U-22 watch, midweek madness & more | Thursday Round-Up

• Enjoying my coverage? Want more of it? Then click that button below and subscribe. You'll get the full Sunday column every week, Tuesday morning's Power Rankings and a deeper dive every Wednesday.

We warned you, on Monday's Soccerwise, that the midweek slate was liable to throw out some bizarre results. That's the way it goes with Wednesday games in MLS, as the combination of short rest and rotated squads generates The Crazy.

Three worth watching:

• RBNY alternating between tremendously good and hilariously bad possession-to-possession in their 4-4 home draw with D.C.
• 'Keeper goal! Luka Gavran got the late equalizer in Toronto's 3-3 draw with Philly. The Reds are incapable of playing a normal game.
• A "holy shit this team is scary" second half from the Quakes, who turned a 1-0 deficit into a 5-1 mauling of Austin. San Jose's so, so good, man.

I wrote on the best U-22s thus far in the 2026 MLS season for Wednesday's column. I didn't mention Columbus's Taha Habroune, but should've. He's not in the running for the No. 1 spot, but he's a very good No. 8, and earned himself Man of the Match honors from FotMob in his team's 2-1 win over the Galaxy.

Habroune has been more of a possession-focused 8 rather than an attacking 8 or ball-winning 8, but with the US U-20s this past autumn his box arrival was very, very good. We've yet to see that at the club level, though I am holding out hope.

Another U-22 I'm very interested in is Charlotte winger Rodolfo Aloko, who's been scorching in Next Pro and has broken into the first team the past couple of games. Didn't do much in the Crown's 4-1 loss to Orlando (!!!) last night – told you crazy stuff happens in midweek MLS – but he's obviously got talent.

Good Reads:

• Really excellent feature on Bruce Arena & the Quakes from the legend Scott French for Soccer America.
• Sydney Hunte dove into the pits of hell with Atlanta United for Scarves & Spikes. Spoiler: this looks unfixable.
• Ben Wright takes a look at why the Concacaf Champions Cup workload has yet to break Nashville SC for SixOneFiveSoccer.
• Jürgen Klopp paid a visit to New Jersey and saw what we all see: the RBNY academy is once again one of the league's best, from Sanjay Sujanthakumar at Backheeled.
• San Diego FC lost once again – and picked up another red card along the way – and all that possession they're generating is starting to look pretty sterile. From Dmitry Ansimov of SDFCNation.

Here's the full crew from Monday's Soccerwise:

There's a new show dropping today. Gass and I did a draft of US U-22s we'd want for the World Cup team and honest to god, there's at least a half-dozen I'd have zero complaints about.

Just wish one of them was a center back. I'll never forgive Josh Wynder for failing to find a short-term loan here.

Help the armchair analyst!

Enjoying this newsletter? If so, please forward it to a friend! Word-of-mouth is the best way to grow this thing right now, so you'd be doing me a real solid if you passed this along to someone who's MLS-curious.

Subscribe