if only because it's tougher to notice -- is the ball-hawker and his significant contributions. Actually, we do come to appreciate these guys, the centrally located stalkers, the captains of midfield industry, but it takes a while longer to arrive at that same level of appreciation.
So, I'm going to get ahead of the midseason rush and say it right now: I love the work, all the hustle and bustle, going on in the middle of the park for Fernando Clavijo's Colorado Rapids. Nick LaBrocca and John DiRaimondo are a two-man wrecking squad.
If the Rapids can climb back into the playoffs this year, those two previously anonymous fellows will probably have a lot to do with it.
Yes, Terry Cooke was terrific in the season opener, that jaw-dropping ambush of the Los Angeles Galaxy. Yes, Christian Gomez has started the season with a predictable verve, good against both Los Angeles and again last weekend against Kansas City. Yes, goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul gets better and better, even if he's still a tad unconventional in his methods. His distribution already looks vastly improved over 2007.
So, there's a lot to be excited about for Rapids fans.
But in a win over L.A. and a close heartbreaker in Kansas City -- in a cracker of a match, by the way -- the two midfield whirlwinds have been critical to the effort. All that midfield grinding has provided the very guts of a promising start.
And it's a good story, too, one that shows how Major League Soccer's continued development efforts will work -- if GMs and managers are courageous enough to trust them. The Rapids topped all comers in reserve action in 2007. LaBrocca and DiRaimondo provided the cement for those efforts. LaBrocca, 23, a former Rutgers man, got into just two matches with the first team.
That's two more than DiRaimondo. The 21-year-old St. Louis University product toiled away all year for the reserves.
Preseason injuries cracked the Rapids pretty good in 2008. So things looked dicey when LaBrocca and DiRaimondo lined up in the middle during that high-profile home opener against the Galaxy a week back.
But right away, they got into passing lanes and generally bounced about, winning challenges and intercepting passes and then moving the ball to one of the Rapids difference makers. The DSGP outfit seemed to feed off their enterprise and exertion.
Same last week in Kansas City, where the Rapids' high-tempo midfield kept a good Wizards group on its heels, even in a game played at Kansas City's new ground. They seemed to disturb K.C. playmaker Carlos Marinelli. For the second half, Wizards manager Curt Onalfo even moved Kurt Morsink into the middle and slid Marinelli out wide to help deal with the problem.
Of course, these are young fellows and they still need to grow into their spots. They could stand sometimes to move the ball faster. And it wouldn't hurt if they played through Gomez a bit more.
Still, they provide a great example that skill may win the day, but that chasing, ball winning and conquest in the midfield battles can surely set the stage.
And this should be said, too: DiRaimondo and LaBrocca are making veteran Pablo Mastroeni and his high salary expendable for the Commerce City crew. The U.S. international has entered as a substitute in both matches so far. Once he gets back to full health, Clavijo will have a tough decision, because it sure looks like either of the younger fellows can cover more ground at this point.
Covering ground is critical on this team, freeing Gomez to create and permitting left back Jose Burciaga Jr., to range forward with less risk.
TACTICAL CORNER
There was a time in MLS when general managers and dudes in suits at the New York HQ promised to hire only attack-minded managers. That was a tad naïve, of course, because sooner or later a coach was bound to win with stingy defense and this notion of everybody playing hell-bent for offense would be reduced to so much startup nostalgia.
Only, Curt Onalfo never got the message. And good for him. The Wizards manager surely is the league's most aggressive in stretching for wins when ties are within a more convenient reach. Saturday's exciting meeting with Colorado was stuck at 2-2 late in the afternoon. So Onalfo withdrew a defender and added a forward, switching from a 4-4-2 to an aggressive 3-4-3.
Scott Sealy rewarded the strategy by nailing the late game-winner.
Houston manager Dominic Kinnear also subtracted a defender and added a striker in his team's wild 3-3 draw with FC Dallas. But that was a different situation. The Dynamo were down by a goal, which made the decision a lot easier.
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's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
