While we won’t cover each team individually, we will review some of the bigger stories of the league as well as highlight some players or clubs that are not being talked about as much. This season we saw the Seattle Sounders set a record for longest unbeaten run at 13 games and on the other side of the coin Atlanta United and the San Jose Earthquakes went winless in 11 matches.

The comeback story of Chicharito Hernandez to the coming out party for Ricardo Pepi have been some of the feel-good stories so far. While the firing of Gabriel Heinze and the mess that is Inter Miami has left fans and pundits with their mouths open.With a half season still left to go, MLS will surely provide a lot to talk about after the All-Star break. For now, let’s enjoy some of the best stories and highlights of the 2021 MLS season so far.

The rise of Chicharito

Fans in Los Angeles were scratching their heads when Javier Hernández could only score 2 goals in 12 games last season. After an offseason of soul searching and a coaching change Chicharito found his scoring touch in MLS. 10 goals in 10 games, and while he has gone down with injury no one can question that Chicharito is the rainbow of a rather bland Los Angeles Galaxy team.

The fall of Gabriel Heinze and Atlanta United

Local media in Atlanta said it best, Gabriel Heinze’s time as coach of Atlanta United was so quick that the media never saw him in person. For all the reports and the “sources”, Heinze did not fit in, but had the Atlanta United brass done their homework they would have known that. You don’t ask a guy who spent his career avoiding the media to be the “face” of the club. On the field, Atlanta United did little to justify not firing Heinze winning only two games for the Argentine manager.

Inexplicably the club is still trying to make high price signings that will almost certainly shackle the next coach that comes in. While Atlanta United boasts that they spend the money, they are a club with a lot of expensive deadweight.

The Revolution in New England

An old dog doing with the same trick, Bruce Arena has built a winner in New England. The Revolution have done everything they were criticized for not doing before the arrival of Bruce Arena. Carlos Gil, Gustavo Bou, and Adam Buksa could be the best three DPs in all of MLS considering their production and work rate. As always Bruce is building a great team off of a great triangle offense, and as usual American players are blossoming with Arena, Matt Polster, Matt Turner, and Brandon Bye are a few examples. Anyone watching the Revs knows that the team is an MLS Cup candidate.

The Matías Almeyda experiment

While Matías Almeyda has won the hearts of many, his life philosophy, his approach to the game, and his charisma make him a great person to showcase on social media. And that has been pretty much it for Matías Almeyda in MLS, he is a great story. His team…. a nightmare, 11th in the West, San Jose fans have grown tired of seeing their team eek out wins and watch from afar how other teams are playoff bound. While not all Almeyda’s fault, the firing of Jesse Fioranelli is the first sign that the Argentine’s experiment is coming to an end.

The unbeatable Sounders

The Revs have competition for the MLS Cup and they’re in Seattle. The Sounders have been special this season and all while doing it without Nicolás Lodeiro and Jordan Morris. Kudos to Raúl Ruidíaz for showing that a DP steps up, the leading scorer of the league, at the time of this writing, has proven 10-fold that Gareca made a huge mistake not taking him to the Copa America.

Los Angeles weak club

LAFC has gone down the pecking order of the best clubs in MLS and this season the team has looked well, stale. Much more should be expected by a team that is still largely the same group of players that broke the MLS record for points in aseason. Bob Bradley has the team in the playoffs, yes, but 1 game above .500 is that really the measuring stick? Yeah, Vela has been good but Rossi not so much, and to be honest the team has been largely disappointing and are in the clear mostly for the forgiving league MLS can be to some. What to do with Brian Rodríguez seems like a question Bradley will need to answer quickly although help is on the way in forward Cristian Arango.

A dark horse in NYCFC

Statement game after statement game is all NYCFC has done this season with big wins against the Crew and Orlando City. Firmly in third in the East after an inconsistent start the club is on a three-game winning streak and is playing some of the most attractive soccer in the league. NYCFC of 2021 could be the team to finally end the New York champion drought in MLS.

Ricardo Pepi

Ricardo Pepi has been one of the best young players to watch this whole season with strong performances for an otherwise lackluster FC Dallas side. Subject to strong transfer rumors, Pepi might not be in MLS for long so watch him!

In the dumps

Inter Miami has just been a rollercoaster ride of bad play, bad decisions, and weak performances. The worst team in MLS with only 12 points, they’re off the field fiascos are jaw dropping, recently loaning a $9 million signing for free in Matías Pellegrini. For all the crap he gets, Gonzalo Higuaín has 7 goals on the year and is the best player on the worst team this league has seen in a long time.

Kudos to the Crew and Austin FC

Three words: Beautiful Soccer Stadiums! The Crew joins the club of being the only MLS team to play in two stadiums built for them and Austin’s Q2 Stadium is one of the nicest in the whole league, and a worthy atmosphere! Not to be left out isTQL Stadium of FC Cincinnati all great venues for Soccer in the U.S.

