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| Doin' this shit old school. |
As promised a few days back, I went through the
(low-hanging; aka, SB Nation) local blogs to clock how each of them feel about
the off-season rebuild in their market – and, by translation, how they feel
about 2017 as a whole. I had my doubts (or outdated bookmarks), but I found an
SB Nation blog for each of Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference teams,
which, courtesy of a visit from personal sanity, are the only teams I’ll discuss
in this post. C’mon, 11 teams feels ample.
And that’s all the preamble I need, I guess. Um. Let’s go
alphabetically.
Atlanta United FC
Source: Dirty South Soccer (great name, btw)
I relied on a few articles for this one: a roster projection,
something that looks like a regular feature running under “tactics board,” plus
a preseason match report for a game against an opponent (Chattanooga FC) that
Atlanta fairly clear out-classed (think it was 5-0). Not surprisingly, a lot of
the focus for all these goes to Miguel Almiron – and, in fairness, some of
those gif/clips explain the buzz. A couple other things get flagged – e.g.
Yamil Asad scored a beauty, Andrew Carleton looks all right – but even the
“tactics board” post centers on Almiron, if around some talk about how it looks
like Atlanta will use their fullbacks (not too far off Columbus Crew SC, under
Gregg Berhalter from the sound of it). If there’s anything keeping Atlanta fans
up at night (besides the heat, amirite?), it’s the defense; the match report
actually framed this as something like the basic work of getting defenders and
goalkeeper on the same page.
Conifers & Citrus Addendum: I see a steep drop off after
the starting eleven. People are broadly hyped about Atlanta and that’s fine,
but they look an injury or two away from a stall to me. To put this in human
form: would you willingly start Jeff Larentowicz in an MLS game? If you answer “no,”
you see the issue.
Chicago Fire
Source: Hot Time in Old Town
This blog loves its roundtables, so much so that it’s
sometimes hard to figure out where to find the (somewhat specific content)
one’s after. For all that, I think Hot Time is where I am: reasonably convinced
that Chicago did the offseason rebuild right enough, and to the point where
“[Velko Paunovic, aka] Pauno actually has some options.” Chicago has gone
unbeaten in the 2017 preseason, and that only solidifies the sense of things
moving in a positive direction, but there are lingering (if quickly dismissed)
doubts about Dax McCarty’s devotion to the cause (they’re all in agreement that
he’s too much of a pro to go hack), but the one negative recurring theme
surrounds the right back position. One pundit in one of the roundtables points
out that Chicago’s new system will require “a lot less” of the Fire’s fullbacks
in 2017, so it’s worth wondering why they’re all so stressed out, but it’s
there.
Conifers & Citrus Addendum: My opinions on Chicago are
not to be trusted, generally (still, that 4-1 win over Montreal?), but I think
they not only have a good starting set for the attack, they also have
reasonable back-ups/change-ups when it comes to subs. The defense is a concern,
too, but Juninho and Dax should help there.
Columbus Crew SC
Source: Massive Report
These poor deprived souls have, at time of (my) reading,
been deprived of seeing their team play directly, so they’re going on official
reports (never to be trusted) and quotes from Berhalter (who has ample
motivation to fudge). For all that, a couple things stand out: 1) Crew SC went nuts in terms of building up its spine (more here), whether it’s newly-arrived defender
Jonathan Mensah or new (and both defensive apparently) midfielders Muhammad Abu
and Artur (just, Artur). If Columbus added to the attack, that came by way of
right back Jukka Raitala (gotta be Finnish, right?). For all the sense that
Columbus will bounce back after a terrible 2016, even Massive Report sees cause
for caution: Adam Jahn and Ola Kamara (good as he is) are the only two forwards
on the roster; add another year to “Pipa” Higuain’s legs and it’s fair to
wonder how many goals Columbus’ attack will muster in front of what should be a
much better defense.
Conifers & Citrus Addendum: By way of supplementing
Massive Report, those new midfielders will have to boast some semblance of
attacking upside to cover for how thin Columbus is up top. If you watched Ethan
Finlay and Justin Meram (for a portion of) last year, you should appreciate
that production is something less than a given.
DC United
Source: Black and Red United
As someone who bought all the way into DC United toward the
end of 2016, catching up on their offseason made for a sobering read. It’s not
that DC will be awful in 2017, or that they’ll revert to the sad sterility of
“Benny Ball”; it’s more the way some real questions have started to pile up.
