San Diego FC has won as a heavy favorite, then a slight favorite in these Major League Soccer playoffs.<\/p>\n
Now, it gets tougher. Because Thomas M\u00fcller insists on still making himself a menace.<\/p>\n
For San Diego to win its MLS semifinals match Saturday night, it will take saying a firm nein \u2014\u00a0no \u2014 to the German striker\u2019s canny bids to score or set up goals and to conquer American football as he conquered European and Argentine football long ago.<\/p>\n
M\u00fcller the super-ager means that in this MLS Western Conference final, second-seeded Vancouver will bring more firepower into Mission Valley than top-seeded San Diego saw from eight-seeded Portland and fourth-seeded Minnesota in the first two rounds.<\/p>\n
A decade-plus after he rocked the football world by scoring five goals in each of his first two World Cup tournaments, M\u00fcller is lighting up America\u2019s top soccer league at age 36.When Vancouver signed M\u00fcller in August, four months after his German club said he wouldn\u2019t be brought back, the Canadian team became a serious threat to win its first MLS Cup since entering the league in 2011. M\u00fcller was certain to make a good Vancouver squad better.<\/p>\n
No training camp? No problem.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-1 striker scored in his first MLS start, followed it with a hat trick against Eastern Conference leader Philadelphia and finished his mini-MLS season with seven goals and two assists in just six starts.<\/p>\n
The MLS postseason would pose a tougher test. As MLS veterans never fail to point out, the league\u2019s playoff matches serve up greater intensity.<\/p>\n
A 13-time Bundesliga champion, M\u00fcller wasn\u2019t fazed by the step up. He led the Whitecaps to a first-round sweep of Dallas by scoring in Game 1 and converting a Game 2 penalty kick in the shootout.<\/p>\n
M\u00fcller went 91 minutes in the conference semifinals match, a shootout victory over LAFC. By holding LAFC for the No. 2 seed in the west, Vancouver was able to play that game on its carpet.<\/p>\n
Know this: San Diego FC will not be in awe of M\u00fcller. The San Diego newbies have their own great MLS striker in Anders Dreyer.<\/p>\n
The Danish wing, 27, has built off a bright season that made him the league\u2019s top performer other than Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no coincidence that in SDFC\u2019s three playoff victories, Dreyer has scored at least once.<\/p>\n
The formula to winning the MLS trophy is no different from the formula to win the World Cup or the top prizes in Europe: The proven scorers need to convert when they get their chances.<\/p>\n
SDFC\u2019s Dreyer and Norwegian teammate Amahl Pellegrino did so in San Diego\u2019s two victories in the first round, whereas Portland\u2019s strikers came up empty on good opportunities in Game 1\u2019s first half.<\/p>\n
San Diego\u2019s only playoff loss saw Portland tie the match off a clean header, bringing on a shootout. There, three SDFC players misfired after Dreyer and star wing Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano converted with seeming ease.<\/p>\n
The strikers-must-convert theme played out in SDFC\u2019s 1-0 victory Monday on Dreyer\u2019s crisp goal in the 72nd minute. Minnesota United coach Eric Ramsay distilled the game\u2019s essence to Dreyer being a tad more reliable than his own very good forwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the difference,\u201d said Ramsay, a former Manchester United assistant. \u201cDreyer\u2019s been a difference-maker for them all season. And that\u2019s what you pay the money for. We were probably not quite at that level yet, I wouldn\u2019t say, and I think that showed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dreyer authored a perfect response when Escondido\u2019s Corey Baird heeled him an ideal pass to some 12 yards from the goal. The 5-foot-7 right wing scooted fast yet on balance and laced a left-footed shot inside the near post. It was his 23rd goal in 38 MLS matches.<\/p>\n
Minnesota standouts Kelvin Yeboah and Robin Lod, in contrast, did not parlay decent chances into goals that night.<\/p>\n
\u201cEight times out of 10,\u201d Ramsay said, \u201cthey probably make more of those opportunities. But, Dreyer is probably in that position where nine times out of 10, 10 times out of 10, he\u2019s ruthless in those moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
San Diego and Vancouver are similar teams, beyond each one boasting a top-notch striker. Both sides have overcome numerous injuries to win at a high rate.<\/p>\n
And while SDFC\u2019s Mikey Varas deserves MLS Coach of the Year honors, Vancouver\u2019s Jesper Sorensen ought to be a close runner-up. The Danish import has enhanced the league\u2019s quality by fostering rare cohesion and systemic depth.<\/p>\n
Under their first-year MLS coach, the Whitecaps finished first of 30 teams in goal differential, second in goals allowed and third in goals scored.<\/p>\n
Gulp.<\/p>\n
Yet here, SDFC gets the slightest of edges to advance to the MLS Cup match.<\/p>\n
Dreyer and friends continue to receive two-way excellence from Danish defensive midfielder Jeppe Tverskov, whose deft chip set up the Baird-Dreyer scoring sequence.<\/p>\n
And Vancouver\u2019s task of closing down SDFC\u2019s varied attack was made tougher Saturday night, when it lost two center backs, one to injury, the other to two yellow cards.<\/p>\n
The tandem of M\u00fcller and American forward Brian White (16 goals) will create massive challenges for SDFC\u2019s ultra-young back line.<\/p>\n
Though M\u00fcller surely has lost some speed since he led Germany to its fourth World Cup title 11 years ago, he\u2019s shown MLS comers that he can still read the game like few can. \u201cHe\u2019s a clever, unpredictable player who always knows where to go,\u201d Pep Guardiola, one of his former Bayern Munich coaches, told the team\u2019s website last year.<\/p>\n
SDFC might as well get used to overcoming a brilliant striker. If it reaches the MLS final, there\u2019s a good chance that the other top star of the 2014 Word Cup final \u2014 Messi \u2014 will be waiting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego FC has won as a heavy favorite, then a slight favorite in these Major League Soccer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":411787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,3549,15520,7264,221,62,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-411786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-fc","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-soccer","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115630363592105302","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}