Steve Davis' weekly column, drilling down on five hot topics in American soccer
1. Looking at Orlando’s stinker – and seeing different things
Sometimes there is no hiding it; your team had a bad night. Not just a little bad, but a truly awful night, like in those silly Hangover movies.
They had a 100 percent, documented, witness corroborated, officially notarized, independently verified stinker. Just ask Orlando City. Adrian Heath’s team “celebrated” Independence Day with an unlit fuse of a performance. So we have things to say about it:
First thing you do is acknowledge FC Dallas’ part in the 4-0 walkover. Mauro Diaz has reclaimed the high ground, so to speak, that he had occupied in that exceptional month of March. Including a U.S. Open Cup match, the Argentine playmaker has a goal and four assists in the club’s last three matches. A stabilized back line, steered by solid performance of center backs Walker Zimmerman and Matt Hedges, has left goalkeeper Chris Seitz precious little to do in two consecutive league shutouts.
So, yes, Oscar Pareja’s team did its part. Back to Orlando. Here’s the first way to see this thing:
I don’t care what Jurgen Klinsmann says; the MLS season is a long slog. It’s not just 34 league matches (and all the taxing travel). Plenty of teams out there will top 40 competitive matches in 2016. Portland, Sporting Kansas City, FC Dallas, Vancouver and the Red Bulls for instance, all in CONCACAF Champions League and with at least two U.S. Open Cup matches, will kick off 40 times in competitive matches, minimum. Add in a bit of playoff run, they’ll get up into 44 or so matches.
That’s quite few.
Here’s the point: a stinker or two is out there. Like bad dates for single folks, they are darn near unavoidable. Portland got clobbered last year by the Galaxy (5-0) and finished on the wrong end of a minor comeuppance in Dallas (4-1) – but eventually claimed MLS Cup.
Columbus hammered the LA Galaxy in 2014 – but that didn’t stop Bruce Arena’s talented team from taking that year’s MLS Cup. That same season the Galaxy hammered New England – but that didn’t stop a Jermaine Jones-led bunch from bullying its way into the MLS Cup final.
You get the picture. It’s how you respond to the big loss. It’s learning what you can learn, preventing any toxic residue from setting in and then driving on, the fender a little dented but the engine and other performance essentials intact.
That’s the deal, how you bounce back. Then again …
2. Tough call coming on Kaka
Here’s the second way to see things Monday from Orlando’s perch:
Something was off. Maybe way off. A team that prides itself on effort, energy and belief (the Lions rally late better than any MLS side) didn’t have much of it Monday in North Texas. The team still has some hard-to-pinpoint imbalance.
It starts with a front office that still hasn’t quite nailed the personnel mix. That’s not something to investigate by a major crimes division; this is a second-year MLS team, after all, so you expect some growing pains.
But you also expect things to gradually improve, and there remain too many worrying roster elements.
Adrian Winter’s sudden, unexpected departurelate last week (contract terminated by mutual consent) is disconcerting to say the least. The incredibly hardworking Swiss midfielder was added for depth, but became an indispensable element of the Lions’ attack. With Winter on one side, Kevin Molino on the other, Kaka in the middle and Cyle Larin up top, Orlando’s offense could be breathtaking. Now? This is still a solid attack, but this departure sees it moving in the direction of “meh.”
Then there are just too many questions about roster management. The team did shed itself of Aurelien Collin’s huge contract earlier this year. Some of it, anyway. Meanwhile, Italian veteran Antonio Nocerino makes $650,000 but doesn’t start. That’s a problem.
The team has some speed on the wing, but it’s plodding in the middle. Darwin Ceren, Cristian Higuita and 34-year-old Kaka were helpless in chasing a younger, faster Dallas central trio on Monday. Things improved very little when Servando Carrasco replaced Kaka at halftime; the imbalance in athleticism remained striking.
Then we get to the big elephant in the room: Kaka and his massive $7 million salary.
The Brazilian World Cup winner has always been an injury waiting to happen. It kept him from being all he could be in high-profile stops at Real Madrid and Milan. Last year wasn’t bad for Kaka, who missed just six starts. And his production was reasonable, too, at 9 goals and 7 assists. But …
He has missed almost half of Orlando’s starts this year (7 of 16). Again, he’s been productive when on the field. Mostly.
But that thing the other day, whatever that was against Dallas – it’s concerning when the guy is your captain. He was Kaka for about 10 minutes; good touches, heady passing, quality all around. Then he was like a really bad sitcom; he just went away quietly. His absence from anything meaningful over the next half hour-plus was just short of inexplicable.
Heath said “minor calf strain” when he pulled Kaka at halftime. A few of us said, “Hmmmm.”
It’s always dangerous to read too much into body language and team effect from vantages up high. But this needs to be asked: Is Kaka a team leader or not? Winter’s abrupt departure was distracting, but it doesn’t need to be devastating – especially not if a figure like Kaka can elevate his performance and inspire the same in others. Looking disengaged and barely interested after giving up a road goal is hardly inspirational. Given that outing, his age and his history of injury, it seems hard decisions are ahead.
And don’t give me any “They need a big star to help push the brand and its arrival into a new ground in 2017.” That’s old school MLS thinking. They’ve done a marvelous job in Orlando of connecting with the city; attendance (the league’s second best average at 34K) and engagement is spectacular. They’ll fill the 25,000-seat stadium. They don’t need a branded star. They just need a run of solid roster choices.
