MLS Mid-Season Review: The Biggest Movers

By on July 13, 2016

Illustrating Major League Soccer’s biggest movers over the past year.

At the halfway point of the 2016 Major League Soccer season, it’s time to take a look back at the biggest movers over the past year. Given the parity in MLS, there has been much change at the top of the table this season (in fact, where each team finished last year statistically has zero correlation to their current position) and in part one of Football Every Day’s two-part series we take a look at the biggest losers of the year:

DC United: -14 places

This time last year, DC United were top of the Supporters’ Shield standings but they have gradually slipped all the way to the bottom of the table in the past year.  DC’s stingy backline earned then a series of slim victories at the beginning of last season, propelling them to an unlikely run to the top of the table, yet the results had already begun to turn in the second half of last season.

Steve Birnbaum’s form also dropped off after an impressive rookie season and current rumors that he may be leaving the club within the next transfer window suggest his mind isn’t totally with his current club.  In typical MLS fashion, fine margins will likely determine DC’s success this season, and Birnbaum’s struggles will make their playoff push that much harder.

Seattle Sounders: -13 places

The loss of top scorer Obafemi Martins during the offseason has hit the Seattle Sounders hard.  Coupled with Clint Dempsey’s waning prowess, the Sounders have struggled to muster any sort of attacking consistency this year.  They’re the lowest scoring team in the league with a measly fourteen goals from seventeen matches, half of which have come from MLS rookie Jordan Morris.  Morris’s form offers plenty of hope for the future, but being the last-place team in the Western Conference with the worst goal differential in the league, they have much work to do in the second half of the season to earn a playoff spot.

Columbus Crew: -11 places

Look no further than the Columbus Crew to witness the depths of Major League Soccer’s bemoaned (or celebrated) parity.  Since last season, in which the MLS Cup runners-up finished fourth in the Supporters’ Shield standings, they’ve tumbled to rock-bottom following the Chicago Fire’s victory tonight over Sporting Kansas City.

Their future seemed bright following last season’s finish, but the surprising loss of Kei Kamara has hit hard for the Ohio club.  Columbus signed Kamara – who notched twenty-six goals last season and was the top scorer in the MLS Cup Playoffs – to a Designated Player contract and the target man scored five goals in his first nine games of the season.  However, things went south fast after Kamara infamously fought with teammate Federico Higuain over a penalty kick (Kamara was on the brink of the first hat-trick of his career but Higuain, the Crew’s designated penalty-taker, insisted on taking it) in a 4-4 draw with the Montreal Impact.

After Kamara exacerbated the issue in his post-match interview he was immediately traded to the New England Revolution.  The Crew’s front-line simply hasn’t been the same since and they’ve gone from being the league’s second-highest scoring team at the end of last season to one of the lowest so far this year.

Portland Timbers: -8 places

The reigning MLS champions had a woeful start to the season, giving up twenty-five goals in their first fourteen games this year, languishing near the bottom of the table. However, Caleb Porter’s men have begun the process of turning the ship around and are undefeated in their last five MLS games.

They currently sit in seventh in the Western Conference, tied on points with the sixth-placed Vancouver Whitecaps.  Once again, due to the nature of the MLS table, Portland can still easily end up in the top four of five positions should they go on an extended hot run of form.

AND…

Chicago Fire: +1 places

The Chicago Fire have been quite simply hopeless over the past two years.  They’ve been rock-bottom since the beginning of the 2015 season with no sign of any relief on the horizon.

They began the 2015 season with renewed hope following the announcement of three new Designated Player signings in David Accam, Shaun Maloney, and Kennedy Igboananike, but nothing went to plan last year.  The club made their worst-ever MLS finish and amongst widespread fan protests, the club parted ways of coach Frank Yallop in September.

The club made an extensive overhaul of their backroom staff over the offseason, with new General Manager Nelson Rodriguez making sweeping changes to give the club a new slate.  Budding Serbian manager Veljko Paunović took over as head coach yet nothing has changed on the pitch for the Fire.  They’re winless on the road in over two years and have been stuck at the bottom of the table for quite some time.

Although they’re now in nineteenth following a rare victory over Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday night, Chicago fans aren’t holding out any hope that they’ll pick up form soon.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.