If you used the brief World Cup respite on Wednesday to catch any Major League Soccer action, you saw some exciting games. Both Texas teams staged extremely late comebacks to earn points against two of the league’s best: Houston came from two goals down in extra time to draw with LAFC, then Dallas flipped the script on Atlanta — Philadelphia Union’s upcoming opponents — to nab a 3-2 win.
In both matches, a center back made a key error that led to a goal. First, Laurent Ciman inexplicably sat far behind the rest of his defense then fluffled at a chance to slow down Mauro Manotas. Then Michael Parkhurst was late stepping to Maxi Urruti and the Dallas striker released Tesho Akindele for Dallas’ opener. Both center backs are vastly experienced, top-tier MLS defenders. Ciman was the last man cut from the Belgian team making a deep World Cup run, and Parkhurst was recently named Atlanta United’s “real MVP.”
At the start of the season, MLSSoccer.com’s Matt Doyle wrote of the Union, “Auston Trusty looks locked in as a starter at center back, and there just aren't a ton of 19-year-old center backs who've ever played well in MLS.” Since then, Trusty is second behind Parkhurst in minutes played at center back. His defensive partner, Mark McKenzie, the only other teenager with anything close to regular minutes at CB in the league, has the fourth highest passing completion percentage among CBs this season, and is second in Expected Passing percentage, behind, again, only Parkhurst.
Just dwell on that for a moment. Auston Trusty and Mark McKenzie are the only two teenagers in the league playing regular minutes at center back, and they’re doing it together. When former Union defender Austin Berry won MLS Rookie of the Year as a center back for Chicago, he played next to Arne Friedrich, who has over 80 caps for Germany and once shut down Cristiano Ronaldo in Euros.
So why doesn’t anybody seem to care that Philadelphia’s center backs are doing what, quite literally, no pair of teenagers has ever done before?
You might be tempted to say it’s because of errors leading to goals. McKenzie has three to his name: Against Atlanta, Toronto, and in the dying moments aagainst LAFC when the team was pressing forward. Trusty was also culpable against LAFC, and nearly gave one up against New York Red Bulls in the US Open Cup. I could argue, as Jim Curtin has to the media, that these are the mistakes young players make as they grow. And while the Union coach is right, that approach ignores that experienced vets like Parkhurst — who also had a failed clearance that led to Dallas’ winner on Wednesday — and Ciman make costly errors as well; nearly every center back does, that’s the price of playing the position.
But the most convincing argument for why Trusty and McKenzie should almost certainly be staring down at Corey Baird from atop the Rookie of the Year rankings is this: The Philadelphia Union defense, anchored by two 19 year olds, playing between a right back that lost his position a season ago and a left back that is actually a right back, is quite good.
Beginning in Montreal, in the eight matches since Trusty and McKenzie became the default starters, the Union are 4-3-1 in MLS and into the quarterfinals of the US Open Cup following a win over Red Bulls. In one loss, to Atlanta, Philly played with nine men for most of the match. In two others they were missing at least one of their three key midfielders. Both times Philly lost with all eleven players, they had spurned a gilt-edged chance to go ahead early, which would have let them play to their strengths and keep the ball away from their opponent.
Keep in mind: Philly is 5-0-0 when scoring first in 2018
Since that Montreal match the Union’s Expected Goals Against is 10th in the league. But drop that 9-man Atlanta match and it drops to 1.12 Expected Goals Against per game, good for 6th in MLS. And when the score is even, the Union are one of the best defensive teams in MLS with McKenzie and Trusty on the pitch. Philly is allowing only 0.34 Expected Goals Against per 90 in those moments — best in the league — and they give up the second fewest touches in the box and third longest shots against in MLS.
Still not convinced? How about the fact that McKenzie and Trusty play a very high defensive line, which is both necessary for the Union’s defensive pressing to be effective and extremely difficult to for center backs to pull off because it leaves so much space behind them.
Reminder once again: They. Are. 19.
Center backs often develop later than players in other positions because the stakes are so high in back, and every error is punished. Corey Baird, who is apparently the frontrunner for rookie of the year, is a striker. When he misses the goal with a shot, his team is not likely to go behind. This is why attackers can get more chances at younger ages than defenders.
So you can focus on the big mistakes, because they are real and costly. But they are also to be expected at age 19. What should not be expected? That when unforced errors don’t happen, the Union can make a playoff push with a misfiring attack and one of the better defenses in Major League Soccer.
But it’s happening right before your eyes, and you should pay attention.
