The regular season is coming to a close and, as usual, there were plenty of surprises in the 2016 MLS season.
There have been a slew of firings, big-time trades, a particularly shocking rise, a couple of seriously stunning falls and a un-retirement for the ages.
It’s all been a bit much. Let’s make sense of it all by ranking the top-10 surprises of the 2016 season, ordered from least-surprising to most:
Orlando axes Heath
After their offseason shakeups, it wasn’t a total shock that Orlando would have a quick trigger with head coach Adrian Heath. But canning the only coach in club history in July when the club was in seventh in the East and only below the red line due to a tiebreaker? That was a bit of a shock.
Also shocking? Orlando’s late-season free fall under Jason Kreis, who I thought would take the Lions to the playoffs. That obviously hasn’t happened, with Orlando going winless in their last five matches to fall all the way to ninth in the East. We’ll see if they can grab that elusive first playoff berth next year.
Coyle ditches the Dynamo
He was probably only accelerating the inevitable, but Owen Coyle’s decision to leave the Houston Dynamo in May was still a big surprise. The Brit left the club due to move back to England to be closer to family, though he wasn’t exactly successful during his year-plus in Texas, compiling a 14-21-11 record during his time in charge of the Dynamo.
NYCFC rising
Orlando have been wildly disappointing this year, but 2015 expansion counterpart New York City FC have been excellent. We knew David Villa was an MLS star – we didn’t realize Frank Lampard, Tommy McNamara and Jack Harrison had this in them, though. Add in the fact that they’re led by a first-year head coach with no previous MLS experience in Patrick Vieira, and NYCFC’s rise was a bit hard to predict, no matter how ambitious the club may be.
Vexed in Vancouver
After finishing last season with the third-best record in MLS and keeping their promising young core almost entirely intact, the Vancouver Whitecaps were a pretty sexy preseason pick for MLS Cup. Funny how those preseason predictions pan out. The ‘Caps were decent in the first half, but they’ve been absolutely brutal down the stretch, winning one of their last 12 games to fall all the way to 18th in the league. Their big names have gotten hurt or not performed, and at least one – Pedro Morales – looks like he may be on his way out this winter.
Atlanta lands Tata Martino
As far as statements of intent go, they don’t get much bigger than hiring the former Argentina and Barcelona manager as the first head coach in your club’s history. That’s what Atlanta United FC got in Gerardo “Tata” Martino, who signed on as Atlanta manager in September after resigning from the Argentina post in July. One of the biggest names to ever manage in the league, Martino will look to shake the stigma against foreign managers in MLS with a big first season for seriously ambitious Atlanta.
Columbus and Portland on verge of missing playoffs
There’s still a bit of time left, but it looks like both Portland and Columbus will miss the playoffs just one year after the Timbers topped Crew SC at MLS Cup 2015 at MAPFRE Stadium.
Portland and Columbus are both below the red line entering the final two weeks of the season, with Crew SC seven points behind Philadelphia for the East’s sixth and final playoff spot with just three matches remaining and Portland two points behind Kansas City for the final spot with a couple of games remaining out West.
If both fail to make the playoffs, it’d mark the first time in MLS history that both MLS Cup finalists from the previous year miss out on the postseason. A record that’d be as unflattering as it would be surprising.
Seattle Sounders. 2016.
Perhaps no team has had a more turbulent 2016 than the Sounders. Seattle began the year by beating out Werder Bremen to sign Jordan Morris to the biggest Homegrown contract in league history, creating huge expectations for a three-pronged attack featuring the Stanford product, Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins.
Only problem? That three-pronged attack never materialized, turning into two when Martins made a surprising move to China in February. Seattle were thrown way off kilter by his departure, starting the season miserably before eventually parting ways with longtime head coach Sigi Schmid after a 3-0 loss at Kansas City dropped them 10 points behind the red line.
The Sounders looked dead in the water after canning Schmid, but they’ve pulled off one of the most remarkable turnarounds in league history to climb to the brink of playoff qualification. Summer signing Nicolas Lodeiro, himself quite a coup for Seattle, has led the charge, recording three goals and eight assists in 11 matches to claw the team – who, in another surprise, have been without Dempsey since Aug. 21 due to a heart condition – back up the table.
Crew SC send Kamara packing
The 2015 season was all rainbows and unicorns for Kei Kamara and Columbus Crew SC, with the veteran striker tying Sebastian Giovinco for the league lead with 22 regular season goals and leading the club to an appearance in MLS Cup in the first year of his second stint in Ohio.
2016 didn’t go quite as well.
Things got off to an immediate rocky start, with Kamara briefly holding out at the start of preseason due to a contract dispute. That was eventually resolved, but the issues didn’t go away and, after a shocking public spat with Federico Higuain in a May match, Crew SC sent him to New England for a package of allocation money and draft picks.
A LegenD returns
You already know this story. Nearly two years after he retired following MLS Cup 2014, Landon Donovan, almost completely out of the blue, decided to re-join the LA Galaxy earlier this summer. Donovan has played four games since hooking back up with the Galaxy, scoring one goal in 80 minutes of regular season action. We’ll see if he can conjure up another surprise and help LA to their sixth MLS Cup later this fall.
Rapids rock MLS
As much of a shock as Donovan’s return was, there’s been no bigger surprise in MLS this year than the Colorado Rapids’ remarkable rise to the top of the table.
Widely predicted to finish last in the West after poor finishes in 2014 and 2015, the Rapids have been excellent this year. Pablo Mastroeni has done a masterful job of pragmatically playing to the strengths of his roster, cobbling together an excellent defensive team that has done just enough on offense to put themselves in the driver’s seat for the Supporters’ Shield.
The Rapids will win the Shield if they emerge victorious from their final three matches, and, given Dallas’ schedule, could easily claim the trophy with perhaps as few as four points. It remains to be seen how they’ll perform in the playoffs (and whether or not Jermaine Jones will be able to return in time to join fellow big-name US international Tim Howard in the postseason), but regardless of what happens for the remainder of the year, Colorado should be thrilled with their shocking 2016.
