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Ten Good and Bad Things After Six Weeks of MLS

One thing you should know going into this column: I took the general premise from ESPN NBA writer Zach Lowe, whose 10 Things I Like and Don’t Like is a must-read every week. I thought I would do something like that today, but for MLS instead. So without further ado, ten good and bad things from the MLS regular season so far.

Ten Good and Bad Things After Six Weeks of MLS

Good — Minnesota’s last week

Minnesota United were hilariously bad for the first few weeks of the season, but three things happened over the past seven days that will make things a lot better for the club.

First, they traded for veteran MLSers Sam Cronin and Marc Burch from the Colorado Rapids, which is a total steal of two players who were low-key vital for one of the best defensive teams in MLS history just last year. Burch fills in at left back — assuring that Jermaine Taylor will never start there again — and Cronin will marshal the midfield from deep, leadership and tactical nous that we never saw from Collen Warner or Ibson. This is a massive plunder for the Loons.

Then, Adrian Heath got the guts to bench captain Vadim Demidov, who was about as competent a defender as I am, which is not very. It’s a major plus for them to see Demidov playing left bench instead of left center back, although it likely makes things less fun for FC Dallas next week.

Finally, they went out and picked up a home 4-2 victory over newly-crowned league laughingstock Real Salt Lake, who is so bad (and so injured) that even Nick Rimando couldn’t help but make a mistake. Christian Ramirez is making an increasingly compelling case for a US national team shot, and Kevin Molino’s still been playing around his peak from last season.

Minnesota now have to figure out how to win on the road, and how to avoid ridiculously high scoring games every week. The scorelines of their first five games begin to start sounding like occasionally shortened tennis sets: 1-5, 1-6, 2-2, 2-5, 4-2. A total of 30 goals have been scored in matches involving Minnesota — that’s ten goals for and 20 goals against — which adds up to the shocking average of exactly six per game.

At some point, that will regress to the mean, because even Roger Federer doesn’t play that many tennis matches. They’ll learn how to stay condensed and narrow for longer than 15 minutes at a time, and they will see that it’s possible to attack effectively without giving up three football fields of space on the other end.

What worries me is that they’re going to massively overcompensate and end up settling for really low-scoring games every week, like Houston did last year. The Dynamo saw 26 goals in their first six games last year (only makes you appreciate the Loons more, doesn’t it?), but only 58 goals were scored in their next 29 games, an average of two per game. The average was 4.3 over the first six games.

Hopefully, they keep up the high-flying six-goalers at least until May 7th, when they host goal-averse Sporting KC, who have scored two and allowed one in four games, three of which finished 0-0. Somebody will have to break.

Still, it’s been a solid week for Minnesota. I can’t imagine they’ll be giving up four goals a game with Sam Cronin on the field.

Bad — Injuries

The number of players to have missed time this season due to injuries is getting long, and looking increasingly like an all-star team. Enjoy this block of capital letters:

Ignacio Piatti, Sebastian Giovinco, Josef Martinez, Mauro Diaz, Romell Quioto, Sebastian Lletget, Kaka, Quincy Amarikwa, Benny Feilhaber, Clint Irwin, Axel Sjoberg, Robbie Rogers, Ashley Cole, Matt Polster, Patrick Mullins, Luciano Acosta, every RSL player, every Portland center back, Maurice Edu, Laurent Ciman, Yordy Reyna, and Gonzalo Veron are among the players who have missed time. All but Polster and maybe Veron and Edu are penned-in starters.

Oh yeah, and Aurelien Collin, John Alvbage, Juan David Cabezas, Gaston Sauro, and Eric Miller also. Tell me who I’m missing, because I know I’m missing some.

The injury bug comes around every year, and this kind of thing is normal, but the amount of key contributors going down early in the season seems abnormally high this year.

Especially if you’re a Real Salt Lake fan. If fourth-round rookie draft pick Justin Schmidt gets injured any time soon, Nick Rimando may have to double as a center back, because the top three on the roster (Justen Glad, Aaron Maund, and David Horst) are all currently on MLSsoccer.com’s injury report right now. In addition, Sunny, Joao Plata, Albert Rusnak, and Jordan Allen have also been sidelined at points this season.

All these injury casualties resulted in the (hehe) *casualty* of head coach Jeff Cassar, who I’m sure loves my wordplay. Mike Petke’s got some work to do over there.

Good — Teenagers

The number of MLS players under the age of 20 is rapidly increasing, and as a result, more and more have started to become real contributors. This is a great sign for the league and for the development of the next generation of American and Canadian-based soccer players.

Players like Alphonso Davies (who is, incredibly, 16), Tyler Adams, Paxton Pomykal, Glad (who technically turned 20 just more than a month ago), Brooks Lennon, and Marco Farfan are among the high-school aged kids getting runs this season, and they’re taking advantage of them. Read more about them and Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla in the article linked to above.

It’s no coincidence that all of the teens getting opportunities this season play for clubs that own USL teams, with the exception of Oscar Pareja’s FC Dallas.

Good — Fun new tactics

One of the more interesting things for an MLS nerd in the first few weeks of the regular season is watching teams experiment with new formations and tactics, and seeing the successes and failures. Remember when NYCFC and the Chicago Fire were rolling out 3-4-3s and 3-5-2s at the beginning of last year? Good times.

