Steve Davis' weekly column, drilling down on five hot topics in American soccer
1. Andrew Wenger arrives, just a little late
Four years ago during a preseason trip to Arizona to eyeball visiting MLS teams, I made a point to ask about Andrew Wenger. It was just one of the “survey” questions I was asking, conversation starters as I ran into coaches and technical directors at hotels, training grounds, Starbucks or wherever.
(Pro tip: for primo MLS media access, spend a few February days in Arizona. Lots of teams around, optimism runs high, the sun is usually out and almost everyone is happy to chit-chat about things. Well, except for the subset of MLS grim-faced suits who take themselves way too seriously. It’s soccer, guys!)
The question wasn’t really about Wenger. Rather, it was if Wenger’s lack of a specific position was personification of a problem in American soccer’s fluid development model? Thing is, everyone agreed that Wenger, intelligent and talented, could play pretty much any position on the field. Which is why he was the No. 1 overall draft pick (by Montreal) in 2012.
But how, through his college and youth days of being a Swiss Army knife, could he have begun to master the nuance and specific skills required to master any one position at the game’s upper reaches? That was the question – and Jason Kreis, then managing Real Salt Lake, was the most emphatic responder. (Yes, even Jason Kreis, usually serious as bad tooth ache, will engage in some chit-chat in the informal preseason settings.) “You bet it’s a problem,” he told me, and he wondered aloud if Wenger hadn’t suffered for it.
Yes, it probably helped his teams collect a few more wins along the way; he literally played all over the field in high school and college, starting in defense and gradually working his way up to striker.
But the boon of such rare versatility became a bane in pro ball. Two underwhelming years for Wenger in Montreal came before two similarly underwhelming years in Philadelphia. Thus, on he went again, this time to Houston.
It’s still early, but maybe the ability to grow into a position is finally paying off. Dynamo manager Owen Coyle added Wenger with one specific purpose: to add speed to the wings at BBVA Compass Stadium. Houston needed it desperately, and since that’s where he was mostly being used in Philly, perhaps Coyle saw the looming upside rather than the past hiccups while he was learning the spot.
Now Wenger has two goals and two assists in two games, which is absolutely brilliant production. No, it won’t last – not at such a prodigious rate. But if the Pennsylvania native, now 25 years old, can keep up anything close to it, he’ll begin fulfilling some of the outrageous potential everyone saw years ago.
He could even be the next Graham Zusi in this way. Zusi was similar in his versatility, which is among the reasons he didn’t really sparkle until two or three years into his days at Sporting Kansas City, and didn’t debut on the national team until the age of 25. What’s more, the SKC attacker didn’t really make a mark on the national team until he was 26.
2. Drogba and Piatti, sure … but know these Montreal names, too: Laurent Ciman and Harry Shipp
There is so much hootin’ and hollerin’ right now about Ignacio Piatti, and rightfully so. He might be this year’s Sebastian Giovinco – a good-not-great attacker in his previous stops who is suddenly ripping apart MLS defenses with brutal efficiency. Then again, Giovinco isn’t slowing down; so Giovinco may be this year’s Giovinco.
But this isn’t about the Atomic Ant (the reigning league MVP’s nickname). This is about Piatti and how all the chitter-chatter about the wily Argentine attacker is suffocating conversation about two other big performers on the Impact roster.
Hint: neither of their names is Didier Drogba.
Oh, we’ll talk plenty about the Ivorian and Chelsea legend in days and weeks ahead, especially as this week’s match outside Dallas will apparently mark his 2016 MLS debut.
No, the names for whom we need to crank up the blab-factor are Laurent Ciman and Harry Shipp.
Just like Piatti, they’ve been a big part of Montreal’s blazing fast start. Ciman is the reigning MLS Defender of the Year. But he wears the hat based on what happened before July last year; the Belgian center back was clearly wearing down on the season’s back half. Well, that early version of Ciman is back, and he has been absolutely commanding on the Impact’s back line. Two games, two shutouts.
Then there is Shipp, who was somehow, some way, for some (probably wrongheaded) reason sent away from Chicago. He was pretty good in his Montreal debut two weeks ago, but was nothing less than fantastic in passing and possession from the left side during the Impact’s convincing Week 2 win over the Red Bulls.
Can’t you just feel the frustration from Chicago Fire fans boiling over at this very minute? Somewhere, some Fire fan is reading this, getting angrier by the minute and squeezing the meaty stuffing from one of thosedelicious Italian beef sandwiches.
Now, here is where we can mention Drogba. He’s yet to perform in 2016, as we’ve discussed before. How much might Shipp’s creativity improve when he’s combining with, reading and reacting to one of the game’s all-time great strikers?
Shipp hated leaving Chicago, and understandably so. All the good things happening now in Montreal is surely helping to soften the blow.
3. Big, early starts do not equal outstanding finishes
Consider this a bit of an asterisk to everything you read in the first two items: here is another friendly reminder not to make too much of fast starts. Or slow starts for that matter.
Yes, Montreal, Sporting KC and others are doing well out of the blocks. Others, too, like Houston, which was a bit unlucky not to get the full six points from its first two matches. But we’ve seen hot starts before. Sometimes they end all well and swell. But sometimes, not so much.
