#bmo is crying somewhere

[corvidaequeer]

@sabertoothwalrus​ please enjoy this cursed image in which Nico finds out about Davey & hijinks ensue

Finn immediately shaves the rest off once he looks in the mirror & sees he looks just like Martin

[just-another-author-i-guess]

hi i really love how you wrote marshall lee!! i couldn't stop thinking about your writing, youre just truly talented!!! it was the dog reader personality that really made me weak at the knees. is it possible you could do a lambgirl reader? half girl half lamb? i saw this idea somewhere and this sorta dynamic with bad boy marshall makes me go😫😫!!! but you can push it down on the list if u want. no rush or anything! you dont owe us anything and remember to take breaks. love you❤️

I love you tooo ty for the encouragement <333

Ty for requesting, sorry I’m it takes me so long to get them done D:

I have recently started writing on ao3 so if you want to read what I have on there my name is just “justanotherauthorig”. Rn I only have a Heisenberg and a Hobbir fanfic so if that’s interesting to you pls check them out ^^ I will post more information soon

Marshall Lee x Lamb Girl! Reader

Tags: fem!reader, Marshall Lee is so hot bruh I can’t, reader is kinda stupid but it’s okay bc she’s nice, idk what to say about this, I didn’t edit it through but are we really surprised?, this would make a good smut :P sorry it’s kinda short tho

Authors note: this was fun :D I googled a bunch of adventure time slang and they’re actually so fun to use lol

Word count; 1,1k

I think he originally started flirting with you just to mess with you

Sure, he thought you were cute as hell

But he wasn’t really looking for anything but a good laugh

You hang out with Fionna and Cake a lot, both of them are very protective of you

The three of you and sometimes BMO have a lil girls night out

On this particular night, you went to the dark forest bc Marshall Lee was having a concert and Fionna really wanted to go

Not so much to hear Marshall Lee, but bc flame prince would be there lol

Anyways, you immediately caught Marshall’s eye as he stood on stage

Both Fionna and Cake had branched off, leaving you alone in the crowd

Your eyes glued to your feet, not even daring to look up at Marshall’s performance as you fiddled nervously with your sleeves

When he finally had a break from the stage, he soundlessly floated up besides you

I kid you not, you almost bleated when you turned around to find the vampire king right besides you as you turned your head

You jumped, scrambled to get away as your lower lip quivered, white ears flattened to your head

“Woah, woah. Calm down there, sweetheart,” Marshall laughed, holding up his hands in mock surrender

You quickly realized that he didn’t intend to harm you and somewhat calmed down, still slightly worried as he flashed his shiny white fangs to you

Your brows furrowed, fists clenching your dress as you fought to keep back the angry tears

“I-I am calm! Have you not heard that it’s rude to go around scaring people like that?” You huffed, sending him the most intimidating glare you could muster which to Marshall Lee looked more like a scared bunny

He smiled wider. “Well, I’m not exactly known for being nice,” He said, voice slightly deepening

You felt threatened, he looked at you like a predator looked at it’s prey and you finally understood why Cake was always bad-mouthing him

“I only hang out with nice people, sorry.” You muttered, turning away from him just to get a break from his all-consuming stare

He laughed again, clearly finding your reacting to be the most hilarious thing he had heard in a long time

You jumped again when you felt his hand creepy up the back of your neck, lips ghosting over your pulse point

Your breath caught in your throat, tears springing to your eyes again at the thought of being bitten. “P-please don’t bite me! Fionna will get m-mad!” You hiccuped, twisting the fabric of your dress even more until it was wrinkled and warm.

He blew on your neck and you felt him pout. “Fionna, huh?”

He pushed himself away from you a bit, finally getting himself out of your close personal space as he floated around you to face you again

“Aw, baby. Don’t cry,” he grinned when he saw your flushed cheek and quivering lips. “I just wanted to have a bit of fun, can you blame me?”

You shook your head defiantly as an answer, making him laugh again. “I promise I won’t bite you, little lady. On one condition,” he said, placing a large hand on your head

You mentally slapped yourself for the way you wanted to lean into his hand, ears twitching ever so slightly as his cold hand touched them

You wrinkled your nose. “On what condition?”

“Sing the next song on stage with me.”

