Adios Papi, A Dose of Perspective, MLS Goes Four-th
Today's Soccer Eagle is going to take a quick look at the biggest MLS story of the week, engage in a bit of attitude adjustment, and look ahead the Week 4 of the still-young top-flight American soccer season.
And. Here. We. Go.
Orland City and Oscar Pareja's "mutual parting of ways" on Wednesday brought to an end a six-plus season run for the Colombian coach in Florida and delivered the first dismissal of an MLS head coach just three weeks into the season. It was a fairly stunning turn of events in a league with a reputation for giving coaches a ton of slack to figure things out through the early stages of a new campaign.
Unless you're coaching in Montreal (shoutout to MLS's lone true wildcard owner, Joey Saputo), you can usually count on a few months—at the very least—to fix whatever problems emerge during a slow start. Pareja's axing indicates a) things have changed in MLS or b) something broke unexpectedly in Orlando. My sense this is probably more of the latter, as logic would dictate that if you were prepared to fire a coach three games into the season you could have fired him in the off-season and given his replacement the preseason runway.
Last year two changes happened before the end of March: Laurent Courtois got le boot from CF Montreal five games into the year and Sporting brought the curtain down on Peter Vermes run as The Institution in Kansas City on the last day of the month.
We can toss out Courtois for the reasons mentioned above (Hi Joey!) and generally disregard Vermes as a data point because his tenure was so abnormal. If there's been a change in the attitudes of owners and sporting directors in terms of just how much they'll take before pulling the plug on a coach, we don't have much evidence of it...yet.
There are real questions worth asking about Pareja's level of responsibility for Orlando's poor start. Pareja didn't direct Maxime Crepeau to handle the ball outside of his box on Saturday in the Bronx, for one. The Lions' roster turnover in the winter damaged continuity between last year's team and the 2026 version. The man they call "Papi" didn't ask for the greatest player to ever walk the earth to wake up and obliterate his team in the second half in Week 2.
Losses always fall on the shoulders of coaches but it requires making a few logical leaps to suggest that the 0-0-3 start with a -8 goal difference is down to Pareja's choices alone and that a coach with his experience couldn't have turned things around.
I'm skeptical that the cooling of Antoine Griezmann-to-Orlando rumors played a role.
Remember: Pareja is the only successful coach in Orlando City's MLS history. The club failed to make the playoffs in every one of its five top flight campaigns (under Adrian Heath, Jason Kreis, and James O'Connor) before Pareja's arrival and the made the postseason every year under his guidance. Maybe the returns were diminishing, but Papi deserves some thanks.
So where does Orlando go from here? I can't help but wonder if the club pulled the trigger so quickly because of the big, unattached names out there on the market. This is wild speculation and I'm not sure any of them would relish taking over a team without a preseason, but let's not forget there are a handful of trophy-winning coaches who might listen to an Orlando offer: Jim Curtin, Wilfried Nancy, Giovanni Savarese (a faily easy culture fit), Vermes, and Bob Bradley.
And finally:
MLS becoming a league where clubs panic fire managers three games into the season would be much more fun if we had proper soccer tabloids
— Jason Davis (@davisjason.bsky.social) March 11, 2026 at 2:01 PM
A man can dream.
We're here, as I type this, exactly three months from the USMNT kicking off its 2026 World Cup campaign on American soil. It's almost here.
And yet...
Okay, so you know where that could go. You've probably heard me talk the joylessness of the buildup to what is supposed to be the greatest moment in the life of any American soccer fan. It's difficult to keep spirits high when every day brings new fresh hell to deal with—as a human, a citizen first, but also as a soccer fan.
So this is me working through that anger and upset by forcing a little positivity here on the newsletter. Whatever the state of the World Cup—and certainly, no matter the shadows cast over the tournament and the mental gymnastics we'll be doing it come summer the tournament will deliver incredible moments—it's a special time to be an American soccer fan.
I suppose you could say I've been developing this idea for most of the 17 years I've been at the writing and talking thing: American soccer fandom might be a singular sports fan experience in all of modern life. Living through the last 40 years of growth (give or take) in the game in the United States provides an important perspective on just how far things have come.