Anybody remember Chivas USA’s sprint out of the gate in 2013? The Goats were living large in March under “Chelis,” with a 3-1-1 record after a busy first month. It was all a mirage, of course, as José Luis Sanchéz Solá (that was the coach’s real name) and his club soon returned to their far more familiar, joyless state.
Houston was quick out of the blocks two years ago, the final go-round under Dominic Kinnear. That side did collect all six of six possible points to start, with a 5-0 aggregate goal count in a pair of impressive lid-lifters. But that plane soon ran into turbulence and by the end Houston finished 8th of 10 teams in the East, well off the playoff pace.
Orlando’s promising start last year (a draw in its MLS debut and then a road win) was soon upended as injuries exposed the expansion team’s limited depth.
Or how about NYCFC, whose early swings at MLS last year looked pretty impressive: a shutout win at Yankee Stadium sandwiched between two road draws. Not bad, eh? Well, not until the roster’s poor architecture began catching up; things went into the dumpster from there.
It works the other way around, too; slow starters can and have ended up just fine. So fans in Vancouver, Columbus and New York, don’t despair. Yes, yourteams are winless, and more is expected of them in 2016. Best guess: all three will make the playoffs.
Always remember: no one wins MLS in March.
4. Is Jack Mack a Wonder Wondo starter kit?
Seeing Chris Wondolowski and Jack McInerney face off and each score in the same (in San Jose’s 2-1 win over Portland at rainy Northern California) game provided yummy food for thought. I’m wondering now, is McInerney something of a Wondolowski starter kit?
At first it may sound a little far-fetched. After all, the man they call “Wonder Wondo” is destined to finish among Major League Soccer’s all-time leading scorers. With just a smidge of luck, he could finish as the top MLS all-time strikers.
McInerney, meanwhile, is 23 years old and already at his fourth MLS address. (The kid started quite young, 17 when he struck his first pro goal back in 2010.) That tells you three teams have already given up on the guy, betting that his 12-goal season in 2013 was the outlier, unlikely to be replicated.
But let me repeat: he is 23 years old.
Now consider that he already has 39 goals. So let’s examine all that for a moment, holding it up next to Wondolowski and his personal path to all-time statistical greatness. (He’s fifth on theall-time MLS goals listwith 111, but very likely to lap Ante Razov for fourth place very soon.)
When “Wonder Wondo” was 25 years old he had two goals. Yep … just two.
So “Jack Mack” at 23, with his 39 goals, could finish on top of this list eventually. He’s got a better chance if he doesn’t take off for Europe. We’ll see about that.
None of this means he’s going to actually be Wondo. McInerney must become more prolific and more consistent. A lot more. The point is, he’s young and his game looks a lot like Wondolowski’s. He’s a goal-area hound, always sniffing around for the right run at the right time.
And he’s still learning. If he keeps his head on straight and irons out the kinks in his game, he could do as Wondolowski did: find his best professional self through his mid-20s. In that case, he would become another Wondo. And so it goes, he would likely finish with a heck of goals.
5. The Little Five
5a. We are all slobbering over Quincy Amerikwa’s fantastic goal, and rightly so. But honestly, here’s the one I just cannot stop watching: Giovinco’s second-half equalizer at Yankee Stadium. I mean … that first touch! The little Italian is surrounded by defenders on three sides. As he pivots to pick a tricky pass out of mid-air from Will Johnson, there is one teeny-tiny little place that he can put that first touch so that only he can reach it. And he must spin to put it there. And doggonit if Giovinco doesn’t put the ball right there! All that before he beats those defenders on the dribble and scores.
5b. In Houston, Giles Barnes figures to miss a few games with a hamstring strain. So, if Cubo Torres – he of the big acquisition, big potential and big hopes – cannot get minutes now, then when? Remember, Coyle left Torres on the bench late last year when Houston was desperate for a late goal, with playoff hopes dangling on a floss-thin string. If Torres hasn’t done enough by now to earn his minutes around BBVA Compass Stadium, it’s time to call this one a bust and move on.
5c. I keep saying it. But that’s only because it’s still true! Austin would be an amazing site for MLS. It’s got the perfect counter culture vibe, a la Portland. Here some soccer stuff from Austin, from SXSW and all of its counter culture ethos.
5d. My favorite moment of the MLS weekend: Fox Sports’ halftime interview with Timbers manager Caleb Porter. It was basically Porter holding his hands up as if to say, “What are you gonna do?” They had the better chances against San Jose. They hit a post. Darlington Nagbe and Diego Chara were in control of the midfield. And yet, they trailed 1-0. They played well in the second half, too, but still lost. Honestly, sometimes the game is like that. Heck, if it takes a wonder strike to beat you – literally, what was surely the best goal in the career of a man who has been around MLS for eight years – then you just have to be OK with it.
5e. I’m going to start logging Bruce Arena’s complaints after losses or draws. I’ll have a full file by midseason. Saturday in Colorado, according to Arena, his team deserved a draw at Colorado rather than a loss. Of course they did. The referee added five minutes of extra time, every one of which the Rapids needed as Marco Pappa finally found a late, late winner. Arena cried high injustice! That was too much added time! “It was a crime,” he said. Of course it was.
Steve Davis has covered Major League Soccer since is first kick in 1996. He writes on-line for FourFourTwo and co-hosts the weekly radio show/podcast ESPN Soccer Today on 103.3 FM in Dallas. Davis is also the radio play-by-play voice for FC Dallas on 100.7 FM.
