Major League Stress tests.

The opening frame of the MLS season did not disappoint, but it did offer some opportunities to rethink expectations following some wild opening performances. LAFC ran over Miami, Nashville was the real deal, Philly came out flat, Charlotte couldn’t unsteady St. Louis’s new look defensive structure, and San Jose looked… good?

It’s too early to conclude anything, but some potential trends could be heard through all of the noise. Matchday two could be enlightening.

So, let’s talk about a few things worth keeping an eye on this weekend.

How good is LAFC? 

LAFC stormed out of the gate with a 3-0 win over Inter Miami as chants of “Tres a Cero!” rained down from the 75,673 fans at the Rose Bowl. 

Between the season opener and the first round of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, LAFC has outscored IMCF and Real España 10-1 with 4 goals from Denis Bouanga and 5 goal contributions from Son Heung-Min. Two different opponents, two different possession plans, with the same result: dominant wins. 

Against IMCF, LAFC only possessed 27% of the ball over the second half, but used Miami’s desperation for two lethal counterattacks to seal the match. 

LAFC didn’t need the ball.

Instead, they baited Miami in and attacked the Sergio Busquets-sized hole behind Rodrigo De Paul with short passing sequences and one-twos through the central spaces between the backline and the double pivot.

It was a very good performance against the defending champions, but it’s still one match against a team that chose to return to the 4-2-3-1 after last year’s success in the 4-3-3 down the homestretch. 

LAFC travel to Houston this weekend after the decision to start Son, Bouanga, and Eustaquio for 45 minutes against Real España midweek. It could be a tougher test than it seems on paper. 

It’ll be a battle of clubs that want to beat you without the ball and on the counter, the first real test of the Marc Dos Santos era. Will they try to pass Houston to death? Or is there a scheme to bait Houston into taking possession? 

Anyways, I think Stephen Eustaquio might be LAFC’s most important player this season. 

LAFC hasn’t won in Houston since 2019.

A pivotal Florida Derby.

Miami isn’t a finished product despite the idea that they improved on their MLS Cup-winning roster over the offseason. The Herons might get there, but for now, the absences of Alba and Busquets stood out in week one. De Paul pushed up high on the right side, leaving Yannick Bright to take on the lion’s share of the defensive midfield duties. 

It didn’t work; the wings were left isolated, and LAFC countered down their throat. 

Then, Miami followed up that lackluster performance in Los Angeles with a bizarre friendly against Ecuadorian side Independiente del Valle on Thursday, where a pitch invader tackled Lionel Messi. 

Miami has to shake off the bad omens ahead of a trip to Orlando, where they have no wins in 10 attempts. 

Luckily, the Lions are also coming into Sunday with a bad taste in their mouth after being dismantled by the hands of Emil Forsberg and Michael Bradley’s gaggle of teens. 

Orlando came out flat-footed and was instantly punched in the mouth by a new look Red Bull New York. 

The link between the FBs and Wings looked broken, and RBNY was able to exploit the space behind Adrian Marin to devastating effect through the first 45 minutes. The 1-2 scoreline undersells how hapless the Lions looked out of the gate, conceding 3.65 expected goals while failing to generate a shot inside the attacking box.

The 2nd half adjustments helped. Orlando came out swinging, but ultimately, the better team won.  

A few things are certain after that result. Tiago Carvalho has to start over Tyrese Spicer, Orlando can’t rely on Maxime Crepeau to stand on his head match after match this season, and there doesn’t seem to be a replacement for Alex Freeman on this roster. 

The FBs were a real problem. Cade Cowell ate in the space behind Marin, and 19-year-old Adri Mehmeti controlled the match until he exited in the 76th minute, and Orlando started to find some solutions. 

Miami is coming in frustrated and hungry. Orlando is waiting at the door, itching for a scrap. 

We’re reaching levels of Florida man that MLS has never seen before. 

Can Dallas expose any flaws in Nashville’s attack?

They say the real test of any MLS club is how they perform away from home. Nashville dominated New England on opening night – and made short work of Atlético Ottawa midweek – an intimidating attacking front of Sam Surridge, Hany Muhktar, Cristian Espinosa, and the 21-year-old Warren Madrigal. 

The aspect of Nashville’s dominant win to drill down on is that Espinoza wasn’t particularly effective on his own. 

Espinoza wasn’t a negative, but he also wasn’t the focal point that could be expected of a player who has led MLS in chances created since arriving stateside. 

What does that say?

Is this a case of New England keying in on Espinoza’s ability to create? Or is it a specific role for the Argentine that has him providing support through the midfield and providing those secondary runs compared to his role in San Jose?

Against Dallas, BJ Callaghan will have to show more of his hand. 

