What Went Wrong, Playoff Edition: Conference Finals Are Not Enough

The first order of business for LA will be to figure out Donovan’s situation. Despite saying that he would be back with the Galaxy next year, there are legitimate questions about whether or not he makes the move to the English Premier League. After that the Galaxy will have to sort out the rumors of Ronaldinho joining the team or some other Designated Player. Most important though will be finding another central midfield option. All season long, Los Angeles relied on Juninho to play great or be dominated in the center. Juninho looks likely to return to Los Angeles next year, but Bruce Arena needs to find some more help in the central midfield or risk being exposed when the Brazilian isn’t at top form.

What went right: Compared to last season, pretty much everything. The defending was much better, aside from some poor patches in mid-summer the team scored plenty of goals, and there was a new ethos of winning. The Red Bulls played much better on the road - probably better than in many matches at Red Bull Arena. Unfortunately, though the players did not produce quite the same level of performance in the new stadium as they did on their travels, Red Bull Arena has produced stronger connections between the supporters and the club, and has helped to unify the fanbase. While it is far too early to call 2010 a turnaround year in the history of the club, New York has resolved many longstanding problems and should be a contender for the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup in the coming seasons.

What we learned: Mediocrity is not permanent. New York won the Eastern Conference regular season title for the first time since 2000 and played with the confidence of a team contending for a championship. Wins away to Toronto, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Juan Pablo Ángel’s last-kick winner against Houston are the mark of a much more assured side. On the other hand, even though the Red Bulls have a huge squad, they lacked depth in quality, and combined with some average late-season form, that was the difference between winning MLS Cup and falling short.

What went right: For RSL almost everything had been going right since May, the team was undefeated at home, had only one loss in the last six months and was just three points shy of the Supporters’ Shield. RSL led the league in scoring, defense, clean sheets, goal differential and was poised to make another big run in the playoffs.

Where we go from here: For RSL the offseason is going to be short as they will enter the knockout stage of the CCL in February, but with the expansion draft, the reallocation drafts, and ongoing negotiations with two of RSL’s forwards (Findley and Saborio) there is a lot going on. I believe the main concern in the off-season will be simply keeping our core players together and maintaining a high level of off season fitness. Next year should be an exciting year for RSL fans.

At the end of the regular season, we took a critical look at the eight teams that missed the playoffs. We assessed basic points like what went wrong, what went right, where the team goes from here and which players can be built around.

While the degree to which this season was a disappointment is certainly different for the four teams that had their season end in the first round, none of them are entirely satisfied with the way their seasons ended.