Winners and Losers Across MLS: Week 5

Another week of the 2023 Major League Soccer regular season is in the books. Here are our winners and losers from Week 5.

Photo Courtesy of St. Louis CITY SC

Another week of the 2023 Major League Soccer regular season is in the books. Here are our winners and losers from Week 5.

Loser: Anyone betting against St. Louis CITY SC

Eventually St. Louis CITY SC will record its first ever loss or tie as a franchise. But for the time being, no one should task themselves with figuring out when either of those events will occur. 

In short: Do not bet against St. Louis.

St. Louis has won all five of its matches to open its inaugural season, the latest being a 4-0 shellacking on the road against Real Salt Lake. 

Remember when playing in Sandy, Utah was a challenge for teams? Remember when Salt Lake used stingy tactics and its flair players to break opponents down, then let the altitude take care of the rest? 

St. Louis didn’t get that memo — they actually got better as the game went on, as they scored four second half goals and made RSL look like the ones gasping for breath.

The result is St. Louis sitting atop the Supporters Shield standings (yes, we went there already) at a perfect 5-0-0.

Loser: Pablo Ruiz

Real Salt Lake created several first half chances, but didn’t do themselves any favors in the second half, especially on defense.

Look no further than yet another errant backpass finding its way into one of our loser sections — this time committed by Pablo Ruiz.

Backpass might actually be a misnomer. What is Ruiz doing? It looks like he is aggressively trying to turn the ball over to Joao Klauss, who gratefully accepts possession and continues on to score his second goal of the game.

See here:

Manuel Veth @ManuelVeth

I mean its quite easy to explain this phenomena. MLS defensive lines are just not equipped to deal with the high press that #AllForCity employ. What’s more surprising is that nobody tried to exploit those obvious flaws earlier.

Winner: Kei Kamara

MLS journeyman Kei Kamara scored the game-winner for the Chicago Fire in a 3-2 decision over Inter Miami CF. Kamara has now scored 140 goals across 410 MLS matches for a league record 10 clubs.

Let’s count all the clubs* out: 

1. Columbus Crew

2. San Jose Earthquakes

3. Houston Dynamo

4. Kansas City Wizards/Sporting KC

5. New England Revolution

6. Vancouver Whitecaps

7. Colorado Rapids

8. Minnesota United

9. Montreal Impact

10. Chicago Fire

*Kei Kamara has also scored for Norwich City, Middlesbrough, and Helsinki FK in stints outside MLS.

Winner: Clint Mathis’ single-game goals record

Is anyone ever going to break this record? Clint Mathis scored five times for the Metrostars on August 26, 2000, against the Dallas Burn and no one has ever matched his feat since.

How is that possible? Twenty-three years! This is a record that needs to be broken — I mean just listen to those club names…Metrostars…Dallas Burn?!

In all seriousness, the real winner this weekend was Jordan Morris, who scored all four of Seattle Sounders FC’s goals in a 4-1 victory at Sporting KC.

With seven goals this season, Morris is currently the league’s leading scorer.

Loser: FiveThirtyEight Club Soccer Predictions

Of the 12 matches that took place over the weekend, only one was won by a team that had the highest percentage chance of winning, according to FiveThirtyEight’s Club Soccer Predictions.

Six games this weekend were won by “underdogs” — even though said “underdogs” out-scored the favorites 17 to 5.

The remaining five games ended in draws.