Bernard Kamungo was particularly influential down the right side, and while Dallas benefitted from Toronto’s lack of finishing – welcome back to North America, Josh Sargent – the attack was lethal behind Petar Musa… and some poor Goalkeeping.

Dallas’s 3-5-2 was rigid, well-structured, and could provide a new challenge for a Nashville side that will have to find ways to break down a 5-player block. 

Nashville found success on matchday one through attacks in transition, and that will be the battle against Eric Quill’s structure on matchday two, which had vulnerabilities last weekend…

Nashville struggled away from Geodis last season with the 10th-best away record in the Eastern Conference. If they have truly taken that step this season, then they’ll need to show it in Texas. 

Are we tapping the “2nd Year of Bradley Carnell” sign?

Bradley Carnell’s first year in St. Louis ended with CITY SC unexpectedly on top of the Western Conference until Sporting KC forced his side to beat them with the ball at their feet. That defeat clouded the offseason, and year two derailed spectacularly. 

Bradley Carnell’s first year in Philadelphia ended with the Union unexpectedly on top of the Eastern Conference until NYCFC… well… it was more of a smash and grab. 

That loss hung over the offseason in Philadelphia, along with the ongoing investigation into Sporting Director Ernst Tanner. 

Over the offseason, the Union dealt Tai Baribo to DCU, replaced him with 20-year-old Ezekiel Alladoh from Brommapojkarna, and promoted more promising youth players – including a bigger role for Cavan Sullivan. 

The first look at the refresh was a disaster. 

Baribo scored the only goal of the match in the 23rd minute, and Alladoh picked up a straight red after saying something in the direction of DCU captain Lucas Bartlett. 

The Union couldn’t break down DC’s defensive structure and found just 3 shots on target, worth just 0.30 xGoT. 

It was a bad performance against last year’s Wooden Spoon winner in a matchup the Union had won 18-3 over the past 3 seasons. 

You can toss this up to a motivated former striker and a squad that was navigating midweek CONCACAF matches, but this was Carnell’s first-choice lineup, and they were stumped by a team that only won two matches against playoff teams in 2025.

More worrying, this wasn’t the case of the Union being undone in possession, this wasn’t the Union beaten on the counter, this was the Union beaten in transition.

Philadelphia hosts NYCFC on Sunday, a team that will also attempt to take the sting out of the Union’s transition game. All three matches last season were 1-0, with NYCFC winning the one that mattered at Subaru Park. 

Now, Bradley Carnell’s side will have the opportunity to exorcise that demon in week two, or allow the Pigeons to inflict another round of misery. 

Consider starting Cavan Sullivan over Indiana Vassilev… just consider it. 

Can St. Louis CITY SC answer the bell on the road? 

A surprise last week – even for the St. Louis media core – was Yoann Damet’s debut 1-1 draw against Charlotte FC. 

St. Louis was genuinely good against one of the Eastern Conference’s perennial favorites, suffering from a lack of finishing against one of MLS’s best goalkeepers. 

Now, on the road against a San Diego FC who ran over Montréal 5-0 last week at Snapdragon, a different challenge will present itself.

St. Louis’s underlying stats were good last week: 5th in goals added differential, 5th in expected goals for, and 10th in expected goals against. 

Now, Charlotte wasn’t great on the road in 2025 and may have been caught off guard by how structured Yoann Damet’s 3-4-2-1 was on opening day, and how aggressive the club was against the ball in the middle third. 

Against San Diego, they’ll run up against a completely different challenge, a club that wants the ball, that wants to lure you in with passes along the back, and break forward at pace. 

San Diego broke down Montréal by baiting them upfield and then beating them over the top; they broke down PUMAS by slowly progressing down the pitch and beating them on far-post runs and set pieces. 

St. Louis will have to find a happy medium, buzzing against the ball but not taking the bait that will leave them exposed at the back. Then, on the ball, they’ll need to find combinations and late arriving runs across the box to find space between the lines. 

It’s a challenge, but if St. Louis is ready to shed the baggage of last season, it’s a match that they’ll have to prove that they really are stronger than the sum of their parts. 

That’s also not to say that San Diego hasn’t looked vulnerable in moments through the early season. The formation was unbalanced on the right side, with McVey, Bombino, and Dreyer forming a tight passing triangle to progress down the pitch. Neither Montréal nor PUMAS was able to really make them pay for the gaps in their spacing. 

Yoann Damet understands the challenge for his CITY SC, especially as Mamadou Mbacke won’t quite be ready for the starting XI – but will be available. 

“We’re going to be ourselves,” Damet said Friday, “Are we going to suffer? Yes, probably. Are they going to suffer? Yes, I hope so too.”