MLS Eastern Conference: Orlando City shine, Insigne wants a Messi jersey & more on each team

Welcome back our two-part weekly MLS column here at Backheeled where we break down all 29 teams in the league.

Joe’s got the West. I’ve got the East. Wilfried Nancy’s got a message to send.. Let’s do this thing.

To read up on the West, check out Joe’s rundown.

MLS Western Conference: Josh Wolff fired in Austin, Seattle Sounders’ elite defending & more on each team

We’re dissecting every MLS team in the Western Conference.

BackheeledJoseph Lowery

Atlanta United

Result: 2-1 win vs. New York Red Bulls

Atlanta haven’t played well for a while, but they did enough against a bad New York Red Bulls team to keep themselves alive heading into Decision Day. They tripled New York’s shots, played with needed urgency, and got a standout performance from Alexey Miranchuk.

He slotted home a penalty kick, created three chances, and unbalanced New York throughout the night with really creative positioning, often taking up a starting position on the right, where he and Saba Lobzhanidze would pull defenders wide, opening space for Miranchuk to jump into centrally. But I just want to highlight this perfectly-threaded assist for the game-winning goal.

Literally perfect. Miranchuk is giving the Five Stripes a chance in 2024, but I’m super excited to see him after a full preseason with a hopefully improved roster next year.

Charlotte FC

Result: 2-0 win vs. CF Montreal

Patrick Agyemang hive assemble! 

The striker owned Joel Waterman in a way that’s so hard to recover from. If you look closely I think you can see his soul leave his body. Agyemang has been kept out of the team by Karol Świderski, who has been on a rather unexpected hot streak.

Since the start of September, Swiderski leads MLS strikers in xG per 96 (0.99). He’s second in shots per 96 (4.89) and fourth in goals per 96 (1.03). For a player who was clearly on the way out, he’s had quite the redemption tour. It clearly means a lot to him.

“Half of the fans say we don’t need you,” he said after his fourth goal in three games. “...I tried to not read this, to not check the internet… sometimes one goal can change a lot, and I think this goal in Miami - maybe someone will say lucky - but the coach always says to me to try and be in the five-yard-box, and I try to be there. Finally I scored against Miami, and now I play better.”

Sometimes it just takes a single goal for strikers to get back on track, and that’s certainly the case for Swiderski. Charlotte head into Decision Day with the best defensive record in the league – Dean Smith has settled on using three ground-covering center mids and pushing Pep Biel to the right wing of a 4-3-3-ish shape. It’s working. They now have an in-form No. 9 plus a lethal game-changer off the bench. I still want to see Agyemang given a bigger role going forward, but the current setup is working in the short term.