No where else in space or time has a sport been positioned the way soccer is in the United States. Despite its status as a second, third, or fourth-choice game for much of the country, it draws millions to stadiums and millions more to televisions to watch games happening both here and abroad. While I sometimes can't help but feel frustrated that the sport struggles to break into the mainstream and I can't help but fantasize about what might have been if America truly embraced it decades and decades ago, intellectually I recognize that I am blessed with a front row seat to a sport's nascent development at a moment in history when technology gives me access to track that development in a way unimaginable during the rise of leagues like the NFL, NBA, etc.
MLS WEEK 4 THINGS I'M THINKING
- Orlando City's start was slightly worse, but with Oscar Pareja gone it's natural to wonder what kind of leash Tata Martino will get in Atlanta. Atlanta United "improved" in its last outing, a 2-3 home loss to RSL, but defensively the Five Stripes are all over the shop. Good thing then that they get Philly on Saturday as the Union look lost on the attacking end of the field. This is very early Dance of Desperation between two winless sides.
- The Revs will play their delayed home opener against FC Cincinnati on Sunday in Foxborough, where the town board finally worked out a deal for that World Cup security money. Oh, and Gillette has grass now because of the World Cup. I had some hope of improvement under new management in New England going into the season, but two weeks of bad soccer doesn't bode well. Maybe the surface, the rest, and the home backdrop helps the Revs get their first points this weekend.
- I don't know what I can possibly add to the praise raining down on Mikey Varas and San Diego FC, but here's my best shot: There aren't many MLS teams in the history of the league—and I mean that—that play as confidently, not matter the opposition, as SDFC. This weekend's trip to Frisco will be tough off the back of a wild Wednesday night in Concacaf where Varas's crew slugged out a 3-2 first leg win over Toluca (despite finishing the game with nine men), and they are massive underdogs at altitude in Mexico, but I'm convinced San Diego is going to win silverware this season.
Last night I decided to go solo on The Best Soccer Show. More on the Pareja firing and the future of Orlando City, the state of the USMNT roster, the DUAL NATIONAL PANIC around Noahkai Banks, and some MLS Lore starring Mike Petke.
Morning Kickaround is humming along with shows Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9:30 AM if you want to join in on the American soccer conversation. We're covering a little MLS, a little World Cup, and plenty of lower division soccer and the game's growth in the United States. The show is currently looking for sponsors and partnerships, so if you're a business or know someone who is, reach out.
The really big news is that the inaugural Morning Kickaround jersey is available for pre-sale. I'm stoked.
Morning Kickaround
If you want to support your humble friend th Soccer Eagle and prefer to do it in a way that ends with something tangible arriving on your doorstep, scooping up an MK jersey is a great way go.
Finally, a note about the future of Soccer Eagle itself.
When I launched the newsletter I really just wanted a place to reactivate my writing muscles. I committed (in my mind) to one edition a week on whatever American soccer topic I found most interesting that week, figured I could pick up a few subs through posting links on Bluesky, and that would be that.
A few things have changed. Luckily, that means more for you.
I'm diving back into MLS. The World Cup is coming. Lower division soccer is exploding, both in good ways and bad. There's so much to talk and write about I've decided one weekly entry isn't enough. Last week I teased posts on MLS lore, something I really want to do in written form. More ideas and more motivation will definitely come.
So here's the upshot: For the time being both weekly posts will stay free. I'm thinking about what a paid tier of the newsletter would look like and which topics might go behind a paywall. Until I figure that out, I'm going to ask for your support via Ko-Fi (see above) or, if you so choose, you can join The Best Soccer Show's Patreon page.
On that page we're doing extra posts on Amerian soccer topics (some off-the-cuff, less...refined fare), bonus episodes with Jared DuBois (the only place you can here Jared for the time being) and "Office Hours", a weekly Wednesday afternoon hangout-style stream talking about American soccer with Patreon subscribers that I just launched.
Office Hours include the option to drop into the stream and talk soccer with me live on mic. And of course, there's access to the Besties' Slack, an incredible American soccer community.
Join The Best Soccer Show Patreon
Feedback is welcome, so jump in the comments.
Thanks for reading. Tell a friend.
