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Two more big signings and another step backward (to go forward???). Let’s talk it out.
Atlanta get their No. 6
We’re over a month out from the season beginning and, barring a late move for Thiago Almada, this may be the last time we talk about Atlanta United for a while. I can’t think of another team that’s come into the offseason and been as efficient and effective as the Five Stripes. They had a relatively lengthy checklist heading into the winter window and they’ve seemingly wrapped up all their loose ends in record time with zero drama.
The rumors and reports came about who they were targeting and then, a few days later, those players showed up in Atlanta with long-term deals. There’s one more depth move to make, but we’ll go ahead and give full marks to technical director/vice president Carlos Bocanegra and president/CEO Garth Lagerwey for a wholly painless experience.
They put a nice bow on that experience yesterday when they announced the signing of 24-year-old defensive midfielder Bartosz Slisz from Legia Warsaw. As always, we have no real idea how players will translate to MLS, but Slisz’s numbers and Legia Warsaw fans’ reaction to losing him seem to indicate he’s a player ready to make a serious impact. After Atlanta nailed last year’s summer window, it’s easy to have high expectations for all their newest signings this winter.
Let’s review.
- Atlanta completed winger Xande Silva’s transfer from Dijon. Silva, as Matt Doyle likes to say, has Best XI potential.
- Atlanta signed goalkeeper Josh Cohen. Cohen will compete for the starting goalkeeper position and, if he puts in the kind of performance that won him the Israeli Premier League’s player of the season in the 2020-21 season, he’ll likely win the job.
- Atlanta signed Dax McCarty in free agency. It’s Dax McCarty, y’all know at this point.
- Atlanta signed center back Stian Gregersen. The 28-year-old signed through the 2027 MLS season with an option for 2028 and is set to replace Miles Robinson. They also added from LA Galaxy and D.C United center back Derrick Williams as a depth piece.
- Atlanta signed Slisz through the 2028 MLS season.
The Five Stripes have signed multiple key pieces, added effective depth and locked down players who could be critical pieces of their spine to long-term deals. These aren’t just moves for 2024. Atlanta is establishing a core. If these players fit in MLS, this team is scary. They already had a dynamic attack. But now they’ve addressed their most prevalent need by fixing a central midfield group that’s been, no joke, one of the single worst if not the worst in the league since Darlington Nagbe left.
Anyway, let’s not get too caught in the past here. It’s hard to be anything but very optimistic about the near future for Atlanta. With no Concacaf Champions Cup weighing them down this year, a full preseason to integrate their newest signings and high-level talent across the board, we could be looking at a team ready to compete for the Supporters’ Shield.
Portland land Crepeau
The Timbers haven’t been quite as efficient as Atlanta, but they have been effective. And it seems like a lot more could be on the way.
Portland have also taken steps to align their spine this offseason by making a big move for center back Kamal Miller and, now, signing one of the league’s best keepers in Maxime Crepeau. That won’t fix everything about a defense that gave up 58 (!!!) goals last season, but it should go a long way to at least alleviating some of the issues plaguing a team that somehow gave up one less goal than Toronto.
That being said, Crepeau has had excellent numbers for a while now, but there is some risk here. We don’t know exactly what he’ll look like over the course of his first full season following his gruesome injury in MLS Cup 2022. However, the small sample size we saw on his return last season looked very encouraging.
The highlight of that return came when Crepeau guided LAFC to three-straight clean sheet wins in the playoffs. Crepeau’s best performance in that run came when he shut down a Seattle side that put up 2.2 post-shot xG on the night, but the entire run deserves some praise. In those three games, Crepeau faced 4.5 post-shot xG without allowing a goal. Basically, an average keeper performance in that spot gives up four goals and LAFC don’t win the West for the second season in a row.
It seems like he hasn’t really lost a step. He and Miller should have Portland trending in the right direction. But what makes the Timbers fascinating going forward is the fact they have two open DP spots. Adding talent at the back is one thing, but there’s a real chance here to elevate the team as a whole in a major way in a very winnable conference. If they can take two more big steps before the season begins, Portland may just be a favorite to finish near the top of the conference.
Sooooo are we going to worry about LAFC?
Sometimes you have to go back to go forward. But LAFC seem to be so far back that you kind of have to wonder if they’ll have any energy once they get back to the starting point. The latest step back is Mario González’s loan to Spanish second-division side Sporting de Gijón. Normally, it wouldn’t be a massive deal to send out a player who made very little impact down the stretch, but right now they’re left with 20-year-old Nathan Ordaz as their only No. 9.
Ordaz is talented, but it seems like LAFC have added another task to their lengthy to-do list this offseason. One that almost feels like it can’t even go forward until they figure out what’s going with Denis Bouanga’s future. He reportedly wants out. And everything (EVERYTHING) ran through him last season.
LAFC have typically done an excellent job the last couple of seasons exchanging pieces in and out and bringing in talented players capable of overwhelming the rest of the West come playoff time. But there’s a lack of continuity in this team right now. Right now, their longest tenured starters are Jesus Murillo, who arrived in late 2020, and then Ilie Sanchez and Ryan Hollingshead, who showed up at the start of 2022.
There will likely be a handful of incoming players over the course of the season. That doesn’t mean this team is doomed or anything. It just means there are some questions that get compounded by the fact LAFC have lost five starters from last year’s MLS Cup. That number could be six if Bouanga leaves. It could be four if Carlos Vela returns, but he’s not quite the same Vela at this point.
On top of that, it feels like there are spots like left back and central midfield that are paper thin when it comes to depth. Again, that’s not to say these things won’t be sorted at some point this season. But it’s Jan. 18. There isn’t all that much time to solve a lot of problems before the season begins.
Absolutely no one should be surprised if they fix everything with a flurry of high-profile moves in this window or the next. They have the space on their roster. It’s likely we’ll be here in November talking about how remarkable it is for them to be on the verge of a third-straight MLS Cup appearance after so much turnover. But there are enough questions right now to make you wonder. |
