#have some sketches in the interim hope you enjoy

[1-50thofabuck]

Two of my Marvel Super Heroes(FASERIP) characters with images & homemade trading cards

I had two main characters I played in the Marvel Super Heroes RPG in recent years. I used HeroMachine 3 a lot, for these and other RPG characters and monsters. Sadly it's not available any longer. (There's a way to run it on your PC but I can't get it to work correctly. I see they "fixed" 2.5 so I'm going to check that out after I finish this!)

To the point: I really liked these two characters, and I decided to make a sort of character sheet that was modeled on these old Marvel comic book trading cards we used to buy when we were kids. I'd like to share those, and the backgrounds of the characters. I hope you enjoy them, and feel free to make use of them in your own games if you wish.

The Frank trading card has a different, more friendly/cutesy/cartoonish image than the original I had put together. This is because Frank was an idea I had had several years prior for a game that didn't quite work out, and in the interim I had misplaced the image and had to create a new one! The "cards" were made in 2017. (I also, rather embarrassingly, reversed the shadows and highlights on Frank's pants in the original image - ack!)

The Doodle Bug image doesn't include the "doodle shell" because I just didn't have any way to create it. I'm no artist. I think Doodle Bug is my favorite character. The card has a blank "as a power stunt ___ times" so that I could use the card as a character sheet and track uses of power stunts.

For the record, the character was always intended to have art that could interact with things, but I didn't know it was only an option in Marvel - in DC Heroes, it's a part of the "animate image" power, which is at least partially where I originated the character concept. Even though the Judge would let you have whatever you wanted within reason, and if I had written it down at the beginning they'd have let me have it, and only didn't due to a misunderstanding, they refused it and I had to learn it as a power stunt. As far as I'm concerned, canonically, the character is as intended, with this other individual's game reflecting an alternate universe version. (I never dug the whole "superheroes as cops" thing anyway and it was the second Marvel game in a row I was in that pulled that stuff.)

Doodle Bug

Background: Lori R. Manley and William Scoggins went from teenage friends to down-on-their-luck petty crooks.

It was then that Scoggins(a security guard by trade) revealed what he had created - a suit he had modified based on schematics and parts he had copied and/or pilfered from a company he contracted for. The suit enabled him to fly, gave him radar sense, and three types of gas attacks: a knockout gas, a fog, and most fun of all for a thrill-seeker like Scoggins, a nauseating spray. With this suit, under the identity Stink Bug, they would be able to make a lot more money(and he would get some exciting new kicks).

Lori, both excited at the news and finding a perfect opportunity to reveal her own abilities, admitted that she had a mutant power - she could draw sketches at lightning speed that could come to life! Suggesting that her powers could also match her lovers' bug theme, they set about at once to build her a suit of her own. The result was the Doodle Shell. Made up of interlocking steel plates, they are worn on the back as a shell. As desired, the Doodle Shell will "curl," the plates shifting forward and forming a wheel-shape which protects the whole body and allows the wearer to roll("Hyper-Running") to safety. When not "curled," the wearer is protected by the shell from behind and has the ability to dig, thanks to a harness connected to the hands and attached to the shell.

Taking the name Doodle Bug, she and her partner Stink Bug carried on the lives of petty super villains, never killing anyone or displaying any real sociopathic tendencies. They were like loser versions of Alias Smith and Jones.

This lasted until a job where they were hired by the psychopathic scientist Dr. A. Namoli to combat their mutual arch-nemeses: Fluid, the Grey Hurricane and the Hyena. When the Bothersome Bugs realized Dr. Namoli was actually going to disperse their enemies' atoms into another dimension, they turned on their boss, saving the heroes and quickly escaping.

Deliberating on their careers and considering the newest turn of events, the two unanimously decided that criminals and villains were losers by nature and that being heroes seemed much more entertaining and profitable. Never really having their hearts in being truly "bad" to begin with, they began a new stage in life. The Belligerent Beetle and the Impetuous Insect were no longer petty, selfish supervillains with delusions of grandeur: they were now petty, selfish superheroes with delusions of grandeur. And the world is a slightly better place for it.

Frank

Background: A.I.M., researching the legends of Frankenstein, discovered that the stories were based on fact, and that the "monster" was created not from dead body parts but almost as something of a golem. Reproducing Frankenstein's experiments, they created a monstrosity to aid them in their goals. Unfortunately for them, this creature was not naturally inclined to evil and escaped. Discovering the truth of his past, the creature named itself Frank. Frank, despite being a "monster" and a "freak," is not only good-natured but also possessing a fine sense of humor and a positive outlook on existence, and enjoys defeating the forces of crime and evil while pondering his existence.

