MLS Winners and Losers: Lionel Messi’s four-goal masterclass, Chucky Lozano’s cold-blooded snub and Cavan Sullivan proving Bradley Carnell wrong

Normally it'd be time for a bit of variety here. Perhaps there's room for a deep cut, or a look at the sicko, MLS after Dark, random 3-3 draw between two fringe playoff teams you would normally have ignored. Sure, there will be some of that later. But to lead this thing on anyone but Messi would be something of a journalistic disservice.

To put it simply: four goals, one assist, six chances created, three big chances created, two free-kicks. And to top it off, exactly ZERO defensive contributions. Miami won 7-1. This is late-career Messi at his most fun. Miami were matched up against a bad team that defended even worse than their already pretty morbid goal difference suggests. Messi had space and time to operate. Four goals could have been five or six. And he made this whole thing look so, so easy. There are larger, more existential questions to be asked about Miami's season from here. Their overall balance is up in the air. There isn't much room for trade deadline splashes. This is probably the Miami you're going to get.

On current form, Miami are not good enough to win MLS Cup this season. But they are going to do immensely fun things with the GOAT swaggering around.

This is not an on-pitch criticism. Houston were short of their best against San Jose Earthquakes and didn't quite get the Guilherme magic that they needed to walk away with anything other than a 0-0 tie with Bruce Arena's side. What stings from the weekend, though, is the player they let go.

Jack McGlynn, their silky midfield lynchpin and advanced-stats passing darling, has been sold to Stoke City for just short of $6 million. This is bad for two reasons. The first is that McGlynn is one of MLS's most fun players to watch, a player with such a lovely left foot and such dire defensive numbers. There's beauty in that contrast. The second, and perhaps most important, is the fact that Houston don't really have anyone in-house to replicate his 3.08 chances created per 90 minutes.

Yes, MLS is a selling league. Yes, this is decent value. But Houston are second in the West. Losing a key piece at this juncture hurts, plain and simple.

Is Sam Surridge the English Midlands' answer to Erling Haaland? Alright, don't think about that question for too long. It will make Haaland look bad. On a more serious note, Surridge is the best kind of MLS striker, though: a big dude who scores goals who couldn't cut it in a better league.

Surridge is an elite finisher but just about alright at a lot of other stuff. Nashville trim away the fat and let the English dude just score goals. He averages 28 touches per 90, putting him in the 19th percentile among all MLS forwards. But his 0.99 goals per 90 are in the 97th percentile. This is wonderful stuff.

That's all nice. But to really understand Surridge, you should watch this header he scored in a 4-0 battering of Cincy on Saturday:

Now THAT is a striker.

It is a credit to San Diego FC that we still really don't quite know what happened between Chuky Lozano and Mikey Varas. The two had some sort of falling out last season, and there was reportedly a locker room altercation in October 2025. San Diego subsequently made it clear that Lozano would not play any part in the 2026 season. It perhaps cost him featuring in a home World Cup.

They have since done the smart thing and loaned him out to LA Galaxy (Lozano has a no-trade clause in his contract which, no doubt, might have influenced whatever moves SDFC were eager to make). Quite wonderfully, LA and SDFC played each other Saturday night. Lozano started, scored, celebrated his goal, and then spent the ensuing 30 minutes trying to kick anything that moves. It was a minor miracle that he didn't get sent off for hacking at Anders Dreyer multiple times in the dying minutes.

And then, after the game, Varas approached Lozano for a handshake. The Mexican didn't acknowledge him and walked away.

It shows there's clearly no love lost between the two men.

This is just it, isn't it?

Gil is solely known as a MLS playmaker, in the best way possible. He's a little Spanish dude who floats about, does fun things with a soccer ball, and makes this game look so, so simple. His numbers haven't been unreal this year - eight goals and four assists in 22 starts. But that's mostly because new manager Marko Mitrovic has the former Deportivo man playing a little deeper in build-up. There have been times where Gil has operated right behind a more central striker. Here, he's doing a Spanish sort of Luka Modric impression - nice touches, plenty of ground covered, around three chances created per 90 minutes.

His goal and assist on Sunday were just a reminder of what a special player he is.

Bit of an unnecessary stray? Perhaps. The issue is, Carnell now looks like a remarkably overcautious manager. He's not a bad coach by any means. Carnell took expansion side St. Louis CITY to the top of the Western Conference in 2023 and followed that by winning the Supporters' Shield with Philly in 2025. His methods worked a charm for the Union last year. They were organized, experienced, and really, really hard to beat.

The front office stripped him of resources in the offseason. Philly appeared a piece or two away from genuinely competing. Instead, the roster got worse.

The idea, presumably, was for Carnell to play the kids. But he resisted dipping into the Union academy and tried to use the same approach with a weaker team. It's never nice to see a coach lose his job, but Philly had little choice after dropping as low as 15th in the East. New manager Ryan Richter, promoted from within, has taken the handbrake off.

Chief among his moves? Letting Cavan Sullivan play. And yes, Sullivan has been fantastic, with six goal contributions in his last six games. But Neil Pierre has also excelled at the back. Against the New York Red Bulls, Philly started three academy products and brought a fourth off the bench. They won 3-1. Now that is a youth movement.