3. No retirees from U.S. national team – and that’s telling
Zlatan Ibrahimovic recently retired from his country’s national soccer team. This is the same “Ibra” who just signed up for Manchester United duty. He’s clearly got some good soccer left in him; watch Jose Mourinho get 14-15 goals from the guy this year.
Then again, Ibrahimovic is 34. And this is an age where players often retire internationally. They don’t have a lot of tread left on the tires, but they figure they can squeeze two or three productive years – also known as squeezing in two or three more well-compensated years. They can facilitate that aim by focusing on club rather than country, saving on the additional wear and tear.
Set that aside for a moment while we talk about the United States national team.
Every now and then, writers and broadcasters hear or ongoing discontent within the U.S. camp. It’s all about to boil over, or so the newest whisper goes. That big bubbling-over that almost happened in 2013? Yeah, it’s really gonna happen this time. For reals!
And who knows? Perhaps it’s true. Only the national team mainstays, that list of 20-25 that get summoned on the regularly, could honestly say.
But if it were true, then why don’t we see a few of the older guys in the pool retiring internationally?
Wouldn’t that make sense? Tim Howard and Nick Rimando are 37. Kyle Beckerman and Jermaine Jones are 34. Clint Dempsey and Chris Wondolowski are 33. All are buzzing around inside international retirement air space. And if things were so bungled up under Klinsmann, one or two of them would surely throw up their hands, call a news conference and say, “No more for me! I’m done with this mess.”
But they don’t. Far as we know, any of them who get summoned in September when things get real again (the conclusion of semifinal round World Cup qualifying) will smile and say, “When do you want me there?” Which is great! Good for ‘em.
The point is, things must be OK. Or at least OK-ish. Oh, they might not like some of Klinsmann’s methods, and they presumably aren’t the biggest fans of all the extra fitness work at pretty much every camp. But it’s clearly not so bothersome that anybody is ready to say “enough!”
4. Copa America took its toll on South American managers
As Copa America Centenario began, it was impossible to gauge how the competing teams might treat it. It seemed safe to surmise that the United States and Mexico were properly motivated, the Yanks as hosts and the Mexicans as a sort of younger sibling to South American nations, always eager to prove they can hang in the big boys’ game.
But the South American countries themselves? Well, who knew? Was it a “real” Copa America in their hearts and minds or something they’d treat at novelty? Was it real love or just a brief summer thing?
We have more answers now.
The general competitive spirit told us a lot. So did Lionel Messi’s emotional, public soul cleansing after another heartbreaking final. But the real evidence that South American teams took this thing seriously – and presumably would take it seriously if it rolled around again – keeps arriving. It’s in the number of managers out of jobs.
Obviously, poor performance anytime can damage managers from that part of the world, where it sometimes seems like they change coaches with the seasons.
Tata Martino resigned Tuesday as Argentina’s manager, probably as much a statement on the chaos within that country’s federation as much as anything. Still, that means a third of the South America participants have dismissed or lost their manager since Copa American Centenario began.
Ramon Diaz resigned from his Paraguayan post following his team’s early Copa elimination. Dunga barely got off the plane in Brazil following his teams shocking group stage elimination.
Summer isn’t over yet. Who knows if one more will topple in the days ahead?
5. The Little Five
We are hard into the season’s second half; this is officially Week 18 in Major League Soccer. Here are the five storylines I’m following closest:
5a. Tim Howard’s arrival is the most obvious one. I raise my hand here; I didn’t see goalkeeping as a pressing need around DSG Park, so I didn’t see Howard as “the answer.” He wouldn’t be if the team was still paddling around in the shallow end of the standings. But Pablo Mastroeni’s team is Supporters Shield frontrunner by points-per-game average. Now Howard and all he brings – not just elite-level goalkeeping but a world of experience and unquestioned leadership – looks more like “final piece” stuff for a real MLS Cup run. (And think on this: contrast Howard and teammate Jermaine Jones and their effective brands of leadership to Kaka’s seeming lack of it.)
5b. The East is a mess. Anyone who says they can make heads or tails of what’s going to happen there is fibbing. Or just guessing. The league’s four best teams by record are in the West (Colorado, Dallas, Real Salt Lake and the Galaxy). In the East? A bunch of up-and-downers that honestly could go either way.
5c. Of course Seattle will be in this list; that many fans are bound to make a big racket, so everything that happens around CenturyLink gets overstated and overrated, but it’s all unavoidable I suppose. So … I’m watching Jordan Morris’ rookie rise (Another goal last weekend!). But I’m also along the watchtower for signs of a Clint Dempsey slow-down. “Deuce” certainly put a lot into the U.S. Copa America efforts. The question is, did he empty the tank or leave enough in reserve?
5d. Strikers, man. We’ve got a worrisome lot of ‘em at the moment. Didier Drogba looked rejuvenated two weeks ago in perhaps his best performance this year (in a 2-2 draw with Sporting KC) but just hasn’t been heard from enough lately. Jozy Altidore just has to get past his ongoing hamstring issues. See the note on Morris and Dempsey above. Maxi Urruti does so much doggone damage with all his industry, but three goals over a full half-season just isn’t good enough for any starting striker. And in New England, Juan Agudelo is approaching the Freddy Adu zone in frustrating level of disappointment.
5e. They have so much in L.A. … and yet so little in some ways. Steven Gerrard’s passing really can open up a defense, and yet he brings so little to the table in defensive ground cover. Nigel de Jong can provide a lot of it, but another suspension is likely coming, and even people within the organization will surely tire of his (too frequently brutal) act soon enough. The attack is stacked, but the goalkeeping is marginal at very best. The champs could make a run at it … or they could fall apart.
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.