Your eyes widened comically. “No way! I- I don’t even know how to sing! And I don’t know any of your songs,”

Marshall pouted, dramatically holding a hand over his non-beating heart. “And here I thought you were enjoying my show! I’m hurt!” Then he winked at you. “But don’t worry, all you have to do is follow my lead.” And before you knew it, he had an arm around your neck waist and legs as he hoisted you up in his arms

He carried you to the stage, floating above the crowd as you clutched him tightly in fear of falling

He sat you gently down on stage, grabbing his axe-bass and the crown immediately erupted in cheers

You were frozen in fear, face caught in between an angry flush and hysteric cries as you stood before the crowd

You already hated standing down before the scene, with all the people pushing and shoving it quickly overwhelmed you

But standing in front of at least a hundred candy kingdom citizens and a bunch of princes topped the chart of things you hated

You desperately pulled your cardigan around you, attempting to hide as your tail twitched and your ears once again laid themselves flat against your hair

“Follow my lead,” you choked on a gasp when Marshall was suddenly besides you again, whispering in your ear with that deep voice of his

“Good little girl, always picking a fight with me, you know that I’m bad” Marshall hummed, hands leaving his bass for a moment to gently sway your hips

You turned at least ten shades redder, burning up as he made you sway sultrily in front of the mesmerized crowd.

Well, luckily he had picked a song you actually knew.

“But your spending the night with me. What do you want from my world? You’re good little girl,” his hands left you to play his bass again, you gently swayed your hips to the rhythm

You looked intently at Marshall, figuring it was better to look at the troublemaker himself than the large crowd

He made a motion with his head, signaling you to start singing

“Uh-“ you started, inhaling deeply to not stumble over the words. “B-Bad little boy, that’s what you’re acting like, I really don’t buy,” you had to yet again stop yourself from bleating again, taking quick breaths as your hands shook

“That you’re t-that kind of guy-y,” you closed your eyes tightly, hating the way you could help hiccuping up the words. “And if you are, why do you want to hang out with me?”

Suddenly Marshall was by your ear again, chuckling darkly. “You did so well, little lady.” He murmured, before floating away from you a bit to continue the show

“Hey! Isn’t that Y/n?” You breathed out heavily in relief upon hearing Fionna’s voice.

“Come here, sugar,” suddenly Cake enveloped you and you welcomed her happily, snuggling yourself into her warm fur

She stretched, setting you down on the ground besides Fionna before taking your place on stage, cutting Marshall Lee’s verse short as she started singing about hot tomatoes and good sauces

“Hey, are you okay, Y/n? You look pretty jacked up,” Fionna said, pulling you to her side

“Marshall Lee told me to sing with him or he would bite me,” you mumbled bitterly, leaning onto Fionna’s shoulders

She clenched her teeth, face flushing angrily. “That son of a blee-blob!” She hissed. “I’ll kick his buns,”

You smiled slightly. “I told him you would get mad if he bit me,”

“Of course I would! What a butt-guy..”

When the concert ended Fionna was quick to find Marshall and give him a piece of her mind, however the vampire king only laughed her off, telling her that next time he would you wouldn’t be so lucky

Both Fionna and Cake insisted you slept at the treehouse that night and you happily agreed

Of course, it didn’t take Marshall long to seek you out again

He honestly doesn’t have that much going on, a bored guy needs entertainment

“Well, well, well! If it isn’t my favorite little lamb,” Marshall grinned, suddenly appearing in a tree as you were walking home from one of Tree Trunk’s apple pie dinners

This time you pretended not to jump, huffing as you held your head high, refusing to look at him

“I-if it isn’t my least favorite vampire king,” you said, half of your words coming out as a whisper. You mentally slapped yourself, if you were going to give him a comeback you you at least sound like you weren’t absolutely shaking in your boots

“Now that really hurt!” Marshall pouted as he spoke, coming down from the tree to walk besides you “you smell like apple pie,” he noted, sniffing the air

You wrung your hands nervously. “Tree Trunks made me apple pie,” you muttered, still refusing to directly look at the vampire

He cackled. “Jeez. That must have been so boring,”

You frowned, even though your face was turned the other way Marshall Lee noticed, filled with glee. “Tree Trunks is really nice! And his apple pie is amazing,” you huffed, defending your dear friend

“Tree Trunk’s is bunk, dude. Let’s go somewhere,” He grabbed your shoulders and spun you around to finally face him. “Come with me to this undead party, it’s rad. I know you want to,”

You finally had enough, angry heat flooding your face. “L-Leave me alone! And stop acting like such a mr. cool-guy you.. you! Ding-wad!”

