Let's not beat around the bush here. Saturday night's 6-2 defeat away to FC Cincinnati was nothing short of embarrassing.
Even as late as the 50th minute it looked like yet another brace from Martín Ojeda might inspire Orlando City to another positive result and help extend our recent upturn in form, but from then on it was an all-too-familiar sight as far as we're concerned.
Shocking defending almost to a man allowed Kenji Mboma Dem and Evander to each complete a brace of their own before Kévin Denkey and finally Tom Barlow wrapped up the scoring late on, both lifting the hosts all the way up to seventh place in the Eastern Conference and marking the fourth time we have conceded five or more goals in a single game already this season.
To me, it's pretty clear that we haven't improved as much as we should've during Martín Perelman's interim tenure so far. Sure, individuals like Ojeda, Justin Ellis, and Griffin Dorsey have demonstrated the creativity and the firepower to score plenty of goals, but whichever formation or combination of players the 39-year-old selects we just haven't been able to defend our own goal.
With the two-month summer break now here, a very real chance of winning the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, and a certain FIFA World Cup-winning Frenchman only weeks away from joining his new teammates, it feels like the perfect opportunity for Ricardo Moreira to make a change.
Credit in the bank?
However inconsistent we continue to be in Major League Soccer, Perelman deserves his flowers for getting us to within two wins of claiming just the second-ever major honour in our club's history.
Sure, this season's Open Cup run has included unconvincing victories against USL League One's FC Naples and a very heavily rotated New England Revolution, but Tuesday night's demolition of Atlanta United demonstrated that, on our day, we have enough attacking quality to trouble all three remaining sides in the tournament.
Whether you believe Perelman is ultimately the right man to take us forward or not, it would feel slightly harsh to dismiss him as close to glory as we are. However, Saturday's result is probably all the justification Moreira needs if he chooses to take action.
The definition of insanity
Taking over from Óscar Pareja after a whirlwind off-season and a nightmare opening three games, Perelman can probably be excused for March's 5-0 defeat away to table-topping Nashville SC and even April's 6-0 drubbing at the hands of an always-competitive LAFC.
But even with all our recent improvement in front of goal, we still have absolutely no idea how to defend. Since the second of those two heavy defeats we've shipped three goals to D.C. United, New England, Inter Miami, and Philadelphia Union, all of which somehow seem like a good day at the office compared to our very worst performances of the season, including Saturday.
It's not as if Perelman hasn't tried to fix this. In recent weeks he's experimented with a three-at-the-back system that's made use of three centre-backs, two wing-backs, and three fluid attacking players, which helped give us more bodies at both ends of the pitch. But over the last week, Iago Teodoro has seemingly fallen out of favour and we've reverted back to a more standard four-at-the-back formation. That didn't exactly go to plan against Cincinnati.
Even after two-and-a-half months and fifteen whole games, it seems that Perelman still doesn't know his best team. We really can't afford that to still be the case when face Columbus Crew in our season-defining semi-final in September.
Too big of a risk
Even if we fail to reach the post-season for the first time in seven years this season, I'm sure very few fans will care so long as we lift the Open Cup.
The scale of opportunity that has presented itself is almost unprecedented for a club, like ours, in a period of transition. It took Moreira's predecessor, Luiz Muzzi, three seasons of recruitment and nurturing a winning culture to remedy a club that was broken and reach a position where major silverware was up for grabs, but Moreira has the chance to make history in just a third of the time.
Especially given Antoine Griezmann's impending arrival and the guarantee of a home cup final if we defeat Columbus, we just cannot let such a huge opportunity pass us by. We now have the luxury of two whole months to hire a permanent head coach and give ourselves the very best chance of winning this thing, even if we need to be ruthless in the process.
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