MLS by the Numbers: Austin and Charlotte break records, early Seattle Sounders concerns and more

It’s week two and my head is already spinning with MLS storylines. With four league records falling only two weeks into the season, it could be quite a banner year if things can keep up their current pace. Also, Austin FC are on pace for 175 goals this season, so do with that info what you please.

Welcome to MLS By the Numbers, where we’ll go through some key stats to recap the weekend, possible trends around the league, and other things that are fun to talk about. Let’s get counting:

10: Goals scored for Austin FC over two matches 

Austin FC set a few records over the weekend as they torched Inter Miami 5-1, a result which followed on the heels of Austin ripping Cincinnati 5-0 in their season opener. While Miami are expected to struggle over the course of the season, anytime that a team scores five goals in two consecutive matches, it’s time to take notice. That goal tally is a record-breaking opening to the season. The record for goals scored in a team’s opening two matches was eight and shared by the Houston Dynamo in 2016 and Minnisota United in 2020. This, however. doesn’t mean that the season will be rosy for Austin. The Dynamo finished last in the West that season with the second-fewest goals scored while Minnesota United finished fourth in the league during their season. One out two ain’t bad.

It’s a record that doesn’t mean much overall but for an Austin side that struggled last season, finishing second to last in the West, this shows that a platform is there for improvement. Josh Wolff’s ideas are taking shape as Sebastian Driussi, Cecilio Dominguez and Diego Fagundez are there to cut teams apart on the break. Alex Ring is one of the best all-around midfielders in the league and adding Ethan Finlay improves the team’s depth in a big way. Miami had a chance to get back into the game when Leonardo Campana opened his MLS scoring account in the 53rd minute to cut the deficit to 3-1, but Wolff’s response of removing Kip Keller and Dominguez for Finlay and Ruben Gabrielsen paid off in a big way to see the match through.

300: MLS appearances for Diego Fagundez

Speaking of Fagundez, he set a record of his own as the youngest player to reach 300 appearances in MLS history. At 27 and 20 days, he’s almost three years younger than the previous holder Justin Mapp who was 29 and 255 days at the time. Fagundez is finding his feet again in Austin after struggling during the end of his time in New England. If his form from the weekend, where he assisted two goals, keeps up, there will be plenty more appearances on the horizon for him.

98:00: The time on the clock when Ola Kamara scored DC United’s winner from the spot over FC Cincinnati.

After getting steamrolled facing Austin in week one, Pat Noonan will feel hard done not to get anything out to this match. Bill Hamid had an excellent day in net making six saves as Cincinnati switched to a true back five to protect Alec Cann but also had no issues creating chances due to Dominique Badji’s inclusion in the lineup. But the more things change, the more they stay the same as Geoff Cameron again led to a loss for Cincinnati as his handball in the box set the stage for Kamara’s penalty. Yuya Kubo did have a day to build on with two interceptions and four tackles won flying everywhere for Cincy. 

With continued performances like this, the wins will come, but for a rebuilding team, margins are razor-thin. 

32: Goals scored during the weekend but only one can be the goal of the week

Until further notice, this is now the Yimmi Chara goal of the week award. There are discussions of if this qualifies as a bicycle kick goal, but no matter what, this overhead kick was a stunner for the Portland Timbers attacker, and to score one two weeks in a row is something else. He’ll have wanted to get more than a 1-1 draw with Los Angeles FC from the goal, but this was still a good result considering how much pressure Portland was under and that fullback Claudio Bravo was dismissed with a red card in the 62nd minute. 

4. 74,479: Fans taking in Charlotte FC’s first-ever MLS home match against the LA Galaxy

It may not have ended how Miguel Ángel Ramírez would have liked but a 1-0 loss to the Galaxy isn’t a bad result at all.  They were under pressure for most of the match but help may be on the way as Charlotte may be adding Kamil Jozwiak from Derby County to improve their play on the wing. Charlotte initially agreed to a deal before he was injured and it seems like interest is still there on both sides.

0: Points or goals scored for the Seattle sounders through two games this season.

Sharing this distinction with Charlotte FC and FC Cincinnati isn’t what the Sounders had in mind opening the season. They’ve only allowed two goals this season so Brian Schmetzer’s team is doing what’s expected on the defensive end but losing to Real Salt Lake by a 1-0 score stings. If anything this shows how important Raul Ruidiaz is for the team. He has missed the last two matches with a hamstring injury, but the addition of Albert Rusnak was supposed to do more to make them injury-proof.

The Sounders are no strangers to slow starts so it’s not a reason to worry yet but it’s possible they could end up having too many stars and not enough of the ball to go around. Rusnak only missed one pass over the weekend, going 42/43 but was only able to convert this to one key pass with Jordan Morris starting the match on the bench and Fredy Montero leading the line. That’s a lot of keeping the ball, but not a whole lot of doing anything with it. And that was reflected in the overall team performance with Salt Lake doubling up Seattle’s 8 shots with 16 of their own despite an almost exact 50/50 possession split. With another week playing a loaded schedule hosting Leon on Tuesday and the Galaxy on Saturday, it could get worse before things get better, but there’s too much talent to fail right now. 

Honorable Mentions:

• 241 regular-season victories for Bruce Arena making him the all-time leader passing Sigi Schmid
• Three goals for Lewis Morgan in a 4-1 victory over Toronto FC as players continue to flourish outside of Miami. He also got my player of the week vote.
• 68 percent possession for Toronto FC, the highest in MLS this week during which they lost to the Red Bulls. Further enforcing that possession is a meaningless stat, CF Montreal had 66 percent possession in their 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Union. Even a man advantage wasn’t enough to get a result.
• Five red cards handed out as teams are a little too amped to start the season.