Article by Matt Lichtenstadter
It’s almost the end of April in MLS, so for many teams that means they have almost played a quarter of their season. Some teams are performing above and beyond their preseason expectations and others, well, aren’t. While there is a time for teams that are overachieving, this piece is going to take a look at those who are underachieving, and whether it’s time to panic just yet.
MLS is such a forgiving league that the answer to that last question is probably “no”, but that won’t stop anyone from asking the question. These are a few teams who have gotten off to an incredibly slow start and ones who came in with expectations and something to prove
LA Galaxy: Probably the most alarming team on this list is the LA Galaxy, who have won two of their first seven games and was just comprehensively beaten by the Seattle Sounders. After undergoing the biggest facelift in about a decade, the Galaxy have struggled to find out who they are in 2017. Romain Alessandrini has been a successful signing, but LA hasn’t gotten much yet from players like Gio Dos Santos, Gyasi Zardes (who is coming back from injury), and their young players who they have said they will rely on more.
There are issues with the midfield of Joao Pedro and Jermaine Jones, but the biggest questions are on the backline. With Robbie Rogers out for the entire season, there has yet to be an answer for their conundrum at right back. But even more pressing than that; their back four is quite slow. They aren’t fleet of foot enough to keep up with the pace and movement of some of the better attacks in the league, and even though they have Jelle Van Damme, that hasn’t been enough.
The Galaxy have also been famous for finding ways to achieve more depth than any other team in the league, but that too has yet to materialize. And above all of that, Curt Onalfo has not yet proven his chops in managing in MLS, although with all of this change and having managed only seven games, there is time for all of that to change.
LA is not where they should be right now, and is under more pressure than usual considering the noise LAFC is making ahead of their grand arrival into the league next season. MLS is very forgiving, and the Galaxy still have the wherewithal to fix problems like few other clubs do, but this start has been surprising, and worrisome from the league powerhouse.
Colorado Rapids: Some will say that last season’s incredible run was almost certainly a fluke, and that’s not entirely inaccurate. But for a team that was two points away from the Supporter’s Shield a year ago to be in the basement of the West after their first six games is still surprising. Getting blanked by formerly leaky Minnesota United does not make their situation any less surprising, especially after trading away their captain, Sam Cronin. Tim Howard’s suspension did not help the situation either. Their impeachable defensive record at home also now seems vulnerable, which was the backbone of everything successful that they did in their run up the table. If that defensive record is not there, then they cannot be successful with their limited attack.
With all of the instability in their first six games, it is entirely possible once Tim Howard returns and their defensive game gets settled that the Rapids will return to their surprising form of a season ago. But until then, the question will still be whether what happened last year was really a fluke.
Philadelphia Union: But the most concerning form of anyone this early MLS season has to be in Philadelphia with the Union. After a fantastic season of growth last year which culminated in the club’s first playoff berth since 2012, the Union have stumbled out of the gate, and still haven’t won a game since August 27th of last year. And to make things worse, the Union had a 3-0 home lead over Montreal but coughed it away to draw 3-3.
Watching Alejandro Bedoya’s press conference after the game gave everyone a sense of the rut that the Union find themselves in, and the creeping sensation that they are stuck. Defensively, they’ve not found a replacement for Josh Yaro with either Oguchi Onyewu or Jack Elliot, their midfield balance has been wrong and despite a good early season spell from C.J Sapong, they haven’t found someone to put in goals consistently for them.
Whether these struggles are on Jim Curtin, Earnie Stewart or the players currently there is a tough question to ask, mainly because there is a little on everyone’s shoulders right now. They are the only winless team in the league and the 3-3 draw felt like a backbreaking result for a team that was desperate for any form of confidence.
Something dramatic will probably change if the Union don’t change their form soon, whether that be the coach or someone else. But this team that had so much promise is now wasting it faster than they built it up, and something has to change.
MLS is a forgiving league, but these teams need something to change quickly otherwise they may have dug themselves too deep a hole.
