Will Earnie Stewart finally give Philadelphia Union some direction?
The Philadelphia Union have struggled to put together a cohesive group that can put together a consistent string of decent soccer. The Union have only made the playoffs once, and have gone four straight years without postseason action. With the addition of Earnie Stewart to the front office, Philadelphia may finally get on the path to success. The team looks to be banking on an influx of youth and CJ Sapong, who will need to have a big year. Here are three things to watch for the team from the City of Brotherly Love:
Finally, Philadelphia have a real management structure in place and it might provide the guidance they've been sorely lacking. Former U.S. star Earnie Stewart has taken over the job of general manager and it remains to be seen what kind of influence he will have over the club. Jim Curtain is still the coach, but whether he has to adjust according to Stewart's ideas is still up in the air. One good thing for Stewart is that expectations are really, really low. Philadelphia have had a really hard time getting themselves into the MLS playoffs (only managed it once so far). It's always been awfully close, but they tend to collapse at the last moment. The first order of business is to get in to the postseason. Actually winning might be a few steps too far for this year.
Philadelphia went a bit trade-happy during this year's SuperDraft. If you watched the draft, it certainly felt like Philadelphia were trading everything but the kitchen sink to get early picks. They picked up two Georgetown defenders as #2 and #3 picks in Josh Yaro and Keegan Rosenberry. And up front, they grabbed Fabian Herbers from Creighton with the 6th pick. The Union need some serious defense, and maybe having two guys who played together at the back in college will help. But will only college level experience leave Yaro and Rosenberry with a lot of catching up to do?
Remember the crazy goalkeeper situation that the Union had over the past 2 seasons? If you're a Philadelphia fan you probably would rather forget about the whole thing. But now they're hoping an in-form Jamaican international Andre Blake is the solution to all their problems. He was the #1 SuperDraft pick in 2014 (see a trend with Philly and the draft?) and had to fight for first-team time. But Blake got called up to the Jamaican squad in the fall and started to hit is form for Philadelphia then too. Now it remains to be seen if he keeps improving this season. Don't forget, he's likely to have rookie defenders in front of him too.
