Someone pooped on my radar screen. Week 3 was about as uneventful as they come. Sixteen teams, eight matches, and only ten freaking goals! After a gut-wrenching injury on the New England turf, a whole mess of red and yellow cards, and of course some hopeless finishing in front of goal, the black hole that was week 3 is finally over. Because the action was so bad, I’ll be abbreviating this week’s Radar Series post so we can all just move on.

F-Up of the Week

This distinction goes to all 16 MLS clubs in action this weekend. What an awful show it was to watch. Even FC Dallas, which managed a comfy and at times attractive 2-0 win in Philly, failed to convert on too many quality chances – they should have had at least five on the day. NYRB was also impressive in their 2-0 win over bitter rivals DC United on Sunday. If this blog cared about the east coast, I’d give the Red Bulls a mention in the Talking Points section below because their performance generated a lot of positive buzz on my MLS radar. Beyond New York and FCD, the other 14 clubs in action this weekend turned in careless and unattractive performances. The games lacked both sharpness and intensity as not one of the eight matches saw two quality sides share the pitch.

One more F-up goes to MLSsoccer.com for not even nominating the best goal in their week 3 GOTW video. Read more and watch the video in the GOTW section below.

Talking Points

Oscar “Papi” Pareja
One of the main talking points around the league after Saturday was FCD head coach Oscar Pareja and his never ending tactical genius. I personally thought the folks at MLSsoccer.com gave Pareja too much credit for making an obvious substitution against a shabby Philly side this week. To be fair, though, there wasn’t much to talk about. At halftime, Papi brought on young jack-of-all-trades Ryan Hollingshead to replace Michel, the dead ball specialist who was on a yellow. Despite his inexperience, Hollingshead is a starting XI caliber player in MLS and more versatile than Michel so I thought the substitution Pareja was praised for was an obvious one to make. However, it should be said that every single adjustment Pareja has made through three games has been spot on.

Papi’s Set Pieces
Pareja also deserves attention for drawing up a clever set piece in three consecutive matches to start the season. Each one is unique and takes full advantage of Dallas’ legitimate dead ball threats: Mauro Diaz’ right foot and Michel’s left foot. Video links and a brief description of each play are listed below:

Week 1: FCD v. San Jose: A sneaky, clever design as everyone in the building thought Diaz would try and curve it over the wall and under the cross bar. Perez should have scored.

Week 2: FCD v. SKC: I thought Michel would whip one directly into the box, but he caught SKC off guard by quickly tapping it to Mauro Diaz, who tapped it right back to Michel in a more advanced position. Just like the chance in week 1, this was quite simple, but the play utilized the threat of Diaz and Michel to trick the defense and create a quality scoring chance.

Week 3 in Philly: The Union were surely concerned about Michel putting a dangerous ball into the box on this one, but then he tricked them, chipping to an open Tesho Akindele. This one put FCD in a fantastic attacking position again. Not the best video, but you get the idea.

Defenses across the league are showing Dallas respect inside the 18 yard box, giving the club’s attacking talent room to work the edges in dangerous set piece situations.

OCSC Attack is in Trouble
They are missing a key contributor up top in Carlos Rivas, but Orlando City are in real trouble in the attacking third right now. Their two goals on the season can be chalked up to luck (a deflection and a GK error), and other legitimate chances have been few and far between. Analysts in the media that have watched more Orlando City and know the tactical side of the game better than me have suggested that Kaka and Kevin Molino, the promising young Trinidadian, are carrying the attacking burden all by themselves. That sounds like something a team does when they are on two red cards. Depressing. Not to worry though, Colorado, New England and Montreal have all failed to find the back of the net in 2015, so sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good!

International Call Ups
By my count, 56 MLS players have been called up for international duty during the March 23-31 FIFA dates. That’s a lot, even if many of those call ups are for U-20, U-23 and some average CONCACAF teams. FIFA dates are impacting MLS more and more as the league’s talent improves and teams with fewer internationals gain a significant advantage in MLS matches that overlap international competition. Orlando City SC for example, an expansion side with little depth, may struggle to field a full 18 in Montreal on Saturday after seven of their players were called up for international duty this week.

GOTW

I was going to skip this section because, as I pointed out above, MLS’ 16 clubs playing in week 3 combined to score a paltry 10 goals, and not a single one was worth writing about. Anyhow, I thought BWP’s opener on Sunday night was the clear cut winner, yet when MLS released their GOTW nominees for week 3, BWP’s was nowhere to be found!

Historical Note: The San Jose goal nominated on MLSsoccer.com was trash and would never have made the cut, but the Quakes christened their new home on Sunday, Avaya Stadium, and that goal was the first ever scored in the new venue. I guess the historical value got it onto the GOTW list, and likely at the expense of BWP. On a related note, it seems something borderline groundbreaking and positive has happened for MLS in all three weeks of the 2015 season. This week’s positive offering was the debut of Avaya Stadium (shown above). It’s a gorgeous building and rightfully so as San Jose, an MLS charter franchise, has never truly had a home they could call their own.

Surprise of the Week

No real winners here. I find it somewhat surprising that DC United looked so listless against NYRB on Sunday night, but they are missing two of their MVPs in Luis Silva and Fabian Espindola. New England struggling early on is a bit of a surprise, but they are dealing with key injuries as well. I’ve got nothing in this section, and that is representative of how unexciting week 3 was. The games weren’t destined to provide us with great entertainment this weekend (COLvNYC ending in a scoreless draw was hilariously predictable) but I’m counting on week 4 to make up for that with match-ups like DAL v SEA, DC v LA, CLB v NYR and VAN v POR.