I don’t know about you, but I’m getting more confident in what I’m seeing with each passing slate of MLS weekend matches. Sure, we’re still building up that early-season sample size. But with four games under the belt of all 30 teams, things are starting to look more concrete.
Today, we’re reflecting on Matchday 4 to examine some of the most interesting things we learned. We’ve got a young star shining in the Western Conference, a new style for Nashville SC, trouble in New England and more.
Onwards.
It was a really, really good weekend for the six MLS players who were called into the US men’s national team’s upcoming Concacaf Nations League camp by manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Zack Steffen? He made some big saves for the Colorado Rapids that we’ll get to later. Patrick Schulte? He started for the Columbus Crew in their road draw in San Diego. Brian White and the Vancouver Whitecaps won yet another game. Tim Ream started for Charlotte FC, while Patrick Agyemang drove them to a 2-0 win over FC Cincinnati.
But the real star of the show was Diego Luna, who shined bright for Real Salt Lake in a 2-1 win at Houston Dynamo FC, just days after being named to his first USMNT roster in an official FIFA window.
Luna keyed Salt Lake’s opening goal against the Dynamo, showing off his ability to draw defenders in before finding the clever outlet pass:
The 21-year-old was sharp on the ball – and equally sharp off it. Luna’s ability to exploit space with clever movement inside the box was on full display for RSL’s second goal, where the 2024 MLS Young Player of the Year put the ball into the back of the net himself:
Luna looks decisive right now in a way that Real Salt Lake fans (and USMNT fans) could get used to. With two wins in their last three games and a much-improved attacking performance against San Diego FC in a Matchday 3 loss, RSL are starting to round into form. Luna’s performances have a whole lot to do with that.
When B.J. Callaghan was named Nashville SC’s new manager last season, the club publicly discussed their desire to transition to "Nashville 2.0." The idea was to get younger and more tactically diverse.
So far in 2025, both of those things have happened. Over the winter, Nashville signed two new starters by adding Edvard Tagseth in central midfield and Ahmed Qasem in the attacking midfield line. They also acquired Matthew Corcoran as a rising central midfield prospect from the USL Championship. This team has certainly gotten younger – and they’ve needed some of that youthful energy to execute on Callaghan’s higher-energy tactical demands.
Playing in Callaghan’s 4-2-2-2 shape, Nashville have become a more intentional possession team and a more aggressive defensive outfit than they were under former manager Gary Smith. Now, they’re not possessing like the Columbus Crew or pressing like D.C. United. This team isn’t operating at the extremes. But they’ve developed more stylistic variety in 2025. Compared to last season, Nashville are…
- Keeping 51% possession, up from 47.6%
- Hitting 219 short passes per 90, up from 164
- Averaging 27.4 yards per goalkeeper pass, down from 33.7 last year
- Making 2.25 final third tackles per 90, up from 1.44 last year
Armed with a new approach, Nashville enjoyed a statement result on Sunday with a 3-1 road win over the previously perfect Philadelphia Union. We’re in uncharted territory for Nashville right now. I, for one, can’t wait to see what their ceiling is.
The Western Conference table doesn’t look remotely like I thought it would through the first four games of the season. One feature of the current standings? Preseason trophy favorites LAFC and Seattle Sounders FC are in eighth and 10th place, respectively.
Sure, competing in the Concacaf Champions Cup has made life more difficult for those teams than most. They’ve had to dig deeper into their squads and haven’t had the chance to create the same chemistry with fixture congestion-induced lineup rotation. Even still, we’ve seen some very real weaknesses for both LAFC and Seattle early in 2025.
Neither team is elite on the ball.
There’s a reason why Austin FC gave LAFC 64% possession during a 1-0 road win for Nico Estévez’s team on Saturday and why St. Louis gave Seattle 64% possession during a 1-0 win later that same day. While Austin and St. Louis want to improve on the ball, Estévez and Olof Mellberg knew they could exploit their opponents’ inability to create consistent chances against a set defense. So far this year, LAFC rank 25th in MLS in non-penalty xG while Seattle rank 14th.
When faced with a well-organized, committed, defense-first team, both contenders have struggled.
Now, when Jesús Ferreira and Jordan Morris are both healthy and getting a run of games together, maybe things will look different for Seattle. And when Cengiz Ünder is playing full 90s on the right wing, maybe things will look different for LAFC. But for now, the book is out on how to beat the (would-be) best in the West.
Speaking of teams that are having trouble creating chances, allow me to present the New England Revolution. Through the first month of the 2025 season, the Revs…
- Are yet to score a goal themselves! Their only goal of the year came courtesy of a Thiago Martins own goal in a 2-1 loss at New York City FC on Saturday.
- Rank dead-last in MLS in non-penalty xG, with just 0.42 per 90 minutes, according to FBref.
- Have the lowest non-penalty xG per shot in the league at 0.06.
- Are in the bottom half of the league for passes into the final third and passes into the attacking penalty area.
Even before Leo Campana went down with an injury that’s likely to keep him out for a few more weeks, New England found themselves struggling. Try as he might, Caleb Porter hasn’t found a way to get the best out of this massively overturned roster. No team brought back fewer minutes from 2024 than the Revs, a decision made as part of their quest to break out of the Eastern Conference’s basement.
So far in 2025, though, this New England squad hasn’t come close to finding their attacking footing. With just one point through four games and a brutal five-game stretch coming up against both New York teams, FC Cincinnati, Atlanta United and Charlotte FC, life isn’t going to get any easier.
The Colorado Rapids are undefeated through their first four games in MLS play, not least because Zack Steffen has been downright fantastic. Most recently, the US international made a career-best 12 saves and saved 0.8 goals more than expected, according to FBref’s data, in a 2-1 win at the San Jose Earthquakes.
Sticking with the "goals saved above expected" statistic for a moment… Steffen currently ranks third out of the 37 goalkeepers who have featured across the league this year in that category. He’s saved 2.6 goals more than expected. Or, to put it another way, he’s saved nearly two-thirds of a goal more than expected every single game. The only shot-stoppers ahead of him are San Jose’s Daniel and CF Montréal’s Jonathan Sirois.
Steffen is in the form of his life right now. Without his truly elite performance against the Earthquakes this past weekend, the Rapids would’ve been looking at a draw at best in California:
These sharp performances between the posts come as a genuine contrast from Steffen’s 2024 campaign, where he finished as the worst shot-stopper in MLS: he allowed 9.1 goals more than expected last year, according to FBref.
If the version of Steffen that’s played for the first month of 2025 sticks around all season, the Rapids will be a devastatingly difficult opponent come Audi MLS Cup Playoffs time.