Much like the creature of lore, Frank is very tall, muscular and broad, with yellow, translucent skin through which veins, arteries and muscle can be seen, with pale, yellow, watery eyes. Though this differs from the popularized film version of the monster, Frank's powers also differ somewhat from what is expected, such as his ability to separate parts of his body which may act under his power.

[petalbypetalmyself]

224/366 | πολλὰ καὶ καλά

Honestly, I have so many things I could—and want—to write about, only I haven't got so much time to lay them out. But this morning I woke up feeling so alive, so eager to live, oh, and with my emotions so exposed, so raw—despite the fact that I've been sacrificing my eyes, back, hips, etc., in order to translate (at least) 100 pages in 10 days. And I'm getting there (the days are going to pass anyway) while knowing I'm doing a good thing, and I'm doing good.

Meanwhile, I'm seldom out of the house—be it my apartment or my mother's house, which I'm currently in.

Health-wise, I have smoked again, and stopped following, as I normally do when I'm either at my mother's or partner's, my nutritionist's meal plan. So, for the following week I sketched out a doable meal plan with the Best Body meal planner that has the same macronutrient breakdown as the one laid out for me by my nutritionist, in the hopes that I can stay consistent. (The thing is that although there are about 1600 kcals in his plan, there is too much food, and I just feel very bloated after each meal. So, by adjusting it—4 meals instead of 5, with no desserts—I'm also hoping to be more comfortable with consistency, since my goal is not only to lose weight but to feel lighter. And according to Best Body, it's better to follow my hunger and fullness cues than to overstuff my body. Of course, I still have work to do in this department since, e. g., I'm prone to quickly grab something less healthy, like 60-100gr of bread, when I'm suddenly hungry than my planned, not prepared, snack, or overdo the unplanned carbs at lunch and dinner, or frequently give in to urges, be it food or cigarettes.)

I'm still staying more or less active by following, to my surprise, FB Strong. I finished the 5-day (actually 7-day) FB Strong Challenge on FB Plus, and tomorrow I'll start FB Strong R3. I said "to my surprise" because it's mainly strength training, and because of my fear of "bulking up," it's a challenge alright. But, you know what? I find myself enjoying strength training these days, and these too-good-to-be-true AEF workouts weren't giving me my desired measurements—in any case, the constant ab exercises were making my waist bigger. So, they might work for some people, indeed they must for some, but either I'm not rich enough to figure the whole method out (I'm assuming the people that get the most of it can follow Ashley Eckhoff's 1500$ 6-week program and have access to lymphatic drainages, expensive supplements, cold plunges, and free time), or my body needs something else.

Overall, FB always wins because of its honesty, accessibility (being 80$ a yearly subscription), down-to-earth approach, and both goofiness and seriousness.

The inspiration behind me doing FB Strong comes from completing the original FB Plus Challenge two weeks ago, minus the first day.

There is more HIIT in this Challenge than in Strong, but since I plan on going on walks, I might not need HIIT. Nevertheless, I will do more cardio if I feel like it and change the workouts as I please. As much as I enjoy Erica's workouts, I haven't got the kick out of the rest of the trainers yet. So when I swap their workouts it's always for Kelli's, Daniel and Kelli's, or Erica's, sometimes Daniel's too, but he's more serious, and when I feel like swapping it's because I don't have the serious mindset of a Daniel or Brian's workout. Tasha's, Nicole's, Amanda's are still as indifferent to me as Marina's and Aly's yoga practices on FB Plus. But I'll get there.

In the interim,

yesterday I did a lower body workout and this morning I weighed 55.1 kg, having weighed 54.1 kg on Wednesday. Body fluctuations. And food fluctuations. (And I'm sorry if this sounds creepy but Kelli's butt doing froggers is kind of "goals"? I never imagined I would think that. I normally want my body to look like Elsa Hosk's. Ah, I wish it did—but also, I must be maturing.)

The important thing is I feel this overwhelming desire to start my life. To start to work. And after these 10 days/100 pages, I'm going to study so hard in order to pass my (first ever) public examinations to become an AD5 for the European Union. I'm going to work and I'm going to start my life and I can't wait for it to happen.

