Conference disparities and more of MLS’s biggest questions

How is the Eastern Conference so much better than the West? Answering three of the biggest questions in MLS.

The disparity between the Eastern and Western Conferences was apparent in the first weeks of the season, and little has changed since. The best six teams in the league are all in the East. You could argue Sporting KC are better than the Columbus Crew, but unless you’re really high on LAFC, it’s hard to argue the West is superior.

Some quickie questions to be answered following Week 14.

Will a bad Western Conference team figure themselves out?

Here’s something that speaks to how weak the middle-to-bottom-half of the West is: Real Salt Lake, who have a minus-7 goal differential and have given up the third-most goals in MLS, are somehow third with seven wins from 14 games.

Seventh-place Houston are, by consensus, a certain playoff team and one of the best attacking clubs in MLS. 11th-place Seattle, with all their games in hand and ridiculous spate of injuries, are bound to lift themselves up soon enough. But none of RSL, Vancouver, Minnesota, the Galaxy, San Jose or Colorado have proven at all competent. At some point one of them has to put together some run of success.

Salt Lake beat the Dynamo last midweek — they can occasionally go back to being the fun young team they were last year, but only when the full-backs aren’t getting torched every week. The Whitecaps, who continue to adhere to the bunker-and-counter philosophy, are weaker defensively than they were last year. The loss of Tim Parker has hurt them more than most expected.

The Loons signed Darwin Quintero and have managed to score enough goals to win games. They continue to get beat between the lines and giving up catastrophic defensive mistakes, though. LA, well, Zlatan’s not happy. The Quakes and Rapids are just plain bad.

With the way these six teams are going, Seattle and Houston may never have to worry about getting into the playoffs, even if the Sounders stay injured and the Dynamo keep inexplicably dropping results.

What are Orlando City?

Nobody really knows what to think about the Purple Lions, who went from winning six straight to dropping four in a row. They have a talented attack that switches on and off, some games dominating the ball and other games falling flat. They still lack personnel on the backline and too often drop points due to mistakes.

They’re in a dogfight for fifth with the Revolution. Both teams will be looking over their shoulders at Toronto FC, who are very much a sleeping giant. Orlando are good enough to make the playoffs and probably will, but their backline will prevent them from jumping up a tier.

Justin Meram needs to get more goals from the wing, and Dom Dwyer needs to stay in the lineup.

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Can the Fire get back to what made them successful?

Heading into the season, it was hard to imagine a scenario in which the East was significantly better than the west and the Fire weren’t at least as good as they were last year. Chicago finished third in 2017 and looked set for the future, even after trading David Accam.

But letting Accam go to the Union in January has turned out to be a factor in the Fire attack’s decline. They no longer have the width Accam once provided, forcing other players to pick up that load; without the constant presence of overlapping full-backs (Matt Polster has mostly been injured and Brandon Vincent has taken a step back), they have been unable to replace Accam’s.

Exacerbating that problem have been defensive issues, and a lack of speed and athleticism in the middle. Bastian Schweinsteiger still plays a big role in the buildup, but he can be exploited on defense, particularly when he is dropped back as a sweeper. Their lack of a number 10 puts too much of the distributive onus on Schweinsteiger and makes it difficult for the Fire to connect passes higher up the field.

The same problems that have haunted them from the beginning of the season continue to cause their disappointing start. They’re eighth in the conference, with just 17 points from 14 games, and can’t afford to keep dropping points in such a competitive table. A summer signing might be (has to be?) coming.