Only three teams received an A rating from MLSSoccer.com's Matthew Doyle's midseason grades. The list included LAFC, who are setting the league on fire, Porland Timbers and the Eastern Conference leading Philadelhpia Union.
In Doyle's article that rated all 24 MLS clubs, Doyle (whose has always like the Union's style) admitted he didn't see what the Boys in Blue have done thus far in 2019. With strong performances from newcomers in Kai Wagner, Jamiro Monteiro and Kacper Przybylko to embracing a totally new system in a high-pressing 4-4-2 diamond, teams that make such drastic changes need time but the Union needed just a month to figure things out.
"So, so so so so many variables, and so many chances for something go wrong and ruin everything," Doyle writes. "And yet even when things have gone wrong...Philly have just kept chugging along atop the East on points, and tied atop the East on PPG. If you combine the eye test, the standings and the underlying numbers, nobody has a better argument for second-best in the whole damn league than Philly."
You can read the entire article here.
