If it was a 13 team league then "beating the odds" would mean winning it in year 6 or sooner. 7 would be average. 8 or greater would be below average.
We only have this talk because of the relative parity in this league.
If this was the Premier League, nobody would be calling Stoke a failure for having failed to win the league since the Premier League's inception in 1992.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto