Seattle's Bilbao-style pipeline, Miami's identity crisis & more | Matchday 6

Since we’re coming off the international date and teams have had six games plus an extra week of film to figure themselves out, seems like a good time to go around the league one-by-one instead of the usual format.

So in we go: 

Toronto FC 3-2 Colorado Rapids

MLS After Dark: Midday Edition kicked ass in a few ways.

1. The final 40 minutes of the game, starting with Raheem Edwards’ red card and apexing with one of the most insane own goals you’ll ever see, were totally unhinged. I can’t even begin to pull it apart. Pure Tactics Free Zone™ stuff.
2. Toronto started Josh Sargent, got a goal from him (the game-winner) and showed real progress in hitting the types of passes – third-line passes into zone 14, most of them to Sargent's feet – that they’ve not accessed all year. This performance, even when it was 11v11, showed the theory of how he can be a kind of skeleton key for the attack (even without Djordje Mihailovic, who sadly missed this one).
3. Colorado were second-best on the day, but still dangerous at times and still absolutely committed to being exactly who they want to be with the ball, and I admire the hell out of that. Here they are directly off the second-half kick, playing 10v11:

There aren’t many teams in the league that know who they are so clearly. And yeah, that’s the sequence that made it 10v10 and set up Aaronson’s equalizer.