2020 Season Preview: DC United

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2020 Season Preview: DC United

2020 is shaping up to be a make or break season for Ben Olsen. Or, at least, it’s shaping up to look like it should be a make-or-break season. There’s nothing to actually suggest that there’s real pressure from the DC United front office, but considering how recent seasons have gone for DC United, and how strong their lineup looks going into the season, there probably should be.

I wrote back in December about how 2019 was supposed to be The Year for DC United. Despite making the playoffs for the 5th time in 6 seasons, last season didn’t live up to expectations. After a thrilling end to 2018, everyone assumed the 2019 version of Rooney, Acosta, and Co. would take the next step: contend near the top of the East and make a real push towards MLS Cup. That didn’t quite happen.

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2020 Season Preview: Nashville SC

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2020 Season Preview: Nashville SC

In 2019, Nashville SC was an elite defense coupled with an above average attack in the USL Championship. The side that will take the field as a Major League Soccer expansion team in 2020 will look almost completely different from the team that spent two seasons in the USL Championship. However, with head coach Gary Smith leading the side into MLS, many things will remain the same.

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2020 Season Preview: FC Dallas

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2020 Season Preview: FC Dallas

For FC Dallas and their fans, the 2020 season feels like sophomore year in college. You’ve settled in to your new digs, figured out how to get the best class schedule, have your core group of friends, and you know the best spots to get a cheap slice of pizza at 1 a.m. After turning over a good chunk of the roster from 2018 and installing a new coach in Luchi Gonzalez, just about everything was new in 2019. For 2020 Luchi’s still running the show, and aside from the departure of Dominque Badji, the roster is mostly intact from the end of 2019 as this team heads into Gonzalez’ sophomore year in charge. The club and the fans know what to expect for the upcoming season.

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CBA Talk: Players miss opportunity to take a fair share of league revenues

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CBA Talk: Players miss opportunity to take a fair share of league revenues

Major League Soccer and the MLSPA engineered one of the quietest Collective Bargaining Agreements in the history of American sports last week. There was no public discourse. No mudslinging. No use of public opinion for leverage. The players obediently showed up to preseason without so much as a whisper. Both sides were obviously close and had an agreement to be amicable this time arounde.

New CBAs result in players getting more of what they want, and this one was no different. The players successfully negotiated for more money, greater freedom of movement, and amenities like more charter flights. Public opinion, colored by the excitement of a new season, reflected that the players did well. Opinions were also colored by seemingly impressive claims that the players could be making 36% more money by the end of the agreement. Very few of us could imagine 36% more in income five years from now. The numbers sound impressive, but as usual lack context. Let’s add some, shall we?

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2020 Season Preview: NYCFC

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2020 Season Preview: NYCFC

Look, if we do this whole preview in serious pundit voice there’s going to be nothing to say about New York City Football Club. They're the exact same team as last season! Which was pretty much the same team as the season before that! They’ve been good for years, and if you’re crazy enough to bet on MLS you’d have to be even crazier not to bet on them being good again this year. Like some jerk wrote, boringly, on this website a couple of months ago, there’s no reason NYCFC shouldn’t be a playoff team in 2020.

But screw that, right? There’s a reason nobody likes Nate Silver. You know who everyone likes, deep down, whether they want to work through this uncomfortable personal truth with their therapist or not, is very loud men who go on TV to yell their loud sports takes loudly. And if those men gave even one tiny airborne molecule of a crap about American club soccer, boy would they have some news for you: NYCFC is not going to make the playoffs this season. Not even close! In fact, you’re an idiot for ever thinking they might.

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War Strategy and Soccer: is a War of Attrition or a Perfect Strike Better for Winning?

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War Strategy and Soccer: is a War of Attrition or a Perfect Strike Better for Winning?

For the purposes of this article, we’re going to define a soccer game through the lens of the home team. It’s their turf, their fans, and their local pride. More importantly, the home team generally chooses the style of gameplay that will occur. This is dubbed “Home Field Advantage.” Home Field Advantage is backed up through data analysis as well, as MLS home teams generally win 53% of games season by season, higher than most every other league in the world.

War is the same way. The home country generally decides the style of fighting; Guerilla Warfare like Che Guevara, or a Battle of Attrition like the French in World War I? This is dictated by a clear strategy coming from the leadership at the top, as well as knowing the local land and intricacies of the surroundings, combined with the technology and mindset of the time.

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Offseason Outlook: Orlando City

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Offseason Outlook: Orlando City

Orlando City haven’t really ever been “good”, per se. They were “entertaining” and “competitive” in their first two years with Kaka. And then, from 2017 to 2019, they were varying shades of bad.

But they’ve never been in existential crisis until now.

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All of our 2019 Offseason Outlooks

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Over the past few weeks we’ve published an article about each MLS team diagnosing their rosters points of depth and weakness, and offering our suggestions for what kind of changes are needed before the start of the 2020 season. Here they all are in one place, so you can get caught up on each team’s needs.

Eastern Conference
Atlanta United by Tiotal Footbal
Chicago Fire by Eric Walcott
Columbus Crew by Eliot McKinley
DC United by Eric Walcott
FC Cincinnati by Jeff Bull
Inter Miami by Drew Olsen
New England Revolution by Harrison Crow
New York City FC by John Muller
New York Red Bulls by Alex Bartiromo
Montreal Impact by Kevin Minkus
Orlando City by Mark Asher Goodman
Philadelphia Union by Jared Young
Toronto FC by Kieran Doyle-Davis

Western Conference
Colorado Rapids by Mark Asher Goodman
FC Dallas by Jason Poon
Houston Dynamo by Dustyn Richardson
LA Galaxy by John Muller
Los Angeles FC by Mark Asher Goodman
Minnesota United FC by Dave Laidig
Nashville SC by Ben Wright
Portland Timbers by Drew Olsen
Real Salt Lake by Kevin Minkus
San Jose Earthquakes by Jamon Moore
Seattle Sounders by Ian L.
Sporting Kansas City by Kevin Minkus
Vancouver Whitecaps by by Eric Walcott

Offseason Outlook: LA Galaxy

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Offseason Outlook: LA Galaxy

On November 13, the L.A. Galaxy announced that it would not return to Major League Soccer in 2020. "Since [its] arrival in 2018, [the L.A. Galaxy] has positively influenced the sport of soccer in Los Angeles," said area businessman Chris Klein. "We thank [the L.A. Galaxy] for [its] professionalism and immeasurable impact on the Los Angeles community and the soccer community in North America as a whole.”

"I wish [the L.A. Galaxy] the best, dude," said Los Angeles resident Sebastian Lletget, who attended the Galaxy’s games and sometimes even training sessions. "It was a good run."

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Offseason Outlook: San Jose Earthquakes

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Offseason Outlook: San Jose Earthquakes

It was a tumultuous season for the Quakes, which saw them fall from a midseason peak of second in the Western Conference down to eighth – four points out of a playoff spot. Based on publicly-available contractual information Earthquakes fans were expecting some mass departures at the end of 2019. Contracts were up for fan favorites Chris Wondolowski, Florian Jungwirth, Judson (on loan), and Cristian Espinoza (on loan). Earthquakes General Manager Jesse Fioranelli quickly addressed the first three, and then paid approximately $3 million, to Villarreal for a permanent transfer for Espinoza. However, other contracts that seemed to be expiring had been previously extended (Andrew Tarbell and Shea Salinas) or curiously had their option picked up (Matt Bersano), while only three players had options declined (Francois Affolter, Jimmy Ockford and Kevin Partida) with one contract allowed to expire (Harold Cummings).

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