Off-season moves have Union headed in right direction
CHESTER » Certainties are difficult of mine from the world of soccer, even more so in the topsy-turvy, parity-by-design realm of MLS, and anyone offering them should be met with a dose of skepticism. But there are certain statements about the Eastern Conference in 2018 that can be uttered with a high degree of confidence.
Barring a biblical spate of injuries, Atlanta United should make the playoffs and challenge for a title. Off last year’s historic treble, Toronto FC may have only improved in the offseason. If Chicago is blessed with the sustained health of Bastian Schweinsteiger and New York City FC gets the same from David Villa, it’s likely they’ll repeat
as playoff teams. And Orlando City, after three listless seasons, has targeted MLS-effective vets in its most coherent attempt at growth yet.
And what, with any certainty, can be said about the 2018 version of the Union? About a club that has for two straight years finished with the same record, once in the playoffs by goal differential, once out of it by a wide margin?
Not a lot, but more than could’ve been said at this point last week.
The Union Wednesday made official the signing of Czech international Borek Dockal, an acquisition with more on-field significance than offfield cachet. The 29-yearold on-loan attacker from Henan Jianye in China brings a decade of experience in European competitions and 35 caps for the Czech Republic, a team he has captained. The Union’s midfield is now comprised of players who have captained the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Haris Medunjanin) and United States (Alejandro Bedoya), and played in major international tournaments.
All of that is a step in the right direction, as much as adding two more Homegrown Players to a stable now numbering five, as much as the likelihood that two — Auston Trusty and Anthony Fontana — will be handed debuts in the starting lineup in the season opener against New England Saturday.
On its two main fronts, the Union have delivered this offseason. It targeted and signed an impact winger in David Accam and a presumably influential No. 10 in Dockal, albeit a little later in the game than would’ve been preferable. It accomplished both of those without impeding the path to minutes for young players in the pipeline and indeed freed the impediments for Trusty at center back by opting for a central defense corps with no one older than 25.
“To sign these two players is tremendous,” Earnie Stewart said Wednesday. “We’re adding quality players to a squad. What we identified last year and we spoke about was having difference-makers. I think David Accam has already proven that in this league, that he’s one of those types of players that has the capabilities of doing that and, not wanting to put all of the kinds of pressure on somebody, but he’s somebody that people have to reckon with. He has the speed. We have various players that have speed now on the wings.
“And now we’ve added a Czech international who’s been through the ropes left and right and knows what it is to be a professional and to deliver, so very pleased.”
MLS’s structure posits playoff qualification as the lowest bar. Finish in the top six of the 11-team Eastern Conference, and you can plausibly call your season a success. Yet the Union have never in their history compiled a roster that made the rest of the league take notice and declare emphatically, yes, that’s a playoff team.
The Union aren’t there yet. That status, the powers that be at Talen Energy Stadium will tell you, is still further up the road. And indeed, the first signs of its promise are coming through. Never before have the Union so cogently executed a youth strategy as with the Academy-to-Steel-to-Union pathway. Lacking a pick in the first two rounds of January’s SuperDraft, the team still brought in three players of arguable lottery talent in Mark McKenzie, Matt Real and Fontana with the added benefit of not waiting on them to reach their early 20s. It’s not a stretch for the Union to field a team this season that includes four Homegrowns and three or four drafted players and for that team to not be a throwaway, “let’s rest the starters” squad. That is progress.
But the build hasn’t started from a level playing field with the rest of MLS, but rather the hole of early ineptitude dug first by Peter Nowak, then extended by those that followed. While Stewart is starting his third season at the helm of the club, the rot goes back considerably further. And while he’s not responsible for the actions of those that preceded him, he does inherit the frustration and the shortened leash of tolerance most fans have. And as the quality of MLS continues to rise, in talent and in dollar figures that the Union’s ownership can’t keep pace with, the Union could this season find themselves rising to a level only to find a Looney Tunes cloud of air shaped like last year’s contenders left behind as they’ve ascended the next level.
What the Union have, for the ninth time in nine seasons, is a team that can make the playoffs if things break right. If the ball bounces their way, if red cards and injuries don’t befall them, if fate smiles upon them.
What Union fans have been waiting a decade for is what will be lining up in Atlanta and New York City and Toronto this weekend, a roster that is playoff-caliber, not one that maybe, possibly, potentially could be.
And someday soon, that might be the new definition of progress.