To your utter surprise, your little outburst just made Marshall laugh loudly. “I’m a ding-wad, huh? Alright, alright. Give me a chance to show you something cool and I bet you won’t think I’m a ding-wad after,” he grinned, cocking his head like a puppy

A very threatening puppy, in your opinion

You took a moment to regain yourself, noticing he was being somewhat sincere. The goodness in your heart won and you shyly looked at your feet. “A-alright. But no funny tricks,” you mumbled.

“You got it, sweetheart!” He said as he lifted you bridal-style, taking off into the air.

To your utter surprise, you ended up having a good time with Marshall Lee.

He took you to a party in a graveyard, ghosts was actually a lot more chill than most living ppl and you actually managed to socialize

When you got tired and socially exhausted all you had to do was gently tuck on Marshall’s sleeve and he happily flew you home

To his house, I mean. You protested at first, as you didn’t know him that well and it seemed like a pretty bad idea to sleep over at a blood-thirsty vampires house

But all your sleepy protests died down as he tucked you into his bed, gently wrapping you in the sheets and quietly humming as you drifted off to sleep.

As he watched you sleep, ears twitching and cheeks puffed out, he realize that what started as a joke had turned real pretty fast

He felt an overwhelming urge to protect you, not that he would stop mercilessly teasing you, but he quickly discarded the idea that you were just a new plaything

He was also pretty sure Fionna would actually skin him alive (or dead I suppose) if he upset you

When you hung out at the tree house the next day and told them about how you slept over at Marshall’s she was already pretty read to beat his guts

Slowly, and I mean slowly, bc Marshall is a huge tease and you couldn’t stand looking at him for more than 5 minutes without getting so embarrassed you could melt, the two of you eventually started dating

Rest assured, Fionna and Cake both threatened him on multiple occasions, making sure he was on his best behavior

Even Prince Gumball had a few choice words with him lol

Everyone is was extremely worried lmfao (with good reason)

Marshall can be sweet tho, he actually is sometimes

Especially in public, since he knows you get overwhelmed super quickly

All you have to do is look at him with those doe-eyes of yours and he gets the message immediately

Doesn’t matter if you’re in the middle of a fancy dinner in a castle or if he’s playing a concert, he will get you to a place with less people immediately

He really does love you lol

omg bc both of you are so emotionally constipated- like you’re too shy to express your feelings and Marshall has just been taught to believe that expressing feelings is a taboo

If he ever did anything to hurt you tho he would hate himself so much, you’re the purest person he has ever met and hurting you is just a no-no

Sure, he teases you constantly bc that’s just how he is

But if he ever sees upset for real, he will beat himself up over it for the the next decade or so

Fionna will not hesitate to let him know if he messed up either

As I said before, the vampire king will be on his best behavior

You’re his cute little girlfriend and he will treat you as good as he possibly can <3

Hiya ^^ I hope you enjoyed this, sorry it was kinda short D:

I have a confession.. I srsly considered making it into a smut but I stopped myself bc it’s 1 am and I have school tomorrow lol

Lemme know if you would like a part 2 smut version of this :D

Anyways, thank you for reading!

Love, author

[box-of-chaooos]

Fern headcannons!

The little hat nubs are infact a part of him, they can move like an animals ears he just tends not to but eventually to communicate better when he’s silent he will use them for instance wiggling them when he’s okay and folding them back if he’s down.

He has a pressure stim, hence the skwose (idk how it’s spelt) finn gives him making him feel better

He has bad habits of self destructive behaviour and general violent behaviour but he feels horrible afterwards so he tends to boil his anger over till his snaps and ends up having a meltdown somewhere quiet.

He loves to be swaddled up to sleep so when he sleeps he usually sinks into the treehouse leaves or wraps himself in them.

His pants aren’t poofy he pulls em up around his tummy which squishes it at his hips.

He is very animalistic at times especially when angry, like standing on all fours, hissing etc but also outside of being angry, he sits sort of frog/dog like and likes to flop like a rabbit would do.

He stims by putting his arms in the air

Fern is friends with people outside of Finns relationships with them. He and lemon grab actually get along quite well and the ice king actually, when ice king barges in to hang with his ‘bros’ Fern and he actually get along alright.

