Nowak's handling of Mwanga is troubling

By John McMullen

CHESTER, PA (The Phanatic Magazine) - The Union missed out on a golden opportunity to stay atop the Eastern Conference table when they fell to expansion Vancouver, 1-0, in Western Canada last weekend.

Team manager Peter Nowak summed up Saturday's defeat to the Whitecaps by saying, "we need to play better."

I'll sum it up even better -- Nowak needs to start riding second-year striker Danny Mwanga.

Philadelphia has  scored one or fewer goals in 12 of 14 matches this season, and six of their 16 goals were in one match in Toronto. Despite those offensive struggles, Nowak seems to have no issue sitting his most gifted
scorer.

In Vancouver, which is last in the West and halted an ugly 14-game winless run against the Union, he started newly acquired 33-year-old forward Veljko Paunovic, who hadn't played in a professional game since 2008 and was clearly out of shape.

Tonight against Sporting KC, the last place team in the East, Nowak went back to Carlos Ruiz,  who finished play in the CONCACAF Gold Cup over the weekend when Guatemala was eliminated.

Mwanga leads the Union with four goals and two game-winning assists despite starting just seven of 13 games he has played in and toiling only 746 minutes. In contrast, last year's top goal scorer, Sebastien Le Toux has just one marker on a penalty shot in 1.260 minutes, and the team's top acquisition in the offseason, Ruiz, has three in 801 minutes of action.

To be fair Mwanga has been battling shoulder and hamstring injuries, but he wasn't listed on the official injury report tonight and was then labeled as "probable" in the stadium only after Nowak decided not to dress him.

Also remember Nowak jerked Mwanga in and out of the lineup during his rookie season in 2010 and the technical staff as a whole has yet to offer any explanation as to why Mwanga is persona non grata these days.

Clearly there is a problem. Mwanga certainly has his holes defensively and his practice habits obviously wear on his mentor but finding a way to get the most out of your talent is the primary job of any professional coach.

Nowak seems more concerned with surprising the opposing technical staff with roster moves from game to game rather than developing a cohesive group that excels on a consistent basis. In the end, he's outsmarting himself and leaving points on the table.