Getty Images SportMLS Roundup: Sam Surridge's brace ruins Lionel Messi and Inter Miami's party while Cavan Sullivan dazzles again for Philadelphia Union
The MLS regular season is entering its final two months, and the sense of urgency is picking up.
Contenders are showing their credentials, while the gap between the league's playoff-bound teams and those on the outside looking in is starting to widen.
Right now, there is no team hotter than the Philadelphia Union, who have taken the training wheels off Cavan Sullivan. He, in turn, has shown he might be their best player at the grand old age of 16. The teenager continued his remarkable run of goal contributions with another - this time, the game-winner against San Diego FC in America's Finest City. At the other end of the form table are Philly's bitter rivals, the New York Red Bulls. They picked up just their second win in their last 10 matches to keep their fading playoff hopes alive.
And then, in what could be a postseason preview, Inter Miami and Nashville SC couldn't be separated in a match that saw - believe it or not, these words are being written - Sam Surridge go toe-to-toe with Lionel Messi.
Yet those weren't the only talking points, as GOAL breaks down the weekend's biggest storylines in the latest MLS Roundup.
Nashville send a message
Icon SportswireSurridge refused to let Nashville lose to Miami on Saturday.
For 30-ish minutes on Saturday, Lionel Messi and Inter Miami likely thought the job was done. Rodrigo De Paul had fed Messi a dime, and the 39-year-old buried it from outside the box in one of the best passing and scoring sequences in MLS this season. The celebration between De Paul, Messi and Luis Suarez after going up 2-1 said it all: This was one they desperately wanted to win.
Yet BJ Callaghan and Nashville had other plans.
The Boys in Gold continued to test the home team's porous backline, and in stoppage time, they got their reward. Surridge scored his second goal of the night in the first minute of added time, taking his tally to 15 - four behind Messi in the Golden Boot race. Miami were sloppy in the box, as they've been for the past few years - outside of last year's playoffs - and let what should have been three points turn into one.
As a result, Nashville - who don't have Miami's spending power- are now a full nine points ahead of the Herons in the Eastern Conference and eight ahead of the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Supporters' Shield race.
Boy Wonder continues torrid run
Getty Images SportCavan Sullivan is now on 15 goal contributions this season, the majority of those coming following the World Cup break.
We're getting to the point where if Cavan Sullivan isn't called up for the USMNT, Mauricio Pochettino will have some explaining to do. That is how well the rising Union star is playing.
The forward's confidence was clear in his opener against San Diego, BACKHEELING the ball past Duran Ferree with a deft touch in the box. It was a backbreaking goal to concede in first-half stoppage time, but Sullivan wasn't done yet.
His second finish wasn't quite as good, but it came close as he nutmegged Ferree to complete his brace. Forget calling him the best young player in MLS; he might be among the league's top 20 players on current form, regardless of age.
For San Diego FC, meanwhile, the pressure is building on Mikey Varas. He's generally seen as one of the brightest young American coaches in the game, but his banishment of Hirving "Chucky" Lozano could only work if the team kept winning without the Mexican star. Instead, San Diego are barely hanging on in the playoff race and just took a 5-0 beating from Philly. If they miss the postseason, it will be difficult for the club to keep defending their embattled manager.
Much-needed win
Getty Images SportThe Red Bulls picked up their first win since Aug. 1.
There was plenty of hype surrounding Michael Bradley's hire with the New York Red Bulls. And with good reason.
His father, former USMNT boss Bob Bradley, broke new ground for American coaches abroad. Michael is a USMNT legend himself and drew rave reviews for his work with the Red Bulls' MLS NEXT Pro side, winning the league's title last year.
Yet, depending on New York's internal expectations, Bradley's first season as a senior-level coach has been mixed. If the hope was to tap into the academy, let the kids play and embrace the Red Bulls' ethos, then yes, mission accomplished. But if the expectation was to get back into contention after coming so close to winning the whole thing in 2024, this team hasn't shown enough.
Having won just one of their last nine matches, Bradley and Co. would take three points any way they could get them. They got exactly that in a somewhat fortunate 1-0 win over the Columbus Crew, thanks to an 89th-minute dagger from Ronald Donkor. Columbus held 58 percent possession and created more chances, but Bradley won't complain about how the win came. He needed one.
New York remain outside the play-in places, two points behind a reeling FC Cincinnati side in ninth
LAFC continue to underwhelm
ZUMA Press WireLAFC have fallen to sixth, continuing an underwhelming season under Marc Dos Santos in his first year as the club's boss.
Sticking with the theme of managers under the microscope, a word for Marc Dos Santos. After LAFC almost reached the MLS Cup final last season and showed promise with the attacking tandem of Son Heung-min and Denis Bouanga, there were real hopes this team would be a top contender. That hasn't come to fruition, and frustration is growing with Dos Santos, who replaced long-serving, MLS Cup-winning manager Steve Cherundolo.
To be fair, it hasn't all gone bad. LAFC have conceded the third-fewest goals in the league with 27 and, at times, have shown exactly why they should be an elite MLS squad. Yet inconsistency, especially in an attack that ranks in the middle of the pack, is holding them back. More worryingly, Son has just five goals in 24 appearances after scoring nine in 10 league appearances last year. This team labors to move the ball forward, and it keeps proving costly.
All of that reared its head in Saturday's shock 3-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City. Yes, this isn't the same Kansas City side that languished at the bottom of the league before adding some big names, including Andre Luiz, who scored against LAFC. But even with those reinforcements, Sporting hadn't won since July 22.
Dos Santos is probably safe this season. But if a talented - and expensive - attack continues to falter through the end of the campaign, this club might be looking in another direction come next year.