[muffindaydream]

just some doodles of the comfort ship

[shanie-the-toyaddict]

Who Here Asked For Pictures of  “CASA DEL SHANIE”??

Nobody? Nobody at all? TOUGH!

Have some pictures of my freshly cleaned apartment because dammit it took a month to get it this way, I’m gonna show it off!

We start off with my primary figure shelf and entertainment stand. Notice the ass-old CRT TV. No it isn’t getting replaced anytime soon. I’ve showed off the figure setup already (I believe) but since they are really tiny here, I’ll just let you know that those bitty figures on top of the JVC Monstrosity are Japanese Final Fantasy X Coca-Cola figures. I can’t begin to afford full sized Final Fantasy ANYTHING!

Moving to the other side of that end of the living room, we have the giant Young Simba plush (If you get it, you get it, I’m not explaining), my line of Doctors (along the banister) and my precious sword, hung over a Doctor Who poster. That sword was the first sharp ‘n’ shiny I ever bought for myself. I was 15 and had to buy it though my boyfriend at the time since I was under age. It is, in fact, a women’s sword, but it’s for display only. It can’t cut for shit. There’s also a random Boxed GoT Dany figure there too. It’s the only GoT figure I have and it was a gift.

The pit on the left of the photo are the steps leading down. I live on the second floor.

My kitchen table. Nothing fancy here other than the plastic candelabra, some nifty bottles and some posters. That DW Six/Peri poster is not my only one of them (you’ll see) and yes, I do ship them. They are my guilty pleasure Classic Who ship. The grumpy one is soft for the whiny one. It’s a thing.

Also, two different Pokemon posters here. Oh, and that recycling bin? I yoinked that from my college dorm nearly 20 years ago, Had it ever since.

Wall of Shane and looking into the bedroom. I’ve shown off that wall before, but notice that the centerpiece is a poem. It’s “Footsteps” in case you were wondering. I am a Christian. Also, that sketched looking photo up top is Sarah Jane Smith. That wall used to be a Doctor Who tribute wall. I took down all the DW photos except her. And yes there’s a photo missing where the gap in the center of the photo is. It keeps coming out because I can’t pin the sides. The wood art was a gift from my high school sweetheart.That plush sunflower on the back wall was a gift from a lady at church. She was so nice. I miss her.

This is my kitchen. It is tiny and cramped and I hate everything about it except for my kettle and coffee maker.

Looking out of the bathroom door. Being an adult means nobody can bitch over the SpongeBob wood painting you have hanging on your wall. He brings me great joy. Best thing I ever bought from Hot Topic in my life. And he was on clearance!

Oh, and that’s my old besom hanging above it. There’s remnants of my pagan days all around my place. I just never got rid of the stuff.

You don’t get to see my bathroom because who the fuck wants to see the bathroom. Instead, have a look at my bathmat. Four dollars on Wish.

The one corner of my bedroom by the door. See, I told you there was another Six/Peri poster! Also, an Eleven/Amy/Rory poster. I’m proud of that one. i don’t think you can even buy that one anymore. Also, there’s another wood art, a Sherlock poster (don’t judge me) and a dollar store decorative fan.

The bookshelf is a random assortment. Except for the top two shelves which contain the entirety of my Classic Who DVD collection. I have a bunch of those, including some rare ones!

Oh, and the painting under Six and Peri was a Christmas gift from a friend. It reads “You Are Fearfully And Wonderfully Made”

MORE POSTERS! YES! I DO HAVE A SHANE O MAC POSTER!

For the record, that’s the second copy I have owned of that poster. The first one I got directly from a bar in college after the PPV. It hung in my dorm room until I went home on med leave and it got destroyed in the interim. So I had to rebuy it and, guess what, it just got hung today! 

Oh, and also, random Tenth Doctor poster there as well. The curtains are also new. 

Plus Lizzie. Lizzie says hi.

Finally, my Xena Wall. I want to put up more photos there but I just haven’t gotten to it yet. That bookshelf is my TV Series/Musicals/MCU bookshelf. I have almost all of the MCU films, all of Fringe, and almost all of NuWho on there. I’m missing the Season 12 set. 

Oh, and yes, that’s an entire setup of McMahon figures on top of the shelf. I just set those up yesterday. As you can see, there is plenty of room for more McMahon figures!

Oh, and the dreamcatcher was a gift. I have no idea if it’s native sourced or not. Try not to judge me for having it.

