CHESTER — When the Union’s 2024 season went downhill, the problems snowballed.
A loaded schedule led to injuries, inconsistency in lineups and in play, and all of two wins in 17 games from April to late July. The pressure of that slide forced too much emphasis on the latter part of the schedule, and a return of one point from the final 12 available led to the first miss of the MLS Cup playoffs since 2017.
Poor play didn’t lead to lineup accountability, which reinforced lowered standards, and the accountability came home to roost when Jim Curtin was fired at the end of the season. The Union struggled because of a lack of depth, which made it riskier to trust players further down the depth chart, which overworked the starters and led to more struggles.
Bradley Carnell has no use for that baggage as he steps into the coaching position in 2025. He didn’t create it, and it’s not his responsibility to heft it. But he does recognize its contours. He lived both sides of it the last two years, an expansion St. Louis City side spiraling upwards in 2023, well beyond its talent might indicate, to finish first in the Western Conference, then tumbling to three wins in the first 20 games of 2024, costing Carnell his job.
So Carnell sat in Subaru Park Thursday, offering his usual rosy outlook, knowing that it has the potential to catch on. And much as things descended beyond the control of the 2024 Union, Carnell evoked the same verb – “snowball” – for that he hopes can happen this year.
“My glass is always half full. It’s never empty,” Carnell said, ahead of Saturday’s curtain-raiser in Orlando. “That’s just the way I approach life. That’s the way I approach the next training session. It’s the way I approach things in my home life. It’s a privilege to be doing this job, and every day we step out over those white lines, it’s a joy. This is the type of energy I’m trying to exude and trying to get the players to (as well). …
“If you get 20 staff members doing that, and then the players start to feed off of that, and then all of a sudden, it’s a real big buzz, and it’s just like a snowball, and things getting bigger and bigger, and then we’re creating momentum.”
The question most of the preseason has been one of how. How does a Union roster, minimally changed from the team that crashed to 12th place in 2024, improve? How do a dozen young Homegrowns prove they are capable of contributing? How does a team that has lost six of the 11 starters from the loss in MLS Cup final 27 very long months ago deign to return anywhere near that level?
Carnell hopes his attitude is part of the answer. But without many of those who helped reach its zenith, such as Jose Martinez, Julian Carranza, Jack Elliott, Leon Flach and others, the Union will not look like the team that set MLS on fire in 2022, that struggled to re-summit those heights in 2023 and that bottomed out in 2024.
This new group will have to prove it can play in MLS. The last era of Union relevance in the league was created, in large measure, by Ernst Tanner’s astute signings, players Curtin coached up and coalesced into a coherent whole. Tanner’s golden touch on signings has rusted, as Curtin’s knack of cajoling overachievement vanished. With that checkered recent past, it remains to be seen if the inexperienced Ian Glavinovich can be an MLS center back, if the undersized Jovan Lukic can produce in a fast and physical MLS midfield, if Bruno Damiani can turn production in Uruguay into goals in America.
But for the first time in at least the last three seasons and possibly longer, the Union won’t be chasing a past version of themselves, fighting whatever complacency that might entail. They’ll be wholly reborn, into something very different, from the personnel to Carnell’s dogmatic approach to counterattacking.
“It’s a fresh start for a lot of guys,” said Alejandro Bedoya. “With change comes opportunities. I think that’s something that he’s been preaching. There’s a lot of new stuff, a lot of new information and new philosophy of play, style of play. At times in Spain, it felt like the PowerPoint presentations that you’re sitting in school again and going over, certain phrases and all that stuff. But I think I’ve been really pleased with the efforts from the group.”
In absolute terms, the Union are less talented and less experienced than in 2022. But Carnell’s mandate is not to measure by such terms. If he can simplify the game model to score more with less of the ball, talent won’t matter as much. If his coaching message is landing, he’ll be better served by bought-in players of less renown than more accomplished but less committed players. And if all that proves true, the program will reinforce itself: More belief leading to better performances, leading to more growth and quicker maturation, leading to better results and more belief.
It starts with the emotional tone that Carnell sets, one that a fair number of his players have bought into.
“The competition level is super high,” Quinn Sullivan said. “There’s so much talent that we have. I think that’s magnified because of the coaching staff change, and I love that. That’s something that I love, I thrive off of and I love always having that sort of competition.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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