Steve Davis' weekly column, drilling down on five hot topics in American soccer
1. Pondering John Doyle and San Jose Earthquakes
San Jose just “parted ways” with general manager John Doyle – which is a silly euphemism for “fired.” Professional sports are for big boys and girls, and we really ought to employ real words. But that’s not the point.
The point, using some real and more pointed language, boils down to this: What took so long?
I was walking through an airport a little while back, on the way back from an MLS draft, or an All-Star game. Either way, I was waiting for a flight, which means I had time to ponder things, when Doyle walked by. I remember thinking at the time, “Is he really the right guy at San Jose? Because I’m just not seeing it.”
That was about three years ago.
Monday, the Earthquakes dismissed a club legend, the original member of the organization’s Hall of Fame, a man who had served as GM since the team landed in the Bay Area in 2007. I’m sure it was a gut-wrenching decision.
But San Jose has made the playoffs twice in nine seasons – surely a maddening number to Quakes fans. They certainly are aware MLS is a league where, mathematically, it is easier to make the playoffs than miss. The club’s Designated Player signings have mostly been a series of big, swinging misses. (Chris Wondolowski is the obvious exception, but his story is nobody’s notion of a "typical DP signing.”) Furthermore, all the air is quickly leaking out of the Earthquakes’ 2016 season.
Club legends are great; they help build real history and can be invaluable for community outreach. But when things simply are not working … well, what other choice is there?
Whether your club’s lean is toward big-name, high-dollar DPs (Seattle, LA, NYCFC and Toronto mostly) or solid structure medium-level DPs (Portland is a good example) you have to get that part right in today’s MLS. San Jose didn’t come close.
Simon Dawkins, Innocent Emeghara, and Matias Perez Garcia were this year’s DPs as the campaign began at Avaya Stadium. (Wondolowski was previously a DP but “bought down” below the salary threshold this year.)
Innocent has been a disaster, a complete washout. Perez Garcia, never that effective and (more critically) unable to do the defensive work Kinnear requires, was traded away. Dawkins is a good player but perhaps not the best stylistic fit. Either way, 6 goals and 2 assists in 26 matches is nothing to write novels about. It’s adequate production at very best for a DP.
Those were interesting words from Earthquakes president Dave Kaval, who wondered if the club’s style had gotten a bit boring? You know what isn’t boring? Winning.
Kinnear’s style is straight forward. And while I know some may disagree, the game hasn’t passed him by.
Do you see Bruce Arena and the LA Galaxy doing anything fancy? Any new tactical revelations coming out of the StubHub Center this year? No. They’ve just have a steady succession of guys like Robbie Keane, Gyasi Zardes, Landon Donovan, Juninho, Omar Gonzalez etc. They’ve certainly had money to spend; more than most MLS clubs to be sure. Still, they’ve made smart choices.
Meanwhile, the roster choices up the coast? You had to squint really hard to see any sense in some of them. Get the right players and Kinnear’s style still works fine. San Jose’s personnel plan has been a mess for years.
In all honesty, this one probably took too long.
2. Why Nigel de Jong’s departure makes so much sense
We talk so much in the game about roster additions. As in, “Who is the final piece? The guy who plugs a hole and gets a team where it wants to be?” Sometimes we seem more interested in who else might be on the roster than in who is actually on the roster. It’s the American way, I suppose, which is why the NFL Draft is so doggone popular with the pro football crowd, or why the college football junkies fall over backward over the latest high school recruiting rumor.
But roster building is obviously a zero sum game; for every personnel addition there is a subtraction. And sometimes the subtraction is more important than the addition – even if we don’t always pay as much attention.
Here we are with Nigel de Jong, whose time with the LA Galaxy is apparently being shorn short. He’s on his way to Turkey. (Heads up, Fabian Castillo!)
The Galaxy has built a modern legacy of championships (2011, 2012, 2014 ... and those are just in “modern MLS”) through big spending. But dolling out dollars doesn’t get it done; you also have to be smart about it. That’s where Bruce Arena has done particularly well. The club’s DP choices have mostly been good ones. But mid-level signings and trades (think Robbie Rogers, Sebastian Lletget, Jelle Van Damme as good examples) are where LA has really constructed such solid footing.
Now, de Jong’s release looks like another good example, even if it counts as “addition by subtraction.” (And even if the timing is proving unfortunate; more about that in the next item.) Because knowing when to say when with some of these guys – high profile signings that aren’t working out, or working out “just OK” – is something that comes hard for too many clubs.
De Jong was basically brought to LA to provide cover and protection for Steven Gerrard, who couldn’t track and couldn’t close from deep-lying midfield positions. Maybe he had the desire, but he just didn’t have the wheels.
But even de Jong couldn’t cover for Gerrard’s deficiencies in those departments. Not that the Dutchman was bad in his important screening role; he wasn’t. He was an effective destroyer, distributor and midfield organizer.
But not enough of one. Not enough to justify a huge, looming salary bump. His contract called for a raise into DP territory next year. For that the Galaxy would need even more – and they weren’t going to get it from a guy who has missed 8 games already this year due to injury or suspension. As everyone expected considering the notorious rep, he’s been a red card waiting to happen.
He needed to be among the best 2-3 screening midfielders in MLS to justify the PR hassles and the impending salary bump. He wasn’t. Not even close. Now he’s gone … and that’s the right call for the long term.
3. Watching the Galaxy … with greater interest now
If someone says to you today, “Did you hear about the news from the LA Galaxy?” your only response absolutely must be, “Wait … which news?”
I was sure that Seattle would be the most fascinating team to watch down the stretch – Nicolas Lodeiro rising, Clint Dempsey’s health a sudden and alarming concern, a returning Panamanian international to fortify the defense and a deficit to make up in the playoff chase. But … nope!