It just occurred to me I missed a wall. This is standing by my staircase looking toward the kitchen. Important notes here include another shot of SpongeBob, the Dark Willow photo top right, several Doctor Who postcards, a Star Trek Generations mini-poster, another witchy leftover, my glorious Kit Rae dagger (my FAVORITE sharp ‘n’ shiny), a M&M’s Gumball Machine, and finally, my last shelving unit that has Buffy, Xena, Star Wars, and my full McMahon Family Master Set. Also, yes that is a sconce on the wall. It was supposed to be for my keys, but I’m too disorganized to ever put them there.

Really though. I love that SpongeBob hanging. It’s awesome and he smiles at me every time I walk by.

Well, that about covers it. If you stuck through to the end, grats. I probably wouldn’t have. But I just feel like there’s so much fun stuff in my place that absolutely NOBODY ever gets to see. It’s mi casa and now es tu casa.

Hope you enjoyed!

[chiseld]

in too deep / playing for keeps

Yes, I’m not gonna lie: I woke up with Phil Collins in my head as an analogy for my enthusiasm about programming. You can mock me now.

Seriously though, this is how my last 24 hours went:

- Woke up late Saturday morning (around 10:30), got ready to face the day and less than an hour later I was ensconced at my favorite café to work at.

- Ordered some coffee and a grilled cheese sandwich and started tackling the final CS50 Week 1 homework problem. Problems 1 and 2 were extremely simple, so there was only one version of each; but for problems 3 and 4 there was a simpler version and a more complicated version of each. As I mentioned in my last post, I went straight to the more complicated version of #3. For #4, though, both versions looked interesting – and the more complicated one was starting to actually get complicated! – so I started off by tackling the easier version. That was fun. It took me about an hour, I think, to get a working version that passed all the automated tests.

- Then I moved right on to the complicated version of #4, and people, I think I have a problem: I spent a solid five and a half hours coding and debugging that thing, and I enjoyed every second of it. Even though I still didn’t have it working by the end! Aren’t people supposed to be annoyed by days like that? Why did I enjoy it so much? Who knows, but I’m not complaining :D

- Anyway, it looked like the issue that was blocking me from passing the tests for that one was most likely a data type error, so I posted a question on the StackExchange community for the course (my first ever Stack-something question!) – which I just this moment noticed finally received an answer that appears to solve my issue, NICE – and finally headed home from the café towards 6 p.m.

- When I got home, flying high on my successes and failures of the day, I decided to re-tackle the Odin Project Etch-a-Sketch that I still hadn’t entirely debugged. Remembering some advice that a fellow TOP student on the Gitter channel had given me, I clambered right back up into that project and dashed off a few lines of code – and voilà, it was done in five minutes. BOOM. Still pretty ugly, but functional, and that’s the point. I was too impatient to complete that challenge and move on to Ruby – maybe I’ll come back and pretty it up at some point in the future.

- So I pushed the fix to the repo (I still feel so legit when I spout out lines like that) and then, just for shits and giggles, started trying to add a new feature: a color picker (HTML actually has a “color picker” input type, can you believe it?!) that would change the color the user was currently painting with. It didn’t work, but in a very interesting way: instead of leaving the blue lines the user had already made on the canvas and then switching to a new color like red for the rest of the lines, after the color picker was clicked it changed all the OLD lines to the new color, but when the user kept drawing it was still with the original blue! So that was weird and interesting. I know exactly why it happened, though – I won’t get into the details now, but basically my app is dynamically adding a class to each square that the user hovers over, and my new code changed the color of that class, which of course would immediately change all the previously-hovered squares too. So that shouldn’t be too hard of a fix when I eventually return to this project.

- But like I said, I was too eager to move on to waste any more time with that now :) I had forced myself to try something I was nervous about – creating new branches in Git for each new feature, and then merging them back into the master branch when the feature was finished – so I started off by doing that; and while merging my “keep-it-square” branch (created in order to solve the overflow issue I mentioned in my post of a week ago) to master, I ran into another nerve-racking but important-to-tackle problem for the first time: a merge conflict! Gotta say, though, it was exciting to see Git jumping into my JS file and indicating the conflict with those surprisingly easy-to-understand lines. And it felt great to fix the conflicts, attempt the merge again, and see everything go like clockwork.

