It’s only March. Most of the deciduous trees in most MLS markets have barely begun to produce new leaves and blossoms, and gametime temperatures are still frigid across much of the continent’s northern tier. Three rounds of Concacaf Champions Cup are still to be played and MLS first teamers’ first involvement in the 2024 U.S. Open Cup is still several weeks away.
It’s still early, early days in Major League Soccer, where the combination of a marathon calendar and reliance on a postseason playoff to crown its champion has always made for a backloaded rhythm in which the stakes and intensity rise markedly down the home stretch in late summer and autumn.
Yet substantial stress and angst percolate in Austin, New England and Seattle, home of the league’s last remaining winless teams.
“We’re desperate for points at this stage of the season,” Revolution defender Dave Romney told media after his team’s 1-1 ill-tempered draw vs. Chicago at Gillette Stadium on Saturday.
“We’ve been the better team in a lot of these games and we’re just giving up soft goals. We just can’t find a way to get on the scoresheet as much as we are used to or need to. It’s still frustrating. We need three points at home, so I don’t think we’re happy with a tie still, even though it’s nice to finally have some points. But we’re still disappointed. I am, at least.”
Were it not for their successful march to the Champions Cup quarterfinals, the alarm bells would be ringing out loud and clear in Foxborough, and nerves may well be buzzing even at that. Because the Revs have taken a mere one out of the 15 points on offer thus far in league play, leaving them rock-bottom in the overall standings. With three of those first five at home and four of their next six on the road, there’s legitimate cause for concern about being left behind in the competitive Eastern Conference before the New England winter has broken in earnest.
A 10-point gap now yawn between the Revs and leader FC Cincinnati, which won in Foxborough on March 17, and four other East sides — the New York Red Bulls, Columbus Crew, Toronto FC and Inter Miami — have already reached 10 points.
First-year coach Caleb Porter told a local sports-talk radio show that “it’s not panic mode” in the lead-up to the Fire’s visit, comparing the opening months of his New England tenure to his early days with the Portland Timbers in 2013.
“I think it’s a slow start now, but I think if we win this weekend, then we’re fine,” Porter told the ‘Zolak & Bertrand’ show on Thursday, while also expressing optimism that the presence of his wife and children at Saturday’s match would make it an auspicious time for his first league win. “My first year in Portland, we got our first win in the fifth game and then we went 13 games unbeaten and set an MLS record for points and ended up winning the Western Conference that year.”
It remains to be seen whether he’s closer to slapping the big red button after dropping two more points at home. The Revs have a bye this weekend, which normally would be a blessing considering they host mighty Club América in the first leg of their CCC series on Tuesday. But Porter & Co. would probably prefer to enter that massive test vs. Mexico’s biggest, richest club riding fresh momentum from a victory. How long can the Revolution really hope to keep up the Jekyll-and-Hyde act of diametrically divergent results in league and continental play?
Juggling MLS and Concacaf ambitions is a familiar challenge for the Seattle Sounders, who at this time two years ago were marching toward the league’s first and only capture of North America’s top club competition in the modern era. Alas, their present problems are rather more prosaic.
How to create clear scoring chances with some regularity, for example: the Rave Green has produced a thoroughly mediocre 5.6 expected goals across their first four matches, according to fbref.com. And what formation to play, not just in order to goose higher levels of productivity out of attacking stars like Raul Ruidiaz and Jordan Morris, but simply to field a functional, competitive XI amid an injury crisis that forced Brian Schmetzer to dig six rungs down his central-midfield depth chart in last weekend’s visit to the previously winless San Jose Earthquakes.
The good news: Seattle scored multiple goals for the first time this season, and did so while rallying from a 2-0 deficit to level the match at 2-2 in impressively gutsy fashion.
The bad news: The Sounders leaked a third tally immediately after Danny Musovski’s equalizer, allowing Jeremy Ebobisse to slide home the gamewinner practically from the ensuing kickoff.
In Seattle’s defense, the aforementioned injury outbreak is brutal: Holding-midfield linchpin João Paulo and new young Designated Player Pedro de la Vega are out, as are talented homegrowns Reed Baker-Whiting and Obed Vargas and young reserve Braudilio Rodrigues. Just this week, a meniscus issue added winger Leo Chu to the list, while another DP, the versatile Albert Rusnák, is still regaining full fitness after an ankle knock.
