Time is right for Union to shop like any title contender should
The Union isn’t a complete team just yet in 2022. That fact was true before Sunday’s 2-1 win over New York City FC to vault into first place in the Eastern Conference. It held true Wednesday night, after a lackluster performance in Chicago bred a 1-0 loss to the then-last place Fire, allowing Montreal to leapfrog into first.
That doesn’t change the fact that the Union are one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. With open roster spots and money to spend, they can remove all doubt by being aggressive in the summer transfer window. If ever there was a time to err on the side of overspending, this is it.
Manager Jim Curtin inferred as much, after the disappointing 1-1 draw with Cincinnati on June 19.
“What we are missing right now is that one player to make a play, maybe it’s beat a guy or change how the defense is playing us,” Curtin said. “Right now, we’re a little bit safe and stagnant to play against, easier to play against. We miss that one piece to really break down the opponent and get behind them.”
Curtin didn’t specify if that player was currently on the Union roster, since he went into the game shorthanded. He phrased it, as he usually does, as a request for someone to step up and take the responsibility.
Last year, that played out fine. The Union hit a summer lull in CONCACAF Champions League, confident they had the pieces to rise up in the East once they could focus on it.
From August through late September, they did that, launching from ninth to second, to three home playoff games, to within a COVID-blighted game of hosting the MLS Cup.
This year, the goals are higher. The Union want to win it all. They have a team that, on its best day, is the best in the East. On its worst day, it’s flailing to keep up with the bottomdwelling Fire.
So allow me to prepare the short version of a pitch deck to ownership to shell out some cash:
1. The Union have roster spots. The club’s senior roster has 17 of 20 spots occupied. One is held by Matej Oravec, who has never played for the Union and is on year two of a loan back to Slovakia. So call it 16 spots.
It may actually be slightly fewer, since the Union have 10 guys for eight supplemental roster spots. That can always be massaged by season-long loans to Union
II. Also among those is Jack De Vries, in the final stages of a move to Italian Serie B club Venezia, where he spent a year on loan.
All told, the Union have no more than 25 bodies for 28 spots.
2. The club also has eight international spots; it acquired one for Jamiro Monteiro, then sold one to Houston. It has just five internationals, if Oravec leaves and if Sergio Santos obtains his green card. (Santos is not listed as an international on the MLS site any longer). This flexibility, to bet big on a smaller number of internationals, comes from being a franchise that fills so many jobs from within, as the Union have done so well.
3. The Union have money. This is the rarity. The management here isn’t a big collective spender. But it had one of the best transfer windows of any MLS club with no effort. They got a bit of money for Anthony Fontana signing in Serie B and should get some from de Vries. They’re getting $5 million as a sell-on fee from Brenden Aaronson’s move to Leeds United and shy of a million from Colorado transferring Auston Trusty to Arsenal.
4. The Union have a small number of needs, but they’re clear. Curtin has two starting forwards, two decent reserve options, two (maybe three) excellent center
backs, one of MLS’ best left backs and central midfielders, and one of its most productive No. 10s. There’s not a lot of holes to fill.
But the Union are missing something. They’ve scored 22 goals in 17 games, being shut out just twice but not scoring more than twice in any game. It’s taken time for their two offseason forward signings to acclimate, but the explanation wears thinner with each passing game. Plus, adding the right new face might provide the jolt that prevents nights like the Chicago dud.
“We’re not good enough to think we can just step on the field and it’s going to be easy,” Curtin said Wednesday. “I think the guys know that. Certain guys bring it every day. I don’t think we were arrogant or cocky, but I think we stepped on the field, maybe there’s a mental letdown from the crazy victory over New York.”
The Union are excellent defensively and away from home, but they’ve stumbled in avoiding draws when they need a goal. Their Plan A — counterattacking, high pressing soccer — is one of the best and most clearly defined of any club. But teams can and have adjusted. And when opponents deny that, sitting back and daring the Union to break them down, they struggle. There’s no Plan B, which is what they’re in the
market for, namely a midfield change-of-pace.
5. The East is there for the taking. New York City FC, which the Union have beaten twice, has a new coach and could sell the league’s top goal-scorer this summer. New England has been ravaged by transfer defections after winning the Supporters’ Shield. New York Red Bulls has the most perplexing home/road splits in MLS history. Atlanta is racked with injuries. Nashville is now in the West.
Is that enough to suggest the Union have a clear path to MLS Cup? If not, how about this: Los Angeles FC is the top team in the West and the odds-on Shield favorite. They’ve bolstered
their squad by signing Gareth Bale, Giorgio Chiellini and re-signing Carlos Vela. They’re all-in on a title run. The Union, which drew in Los Angeles in May, should be too.
It’s rare that the path can seem so clear. Transfer decisions never are, and finding the right guy for the right price at the right point in his career to mesh with is not easy. But Ernst Tanner has done that before in Philadelphia.
Doing it once more this summer might make the Union champions.