- My Git studies for the day weren’t over yet, though. I returned to the project page from TOP and checked the instructions on how to submit my solution. The answer was: submit a pull request. Yikes! I had done this once, ages ago, when I first started TOP’s curriculum, but in the interim I had forgotten all about how to do it. So, Googling to the rescue once again. I did a whole bunch of reading, discovered I still had an old fork of TOP’s curriculum on my own GitHub page, cloned it to my computer, pulled down changes from upstream (that was new to me!), then once I was all in sync with the original upstream repo, I went ahead and made my pull request. And logging into GitHub just now, I saw that it was accepted. SCORE!

- By now (yesterday evening around 11 p.m., I think, or possibly even later) I was so psyched to get all set up to tackle Ruby that there was no question of going to bed. I marked the Etch-a-Sketch project as “completed” and jumped feet-first into the next section of the curriculum: “Ruby Basics”. First issue to tackle: my ancient computer had very out-of-date versions of Ruby, Rails, Homebrew, Heroku – basically everything. Time to update. Or more specifically: time for an Installfest. TOP directed me to the charmingly laid-out Railsbridge Installfest site, and I started plugging away at it. Dang, but that took a while.

- An awesome side effect of the Installfest, though, was that by the end of it I felt even MORE comfortable with the command line environment than before. I mean, I had already gotten pretty comfortable with it at this point, but during the Installfest I got a bunch of warnings saying stuff like “WARNING: linking not completed. Enter [long command] to force the link and overwrite previous files. Enter [another long command] to see what files will be overwritten.” In the past this would have scared the crap out of me, but this time I was feeling plucky, so as all these warnings scrolled past my face, I copied each one that looked important into a separate text document, and once each new technology was as installed as it was going to get for the moment, I copied each command back into the terminal and worked through all the conflicts, overwriting old files (let’s hope I didn’t kill anything important! it didn’t seem that I did, though) and “forcing symlinks” and all this stuff I barely understood – but at least understood a hell of a lot more than I did a year ago. And what do you know: in the end all the installations worked, all my verifications passed, and Railsbridge even took me through creating a test app on Rails and deploying it to Heroku to confirm that everything was connected properly.

- WOW! By that point it was 3 a.m. – do you know how long it’s been since I last stayed up that late? I don’t, because I’m old and my memory’s gone (j/k. but I actually don’t remember. that’s how long it’s been). So I forced myself to shut down the computer and go to bed. I lay there in the dark all pumped up for ages, wishing I would just fall asleep already so I could wake up and start coding some Ruby!

- Finally I did fall asleep, but I was so psyched to get started on Ruby that I woke up without an alarm only six hours later, at 9:30 this morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to get going (although I normally require at least eight hours of sleep). So I got up, drank some good black tea (Yunnan Noir with honey and goat milk, yum yum), and started writing this blog post. And now I’m done, so you know what that means... TIME FOR MORE CODING! :DDD

[365footballorg-blog]

Armchair Analyst: Your complete guide to the Week 18 MLS slate

June 29, 201812:54PM EDT

The World Cup group stage is over and there are, as we speak, a cadre of MLS players winging back home. None of them will play this weekend, but most will play again soon.

Let’s dive into Week 18:

Friday Forecast

Minnesota United FC vs. FC Dallas

8 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Let’s forget the Loons for a second because we know all about them at this point (they’ll play a 4-2-3-1, they’ll be soft at central midfield, they’ll be disorganized at the back and Darwin Quintero can ball). There’s just not much left to explore.

There’s a bit more to unpack about FC Dallas, who could be on the verge of entering the post-Mauro Diaz era. The Magic Little Unicorn™ is, according to reports from multiple outlets, on his way out, with his landing spot said to be Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai FC in Dubai. It seems credible and it seems very close to final, and that means Dallas are going to have to find a new way to define themselves as an attacking club.

Because since his arrival in 2013, that was Diaz’s job (when he was healthy, which was not often enough). He was/is/has been a throwback No. 10, built in the Valderrama mode – find the ball at midfield, avoid a challenge, then release a throughball to put the Dallas wingers into space, or to put a forward through on goal. When he was on the field Dallas pretty much always had the answer to “How do we move the ball into the attacking third and get dangerous?” and, because of that skillset, it was worth adjusting the rest of the team to account for Diaz’s individual weaknesses.

To put a point on it: He was literally the best player for the best team in FC Dallas history (the 2016 Supporters’ Shield/U.S. Open Cup double winners), and was their best player so far this season as well.

When he’s not been on the field the last five years, Dallas have struggled. There were times when “sit deep and counter through Fabian Castillo” worked pretty well and, early last year, “Let Kellyn Acosta spray to the flanks” had its moments. But Castillo’s long gone and Acosta’s not the guy he was 12 months ago, and there’s a reasonable concern that this team could suddenly be short of ideas.