He can’t eat human food but Jake can blend it up for his body to absorb it instead.

He doesn’t have spit and can’t cry tears but he has sap instead, watery sap. His tears aren’t salty their sweet!

He finds physical contact very hard and doesn’t actually like it all that much, instead he fist bumps, head nudges or even tackles people to show his affections.

The grass boy got the tism

When he sleeps he has to rub his feet together and keep his legs moving or they feel restless and stiff, he grinds his teeth too as seen in whispers.

He has vivid nightmares a lot and finds it really hard to sleep often times and so decides to instead sit and watch stars.

Adding to the last one, being to so late marcaline bumped into him one time and now they hang out when he can’t sleep, sometimes they go to late night parties or just mess around in the dark together playing pranks and stuff.

Fern loves gloomy weather, rainy gloomy weather with the smell of Damp grass and mud he finds it really peaceful to be in like he can really just be the weather feels comforting to his low moods that and sun he’s actually not that fond of bright lights in his eyes.

He hangs with neptr like finn and Jake hang with bmo.

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

Episode 7 (Chapter 2 Outline)

We open with Fionna, Cake, and Simon in the dead world. After the insanity that was the Vampire world, the group finds themselves in world left completely quiet and still. They get a chance to breathe.

Cake is still mad at Fionna, so she leaves. Simon tries to cheer Fionna up and Fionna asks about Betty as in canon. Unlike canon, Simon makes a complicated face as he begins recounting their story. Winter King's parting words echo in his head.

As in canon, Fionna makes the same comments but here, Simon actually takes the time to consider it. Cake returns like in canon.

They follow her to find BMO. They go to the Candy Kingdom. Cake yells at Fionna. She starts crying. Simon finishes his story. Again, unlike canon, when Fionna asks about getting on the bus with Betty, Simon goes quiet. BMO starts clapping and moves to repair the remote.

But in a move to foreshadow things to come, before BMO can proceed, Simon stops BMO from risking his life. Simon says that it will be a last resort. And now it's clear that Simon is upset. He argues with BMO, trying to take away the remote but BMO holds on, saying: "Let me do this for you!"

"No! You've done enough! I'm not gonna stand aside and let you sacrifice yourself, Betty!"

Ringing silence.

"I mean... I mean, BMO. I meant to say BMO."

Everyone stares at him. Simon catches his breath. He turns to Fionna. "I don't know why..."

Fionna shrugs. "Hey, B names, amiright?"

Simon shakes his head. "I don't know why I didn't go on that trip. I..." He walks away. "It was my fault. If I had just..."

"Simon, you're not making any sense," Cake adds. "Do you wanna maybe speak in full sentences?"

"It was my idea that brought us to the Crown. She wanted to go somewhere else, but I insisted."

"That's not fair! There's no way for you to have known about the curse!"

"Yes... But it was my decision in the end..."

"What, was your girl chopped liver?" Cake rolls her eyes. "She wasn't like me, you know. She could talk like a human from the beginning. She shoulda said something if she really wanted to go somewhere."

"But does she need to? I just... I never noticed before and Fionna brought up a good point. She always dropped everything for me. Even if I never asked her to, I should have noticed that. Why didn't I see? How could I have been so blind?"

BMO pats him gently. "You are being too hard on yourself. You are wearing glasses. Of course, you can't see very well. You needed help!"

Simon chuckles, patting the robot back. "Thanks, BMO. But we're not using your heart to fix the remote. It's too risky." He turns to the rest of the group. "There must be something we can put together. I know Princess Bubblegum had her secret stashed of tech."

"I know!" BMO claps. "My friend Jerry is super old. He might know something that we don't!"

"Okay, that sounds like a lead. Take us to your friend, BMO."

Meeting Jerry happens like canon. But the one key difference is that there's less stress because BMO is around. We also don't hear Betty's song. We just jumpcut to entering the Lich's lair. And when Jerry the Lich goes catatonic again, Simon reveals that they won't last very long in this world. So Fionna pulls out the Crown.

The ensuing argument happens like in canon. But when Simon comforts Fionna, she argues with him.

"No, it's not alright! If you're not okay, then we're not okay! That's how this works!"

"You won't even remember me!"

"That just makes it worse!"

"Just let me do the right thing for once!"

