Last Friday I covered the east, well let's talk about the west now. Disclaimer: I'm an unabashed Sounders fan, I'll try to keep any vitriol out of my breakdown, but fair warning that I have some biases.
The West
Colorado Rapids
Hooboy. There's a lot to unpack here. Let's start with Marco Pappa, the big offensive acquisition of the winter for the Rapids almost immediately got himself in trouble while still living in Seattle after the trade, getting stabbed in the abdomen by the now former Miss Washington who was described as his girlfriend in a police report; Pappa was still married at the time, whoops! Still, a Pappa-Savras partnership in midfield could have been great...except Savras was traded to DC. The Rapids then tried to pick up Alejandro Bedoya...and failed when Nanes turned them down flat; oddly now they're reportedly trying to pick up Tim Howard despite having a perfectly fine keeper in Zach MacMath and really defense wasn't their problem last year. So what's happening here? Well, either the Rapids' front office has no idea what they're doing (very possible) or they're looking to sell the team. A USMNT player like Tim Howard shows the team has "value" and could add valuable dollars to the price of the Rapids. Either way, I don't see the Rapids doing much of anything positive this year unless recently acquired Designated Player Shkelzen Gashi happens to have a Giovinco-style season.
Real Salt Lake
At one point, under coach Jason Kreis and GM Garth Lagerway, Real Salt Lake was a force to be feared in the west. With Kreis setting up his much-dreaded diamond passing formation and a defense bolstered by a top of their games Beckerman and Rimando, nobody overlooked the team from Mormonland come playoff time. Those days, unfortunately for RSL fans, are long gone; Kreis has since moved to NYCFC and been fired, and now seems to be the tactics man for the USMNT. Garth Lagerway is working his roster sorcery in Seattle. Kyle Beckerman is now old and slow and Nick Rimando might never be the same after meniscus surgery, and the current management doesn't seem to have ready replacements. The only potential bright spark this season is Yura Movsisyan, a highly competent Armenian American striker currently "on loan" from Spartak; he's lit up teams in eastern Europe and could be the offensive spark RSL need. I think RSL will return to the playoffs if Movsisyan can match his production in Russia (which he should).
Houston Dynamo
Houston had a pretty lousy first season under Owen Coyle, but there were some positive signs. Coyle abandoned the defensive philosophies of his predecessor, by and large, and tried to play possession oriented footie. Probably the most important offseason acquisition for the Dynamo was Christian Maidana, the former Philadelphia playmaker, Maidana is almost certainly the aging Brad Davis' replacement at Houston. For me though, there's one player that I think is more important, Erick "Cubo" Torres. The young striker tore it up for Chivas USA in their last year, but his trip to Guadalajara was marred by controversy (charges of rape that were later dropped) and failure, and Owen Coyle seemed largely uninterested in fielding the striker after his return to MLS midseason; only putting him on as a late game sub. As an MLS team, you cannot leave that much money on the bench, Houston either needs to trade Torres to a team that wants him or field him and hope he recaptures 2014.
San Jose Earthquakes
San Jose's first year under Dominic Kinnear, the man who always seemingly snuck Houston into the playoffs at the last moment, didn't manage to do the same for the Quakes, but he did manage to do better than his predecessor. San Jose have long relied on one of MLS's most prolific strikers in Chris Wondolowski, but as age has caught up to the veteran striker they seem to have slowed down, they need a replacement for Wondo, and sooner rather than later. San Jose brought in precious few reinforcements this offseason though, so it all hinges on the young guns this year. Fatai Alashe, Tommy Thompson and JJ Koval are all supposedly good, young players with potential San Jose will need them to step up if they want to get back to the playoffs.
Sporting Kansas City
Sporting's first season back in the west ended in Portland in an agonizing 11 round shootout that included a shot bouncing off of both posts. But for cruel fate it could have been Sporting KC holding aloft that cup...in theory. In reality, Kansas City barely got in to the playoffs and was lucky to be there, with Zusi out most of the season and not looking like himself, it was up to Benny Feilhaber and Dom Dwyer to get the Wiz back into the western playoffs, they managed to, but just barely. The reality is that Sporting KC can't cruise into the playoffs via a weak eastern conference anymore, and they need better talent to be a real power in the west, unfortunately they added virtually no one in the offseason. Last season, an MVP caliber year from Feilhaber dragged Sporting into the playoffs, this year I don't think they're quite so lucky and they'll miss out.
LA Galaxy
Credit to the Galaxy, they are thinking outside the box. While the rest of the league went younger, LA went older, much older. Their starting line-up only has two people under 25 on it, Zardes and Emmanuel Boateng. The Galaxy's bench isn't much better in terms of age either. LA made no effort to get more young players either, trading away their only draft pick for allocation cash. Bruce Arena has long been known for his ability to get the most out of veteran players, but this seems like overkill and it's hard to see them being able to sustain these salaries and the injury and age issues that will pop up with a veteran roster like this one, so what's going on? Putting on my tin foil hat, I think this is Bruce Arena's last year; the team is loading up on veteran talent to make one last push to get another Cup victory before the old man retires. I could be wrong, I probably am...but it's not that crazy of an idea. Anyway, this team is good enough to get to the playoffs, but I'm skeptical of the idea that it can survive with few enough injuries to win the cup.
Seattle Sounders FC
As a Sounders fan, I could tell you all about the offseason drama of Jordan Morris' signing and Oba's trade to China, but realistically here's all you need to know: Sigi Schmid is still the coach. As long as Schmid is the coach, the following will occur:
1. At some point, the Sounders will look unbeatable, like they could win the EPL.
2. At some point, the Sounders will look like your local rec league team.
3. The Sounders will make the playoffs.
4. They won't win MLS Cup.
Time is a flat circle.
Portland Timbers
The MLS Cup champions smartly offloaded Maxi Urruti in the offseason like I recommended and picked up the much more affordable (and roughly as effective) Jack MacInerney from their recently defeated foe Columbus Crew. The biggest change to win them the cup was moving Nagbe to center mid though, a move that surprised Sporting KC and kept their playoff foes off balance. This season, Nagbe and the Timbers won't have the luxury of surprise, still they're likely to do well in the west, I just don't see a repeat in their immediate future.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Vancouver was one of the teams leading the MLS youth movement last season and were one of the better teams in the regular season. Their ignominious exit from the playoffs against the Timbers was due, in no small part, to a lack of consistent striking. Vancouver should have fixed that problem now, they added Japanese striker Masato Kudo, a 25 year old with a prodigious scoring rate in the J1; shoring up their midfield is the veteran Christian Bolanos of Costa Rica. I fully expect Vancouver to be one of the scarier teams in MLS this season, expect to see them in the playoffs.
FC Dallas
The other "young guns" team was arguably the strongest team in MLS in the regular season (NYRB had an easier schedule) and it looks like they're doubling down on youth. Most of their veteran players are gone, and their starting line up doesn't have anyone over 30 in it. The most intriguing acquisition is Maxi Urruti from the champion Timbers. Urruti in Portland was a decent scorer, but far overpriced; if Oscar Pareja can unlock Urruti's potential then this could be one hell of a great season for Dallas, as all they were missing was a great consistently quick striker. If nothing else, Dallas should be an exciting team to watch this year, young, fast and lean. I expect Dallas to be a great western conference team again, expect to see them back in the playoffs.
So that's it! Some MLS teams get their first competitive game tomorrow in CONCACAF Champions League action, but for the rest of the league the season starts March 6th.