There are, at this point, three possibilities as direct replacements for Diaz on the roster:

Roland Lamah: The Belgian veteran has low-key had a nice season (6g/4a in 1000 minutes), and was part of one of the most interesting tactical wrinkles of the season from Dallas when Oscar Pareja moved him off the flank and into a No. 10 role, while Diaz was shifted wide to the left. It was bizarre and I thought it wouldn’t work, but it did – really, really well. Lamah doesn’t have the passing vision of a pure playmaker, but if Dallas want to go pure counterattack, using him underneath the center forward would be a very reasonable choice in large part because his movement and speed would disrupt opposing defensive midfielders (they’d have to drop deeper just to track him, which would cause dislocation in their own shape).

Santiago Mosquera: The Colombian, acquired this offseason, hasn’t been great (1g/3a in 700 minutes), but has shown flashes of the talent that made Dallas decide to go out and get him in the first place. His movement isn’t as sophisticated as Lamah’s, but his vision’s better and he’s a more natural central player. He’s also arguably more of a modern No. 10 than Diaz, in that he absolutely will push up into the 18 and get his fair share of looks. At the same time he’s nowhere near the same kind of through-ball artist – who is, really?

Mosquera has been rehabbing, but he did travel this weekend. And long-term, he’s probably the best bet to take this spot.

Paxton Pomykal: The 18-year-old has been dominant in his age group, but has had too many injuries and too few minutes to become an effective pro as of yet. If he’d been getting minutes for a USL team the past two years, perhaps he’d be more ready to take on a larger role, but FCD have yet to make the investment in their own affiliate (though – good news, everybody – Dallas TD Fernando Clavijo once again confirmed they’d have their own USL club starting next year).

Pomykal might not be a No. 10, anyway. He’s often looked more comfortable on the flank, and sometimes as a No. 8. And as a passer he’s looked more of a zone-mover rather than a chance creator. Who he really is as a pro is a very open-ended question.

And that’s true of FC Dallas as a team at this point. Up until last week they’d lost just twice all season across all competitions. Now they’ve lost twice in a week, shipping six goals and scoring just twice, and lost their best player. I absolutely understand why they’ll sell Diaz – this is a business for one, and for two they learned to their detriment last year that holding on to players for too long can/will have long-term fatal consequences on a their season.

But they’ve got some problems to solve now. There’s hope that the answers can come from within, but nothing in this life’s guaranteed.

Saturday Slate

Seattle Sounders vs. Portland Timbers

4:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Portland took care of the home/easy part of their schedule, and over the past two games have edged into the more difficult run of games. A scoreless home draw against Sporting was fine; a 1-1 draw at Atlanta United last weekend was better than that. Another result would run their unbeaten streak to 10 games (12 in all competitions), and it’s because of their defense.

I can’t sum it up better than this:

Gio’s Timbers have shown themselves to be a really effective reactive team. They’ve limited and countered ATL, NYFC, and LAFC — some of the best attacks in MLS this year.

They haven’t shown they can impose themselves on an opponent and dominate, though. #RCTID

— Chris Rifer (@ChrisRifer) June 24, 2018

Are the Sounders a team they want to try to impose themselves upon, on the road? I doubt it. Seattle’s too inviting a target to counter against given their lack of mobility in central defense and the way they throw their fullbacks way upfield. Expect more of the same from Portland (though with Sebastian Blanco coming off a knock, it’s an open question as to whether or not their three-man attack will be as effective as it was through April and May).

Atlanta United vs. Orlando City SC

7 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Atlanta United are going to miss Darlington Nagbe. Our Ben Baer broke down what the US international has brought to the Five Stripes this year, and it’s not been insignificant. His ability to hold onto the ball has remained elite, and Tata Martino has turned that into a weapon.

My guess is they compensate by moving Julian Gressel into the No. 8 role, shifting back to the 4-2-3-1 Martino prefers, and finally getting Tito Villalba into the XI.

For Orlando City… I don’t know. They’ve played two games under interim head coach Bobby Murphy and both times it’s been a back five rather than the back four everybody’s gotten used to. I’m not sure how much he could or should change, and to be honest I’m nowhere near convinced that the formation has been the problem. Bottom line is that no matter who’s been on the field for the Purple Lions, and where, it’s felt, looked and played like a series of individuals rather than a collective.