This year, we’re continuing to see interesting tactical storylines. Columbus thrown in some Guardiola-esque wrinkles rarely seen in a league where managers have to become more creative and innovative. The Crew also ran out a 3-4-3 at one point, although that doesn’t seem like a sustainable look.

New England are always an interesting team to follow, and they’ve not disappointed in the neutral-interest category. They’ve persisted with the 4-4-2 diamond and continue to search for the right combination of talented attackers up front, hoping to fit together the complicated triangle of Kei Kamara, Juan Agudelo, and Lee Nguyen.

The Red Bulls are looking to stay on brand with the 4-2-2-2, which hasn’t completely panned out yet. Seattle’s a big jumble of ridiculously talented attackers, so watching them move together is a joy. Houston are doing a lot of things different this year, and it’s been very fun. Here’s hoping it continues.

Good — Atlanta’s success

I don’t think Atlanta United will make the playoffs — no such thing as a zero percent chance, but I’ll never foresee an expansion team break the long held model — but if any new MLS team can equal what Seattle did back in 2009, it would be Tata Martino’s side.

They’ve done pretty much everything you would want in an expansion team. The fanbase is large, active, and one of the best soccer communities in America. The squad is young and full of firepower, and they’ve invested in the youth game. Tata Martino is a great coach — a person who has coached the Argentina national team is now managing in Georgia: think about that — and they’ve seen real success so far.

What I really like about them is that while they have a wonderful cast of South American talent, they recognized the ability of German draft pick and former Providence Friar Julian Gressel, and have given him the starts he deserves. Too many MLS teams discount domestic American and Canadian-produced talent, and it’s promising to see United trust a player like Gressel.

Atlanta did not invent soccer, but they’re going to play a large part in advancing the American version.

Bad — Schweinsteiger and the Fire

After discussing a huge positive for the league and American soccer, we transition to a huge negative: the Chicago Fire’s signing of aging midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, and the continued perpetuation of the “MLS is a retirement league” stereotypes.

I know I shouldn’t be engaging that crowd, but I have a lot of friends who like soccer, and it concerns me that literally all of them discount MLS as a league for old Europeans, and question my knowledge of the sport because I only really follow American soccer. When I tell them about the progress the league’s made, and the growing quality of it, they refute with, “but didn’t Chicago just sign Schweinsteiger?” This disappoints me.

MLS’s big task right now in terms of gaining fans is cultivating two main crowds: the American sports fans who may want another option besides the four traditional sports, and the soccer fans who gravitate toward the European or Mexican games. To attract the latter group, MLS has to build up its worldwide perception, and to do that, Lodeiros and Almirons and Giovincos must become the majority over the Pirlos and Gerrards.

There are other steps to doing this — selling on players like Cyle Larin to better leagues is one, in my opinion — but after having casual conversations with normal, younger Americans who like the sport, this is the direction the league needs to go in. Signings like Schweinsteiger will only hurt the cause.

Bad — St. Louis probably won’t see MLS for a while

The city voted against a measure that was crucial for building a soccer-specific stadium, likely ruling St. Louis out of the battle to get into the league. MLS’s official statement did not leave much room for the city to sneak in despite the vote.

The politics of this whole situation are complicated, just like any politics anywhere, so I won’t go into that. I will say that I was rooting for the stadium to be built, because St. Louis would have been a perfect environment for an MLS team, and the soccer heritage there is as good as any other city in the country.

Bad — The disappointments so far

Minnesota may not be the biggest disappointment so far. A quick rundown:

D.C. United: Don’t worry too much, DCU. Patrick Mullins will come back and they’ll start finishing their chances. If they don’t in the next couple weeks, time for some changes.

RSL: They’re very, very injured, as I mentioned earlier. Plata needs to get healthy and Albert Rusnak needs to find his game, fast.

Montreal Impact: No wins yet this year. Piatti’s injured, which I would have thought would mean their attack would go away, but Tabla scored last week and they grabbed a point against Chicago, so who knows. The midfield’s way too old, I’ll tell you that much.

Philadelphia Union: Alejandro Bedoya is not a No. 10. I respect their initiative to play an American at the position, but that experiment failed. A modest proposal: Fabian Herbers in the middle.

Vancouver Whitecaps: This might be the only team in MLS where all I can say is “they’re just not good.” I expect them to be making more moves coming up soon, though.

San Jose’s good — or not?

San Jose’s played four games and have two wins and two losses. That would mean they’re average, or they could end up either being good or bad, right? No, there’s a simple answer to this question.

The wins were at home and the losses were on the road. That’s about it. They have to figure out how to get points on the road, or they won’t be anywhere near the red line.

I don’t have much faith in the Quakes, to be honest. Their two victories weren’t especially great wins — one was a narrow 1-0 win against the Impact and the other was a 3-2 win against the Whitecaps in which Vancouver went down to ten men with a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes — and I have concerns about the backline with Marvell Wynne and Harold Cummings injured long-term.

Bad, maybe good — My preseason predictions

I had RSL winning the Cup, TFC winning the Shield, FC Dallas winning the CCL (*slams something*), and the Dynamo winning the US Open Cup.

Giovinco is my MVP, Walker Zimmerman is my Defensive Player of the Year, Nick Rimando is my Goalkeeper of the Year, Rusnak is my Newcomer of the Year, Greg Vanney is my Coach of the Year, and Clint Dempsey is my Comeback Player of the Year. Not sure about my faith in RSL, but most of these haven’t been completely wrong.

Then again, it’s only six weeks into the season.

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