Honorable mentions

Orlando City and Minnesota United are teams to look out for down the stretch, both teams have shown that they can play good soccer and get wins. The Colorado Rapids quietly are in the top spots in the West while Nashville SC have only lost 1 game this whole season.

Now a report has surfaced in Argentine newspaper La Nacion where someone close to Heinze’s camp has called the allegations a media “witch hunt” and that many of the things reported are false or overblown.

The people in Heinze’s camp have claimed to be “shocked by the witch hunt in the press”, and that it is a “campaign to smear” the former head coach. During his short stint at Atlanta United and MLS, Gabriel Heinze won 2 games in 13 that he coached.

Heinze’s camp claims Atlanta media reports are overblown

In the La Nacion article the Heinze camp believes that the media smear campaign is an attempt to discredit the head coach and that they could take legal action during the resolution of Heinze’s contract situation upon his termination.

Most striking is that the article stated that many of the players were surprised to find out that Heinze was fired and that many of the Atlanta United players went to Heinze’s residence to say goodbye and renounce what was published in the media.

The person in Heinze’s camp also said that the team’s WhatsApp group also echoed theplayers sentiments. The sources within Heinze’s camp also stated that it is “ridiculous” to think that Heinze would deny his players water and that he was harassing players to have their phones with them at all times to train at a moment’s notice. It was also stated that while Heinze is a very intense coach the notion that he was distant with his players is completely false and that many former players from Argentinos Juniors and Velez have expressed gratitude towards him on many occasions.

The same source also stated that while it is true that Heinze and Josef Martinez had a rift, the issues stemmed from differences of opinion in which Heinze worked. That the issue was not personal but professional.

One thing is for sure that while Gabriel Heinze’s time as Atlanta United head coach was short, we may not have heard the end of this story for quite some time.

For one thing, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the MLS Players Association had filed grievances to MLS on behalf of the Atlanta United players for violations of the CBA in regard to training. The infractions were excess in training hours ahead of the season opener and on various occasions after that. Intense regimens that had little to no breaks, and not enough days off in between those sessions. Tata Martino was known to have had intense training when he oversaw the club, but it was overlooked since the club was on a winning track.

In the end what did Heinze in was a lukewarm start, where he recorded 2 wins, 4 losses, and 7 draws in MLS, while getting to the quarter finals of the Concacaf Champions League earlier this year. Atlanta United was eliminated by the much more polished Philadelphia Union in a 4-1 aggregate after two games. The much-publicized battle of wills between Heinze and Josef Martínez was icing on the cake as Darren Eales and Carlos Bocanegra seemed to be left with no choice and pulled the plug on a project that lasted a little over 200 days. Now the question is, what’s next for Atlanta United?

The search for yet another coach

On Sunday in a rushed press conference to announce the reasons for Heinze’s departure, Darren Eales found himself saying something he has become used to in Atlanta, “I want to be clear as well we want to get the right person.” This time fans, who met Heinze’s removal with relief, were also quick to hit back at management for not taking accountability for certain club decisions that go beyond Gabriel Heinze.

Eales stated that Atlanta United will move quickly in their search for a new coach, but who is that coach? If anything, up until this point Atlanta United have been high profile, Gerardo “Tata” Martino, Frank de Boer, and Gabriel Heinze may have had different approaches, but they all had name value. The question now remains as to who the candidate should be moving forward.

If Atlanta United goes South American again, the well may have run dry. At the moment, the top tier coaches are embedded in their jobs, Marcelo Gallardo and Hernan Crespo to name a few are not moving anywhere. If the coach is an established European coach, what does that mean for the current group of players that Atlanta United have spent a considerable amount of money for? Top tier coaches from Europe usually like to put their stamp on things and will surely want the club to spend, it might find upper management once again loaning and selling to make way for a new coaches’ ideas.

Going American would be an incredible gamble for a fanbase used to star power, and if it doesn’t work that fanbase would almost certainly turn its ammunition on Eales and Bocanegra. After The Athletic’s damning report on Carlos Bocanegra and his poor relationship with Tata Martino, fans have raised a lot of eyebrows towards Bocanegra who has been singled out as the Front Office’s loose end. Adding insult to injury was how Bocanegra handled the interview process with now Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa, one where Bielsa had spent time telling Bocanegra about the approach he would take if given the Atlanta United job, a job that went to Tata Martino. Bocanegra and Eales made sure to tell Bielsa that the club’s first coaching hire needed the blessing of owner Arthur Blank, Bielsa understood but expected an answer. He never got one and as a result had one of his assistants send word that Atlanta United never contact him again.