Notice how Sané slows down. He needs to be sprinting to his spot so he can open his body toward the field. He doesn’t & he doesn’t and you see what happens. It’s so poor technically and, quite frankly, just lazy and lets his team down. pic.twitter.com/KDI8f69TDH

— Bobby Warshaw (@bwarshaw14) June 24, 2018

Murphy’s not going to be able to fix that on an interim basis. They need a new, permanent head coach within the next week.

EDIT: As I wrote that, Paul Tenorio reported that they’re closing in on Louisville City’s head coach James O’Connor as the new boss. I haven’t watched a ton of Lou City this year, but the smart USL-watchers I speak with always name O’Connor first when I ask for their list of the best USL coaches, and as Portland’s Gio Savarese has proved this season, if you’re good at your job you can make the jump from the lower divisions into MLS pretty seamlessly.

Montreal Impact vs. Sporting KC

7:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

The Impact have won three of four, and credit to them for that. But as with Orlando City’s good run a few months back, it’s important to pay attention to who they’re actually beating. In Montreal’s case it was the Dynamo reserves at the start of the month, and then a pair of wins over the death-spiraling Lions.

So enjoy the wins, but don’t get too far ahead of yourselves, my Quebecois friends.

Meanwhile, Daniel Salloi is developing into a star:

If the season ended today, Daniel Salloi would have the highest G+A per 90 among 21-yr old forwards of the past 11 seasons. Here he is next to the other 3 who finished above .7 over a whole season pic.twitter.com/DLkiJE9Ejd

— Kevin Minkus (@kevinminkus) June 28, 2018

Since Week 2 Sporting are 11-1-5 across all competitions with a +20 goal differential. If the Impact win this won, then we’ll start to talk.

Columbus Crew SC vs. Real Salt Lake

7:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Wil Trapp drops deep and splits the defenders. The fullbacks push up. Artur and Federico Higuain present second- and third-line passing options. Trapp sprays. And the machine hums.

That’s the rough sketch of the Columbus Crew SC system, which has propelled them up to fourth in the Eastern Conference. It’s been running smooth as ever from the back, but so far it’s been breaking down in the attacking third because their finishing has just not been good enough. Other than Gyasi Zardes, nobody on this team has more than a single open play goal.

As per Opt,a Columbus have generated 30.67 expected goals, and that’s translated to just 22 goals total. That means they’re underperforming by 8.67 goals, and only Seattle are in the neighborhood (11 goals on 17.05 expected) in terms of front-of-net profligacy. Nobody else in the league has underperformed by even half as much as Columbus.

Fortunately for Zardes et al, RSL’s 33.49 expected goals against is worst in the league, and that they’ve allowed 30 goals off of that, and that they have been particularly bad on the road (1-6-1, -15 GD).

Crew SC are winless in five, and are actually just 4-5-5 in their last 14 games. This will be their 11th home game of the season, and while I still like the way they’re playing and their defense has been rock solid… this is a must-win game for them, especially with five of the next seven on the road. They have to get three points.

New England Revolution vs. D.C. United

7:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

The Revs are a lot like Columbus: They got off to a hot start in March and have been sort of scuffling along ever since. They’re 3-3-5 in their last 11 – 3-4-5 in all competitions – and the press that caused so much discomfort for so many at the start of the season has suddenly been at least a little bit gappy.

A month back, Columbus simply played over the press. In New England’s last outing, San Jose just played through it:

D.C. have the ability to do that, though they haven’t shown it much because they haven’t been able to comfortably push either fullback up the pitch (both sides of have been an issue, to put it mildly).

This is the start of a three-game homestand for New England, before they play five of six on the road. For D.C. we’re entering the very end of their unbalanced schedule, as this is the second-to-last road game before they open Audi Field in the middle of July.

United have some pretty big tactical fish to fry coming up, by the way.

Chicago Fire vs. New York City FC

8 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Since Dax McCarty and Luis Solignac got healthy a month back, Veljko Paunovic has mostly dropped the game-by-game adjustment cha-cha and have consistently played in a 4-3-3. Brandt Bronico has won a job beside McCarty and Bastian Schweinsteiger in central midfield, playing as a ground-eating, ball-moving No. 8 who does a bunch of unselfish running. Schweinsteiger’s been more of a pure playmaker than at any point in his recent career.