Among them: 1) Sean Franklin might pair with Steve Birnbaum, because that’s the
best option (due to Bobby Boswell’s age and Kofi Opare’s sporadic health), and is
that good, no, seriously, is that good; 2) it’s a choice between a young buck
(Ian Harkes) and two serviceable options (Rob Vincent, Julian Buescher) to pair
with an (aging) Marcelo Sarvas in central midfield; 3) those wingers, who came
on so very well last season, aren’t getting any younger (I’m looking at Lloyd
Sam, Sebastian LeToux and Lamar Neagle, as much as personal fave Patrick
Nyarko). A preseason “minutes tracker” seems to point to the ultimate
resolution of some of these ideas – and also to Nick DeLeon continuing at right
back (where he looked pretty OK).
Conifers & Citrus Addendum: They have a good system and
smart players in it – young ones too (Luciano Acosta, Patrick Mullins) here and
there. DC could go either way, in my mind, but the above caveats definitely
loom.
Montreal Impact
Source: Mount Royal Soccer
I flagged a 4-1 loss to Chicago above, but a match report on
the local SB site either blew that off or sounded the alarm; honestly, I’m not
sure. Montreal later went on to beat up on DC, but that’s the same team they
dumped out of the 2016 playoffs, and against most tells, so maybe that’s just
the psychic scars showing? I had more success with this site than most, which
is to say Mount Royal raised some damned interesting questions. Among them:
what will Andres Romero (who I’ve always liked) make of his (potential) comeback year; what role will new kids Louis Beland-Goyette, Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla (winger!), and Adrian Arregui play in the coming season? And what about
Blerim Dzemaili, a player brought in to cover the (no offense) aged weakness of
Montreal’s spine? That last one’s actually a great debate, but there’s one more
thing worth noting: Ignacio Piatti, Matteo Mancosu and Dominic Oduro all looked
great in that outing against DC reportedly. And, yeah, the Chicago game sounded
like an early season brain-fart, so…
Conifers & Citrus Addendum: The way these guys collapsed
against Toronto went against everything I assumed about this team (e.g., strong
defense and counter). Another year on that defense’s legs might further press
assumptions. Then again, I always doubt Montreal…and not just because of
poutine.
New England Revolution
Source: The Bent Musket
A couple tweets and posts I put up a couple months back
point to the folly of assuming that solving a team’s problem requires nothing
more than finding a player to fill a position of need. That’s most of what I
thought when I read that neither Xavier Kouassi nor Benjamin Angoua project as being ready for Regular Season Game 1. I can think of no better way to sum up
the mass of unknowns surrounding New England than the “10 Thoughts” post I
linked to a couple weeks back: the idea of playing Kelyn Rowe as a No. 10 is
just the beginning. With all that mess, it’s no surprise that New England isn’t
having a great preseason, but that’s not predictive of the season ahead. At
least not definitively. Still, there are a lot of questions here…not even the
ones about Femi Hollinger-Janzen’s comings-and-goings with the club.
Conifers & Citrus Addendum: This team needs a brain somewhere on the field, either in the attack, or in the heart of defense, but
these guys haven’t felt anything but rudderless for a couple years. Lee Nguyen,
for all his talent, doesn’t look like that guy. Big problem…
New York City FC
Source: Hudson River Blue
I think the story with NYCFC begins and ends with their
permanent parade of signings – though, here, I want to pause to say, Jonathan Stertzer? That guy? Best of luck to him and the club, honestly, and god bless
him for finishing off a preseason chance, but I wouldn’t have signed that guy
based on his days with Real Salt Lake. Still, there’s Alexander Ring (there’s a
brutal frame re: Mix Diskerud in there), Yangel Herrera, Rodney Wallace
(fuckers), and, not latest, but probably greatest, Maxi Moralez, who may pan
out or flame out; no one knows. There’s this kid floating around in the mix – a
16-year-old named James Sands – who might make things deeply interesting, but,
if you read about how NYCFC came across their two preseason losses against MLS
clubs, you’ll see a familiar theme – e.g. defensive miscues. And that’s got the
power to cancel out a number of flashy signings.
Conifers & Citrus Addendum: I left off newly-signed
‘keeper, Sean Johnson, but he’s also an afterthought if that defense doesn’t
get its shit together. I bet they’ll be good, but I’ll also bet they could be
better with a little more focus on defense.
New York Red Bulls
Source (sort of): Once a Metro
Once a Metro simply does not have great Red Bulls content,
or at least not content I can find (with the effort I’m willing to put in):
they seem obsessed with Red Bulls II, what former players are up to, and
wondering what the fuck got head coach Jesse Marsch ahead of his most recent press
conference. What I can say is that the Red Bulls have yet to lose in preseason,
and, that the one time I saw them play, they thoroughly outplayed the other
team, who shall go, uh, unnamed.
Conifers & Citrus Addendum: This one’s pretty simple:
New York OG (the Red Bulls) has a good system, players who understand the
system, plus a couple of next-level guys like Bradley Wright-Phillips and Sacha
Kljestan to see them through. They’ll be good in 2017. Probably. They could be
great if their defense solidifies…which could mean the attack could suffer.
