With J Hutcherson -- Let's talk about the Major League Soccer teams entering the 2010 with expectations of the substantial kind. The ones where the only success is lifting the MLS Cup wherever the final ends up being played. In a League stressing parity, it's a tough road to actually be a favorite. Look at what happened to the bright lights of the Eastern Conference in 2009.
Top of the list is last season's runners-up. This wasn't so much an Indianapolis Colts scenario simply because the Galaxy weren't the best team in MLS until relatively late in the season. That title shifted around the top of the Western Conference plus Columbus, and no team really had a clear claim. Enter LA, who turned a late run into the Western Conference title and a trip to MLS Cup.
Three shots on goal over 120 minutes, and one went in. RSL out-shot the Galaxy, a fact that should be the key to LA coach Bruce Arena's plans for 2010. Namely, establishing his offense as an ever present threat.
Easily written than done, and decidedly more complicated if he's absent the services of David Beckham and Landon Donovan. Whatever the future plans of those two players might be, Arena has to avoid the Galaxy in theory scenario Beckham's early season absence creates.
No, this isn't a benefit. It's not like getting an elite player every season in a transfer that happens a few weeks early. Simply put, it's disruptive. The Galaxy might be able to endure something similar to their run of draws (eight over eleven games to start the season), but there's no sense in creating expectations that few players in this League will meet.
Beckham, for all he's shown over his MLS tenure, isn't one of them. He's an accessory in search of targets, and that's something this League rarely rewards. In 2009, he had three assists over 11 games. Same number as the Crew's Guillermo Barros Schelotto, but Schelotto was averaging a goal every other game. That was a good enough run to get him benched in the playoffs.
Whatever you might think about the relative indication that the Supporters' Shield should give, Columbus did their best to spoil that. The Schelotto decision looms large, butt he same coach is still in place and so is Guillermo. The running of the Crew this year should look a lot like last year. A team capable of beating anybody else in MLS, but, somewhat oddly, also capable of losing to anybody else.
Columbus lost seven games in the regular season. Only three of those were to teams that didn't make the playoffs, but that included the two worst teams in Major League Soccer. The worst of the bunch, the Red Bulls, are also the ones looking for the quickest turnaround.
As expectations go, the Red Bulls have always been very good in setting them. Now, they're in the conversation with Chicago, DC, and Toronto. All Eastern Conference teams that changed coaches in the off season.
New York has their new stadium, their new Sporting Director, and new head coach Hans Backe all set to re-create the kind of success he had in the Danish first division. It might be a fair comparison, though bringing in players is a little trickier in Major League Soccer.
Regardless, the indications are that the expectations from the jump are significant. Maybe only Chicago matches that for pressure. Even without Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Chris Rolfe, the Fire didn't recruit new coach Carlos de los Cobos to flirt with a low seed playoff slot.
The teams not on this list? The defending champions, now weaker than they were when they made that unlikely run as an Eastern Conference wildcard. Chivas USA, needing another standout season from Zach Thornton but lacking the offensive punch to get him 2-1 wins. Houston, needing to rework the best midfield in the League for the second time in a couple of years. Seattle, looking a lot like they did last season and expecting to move from strength-to-strength. Perhaps, but is a title really the expectation?
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