Fionna looks at Simon. "It wasn't you fault, Simon. Sometimes bad things just happen. Maybe if you had gone with Betty, bad things could still have happened."

"Bad things are happening right now!" Cake complains.

"Cake, are you really okay with this?" Fionna asks.

"If he wants to, then that's his choice!"

"So if I choose to walk off a bridge, you'd just let me?"

"We're not talking about that! And besides, I would just catch you!"

"It's okay, girl Finn," BMO speaks up. "I like the Ice King. He's really fun to play with. We can keep each other company!"

"BMO... What would I do without you, bud?" Simon pats the robot again.

"Weeeeell, now you don't have a choice anymore. You're stuck with me forever!"

"See! Simon will be fine! Being the Ice King won't be all bad!"

Fionna doesn't respond, just stares at Simon.

He nods at her. "I'll be okay, Fionna."

Fionna frowns then kneels down next to BMO. She whispers something in BMO's ear. BMO gets excited and claps happily.

"OK, I can do that. It will be like a game!"

Fionna smiles.

Cake sighs, turns to Simon. "You get me, right?"

Simon smiles. "I do. You don't need to be sorry, Cake. I'm not mad."

Cake looks away, but appears clearly unsettled. "If we had another choice... You know I'd pounce on it..."

Simon only replies with: "Take care of your sister."

Smash cut to the ritual all set up. BMO is on the Lich's knee, watching everything happen. Simon begins the ritual.

Everything happens in canon. Fionna and Cake leap through the portal. Scarab arrives. Simon is ready to put on the Crown. But his final memory is not Betty in the car, but Betty at the bus stop, sitting on the ground with him.

The song from Betty's walkman plays on the background as Betty leans in for a kiss.

Black out.

Simon's voice, "Betty, I'm sorry."

[taffybuns]

mhhmdnhm thoughts on the first two adv time eps cause theyre all ive seen so far

I LOVED THEM A WHOLE LOT OOGH

adventure time boarders always do so well writing dream sequences!! they capture that vague shifting feeling so well i don’t know how

im glad they gave us marceline&bmo before the show ends thank you thanky ou

it’s already starting out so good but i fear the next or last eps of this bomb will be

pain

i feel like they’re going somewhere with the theme of change since they’ve been implementing it for all three miniseries and these episodes so far?

the morals and symbolism are really a+ im too tired to explain atm but i think they’re pretty out in the open this time

again i’m loving at’s casual dialogue so much

the entire bits with jermaine and bmo telling the story of the moon lady made me. irl cry

man they’re making good use of their remaining episodes theyre so good im gonna cry help

[365footballorg-blog]

Armchair Analyst: Forever orange, purple resilience & more from Week 1

March 5, 20181:17AM EST

So this is a fact I’ve been dying to address for monthsyears two decades. A big part of my dream for what soccer is in America (and Canada – I dream of Canada too, I swear it) is “let’s be a league that not only buys the best players, but also builds the best players right here at home.”

It’s not just because I love the idea of having been on the ground floor for the beginning of MLS and then potentially get to watch it grow into something globally recognized for its quality. It’s not just because I love to see good soccer, or that I’m naturally drawn to “potential,” as are so many of you.

It’s all that, but it’s also that I literally do not see a path toward becoming the best league in the Americas if we do not first become the best developmental league in the Americas. That means buying the likes of Milton Valenzuela and Jesus Medina, both of whom had sterling debuts in big Week 1 wins. It also has to mean building our own great players via our academies and the USL/PDL partnerships that MLS teams have worked so hard to make viable and valuable over the past half-decade.

Progress has been slow:

MLS does a really bad job of playing young American players. Like really bad. Also, before you ask, no it’s not improving – has been about 2%-3% for a number of years. pic.twitter.com/oV0zfPDBpr

— Alex Olshansky (@atosoccer) January 10, 2018

Here is the good news: In Week 1, domestic players aged 21 and under played 4.11 percent of available minutes. That includes a couple of Canadians (Alphonso Davies and David Choinière) as well as Sounders Homegrown Handwalla Bwana, who’s been here a decade, has a green card and is on his way to US citizenship. You may not count him, but for all intents and purposes he’s a local.

Now, the absence of minutes for a few notable, high-upside youngsters justifiably frustrated folks in Atlanta and Dallas, and even if Paxton Pomykal and Andrew Carleton had played, the number would not be high enough yet for my liking. I’d eventually like to see MLS end up somewhere between La Liga and the Bundesliga in terms of minutes earned by the U-22s.