Whoever takes over the reins of Atlanta United, it will be Bocanegra and Eales who will be held completely accountable for whatever the results will be. Just how much will fans take Bocanegra and Eales at their word that they have done their proper due diligence this time? In Heinze’s case it was public knowledge that he was an intense coach and poor spokesman, often having hour-long fights with the media in Argentina at Velez and Argentinos Juniors. A source at Velez Sarsfield confirmed to Bolavip that “Heinze would lock himself in his office, work like mad, but when it came time to do media, he was totally against it. He hated speaking to the press. It was never an easy situation.” In one training session Heinze threw out midfielder Santiago Caseres for “not paying attention”. Mauro Zarate, a Velez legend, also had a falling out with Heinze, much like Martinez, and fans took the side of the forward despite showing respect for Heinze.In Heinze’s defense, he never once spoke badly about his players at Atlanta United or threw them under the bus, he shouldered the blame and showed commitment to the players he placed on the field.

Just how much Bocanegra and Eales knew about that side of Heinze is now up in the air. And just how much Heinze may have known about MLS rules and CBA is also up in the air and falls on Eales and Bocanegra. Earlier this season Heinze was upset in a press conference about the fact that he could not bring up players from the team’s second team to the first team as he wished, something common in South America amid player injuries or players in poor form.

One thing is for certain the next coach of Atlanta United, if outside the MLS system, will need to see Bocanegra as a partner and Bocanegra this time must learn to not overstep his boundaries, something he did not do when Martino was in charge.

The lunatics are running the asylum

While Josef Martínez may have won this round, the Venezuelan forward has had a history of run ins with his coaches. The “me or him” stance was an eye raiser, but not an isolated incident. Martínez even had a riff with Tata Martino, but on a winning team, it was overlooked. Josef Martínez is a main piece of Atlanta United and the club’s next coach needs to be sold on a player that can clearly sway the locker room.

Then what is left behind in the wake of Heinze’s departure is many unanswered questions. Ezequiel Barco has never lived up to his expectations, and along with Pity Martinez are two of the biggest flops in the history of MLS in terms of return of investment. Barco has shown flashes of his brilliance but never became a leader and had locker room issues under Martino. To make matters worse it was reported that Martino never wanted Barco in the first place but was overruled by upper management. The brass saw Barco as a player the club can move on at a higher value, now the Summer Olympics is the clubs last best bet that Barco can find a possible big-time suitor, given that his Atlanta United portfolio is wanting.

Marcelino Moreno, another big time signing at a reported $7 million, has begun to quietly find his footing, but he has not taken the league by storm and has not adequately replaced Miguel Almirón, who is badly missed by the club nearly three years later. Alan Franco is a DP defender and on a five-year-deal, a rarity in MLS, one of the few signings by Heinze that could survive the managerial change or be the first player jettisoned in search of opening up an all-important DP spot.

Atlanta United fell victim to salary cap constraints in the last few years but certain players that were considered fan favorites went on to other clubs and could still have been useful to the club had they reached an agreement. The cases of Julian Gressel, Héctor Villalba, and Franco Escobar come to mind as to why the club did not move enough pieces to keep them. Santiago Sosa has been the only true successful singing in the post Tata Martino era. Still a group of players that include Brad Guzan, Josef Martínez, Ezequiel Barco, Miles Robinson, and Brooks Lennon will need to go through yet another coaching change and new set of ideas.

Learning from the mistakes

Like any new franchise, you learn from your mistakes, and clearly Atlanta United have made them. From Bocanegra’s constant interference with Tata Martino, to buying players if only to generate a buzz, like Barco, to going in a completely different direction like, Frank de Boer. A club that achieved great success out the gate is now paying their dues that many other teams go through. It is how upper management adjusts to this will be the key, and right now they are failing miserably.

On paper Bocanegra and Eales can be forgiven for Frank de Boer, it was only logical that the club find a coach that could speak English more fluently. One thing that stuck out as a pet peeve from the Martino era, was that some of the English-speaking players felt left out of certain things that seem to flow more with the Spanish speaking stars. de Boer was a gamble that failed. Heinze’s failure is more of a fool me twice situation, upper management should have known better.

For now, Atlanta United is at a crossroads, a club in jeopardy of losing the strong ground they achieved when they started. For now, in two seasons the amazing story that was MLS Cup 2018 has paved the way for a nightmare year and a half. Stuck with players who are on long term deals, and no closer to selling them abroad, as was the club’s desire from its inception. A club that has a talented roster but lacks the right leadership on the bench to properly adjust his ideas to that talent. A star player that now knows if he pushes the right buttons, he can scramble the masses.

For Atlanta United it’s back to the drawing board, a board that could have different artists this time next year if results stay as they are.