Article by Matt Lichtenstadter
It certainly doesn’t feel like it, but the MLS season is already two months through. In a league where a team can go from also-ran to MLS Cup in a matter of a few months in the back half of the calendar, fast starts don’t necessarily mean much, but some trends have emerged that may dictate where the league’s course goes from here. What might cause concerns, who could be emerging from the shadows and what teams should legitimately be worried? Here are some of the trends, teams and players to keep an eye on going forward, and what the last two months for them and others says about the race for the playoffs and beyond:
Zlatan Can’t Do It All: Zlatan’s Hollywood arrival to MLS and the LA Galaxy was truly incredible, but even with his superpowers, he can’t save the Galaxy from the same problems that bedeviled them last season: mediocre home form, woeful defending and tactical questions that seem unanswered even now. Can Zlatan start consistently? Can he start with Ola Kamara at the same time? Why is the #2 overall pick Tomas Hilliard-Arce not starting when the Galaxy’s defending is sub-par at best? Sigi Schmid and company have many more questions than answers, and even Zlatan is admitting now that he can’t do it all. This team has so much promise, but so little of that promise has been realized, especially when that other team in town has started so well.
Is LAFC the best expansion team ever? Not yet, but winning four of their first six away from home in a league where no one gets points on the road is incredibly impressive. As a squad, LAFC are still very thin in key areas, but they’ll have a chance to strengthen over the summer and their schedule is backloaded with home games. Atlanta struggled away from home last season and still finished fourth in the East without much difficulty, and with the West being open season, there’s every chance LAFC could end up on top of the West in their inaugural season. Even in MLS, that’s saying something.
Teams 22 and 23 in the table are the Sounders and TFC! Panic? Before anyone goes slamming the giant red panic button in the Emerald City and the Six yet, consider this: both teams probably will feel the first two months of the season, in MLS play at least, are mulligans. Both put major resources into CCL, both have dealt with major injuries to key contributors, and both have only played six of their 34 games on the schedule. Seattle has made starting slow but finishing strong an art form, and TFC could be forgiven for punting more than a few games in eyes of their CCL destiny. When the two teams play each other in Toronto in a few days, maybe then we’ll see where both teams are in relation to each other. Until then, unlike what Alexi Lalas says, the table can lie and in this case, it is lying.
Who is for real? The panic alarms were going off at Mach one in Orlando earlier this season after another sluggish start. But they’ve now won five straight, including a couple away from home, and as their wildly new squad gels together, it seems they’ve finally found something. Lions fans will rightfully wonder whether this team can constantly get points from losing positions, or continue to concede late goals and not pay for it, but is Orlando City finally looking like a contender? At least for now, it seems like it.
FC Dallas was unbeaten until they got a hiding in the Bronx from NYCFC, but it seems some of their longstanding issues may be fixed, at least temporarily. New England Revolution have an identity under Brad Friedel that has them on 14 points through eight games. Are they for real? Sporting Kansas City were rolling until they lost in Foxborough Saturday night, but it seems that they have a legitimate attack that might overcome some new found defensive frailties. And for as many teams that have surprised early on, there are others (see Galaxy, RSL, Dynamo, Timbers, etc.) that are not where they’d like to be. Who is for real? Other than maybe the two teams we’ll talk about below, it’s an open question.
NYCFC or Atlanta: who is the best? When the teams met at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in April, they played one of the best games of pure soccer the league has seen in years and the game ended in a 2-2 stalemate. Atlanta’s awful performance in Houston on the opening day of the season is well behind them now and they look a little like Atlanta United again. NYCFC meanwhile bounced back from their first stinker of the year in Portland to demolish the league’s only unbeaten side in FC Dallas. These two clearly are the best teams in the league until Toronto FC gets back in gear, and because of the points they’ve already accumulated, they’re the likeliest two for the Supporters Shield at this stage. NYCFC’s defense is more assured, though they have a shakier keeper, and almost no one can match Atlanta United’s attack, even with Ezequiel Barco not up to speed yet. Who is the best between the two? As their draw in April showed: there’s not much between them, at least right now.
MLS seasons really do kick into gear around this point in the calendar as teams find their identity and figure out who they are. Very few coaches will say they know what their team is even after playing a quarter of their schedule, and they may not know for a little while yet what their teams truly are. Trends from the first two months of the season may not mean a whole lot in the grand scheme, but they can’t be ignored, especially the ones from above. Keep them in mind as the weather gets better and so too does the soccer in MLS.