But progress that lasts tends to be progress that’s incremental. Week 1 was a good first step.

Road to Nowhere

We spent a good chunk of time on Saturday dissecting exactly how Atlanta were just asking to be dissected by Houston in the Dynamo’s 4-0 win. They had a d-mid but they played him at center back; their nominal Defender of the Year (that’s the Andrew Wiebe curse) played awful and then got hurt; and their midfield, which I and everybody else has been harping about all preseason, was a “c’mon just drive right through” zone.

It was bad and they were unprepared and they’ve got to move Jeff Larentowicz back to the 6 and Tata Martino has to develop Miles Robinson and even if those two things happen it may not be enough because I still don’t see how Darlington Nagbe fits.

Here, we talked about it a bunch:

But none of this matters if Houston aren’t utterly and ruthlessly prepared. They knew Atlanta were going to try to possess through the middle so they drew a nice mid-line of confrontation – this wasn’t bunker ball from the Dynamo – and forced turnovers in spots where they could get out on the break. And when they did break, they broke together, which you can see in the assist numbers: Each of their first three goals had both primary and secondary assists.

This wasn’t just “kick it out to Alberth Elis and let him run,” and anyone who characterizes it as that should be mocked, ridiculed and generally shunned from polite society.

So how did they dominate so thoroughly? By shutting off any/all outlets for the Dynamo backline:

These are all the passes by ATL’s CBs. That’s Parkhurst with the lone wolf pass into the box. Reams of turnovers for the other two guys who started. pic.twitter.com/HPRS8O4hyZ

— Matthew Tomaszewicz (@shinguardian) March 3, 2018

(Green arrows are completed passes, Red incomplete)

As my old podcastmate went on to point out, incomplete passes from the central defense are invitations to get out into transition. Houston took those invitations time and again during the first half-hour, looking remarkably like the 2017 version of Atlanta against, I don’t know, the Revs or Galaxy or something. It was eerie.

Houston aren’t, I don’t think, deep enough to be great — though they showed off some depth yesterday when Darwin Ceren came in early for the injured Juan David Cabezas at d-mid. Nonetheless they’re going to be very good because they’re smart and well-drilled, and in Elis they have at least one game-changing attacker (Mauro Manotas is knocking on the door to make it two).

As for Atlanta, I’m not about to mash the panic button. I think they’ll end up being fine because they have so much talent, but the biggest part of the next month has to be Martino making the right personnel adjustments, and Nagbe in particular being more assertive about getting into spots and being available to receive outlets.

Seen and Not Seen

If Houston’s dominance was the first story of the regular season, Orlando City’s rebuild has to claim its spot as one of, if not the biggest story of the off-season. They went out and got players young and old(ish), pulled from college and USL and NASL and the Bundesliga and North Africa and MLS and memories of MLS Cup champions past.

And then they went out in Week 1 and played without about half those guys. Sacha Kljestan was suspended and Pierre da Silva was suspended and Josue Colman was hurt and and Uri Rosell has been in the country for about 45 minutes and Lamine Sané just wasn’t quite ready to go. So Jason Kreis – who, for the second straight year kept preseason prep under wraps – had to go with a fairly makeshift XI, and just to increase the degree of difficulty had to do it a man down for the last 50 minutes.

The early returns for OCSC, who played in a diamond (praise be) with rookie Cam Lindley doing very Wil Trapp-y things at d-mid, were good. They eschewed the pointless long-balls that plagued them last year, they had a clear level of defensive buy-in from everyone who took the field (a big change), and they got a resilient and ultimately point-saving performance from Justin Meram:

(Also worth mentioning they have Joe Bendik, whose penalty save was freaking heroic in the 1-1 draw).

Part of this falls on D.C. United, who never really took advantage of their, uh, advantage. At halftime they talked about getting on the ball and spreading the Purple Lions out, but never evinced any sort of plan to do so after the break and were reduced to a bunker for the final 20ish minutes. This is not how an 11-man team punishes a 10-man team with possession:

For a team a man up and a goal up, @dcunited’s pass map for the last 20 minutes vs. @OrlandoCitySC was a cry for help (and structure).

