It had to take something truly special to overshadow expansion side St. Louis City SC winning its first Major League Soccer match on the opening day of the 2023 season.
A 2022 World Cup winner provided it.
Atlanta United's Thiago Almada, who two months ago helped Lionel Messi's Argentina capture the sport's ultimate prize in Qatar, scored two spectacular stoppage-time goals to stun the San Jose Earthquakes in Saturday's curtain-raiser in front of almost 68,000 fans in Georgia.
Twenty-two of the league's now 29 clubs were in action Saturday. Two more games remain on the Week 1 slate: Sunday night's primetime tilt between the Seattle Sounders and Colorado Rapids (8 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX Deportes and AppleTV) and Portland-Timbers-Sporting Kansas City on Monday — a match that was postponed 48 hours because of inclement weather out west.
Here's a roundup of Saturday's action:
A stunning six minutes from Almada
In December, the 21-year-old playmaker became the first active MLS player to win the World Cup. On Saturday, with his team losing 1-0 to the Quakes after more than 90 minutes inside a packed Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Almada proved he was no mere passenger on Messi's rocket ship.
His first goal came almost out of nowhere, a long-range bomb that kissed off the underside of the crossbar. By the time Almada lined up to take a free kick from about 25 yards in the 98th minute, there was a sense that more magic was in store. It was:
Almada's opening day performance was a statement of intent. After taking some time to settle in during his first season in the United States, he appears determined to become one of MLS's leading players in his second campaign en route to a European transfer next January — one that could shatter the current $26 million record set by Miguel Almiron's move to Newcastle in 2019.
St. Louis off gets to a winning start
It didn't matter that MLS's newest team seemed destined to lose this match when Austin FC's Jon Gallagher put the hosts 2-1 up late in Texas. Journeyman St. Louis center back Tim Parker's first half header had already made history for the newbies, giving them both the club's maiden goal and an unlikely 20-minute lead against an opponent that finished second in the Western Conference to eventual MLS Cup champ LAFC last season.
Then Jared Stroud pulled the visitors level, and star Brazilian striker João Klauss nudged City ahead with a pinpoint finish off the far post with just four minutes left.
St. Louis held on to claim a triumphant debut ahead of what promises to be a raucous home opener against Charlotte next week.
Nashville tops NYCFC in opener
U.S. World Cup center back Walker Zimmerman scored the first goal of the 2023 campaign in Nashville's 2-0 afternoon victory over New York City FC:
The Pigeons lost starting goalkeeper and captain Sean Johnson — a teammate of Zimmerman with the USMNT in Qatar – but struggled mostly in the attack in Tennessee, managing just two shots on target.
Canadian winger Jacob Shaffelburg put the outcome beyond doubt when he doubled the hosts' lead with 10 minutes to go:
Toronto loses Insigne, blows lead at D.C. United
TFC missed the playoffs in 2022, their first season under veteran coach Bob Bradley. The Reds still entered this year with plenty of justified optimism; after arriving midway through last season, Italian internationals Federico Bernardeschi and Lorenzo Insigne have been there from the start this year and now fully understand the unique challenge that MLS presents.
Yet Bradley's plans for the early part of 2023 went out the window almost immediately, as he was forced to sub out the former Napoli attacker in the first half after Insigne went down with a non-contact leg injury. Bernardeschi canceled out the hosts' early lead from the penalty spot, and TFC looked to have earned all three points when Mark-Anthony Kaye made it 2-1 with just seven minutes left.
D.C. had other ideas, getting stoppage time goals from Christian Benteke and Theodore Ku-DePietro to shock their guests and snare all three points.
No Trafico, no problem
The marquee match of the weekend was supposed to pit MLS Cup champ LAFC and their crosstown rival LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl, but bad weather nixed that one, too. [It's been rescheduled for July 4.] No matter. There was no shortage of drama on Saturday, as the words and videos above prove. But that wasn't all.
Last season's runner up Philadelphia Union spanked the Columbus Crew, who dropped their first test under new coach Wilfried Nancy 4-1. The New England Revolution and Minnesota United both notched 1-0 road wins, at Charlotte and Dallas respectively.
Finally, in Saturday's nightcap north of the border, Real Salt Lake also pulled off a comeback win in Vancouver, surviving a first half strike by Javain Brown before getting two in the second from Justen Glad and Damir Kreilach.
If opening day was any indication, the 2023 MLS season won't disappoint.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports, and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.
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