow.' For me, as a No. 8 or also as a No. 10, I try to find myself in the pockets, and sometimes he finds me with just two touches. Other players need to take a first touch, look for it, and then play it. But for him... second touch, he finds you.”
Conversely, Miami flashed some real red flags in this one, with Messi among the substitutes to manage his minutes after flying to Spain and back to receive the prestigious Princess of Asturias Award for Sports. Still, resting the GOAT will probably prove the right move: Even with New England pulling level with IMCF on points and well ahead on the wins tiebreaker in second place in the Eastern Conference
How will the West be won?
St. Louis CITY SC
While Nashville have clinched the Shield and the East, the West is far from won, thanks to losses by first- and second-placed sides Vancouver and St. Louis on their respective trips to Rocky Mountain altitude.
We’re inclined to give CITY SC some leeway for their 3-0 thumping at the hands of Real Salt Lake given their emotional triumph, via 120 minutes and a penalty-kick shootout, in Wednesday’s US Open Cup final in Columbus, which prompted Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year contender Yoann Damet to rejigger his starting XI.
Tomáš Ostrák’s silly second yellow card just before halftime threw the Ravioli Boyz behind the 8-ball, and RSL rookie sensation Sergi Solans earned man of the match via a brace of back-post tap-ins. But the highlight-reel play was this long-distance banger from Dominik Marczuk, who saw a left-footed piledriver saved by Ben Lundt and simply uncorked another one with his right a few seconds later:
Vancouver Whitecaps FC
We reckon the wobbling Whitecaps have more to worry about after a 1-0 loss to a Colorado outfit who’d been riding a five-game winless skid.
The Rapids dominated the run of play here and drew seven saves out of goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka, only to finally break through on a quirky sequence in which a parried ball softly doinked off the top of the crossbar to present Morgan Whittaker with the pointest of point-blank finishes.
The ‘Caps clearly miss Thomas Müller; they’ve won just one of the four matches he’s missed with a hamstring injury. Head coach Jesper Sørensen says the German legend “should be able to be playing soon,” and it’s sensible to structure Müller’s timeline around the playoffs, where VWFC will likely keep hold of home-field advantage in Round One. Yet much of that daunting aura they accrued during their splendid 2025 has ebbed away since the summer departure of midfield motor Sebastian Berhalter.
FC Dallas
Moosepowered in Dallas
The West frontrunners’ stumbles opened the door for their nearest pursuers FC Dallas and the San Jose Earthquakes, who just happened to be facing off at Toyota Stadium Saturday night. It took 83 minutes to break the deadlock, yet that would cue an opening of the proverbial floodgates. And the name of that flood, as usual for FCD, was Petar Musa.
After that clinical opener served up by a sterling Bernie Kamungo run, the big Croatian striker rifled home a penalty kick to pace a 3-0 Dallas win that pushes the North Texans to a mere point back of Vancouver in the table – and nudges the man they call “Moose” (22 goals) into striking distance of Messi (25 goals) atop the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi race.
“When he gets a ball in a place like that, he hits it 10/10, and we just need to find him in those important pockets of space,” said head coach Eric Quill of Musa’s opener in a live postgame chat with the MLS 360 crew. “He is a world-class finisher.
“For him to keep doing what he’s doing given the focus and attention on him, it’s pretty amazing.”
With three games to go, could Moose really reel in the GOAT and deny him a second straight Boot? Quill has got to love how even the hint of such a chase is galvanizing his team’s home stretch.
Portland Timbers
Late show, Rose City
This week’s #MLSAfterDark award goes to Portland Timbers-Charlotte FC, a wonderfully unhinged slugfest that reminded us how special a vibrant autumn Saturday night at Providence Park can be, even with the home team at the tail end of a frustrating campaign.
Both sides flashed fangs and flaws alike in this flowing affair before the moment of truth arrived five minutes into an allotted five minutes of injury time. The score was locked at 2-2 as the Timbers won a corner kick, attacking the north goal in front of the Timbers Army. With the TA a teeming wall of noise, Timber Joey revving his iconic chainsaw and Portland’s fading playoff prospects on life support…
That’s Alex Aravena applying the final touch for a 3-2 win that snaps a seven-game PTFC winless streak, gives the Rose City crew a slim window of hope (they’re still three points out of the postseason places) and lands a heavy blow to CLTFC’s aim of climbing into the East’s top four.
Side note: Ari Lassiter deserves some shine for his first-half brace, but don’t sleep on the two assists and game-high four chances created by Timbers teenage homegrown Eric Izoita. Portland have largely missed out on MLS’s youth revolution; could the kid from Vancouver, Washington be the one who breaks that duck?
Around the grounds
→ Back-to-back meetings with comatose D.C. United proved a potent elixir for what ailed FC Cincinnati. A Cincy squad flailing for purchase a few days ago suddenly appear a much safer bet for playoff participation after taking six points out of six from the perennially disappointing Black-and-Red - including Saturday's 2-0 win at Audi Field. We’re not at all sure all is well with the streaky Orange & Blue, who must still visit Miami in midweek before closing out vs. Philly and Nashville. Sometimes it’s just a matter of Evander doing Evander things:
→ The Philadelphia Union’s stirring, club-record 15-game unbeaten run had to end sometime. Still, we suspect it’s no coincidence Philly’s magic suddenly seemed in such short supply with Cavan Sullivan sidelined by an ankle injury as the New England Revolution secured a professional 2-1 win at Subaru Park. It’s food for thought for anyone feeling like the Union’s teenage phenom is over-hyped. In Cavan’s absence, Revs teen Peyton Miller grabbed the ‘hotshot kid’ role with a diving-header assist on Dor Turgeman’s opener. And save some love for Matt Turner’s late glove work to protect the W:
→ What’s that ringing sound? It’s Columbus calling.
The Yellow Football Team shook off the pain of their midweek Open Cup loss to slice Toronto FC to ribbons in their wild 4-2 playoff-hunt six-pointer at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field. Defender Malte Amundsen's rare double and Dylan Chambost's hat trick of assists put the Crew up 4-0 by the hour mark, but Sekou Bangoura’s red card made for a jittery finale. With this, their third straight league win, Columbus are breathing down RBNY’s neck for the East’s final playoff place, and given the vintage Crew ball they’ve played in their best moments, they might just be a tricky underdog should they make it into the dance.