Davis: Breakout stars of early 2008
A look at who has exploded on the scene in the season's early going
Know what I mean? He's not the same marauding presence he was last spring, when he stormed onto the MLS scene.
In April of 2007 he was just an anonymous mullet. By May, faithful MLS follower knew of the industrious FC Dallas midfielder, who found different ways to impact matches. Following a splendid All-Star night performance, pretty much everybody around domestic soccer knew of Toja.
More cogent analysis of why the FC Dallas man has shrank a bit will have to wait for another day.
What we're concerned about today: After seven rounds of MLS matches, who is the Toja of 2008? Who are the relative newcomers who have slipped in and served notice that they are up for a major campaign?
• This discussion must surely begins with Robbie Rogers, although his is not a new name to Columbus fans. Supporters of the Black & Gold were certainly excited when Rogers landed at Crew Stadium via a weighted lottery in March of '07.
But, generally, fans around the league are only now scrambling for Google assistance, eager to learn about the dynamic young attacker, one of the final cuts on Peter Nowak's Olympic qualifying group.
Rogers did score three goals in 10 appearances last year. But he never gained solid footing as a starter for manager Sigi Schmid (he made six starts). This year he's been a barnstorming revelation along the Crew's left side. Rogers, who turned 21 on Monday, is even with Kenny Cooper as the league's second-leading scorer. Both have five goals.
• Rogers' Crew mate Adam Moffat has done in Columbus what Ned Grabavoy and others couldn't last year: provide enough of a central midfield presence to allow Guillermo Barros Schelotto to float and probe for weak points without much worry about defensive chores.
A knee injury kept Moffat from traveling to San Jose last weekend, but both of his goals and all his early pressure have been important to Schmid's surging side in 2008. Technically speaking he's not new either, having joined Columbus late last year. Moffat played in one match in 2007.
(Brian Carroll is obviously a giant piece of the Crew puzzle, too. But he hardly qualifies as an MLS newbie, even if he's a fresh face in Crew-ville.)
• John Thorrington is earning his place in Chicago with three goals in six matches, a worthy total for an outside midfielder. And like teammate Chris Rolfe, Thorrington provides lots of defensive cover for Cuauhtemoc Blanco, freeing the veteran Mexican playmaker from expending himself on chase-and-harass duty. If Thorrington can keep it up, he provides Fire manager Denis Hamlett with some delicious options. For one, Rolfe can then play up top, closer to the goal, where he's at his best.
• Center backs are rarely on the fast track to national acclaim. So it will be no surprise if the casual fan still hasn't heard of young Kansas City defender Tyson Wahl. He had 10 starts coming into the season. But playing opportunities were sparse while he sat for two seasons behind Jimmy Conrad and Nick Garcia. When Garcia moved to San Jose in the offseason, the spot instantly belonged to the well-regarded Wahl, who is having a nice season so far.
• At Red Bull New York, rookie Danleigh Borman helped provide some zip on the outside while Dane Richards mended from injury. Richards made his first start of 2008 on Saturday in Los Angeles, so it's hard to say how much playing time Borman, a first-round draft pick out of Rhode Island, could collect going forward. But knowing how Red Bulls manager Juan Carlos Osorio loves to tinker with personnel and formations, the opportunities are likely to pop up -- especially after striking for his first career goal Saturday, a vital effort in a high-profile contest. (But that celebration needs a little work.)
• Finally, what would this discussion be without a selection or two from Steve Nicol's boundless bag of newcomer tricks? New England's pair of young Gambian attackers, Sainey Nyassi and Kenny Mansally, have two goals apiece. Not bad considering these were last-minute fill-ins for injured starters. Now, as Steve Ralston and Taylor Twellman have returned to the field, we'll have to see which of the two new bright lights can keep finding time on the field.
TACTICAL CORNER:
• For his team's match last Saturday in Utah, Jason Kreis expected Dallas to play a 3-5-2, a more conventional setup, relatively speaking. Eager to match the numbers in midfield, the Real Salt Lake manager aligned his own side in a 3-5-2.
But Kreis had to make a first-half adjustment when Dallas instead emerged in a less conventional 3-4-3. So, off went Jamison Olave, one of three center backs who got the starting assignment. He made room for Andy Williams, who moved into the midfield. Meanwhile, Tony Beltran and Chris Wingert, who had lined up as outside midfielders, dropped back into the back line as RSL retreated into their more familiar 4-4-2.
• Jonathan Bornstein's knee injury, suffered last Thursday in training, is one more issue for Preki to deal with at Chivas USA, where the Red-and-White's form at home has turned in stunning fashion. They lost just once last year in Carson but have already fallen three times at The Home Depot Center this year.
Lawson Vaughn was already slated to miss up to six weeks with facial fractures. That makes last week's late acquisition of Carey Talley (from RSL for conditional draft picks) critical for Chivas USA.
Talley was a central midfielder in Utah. But he played as a center back and outside back during two seasons in Dallas prior to the move to Rice-Eccles. In southern California, he gives Preki some much-needed options along the back line.
Steve Davis is a freelance writer who has covered Major League Soccer since its inception. Steve can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
