For Nowak, building a franchise around young, impressionable, but skilled, talent has paid dividends in just the club's second year. For nearly a third of the season, the Union shared the best record in MLS' Eastern Conference. Currently, its leading goal scorer is 20 years old (Danny Mwanga). The team has one loss all season at home (5-1-6). Its defense is one the best in the league and was arguably cream of the crop earlier this season with the nucleus of Danny Califf and Carlos Valdes holding down central defense and Sheanon Williams and Jordan Harvey securing the flanks. Rookie Gabriel Farfan is solid as Harvey's replacement, but it's evident he's still learning the ropes.
But Nowak's young-man ideology also brings with it a lot of inexperience, a lot of poor decisions and a lot of moments where despite being professionals, many of his players are still trying to figure out what that really means. The Union hasn't won an MLS match since the last time it played New England on July 17. The two were supposed to meet Sunday at PPL Park, but the impending smack the region will receive from Hurricane Irene forced a Sept. 7 reschedule date (8 p.m., Comcast Network, Galavision).
Furthermore, the Union has only pulled three points out of its last five matches and has dropped from guaranteed playoff land into wild-card contention as the fourth-best team in the East.
Not because chances to beat the opposition aren't arriving, the Union just isn't capitalizing.
"The frustrating part for me is that the boys work very hard to be in this position, but now the easiest part isn't coming - finishing," Nowak said matter-of-factly. "It's not fair. I'm not frustrated at them, I'm frustrated as a coach to say we didn't come to any [positive conclusions] from making good decisions. There is only so many times you can say, 'We competed, the back line was good, we put ourselves in position to score' and then come away with a loss or a point.
