So I wrote the preview for Colorado, and I’m like ‘they’re solid, and they made upgrades - mid-table or better’. I wrote the preview for LAFC, and I’m like ‘they were the best team in MLS in 2019 - they’ll stay at or near the top of the league for sure.’
Orlando City? I don’t even begin to know, man. And anyone who tells you otherwise is full of cow manure.
Read MoreLast season was a down year for the New York Red Bulls, and yet they still ended their season with a perfectly respectable first round playoff loss. They enter 2020 with a few franchise faces missing, but primed for a new youth movement.
2019 in Review
What a disappointing season 2019 was for the New York Red Bulls. The Red Bulls are in an interesting place these days as an organization. Having lost the greatest manager in the world (don’t look it up, trust me it’s true I did the math), the Chris Armas era has been, well, completely unremarkable. Whereas in previous seasons the organization drew plaudits for finding so much success despite having a low payroll, focusing mainly on youth and promoting from within, last season they sort of resembled what you’d expect from a team that had a low payroll, and focused on youth and promoting from within.
Read MoreProbably the simplest way to summarize 2019 for the Vancouver Whitecaps is to say that they overachieved and still finished last in the Western Conference. Now, when I say they overachieved, clearly that doesn’t mean a ton, given how things ended up. But, it gives you a sense of how bad 2019 actually was for Vancouver. The Whitecaps outperformed expected goals, expected goals against, and expected points, but finished last in the West and ahead of only FC Cincinnati in the MLS standings.
Now, there wasn’t much to build on going into 2019 and Marc dos Santos brought in a ton of new players in his first year in charge, so as frustrating as 2019 likely was for the Whitecaps and their supporters, it probably wasn’t a shock.
One thing the Whitecaps did excel at in 2019 was limiting the quality of chances they allowed. Sitting back in a fairly low defensive block, the Whitecaps did a decent job of forcing opponents to take shots from low xG spots. They were actually one of the best teams in MLS in terms of expected goals per shot conceded. But, and you had to know there was a but coming there, they gave up over 100 shots more than anyone else. It doesn’t matter if you’re forcing teams to take low percentage shots if you give up that many shots because at some point you’re going to give up goals, and Vancouver did. A lot. If Vancouver can figure out a way to continue to limit shot quality but cut down on the number of shots they concede, that could be an area of significant improvement in 2020.
Read MoreBob Bradley came in with something to prove in 2018, the franchise’s first year. In interview after interview, he reminded folks that he skippered Chicago Fire to the double in 1998, the club’s first year of existence, winning both MLS Cup and the US Open Cup. Bob had similar ambitions for LAFC, and his ownership built him a team - with Carlos Vela and Walker Zimmerman and Eduard Atuesta and Laurent Ciman - that got pretty close in both 2018 and 2019.
Read MoreReal Salt Lake are not a team that’s going to spend big to bring in foreign talent, like a lot of Western Conference teams did this winter. According to Transfermarkt, RSL’s roster has the lowest total market value of any team in MLS. Under former manager Mike Petke, RSL were decent, though, in spite of their talent deficit. Last season they finished third, won their first round playoff matchup, and were that not far off from beating the eventual MLS Cup winning Seattle Sounders in the Conference Semifinal.
Because they did not do much to strengthen the squad in terms of talent, RSL’s most important offseason move was naming Freddy Juarez the team’s fifth head coach, after he guided the team from August on as the interim. Their ability to improve in 2020 will hinge on Juarez’s ability to coach up the roster. His two biggest opportunities are two things that were consistent roadblocks for the team under Petke - RSL’s attacking mechanics and creativity, and their youth development. If Juarez can get those two things right, Real Salt Lake has the capacity find themselves consistently in the top tier in the West. It will, however, probably take more than just 2020 to figure it out.
Read MoreA common refrain of Sporting Kansas City season previews from offseasons past is “get a center forward.” Here are some quotes from past ASA and MLSsoccer.com previews to that effect:
“Up top, SKC again has depth, but are still lacking a proven MLS goal-scorer.”
“There are a few questions, though, with Kristzian Nemeth stepping into the club's starting center forward role.”
“However, the talk will almost always turn back to that No. 9 position. It's not that Sporting have been completely deficient there over the years, it's just that they've never really found a solution that stuck.”
“What Vermes hasn’t done (yet) is land the forward #SKCnation yearns for.”
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Read MoreLet’s get this out of the way before we start: Beckham Beckham Beckham Beckham Beckham, Beckham Beckham Beckham; Beckham.
Now, every expansion team that enters MLS is forced into one of two buckets. The Minnesota, FC Cincinnati, Orlando bucket, overpaying for domestic talent and throwing your allocation money around like James Harden on the second night of a back to back with the Heat, or the Atlanta, LAFC, NYCFC bucket, spending huge on designated players, grabbing smart domestic pieces in low budget positions. In the annals of MLS history, one has been much more successful than the other. Inter Miami have decidedly settled on the second bucket.
Read MoreAfter two poor seasons in 2017 and 2018, led by a historically dreadful defense, Minnesota United saw a dramatic turnaround in 2019. The Loons improved from -23 GD and -26.4xGD in 2017 and -22 GD and -12.4 xGD in 2018 to +9 GD and +4.2 xGD in 2019. The dramatic difference in GD was largely driven by the defense, which gave up almost an entire goal per game fewer. This resulted in a 4th place finish in the West (7th place overall) and 8th in xGD/g.
Read MoreFans who like their soccer with a dash of philosophy will want to follow the Philadelphia Union this season. It was Aristotle who said, “the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts,” and it will be the Union that put that wisdom to the test. The Union are coming off their best season by all measures including goal difference, expected goal difference, points and recording their first playoff win. Sporting Director Ernst Tanner responded by letting three productive players go because they didn’t fit the style of play. His replacements have less compelling CVs but arguably fit better into the target shape. If the Union are going to take another step forward it will be because Tanner has channeled his inner Aristotle. Otherwise, the Union might slide back into the decade long mediocrity they suffered previously.
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