San Diego FC has won as a heavy favorite, then a slight favorite in these Major League Soccer playoffs.
Now, it gets tougher. Because Thomas Müller insists on still making himself a menace.
For San Diego to win its MLS semifinals match Saturday night, it will take saying a firm nein — no — to the German striker’s canny bids to score or set up goals and to conquer American football as he conquered European and Argentine football long ago.
Müller 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.
A decade-plus after he rocked the football world by scoring five goals in each of his first two World Cup tournaments, Müller is lighting up America’s top soccer league at age 36. When Vancouver signed Müller in August, four months after his German club said he wouldn’t be brought back, the Canadian team became a serious threat to win its first MLS Cup since entering the league in 2011. Müller was certain to make a good Vancouver squad better.
No training camp? No problem.
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.
The MLS postseason would pose a tougher test. Playoffs matches, as MLS veterans never fail to point out, serve up greater intensity.
A 13-time Bundesliga champion, Müller wasn’t 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. He went 91 minutes in the conference semifinals match, a shootout victory over LAFC. By holding LAFC off for the No. 2 seed in the west, Vancouver was able to play that game on its carpet.
Know this: San Diego FC will not be in awe of Müller.
The San Diego newbies have their own great MLS striker in Anders Dreyer.
The Danish wing, 27, has built off a bright season that made him the league’s top performer other than Lionel Messi.
It’s no coincidence that in SDFC’s three playoff victories, Dreyer has scored at least once.
The formula to winning the MLS trophy is no different from the formula to win the World Cup or the top prizes in Europe: proven scorers need to convert their chances.
SDFC’s Dreyer and Norwegian teammate Amahl Pellegrino did so in San Diego’s two victories in the first round, whereas Portland’s strikers came up empty on good opportunities in Game 1’s first half.
San Diego’s 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 “Chucky” Lozano converted with seeming ease.
The strikers-must-convert theme played out in SDFC’s 1-0 victory Monday on Dreyer’s crisp goal in the 72nd minute. Minnesota United coach Eric Ramsay distilled the game’s essence to Dreyer being on his game more than his own very good forwards were.
“That’s the difference,” said Ramsay, a former Manchester United assistant. “Dreyer’s been a difference-maker for them all season. And that’s what you pay the money for. We were probably not quite at that level yet, I wouldn’t say, and I think that showed.”
Dreyer authored a perfect response when Escondido’s 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.
Minnesota standouts Kelvin Yeboah and Robin Lod, in contrast, did not parlay decent chances into goals that night.
“Eight times out of 10,” Ramsay said, “they 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’s ruthless in those moments.”
San Diego and Vancouver are similar, beyond each one boasting a top-notch striker. Both sides have overcome numerous injuries to win at a high rate. Though SDFC’s Mikey Varas should have been named MLS Coach of the Year, Vancouver’s Jesper Sorensen ought to have been a close runner-up. Under their first-year MLS coach, a former midfielder in Europe, the Whitecaps finished first of 30 teams in goal differential, second in goals allowed and third in goals scored.
Gulp.
Yet from me, SDFC gets the slightest of edges to advance to the MLS Cup match.
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.
And Vancouver’s task of closing down SDFC’s varied attack was made tougher Saturday night, when it lost two center back, one to injury and another — MLS Defender of the Year Tristan Blackmon — to multiple yellow cards.
SDFC’s ultra-young back line will be put to the test, too. The tandem of Müller and American forward Brian White (16 goals) will create broad challenges. Though Müller surely has lost some speed since he led Germany to its fourth World Cup title 11 years ago, he’s shown MLS comers that he can still read the game like few can. “He’s a clever, unpredictable player who always knows where to go,” Pep Guardiola, one of his former Bayern Munich coaches, told the team’s website last year.
SDFC might as well get used to overcoming a brilliant striker. If it reaches the MLS final, there’s a good chance that the other top star of the 2014 Word Cup final — Messi — will be waiting.