Here’s their network passing map, courtesy of Opta, from two games ago against Colorado:

Solignac (No. 9) has a different job than his opposite-side winger, Aleksandar Katai (No. 10). Katai stays high and is a pure attacker, while Chicago use Solignac’s non-stop engine to run endline-to-endline, drop into the middle to help defensively, and generally raise hell. His work allows the central midfield trio to stay compact.

The Fire have one win and three draws since making the switch, and have generally carried play against their opponents. NYCFC, even without the injured David Villa, is a very worthwhile measuring stick.

LAFC vs. Philadelphia Union

8 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

I wrote a ton about the Union after last weekend’s impressive showing, and with Haris Medunjanin suspended, all of that stands. I’m planning to write a ton about LAFC this weekend, so let’s not dive in too deep here.

I’ll just leave it at this: Earlier in the year LAFC were getting goals based upon their ability to create space and chances via flowing, back-to-front moves in transition. That’s what happens when you have Carlos Vela and Marco Ureña on hand.

Without those guys, and with the additions of Lee Nguyen and Adama Diomande, they’ve become much more of a “quick combinations in the final third” type of team. So in part they’ve flipped their identity from “center forward creates space for the attacking midfielder and wingers against a stretched defense” to “attacking midfielder and wingers create chances for the center forward against a back-foot defense.”

San Jose Earthquakes vs. LA Galaxy

10 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Mikael Stahre has continued to tinker as he’s tried to figure out a workable formula for his Quakes. In recent weeks he’s stayed with some version of a 4-4-2, though at times it’s been closer to a 4-4-2 diamond and at other times it’s been a 4-1-3-2 and at other times it’s been an almost perfectly flat midfield four.

Always with the two up front, though, because Danny Hoesen is quietly having an All-Star caliber season, and while Chris Wondolowski isn’t (4g/3a in 1133 minutes), it’s not like anybody on the roster is making a compelling case to take his playing time away.

Amazingly, this is just LA’s fifth game against a team below the playoff line this season. So far they’re 3-1-0, which includes a 1-0 win over these Quakes a month back. And last time out, they dominated an RSL team that had been on a good run of form entering the game.

This was my favorite sequence of play from the Galaxy in that one:

LA’s midfielders have slowly figured out how to make dangerous, complementary runs off of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s hold-up play, and there’s been genuine chemistry at times both on and off the ball. They’re 3-1-1 in their last five.

Sunday Doubleheader

Toronto FC vs. New York Red Bulls

4:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

This one’s simple: RBNY are the highest, hardest-pressing team in MLS (and I’d say they’re the highest, hardest-pressing team in MLS history). They live off of turnovers, winning 50/50 balls all over the field and wearing teams out until they make a fatal mistake.

Toronto FC have been the sloppiest team in the league playing out of their own end, and have been one of the league’s worst defensive teams over the final 15 minutes of games. They looked and played exhausted in the second half last weekend against NYCFC, and if you do that against the Red Bulls you lose by 50.

Also remember that the last time these two teams met, in last year’s playoffs, Jesse Marsch entirely pulled off a bit of trickery by playing a 4-4-2 diamond with Tyler Adams at the point. The object wasn’t to have him be the playmaker, but for him to make Michael Bradley’s life a living hell and prevent any sort of meaningful distribution from the TFC lynchpin.

It worked. RBNY won the game and should’ve won the series. Only some poor finishing kept them from advancing.

Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs. Colorado Rapids

7 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

The Rapids got their first win since April 14 last weekend, dominating 10-man MNUFC in the closing stages before Tommy Smith’s headed winner off a corner kick in stoppage time. It was a cathartic moment for a team that has not been good thus far in 2018.

“Cathartic” does not mean “corrective,” though. The issues that have plagued Colorado all season were still on display against the injured and short-handed Loons, and the one that’s been most decisive has been their inability to defend in space:

Darwin Quintero 1v1 against just about anyone is a mismatch. Quintero 1v1 against a retreating center back?

I don’t know why the Rapids aren’t more compact, and why their big CBs are asked, week after week, to make plays in the open field. These are plays they can’t make.

And so enter the Whitecaps, a team that can and will eviscerate you if you let them get into the open field. Last time these two teams met, at the start of the month… yup. And yup. And yup. And honestly it just keeps going.

The ‘Caps need to be patient and sharper than they were last weekend against Philly. As long as that happens, they’ll find chances.

One More Thing to Ponder

Happy weekending, everybody.

Series: 

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Armchair Analyst: Your complete guide to the Week 18 MLS slate was originally published on 365 Football