WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- MLS celebrates Earth Day with sixth annual Greener Goals Week of Service: MLS WORKS announced Monday its sixth annual Greener Goals Week of Service, which highlights the League's commitment to environmental sustainability, including efforts around waste reduction. The sixth annual Greener Goals Week of Service will take place April 17-23. League-wide efforts will be conducted on and off the field to highlight Major League Soccer's commitment to environmental sustainability, including efforts around waste reduction. All 29 MLS clubs and League office staff will volunteer their time to conduct environmentally friendly projects in partnership with local charitable organizations.
MLS UNVEILS ONE PLANET KIT MADE OF RECYCLED MATERIALS
Major League Soccer and adidas have unveiled the One Planet Kit, to be worn league-wide on Matchday 9 this weekend as MLS celebrates Earth Day and continues its goal of becoming the most sustainable league in sports.
Made entirely out of Parley Ocean plastic – a recycled material created from reimagined plastic waste – the hand-drawn kit design pays homage to the ocean floor each jersey aims to protect. Blended into the swirling print, the repeating wordmark "End Plastic Waste" serves as a call to action uniting each club in the collective stewardship of our planet.
CHECKING IN ON THE LEAGUE'S FIRST-YEAR HEAD COACHES
Eight weeks in feels like a good time to check on how the league's newest head coaches are doing. Some of these folks have been in charge for a while, but all are in their first full season in charge of their club. Some of these folks are handling that better than others.
Now, keep in mind, a lot of a team's success doesn't have much to do with the manager. The more we learn about the sport, the more indications we get that the managers only play a very minor role in most cases, especially compared to components like, ya know, how good the players actually are. Smarter people than me have written more in depth on that and I'd encourage you to seek that out. Basically, the bar has been lowered to "Are they actively making things worse with their involvement through unnecessary galaxy brain tinkering or being a jerk?" And if the answer is no, then they're doing pretty ok! Very few are truly special unicorns performing alchemy and improving the team through sheer brilliance.
Although, I will say, I do have a hunch that, like most things in MLS, I'd bet that managers matter just a little more than normal. When everyone is on (theoretically) the same financial playing field and the teams are subsequently more equal across the board talent-wise, any marginal advantage becomes critical. It's why home field advantage is stronger in MLS than in any other league. That being said, hunches were how early 1900s detectives solved crimes. And they were really really bad at that. So. Take my hunch for what you will until there's more data. Anyway, with all that in mind, here's how year one is going for the league's newest men in charge.
Wilfried Nancy - Columbus Crew
Rating: 9.1/10.0
Hey, remember, how I just said "very few are capable of alchemy?" Look, I'm not saying Nancy is that exactly, but we kind of keep getting evidence that Nancy is capable of taking mid-level rosters and elevating them immediately in MLS. I mean, the Crew aren't bad or anything, but they've been missing Cucho Hernández for the majority of the season and are still succeeding thanks in part to the near immediate steps forward taken by young players once Nancy arrived. That has to mean he's at least doing some things just a little bit better than nearly everyone else.
The Crew are near the top of the East in points with more goals scored than any team in the conference. And they look far more assured across the board than they did in the waning days of the Caleb Porter era despite the roster arguably being worse. Maybe the big secret to Nancy is just that he inspires confidence by trusting his players to be good at soccer? Whatever it is, he's doing it better than pretty much everyone
Hernan Losada - CF Montréal
Rating: 3.9/10.0
I couldn't give him a good rating or anything, but I'm not really sure any of this is his fault. They've lost so many good players. And anyone who thought about it for a bit worried that a hard switch from Nancy's possession-based style to Losada's high-energy, Red Bulls-esque style might fall into the "actively making things worse" category. Thing is, he hasn't even been able to implement that style yet. Instead it's just kind of… well, the only real style so far has been to allow a bunch of goals and score zero goals in six out of their seven games. So, yeah. A far worse roster with no identity seems to be a bad recipe. Who knew?
Luchi González - San Jose Earthquakes
Rating: 9.0/10.0
Coming into the season, San Jose's roster looked like it had the chops to at least compete for an Audi MLS Cup Playoffs spot. There was still a bit of worry though that they wouldn't be able to shake off the Chaos Quakes tendencies that have plagued them for so long. But adding center back Jonathan Mensah and DP midfielder Carlos Gruezo (when healthy) helped solidify things. And Luchi seems to have instantly implemented a more cool, calm and collected tactical identity that allows the Quakes' solid roster to stay in control of games. They're going to be a playoff team as long as this group stays fit.
Wayne Rooney - D.C. United
Rating: 4.8/10.0
The roster doesn't seem all that good and Rooney seems to have had a heavy hand in crafting it. It's tough to gauge exactly how much of that is on him due to all the…ya know…[gestures broadly at D.C. United] of it all, but it's not going great either way. It's not going terribly. But it's definitely not going great.
Nick Cushing - NYCFC
Rating: 5.7/10.0
This will probably change as the year progresses and NYCFC finally finish up their offseason sometime in the next couple of weeks. There's still probably another player to add. Or eight. I dunno, y'all, NYCFC just operate on a different timeline than everyone else.
Anyway, none of that is really Cushing's fault. Where he loses points is for choosing to stick with the Talles Magno as No. 9 project for way too long. I know there weren't too many options after NYCFC shipped off Héber this offseason, but I think it's probably fair to at least consider putting that into the "unnecessary galaxy brain tinkering" category. Sometimes it's about placing your best players in their best positions and not much more.
That of course gets easier when you have your full roster available to you. Like I said, expect things to get better for NYCFC and Cushing throughout the year. Especially if they add a striker sometime before the primary window closes.
Christian Lattanzio - Charlotte FC
Rating: 3.7/10.0
Speaking of the "unnecessary galaxy brain tinkering" category, I think Matt Doyle has a new section about Lattanzio's personnel choices or his 3-2-2-3 buildup with a tucked in fullback or both every other week at this point. Now, if we take that out, is this Charlotte team really all that much better? Probably not. A lot of the roster decisions haven't panned out. But out of position players and the current game model isn't really helping much.
Bradley Carnell - St. Louis CITY SC
Rating: 10.0/10.0
I mean, have you seen St. Louis? Carnell is getting the most out of a good but not otherworldly roster, in part due to a game model that has allowed his team to thrive from the literal very beginning. To have that kind of identity established from day one while getting the most out of where you place all your pieces is a remarkable accomplishment. Even just making the playoffs in an expansion year would have been worth a high rating. St. Louis seem on track for a little more than that.
Ben Olsen - Houston Dynamo FC
Rating: 9.0/10.0
I'm not sure how sustainable it all is considering some of Houston's early underlying numbers. But that's the only real reason I have for not having Olsen's rating even higher. The Dynamo are playing aesthetically pleasing soccer and getting results at a rate no one expected. So far, the shills at MLSsoccer.com (me) have been totally wrong about Houston bringing him in. And it's pretty awesome. It's also a sign that, as the roster hopefully improves, Olsen should be able to guide it into the proper positions.
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Good luck out there. Good things take time.
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