Along comes the Galaxy, another big-market team, which means added layers of intrigue as they get themselves sorted out. The Galaxy, of course, are in a different situation, far more likely to make the playoffs compared to Seattle.
Honestly, it’s hard to say where things might go at the StubHub Center. The story around Arena’s team for most of the year was this: trying to sort out best use of a bunch of talented, but poorly fitting pieces, identifying the best ways to get 11 good players on the field.
Now, just like that, it’s all about finding 11 good players to put on the field.
Gyasi Zardes is out for the season with a broken bone in his foot. Van Damme, one of the best center backs in MLS this year, is out 2-3 weeks. Gerrard’s hamstring is acting up again. Robbie Keane has been on and off the doctor’s table all year, appearing in exactly half the team’s 26 games, and even then to varying degrees of effect. He’s healthy right now, but in Europe with the Irish national team. De Jong is off to the Old World.
There’s talent in reserve around Carson, young bucks like Lletget and Emmanuel Boateng, plus versatile veteran Mike Magee. With Arena pushing the buttons the Galaxy might be just fine. Then again, these are “good players” rather than “world class players.” Along with Giovani Dos Santos – whose been good in spots and spurts this year – it’s certainly enough to carry the club down the stretch and see the Galaxy safely into the post-season.
But the Galaxy, with three of the last five MLS Cup trophies, isn’t a club that wants to “make the playoffs.” The target around the StubHub Center is always set higher.
In the Power Rankings of “Most intriguing MLS stories to watch” over the last two months of regular season play, the Galaxy just shot right to the top.
4. National team call-ups: one so right, one so wrong
Jurgen Klinsmann righted a long-standing wrong with Sacha Kljestan’s late addition to the roster for upcoming qualifiers.
Kljestan’s ongoing omission from national team consideration (two years and change since his last appearance) had been a burr in a lot of people’s shorts. It made some sense; the New York Red Bulls’ playmaker, the current MLS assist leader, certainly didn’t make the most of his previous appearances under Klinsmann. He was never that bad; rather, Kljestan failed to really stand out. He was merely OK.
But here’s the thing: players move in and out of form. Or in some cases, they blossom late. Look at Jamie Vardy in England, among the ultimate late bloomers. He now looks like an England regular, even if he didn’t attain that status until his late 20s.
Kljestan was good for the Red Bulls last year, and probably deserved another look in the national team shirt. He’s been even better this year, and definitely deserved another look. Especially as the United States lacks that creative influence. No, Kljestan isn’t exactly a classic No. 10, although he’s more or less playing that position for Jesse Marsch’s side at Red Bull Arena. He’s really more of a box-to-box guy who happens to be very good (especially lately) at making that final, telling pass. Plus, as I’ve mentioned before, his paychecks are signed by a club that arranges itself exactly the way Klinsmann wants to play, with high tempo and high pressure. It’s just looks like a no-brainer.
But if that’s a no-brainer, this one is a head-scratcher: Klinsmann’s ongoing obsession with Jermaine Jones. The German-born midfielder has not appeared for Colorado since July 4. He’s been training on the side for the national team, which begs the question: Why?
Why is he there? Why isn’t he with his club, getting healthy for a playoff run? And why, at 34 years old, is he so important to the national team that he’s flying around the continent for, essentially, a medical evaluation? If he isn’t fit to play a few minutes for a club chasing Supporters Shield, what’s the point?
Is the United States really so personnel poor in the middle of the park that Jones needs to be schlepped around like the coach’s personal security blanket? I mean, Perry Kitchen? Danny Williams? Kellyn Acosta? Alfredo Morales? Instead of hoping for a few minutes from a guy who simply cannot be fit or sharp, isn’t this a perfect opportunity to get some of those younger center mids on the field. (The next opponent is St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for heaven’s sake. This is hardly Argentina they’ll be facing Friday.)
Long story short: Jones being called in just feels wrong.
5. The Little Five
5a. I suppose we knew this anyway, but according to this list, if all the Argentine playmakers in MLS were to suddenly be lifted to the heavens,Left Behind-style, the league would be a far more boring place. The list of Top Ten creative No. 10s in MLS says five of the 10 are Argentine.
5b. I’ve said before and will say again, once his playing days are over, Seattle’s Brad Evans will make one heck of a manager. Listen to his explanation for how his Sounders fell apart in the first 45 against Portland: “You know we payed directly into their hands, losing balls in the middle of the park, forcing the ball at the top of the box, and then that's their bread and butter. Win that ball and it's a 4-v-2, 5-v-3 and that's what they live and die by. And they made us pay for that." He already sounds like a coach!
5c. “Patrick Mullins: A poor man’s Chris Wondolowski.” Sound about right to anyone else? Well, I’m going with it. (If you missed it, not long after he arrived via trade from NYCFC, Mullins nailed a hat trick for D.C. Unitedon Saturday.)
5d. Anyone else get the feeling Jay Heaps will be playing for his job on Sept. 13 in Frisco, as the New England Revolution visit Toyota Stadium with the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup title on the line? The team is in a death spiral; five losses in six, eight losses in 12. Would you put your money on this team making the playoffs? Because I wouldn’t. Ben Olsen saved his job three years ago, partially rescuing a miserable season with an Open Cup crown. Ownership around Gillette Stadium is promising patience, especially with contracts still to be paid. Still, patience has a limit. Heaps precarious footing looks a lot like Olsen’s in 2013.
5e. MLS is playing through another FIFA date. I’ve just beat and beat on that particular drum … so I’ll let respected colleague beat on it now. Here’s the Washington Post’s Steven Goff on the subject.
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.