The road point is nice but that’s a catastrophe. pic.twitter.com/EsFVzwCjrb

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) March 4, 2018

So neither team will leave this game entirely happy, nor will they leave entirely unhappy. OCSC did, after all, cough up two points to a conference foe at home — but did so while fighting back in dramatic fashion after playing most of the game a man down. D.C. did, after all, concede a soft, late equalizer — but still took a road point.

For now, for both, it’s enough.

A few more things to ponder…

8. 18-year-old Anthony Fontana got the game-winning goal for Philly in their 2-0 win over the visiting Revs, who had both their center backs sent off and were only spared from an embarrassing scoreline by some shoddy Union finishing.

Fontana was clever about getting into attacking spots, and C.J. Sapong was simply relentless about creating those attacking spots for everybody around him. Sapong had a goal, an assist, and drew the game-changing straight red on Antonio Mlinar Delamea. He’ll never be the most clinical of finishers, but it’s exciting to imagine what he’ll be able to do in attack this year now with more quality around him.

7. There was obvious quality on display in Toronto, with the shock being it was the visitors who put on the clinic. Federico Higuain continues to be the smartest player in the league. When he moves, it’s not just to get open, but rather to shift the entire defense:

Columbus are going to be good. The 2-0 win they took from BMO Field was not a fluke.

6. Nor was the 3-2 win San Jose took from visiting Minnesota United. The Quakes were vicious in attack through 80 minutes and fully deserved their 3-0 lead, then repeatedly fell asleep and lost track of Kevin Molino over the last 10 as they nearly surrendered it.

The Loons played a lot better once Collen Warner came on the field.

5. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Sporting KC won the expected goals battle but lost the game. It was actually fairly close on xG (1.49-1.42 as per Opta), but NYCFC finished their chances while SKC fluffed theirs in a 2-0 win for the visitors.

Sporting crossed the ball 24 times, which is a very high number that they exceeded only once last year. That’s a bad strategy for a team with no particularly gifted headers of the ball in attack, and speaks to the lack of ideas they had moving forward.

NYCFC, meanwhile, looked very good.

4. Speaking of gifted headers of the ball… Kei Kamara, goal No. 99 followed by our Face of the Week via his celebration with Davies:

The cross, the header, the dance moves!

Kei Kamara opens his account for #VWFC.#VANvMTLhttps://t.co/z9IemFerad

— Vancouver Whitecaps (@WhitecapsFC) March 5, 2018

Wakanda forever.

In general crossing is a low-percentage play, and I thought Davies (who was wonderful, and will almost certainly be on the Team of the Week) was too happy to settle for crossing the ball instead of driving into the box on the dribble and trying to combine. This is a habit of the ‘Caps, to be honest.

But there’s a difference between bending in an early ball when your target forward has found a pocket of space away from the CBs and driving in a cross against a packed-in defense. As Davies matures he’ll better understand those margins, and become even more of a weapon.

Which is freaking scary because, at 17, he was the best player on the field by a mile in Vancouver’s 2-1 win over the Impact.

3. FC Dallas played much better in their 1-1 draw vs. RSL than they had in their midweek CCL disappointment against FC Tauro. That said, they still got ripped up in transition a few times, and still had trouble finishing.

Through 270 minutes there are no signs Los Toros Tejanos have figured out what killed them in 2017.

2. The Galaxy, on the other hand, have found at least a partial cure for their suffering of the past year, picking up a 2-1 win over visiting Portland on Sunday night. It was not pretty from either team, and LA were absolutely holding on for dear life at the end. They also lost Romain Alessandrini to what appears to be a hamstring strain.

But they got Sebastian Lletget back, got three points, and got a goal from center forward Ola Kamara.

As for the Timbers, I’m going to wait to reserve final judgement, but my guess is the 4-2-3-1 is not long for this world. Based upon what we saw Sunday and during preseason, Gio Savarese is going to have to go in a different direction.

1. And finally, our Pass of the Week goes to Carlos Vela, who looked the part of a superstar in LAFC’s franchise-opening 1-0 win at Seattle:

LAFC weren’t perfect, but they were brave in how they played out of the back, they got an outstanding performance form Tyler Miller, and they got three points on the road in their debut game. Bob Bradley seems to know a thing or two about winning with expansion teams.

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Armchair Analyst: Forever orange, purple resilience & more from Week 1 was originally published on 365 Football