But these Sounders aren’t supposed to need anyone to defend them. Seattle conceded the fewest goals in MLS last season, and the fact that it also allowed the fewest high-quality chances underlined how legit the backline was. Most of the first-choice defensive group is available to Schmetzer, who has — in public, at least — remained his usual balanced, cerebral self thus far.
“I think it’s a little too early to kind of threaten guys with ‘OK, if you’re not playing well, you’re going to be removed from the lineup,’” said the veteran coach after the loss in San Jose. “I think we still have a great team. We will, when everybody comes back, have that subtle pressure … there will be subtle pressure on guys if they want to start. But as far as the coaching staff coming up with crazy lineups, no, we’re not going to go there.”
Even with dismay among big swatches of Seattle’s large, expectant fanbase, the number of trophies secured on his watch lends weight to Schmetzer’s evenhandedness. One boss who hasn’t quite accumulated such copious levels of house money is Josh Wolff, whose seat appears to be smoldering down in Austin well before the onset of Texas’ infamous summer heat.
ATX’s 2-0 loss at Orlando City, in which the visitors produced 0.3 expected goals compared to Orlando’s 2, extends a woeful stretch for the Verde that dates back to last summer. Austin won its final match before the Leagues Cup break last July, and has won just one of the 18 games they’ve played since then.
The underlying numbers might be more unsettling than the 0-2-3 record. Journalists like Phil West, Joe Lowery and others have had plenty of sad stats to dig into, such as:
- ATX’s 10.5 expected goals allowed, per fbref, is by far the worst in the Western Conference, as is its 0.60 xG for.
- Thus far in 2024, Austin is averaging 1.6 shots on target per 90 minutes – the worst performance in MLS history in that metric.
- In two of those matches, the Verde failed to take a single shot from inside the opponent’s penalty box, and Wolff’s team has been outshot 99-28 overall.
On Sunday MLSsoccer.com’s Armchair Analyst Matt Doyle dubbed Austin “clear favorites to win the Wooden Spoon” (the informal, ignominious title bestowed upon MLS’s worst overall team), and even Wolff sounded defeatist in Orlando as he explained why his side isn’t all that aesthetically pleasing at the moment, either.
“We have taken some precautions because we don’t have a full complement of guys, we don’t have the positions maybe occupied by the players that can do some of the things that we want. So we’re taking a more practical approach. We don’t build out of the back quite as much,” said the fourth-year head coach. “We’ll keep pushing these ideas, we’ll continue to get better. When we have a full complement of players, I think we’ll have a better version. But tonight the whole group, we needed to be better, there’s no doubt about it.
“We have to be realistic with the group that we have, the players that we have, the numbers that we have. As much as we want to be a dominant team, we have to get guys up to speed, we have to get fit, we have to get more numbers as well. We need to add to the group.”
Wolff does have a case for requesting reinforcements. Austin made little in the way of showpiece winter signings, while captain and creative hub Sebastian Driussi has been sidelined with a hamstring problem, marking his first start of the year on Saturday. It remains to be seen how sporting director Rodolfo Borrell will respond to that overt call for help, however.
Since arriving in July, the respected, well-traveled Spaniard has spent most of his time in observation mode, taking the measure of the league and wider North American landscape as well as his new club and its technical staff. His postseason endorsement of Wolff made headlines, but in retrospect left Borrell with ample room to maneuver considering the extent to which 2023’s struggles have lapped over into the new year.
Austin’s soccer operations were operating at something less than full bore in the months leading up the Borrell’s arrival, thanks to Claudio Reyna being placed on gardening leave after the stunning scandal that erupted between his family and Gregg Berhalter’s after the behind-the-scenes drama at and after the U.S. men’s national team’s 2022 World Cup campaign. Are the decks being cleared for a deeper rebuild in Austin? And will Wolff be given the opportunity to lead the renovated product?
As long as the wins column remains lightly populated, those questions will hang heavy in Central Texas.
There is a strong correlation between Reyna´s departure and Austin´s demise. Correlation is not always cause – but… How many parents you know in the USA that played the game as a professional then raised a pro player? Papa Pulisic and Reyna as far as I know. Then Reyna started NYCFC – and then came early to Austin. Say what you want – dude – has done it – and for me – it’s ok to go a bit overboard for your 19 y.o. son. That is love, which is sometimes – blind.
No worries, there isn’t any real stress. It’s not like they’re getting relegated or anything.