Know Thy Enemy: Revs at RSL Arango MVP Soapbox Edition
Know Thy Enemy: Revs at RSL Arango MVP Soapbox Edition
The Revs travel to Utah to face one of the league favorites for MVP, but should Chicho Arango be the favorite?
Okay, this is going to be a little bit of a departure from what I normally write about but as the New England Revolution are visiting Real Salt Lake (930 pm EDT, Apple MLS Season Pass) it seems like as good a time as any to bring up the case for Cristian Arango as MLS MVP.
The RSL striker is the Golden Boot leader with 17 goals, tied with DC’s Christian Benteke for the MLS lead, to go along with 11 assists. At one point during the year, as pointed out by J Sam Jones’ MLSSoccer.com MVP tracker, Arango was involved in 69% of all of RSL’s goals before help from Diego Luna and Andres Gomez helped lighten the workload.
This is an absurd statistic regarding Arango’s involvement and in my opinion rises to the level of Carles Gil’s key passing numbers from his 18 assist MVP campaign from 2021 when the Revs won the Shield.
Now I know Arango has not been as dominant with just one goal and two assists since a hat trick against Austin on June 1st. Gomez has four braces on the year and had 5 goals in 6 games prior to the Leagues Cup break to help keep RSL near the top of the West but they are winless in four games.
RSL lacks the locale, national media coverage, and name recognition of the LA teams they’re chasing in the West, but Arango has put together a pretty spectacular resume for a team that is in 3rd place in the much harder Western Conference with a bottom 5 league payroll.
(Side note: that payroll link above is to Steve Fenn’s MLS Payroll Tableau and it’s a fantastic resource.)
Yes, Cincinnati’s Luciano Acosta is still ridiculous and could very well go back to back as MLS MVP and then there’s that Messi guy who’s only played in half of Miami’s games and still has compiled 12G/13A seemingly effortlessly. There’s also a four game suspension Arango served for violating MLS’ anti-harassment policy that he served last month that rightly or wrongly could factor in to the vote.
But I bring up Arango’s case because I am very much of the opinion that the MVP should go to the player that is, quite literally, most valuable to his team. The LA teams have a bevy of talent as does Miami so I think they’d generally be at the top of the table and in the playoffs regardless. If you take Arango off RSL, I think the production drop off would be very noticeable and this wouldn’t be a third place team.
Acosta is the runaway “Golden Ball” winner as the most outstanding player if we wanted to give him that award over Messi who stuffs the stat sheet seemingly by accident when he plays. Acosta does have another great case for MVP again and the recognition of having already won the award. But RSL’s offense has been more potent against better competition so I’ll lean towards the guy spearheading that attack over the global icon and the guy that’s already won the award once.
Also instituting the NBA policy for Messi, he’s missed to many games, no awards for him. Don’t even put him on the ballot, everyone knows Messi plays in MLS, highlight some of your other big performers that don’t gobble up 95% of your national coverage.
Alas, it is time for me to return the soapbox to our good friend Lucas Muller of Wasatch Sentinel so he can opine on his star man and RSL’s rather stellar campaign so far…except last week, we’ll get to that. Be sure to check out their site for my answers to Lucas’ questions and all of their RSL-NE coverage and leave your takes on the MVP race in the comments below.
TBM: I don't think a 0-2 home loss to San Jose at home was how RSL envisioned their return to regular season play going. What went wrong in that first half in particular and why was that performance so out of character for this team?
LM: The loss to the Earthquakes was Real Salt Lake's worst game of the season. RSL are a team that have been excellent through long stretches of the season, but they’re at a low point right now and I’m not sure how much has improved after that loss.
During the game, San Jose came out strong and RSL looked entirely unprepared for that. They struggled to create chances and were simply absorbing pressure, which they didn’t do particularly well with two preventable goals being allowed. By the time the second half started, RSL looked more organized, but with Chicho leaving the game with a first half injury, they never clicked in the attack.
RSL is in a moment of transition. They sold winger Andres Gomez to French Ligue 1 side Rennais, and he has been one of the most dynamic players for Real this season. They’ve brought in a few new signings, most notably Diogo Gonçalves. Diego Luna was also absent during that game on yellow card accumulation. A bit more time for the new guys to gel, and the return of Luna, could go a long way in this game.
TBM: Cristian Arango is good at soccer. There's not really a question, just gush about your guy and his chances at winning MVP.
LM: Chicho has been an absolute revelation for RSL. The team lacked a good center forward since the departure of Alvaro Saborio in 2015, so it only took eight years to find his replacement. Arango leads the MLS golden boot race, though he’s level with Benteke on 17 goals. He's scored from ridiculously far out, had tap in goals, and moments of brillance.
Arango brings a dynamism to the attack. Aside from his 17 league goals, he’s provided 11 assists to his teammates. He’s got a good nose for goal but is also able to create for those around him. Why LAFC ever let him go is beyond me, but I’m not complaining about it.
He did leave RSL's last game in the first half with an injury. He looked frustrated in the game, with his team being down two goals at home, but he also looked frustrated coming off. He's listed as questionable on this week's injury report with a hamstring issue. He could be fine and ready to go against New England, but if he's not then we're likely to see Anderson Julio start up top.
TBM: RSL is currently third in the West. Can they pass either of the LA teams before the playoffs start, and if not could they run that road playoff gauntlet against the top two teams to an MLS Cup appearance?
It’s well within the realm of possibility that RSL finishes first in the west this season, but they need to sort out why they’re shipping so many goals, while integrating Gonçalves into the attack. It’s not an impossible task, but they’ve slipped in recent games on both ends of the ball.
Could they make a deep run in the playoffs? This is the same team that beat the Sounders in Seattle without ever taking a shot on goal in the 2021 playoffs, and eventually made it to the western conference final. The quality for a successful team is absolutely there, and they should be able to face any time and not need 120 minutes and a shootout to win. They had a fifteen game unbeaten run earlier this season. If they can find their way back to that consistency, they can have a very successful postseason.
Lineup/Injuries/Predictions/Etc.
MacMath in goal, Brody, Glad, Vera, and Katranis on the backline. Eneli and Ojeda in the midfield, with Crooks at the 10, Luna and Gonçalves on the wings, and Chicho at the 9 (but if he’s not healthy it will be Julio)
Out: Bonilla (knee), Ruiz (knee)
Questionable: Arango (hamstring), Palacio (knee), Vera (neck), Hidalgo (back spasms), Crooks (back spasms)
Score prediction: RSL 2, NER 1