Photo: SKC
If you were to ask Western Conference fans, which off season additions at the newly arrived clubs they most fear, the name Erick ‘Cubo’ Torres is likely to surface very quickly.
Certainly there has been no shortage of publicity and interest in the Mexican striker who scored some key goals for ChivasUSA in 2014. Yet Cubo has just three international caps.
There may be a greater danger elsewhere if snippets of pre-season form are to be read like tea leaves.
15 time Hungarian international Krisztian Nemeth scored a hat trick in 45 minutes for Sporting Kansas in the club’s 4-2 win over FC Tucson after entering at half time.
Coming on to replace last season’s goal machine Dom Dwyer, he netted a penalty on the hour and followed up with two further goals. Nemeth also assisted on SKC’s other goal scored by Jimmy Medranda in the 77th minute.
Coach Peter Vermes was happy at what he saw:
“He moves very well off the ball. He’s got a very good nose for the goal. He plays the position very much like you would expect from an eastern European forward.
“His movement was good and he was very clinical around the goal. He was playing in the central forward spot today, but he can play any of the three spots around the field.”
Sporting KC became known for their high press defence. This asks their forward line to run towards and harry defenders attempting to play the ball out of defence. It asks for a fair degree of extra running from the forwards.
Vermes thinks Nemeth can cope with it:
“I think sometimes we have a high demand on some of our guys. He made some very good decisions on where he should go and where he should be defensively. I think it really helped us out winning some balls back. He did well.”
Seth Sinovic added:
“He’s just a very intelligent player, I’d say that’s his biggest strength. He reads the game really well, holds the ball up really well. He’s a very smooth finisher.”
The 26-year-old Hungarian joined Sporting KC in the offseason from Dutch club Roda JC Kerkrade, and has played 15 times for Hungary debuting in May 2010. He scored in a qualifier match against Estonia in 2013, a game his side won 5-1 to start his international tally.
He took an upbeat view of the proceedings but in that typically SKC way, avoided excessive hyperbole:
“It was a good win for us. Most importantly, the team played hard. It has been a good two weeks of training camp and we are starting to come together well. Everybody has been working hard to push each other and I am excited to continue working with this group.”
With long term injury casualties like Chance Myers (ruptured Achilles tendon), Ike Opara (chondral defect injury in his right ankle) and Graham Zusi (right foot stress) set to return, there is every reason to believe that pre-season favourites, Los Angeles Galazy and Seattle Sounders, may find themselves in a three way race for the Western Conference.
Matt Besler and Jorge Claros are being selected at international level and most of all, Roger Espinoza is back from Wigan but there’s also a level of continuity that comes from less wholesale off season trading, plus the advantage that their opposition won’t know them as well as they do other opponents.
SKC of course have history in the West. They won the Western Conference and MLS Cup in 2000, and reached the title game four years later after topping the region again.
Meanwhile it’s time for Western Conference coaches to start scouring for tapes of Nemeth!
Also See:
Hinton Unleashed: Panama were awful. Any MLS team would have beaten them
Analysis: USA puts it all together against Panama