This is somewhat circular, as I’m sure you see…
Orlando City SC
Source: The Mane Land
The thing that stands out about Orlando’s midfield is its
mild incoherence – especially with Cristian Higuita going down to injury. If
you look at The Mane Land’s projected starting eleven, on the other hand,
you’ll see a team that should at least function – e.g. Kaka will act as a
second forward, so all those (sorry) “sub-creative” midfield players (Will
Johnson, Brek Shea, Matias Perez-Garcia) only need to feed him the ball – but
what happens if/when Kaka (let’s face it) inevitably misses a game or five? The
defense doesn’t pencil out either – Jonathan Spector seems OK, but I don’t
recall that Aja kid making many Best XI’s – but the weirdest thing comes with
an article on Orlando’s preseason results that somehow avoids actually talking
about those results. I get it on some level – they had no video feed (again,
Timbers fans, please realize how good we’ve got it) – but why post what amounts
to a three paragraph exhale of stale CO2? (Also, for the record, Orlando lost
to Toronto FC 1-3 (i.e., in Orlando), and they drew 3-3 with Philadelphia
Union). All in all, I don’t get a huge sense of confidence out of The Mane
Land.
Conifers & Citrus Addendum: I’m not sure Orlando ever
had a plan beyond, “sign Kaka.” The most intriguing thing in all of this is
something I omitted: the heretofore entirely untested notion that a season tomatch his stature from Antonio Nocerino will fix what ails this club. Orlando
has played to the bubble in each of its (three?) seasons, and it’s hard to see
them going beyond that in 2017, not without a mystery man coming forward (The
Nocerino Scenario), or new blood.
Philadelphia Union
Source: The Brotherly Game
I want to start by saying I like the approach to the match
report for Chicago’s 1-0 win over Philly; the back-and-forth frame makes for a
fun read. The Brotherly Game also wrote up the 1-0 win over the Tampa Bay
Rowdies (and, whoa, whoa, whoa…what’s with this “other people/filthy readers”
providing the player ratings?), but I think their biggest mysteries surround a
couple players they’ve signed (e.g., Jay Simpson (aka, “maybe BWP?”), Fafa Picault, and Haris Medunjanin (good number of caps for that guy (for Bosnia;
not bad, right?)), along with what they’re going to do about defensive/personnel depth? Per The Brotherly Game’s write-up, only Keegan Rosenberry and
Richie Marquez have spots locked down, and the only new guy they signed is
Oguchi Onyewu, a player most people weren’t even sure the Union would sign when
he came on as a trialist. All in all, the Union presents as a team waiting on a
narrative; I’m sure their fans are thrilled…
Conifers & Citrus Addendum: I see Philly as a team that
picks up good and useful players, while also being perpetually a player (or
two) short of a fully-functioning team. In other words, they’ll come good to
the extent that Medunjanin gives shape to their midfield, or if Simpson takes
up the scoring slack that C. J. Sapong never quite managed, or if Onyewu has a
beast season.
Toronto FC
Source: Walking the Red
I’d say the general book on TFC reads roughly like so: this
was/is a team that’s maybe two players short of winning it all – and I mean
all: Toronto were in plausible Supporters’ Shield contention till late, and
they came within penalty kicks (right? I didn’t black out an entire event?) of
winning MLS Cup. They’ll return most of their best players and Drew Moor ain’t
done yet, they’ve still got solid fullbacks (Justin Morrow and Steven
Beitashour), plus a waning-prime captain (Michael Bradley) and a (recently)
dominant waxing-prime forward, so, yeah, TFC just needed a couple twitches
toward the good side of things and they should be good. Right? On paper, they’ve
found another anchor for their defense in Chris Mavinga (srsly, pedigree doesn’t
always matter, but he’s got the right CV; and this gets at why/how he could matter), and, and, TFC splashed out for a player who…well, they both have the
same rough narrative; semi-reclamations, if pulled from the dumpsters under the
swankiest condos, but, put it this way; I’m not totally clear on how Victor
Vazquez fits into TFC’s scheme, and I’m not saying he won’t fit. What I am
saying is, he enjoyed his best success with “Barcelona B” and “Club Brugge.”
These are not global glamour outfits. A step above MLS? Probably. The question
is, how big a step? The follow up is, how much of a step do TFC need? My guess
is a Mazinga-sized one, assuming he works out.
Conifers & Citrus Addendum: This is a good team. Barring
something broken or weird, they should make the playoffs. And, barring
something broken or weird – and this is with the weight of all the other teams
above this – Toronto looks as good as any team in the Eastern Conference, and
probably better than most.
OK, that’s the Eastern Conference edition. I’ll be back…guessing
Sunday (or Monday) with the Western Conference edition.
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