With each new season, Colorado Rapids head coach Fernando Clavijo has sought to make the club a more aggressive, attacking team. Friday's signing of midfielder Christian Gomez brings immediate clarity to Clavijo's vision.
As the 2006 MLS MVP, a three-time All-Star and Best XI honoree, and as the leading point scorer over his three full seasons in Major League Soccer, Gomez should offer the Rapids a swift kick in their efforts to turn around a glaring shortcoming from the 2007 season.
"We're always looking to improve the things that didn't work in the previous year," Clavijo said Friday, looking at the impact Gomez can have after the Rapids' disappointing finish three points out of a playoff berth. "The defense was the third-best in the league, and the offense was the second-worst. It was an issue we needed to address.
"Usually, either you have a typical forward who doesn't link with anyone else, who's going to score goals, or you have a playmaker who doesn't score that much. We're very lucky to have a player like Christian who's proven in this league and is capable of not only linking but also scoring."
Along with his All-Star teammate from 2007, Pablo Mastroeni, Gomez will anchor the midfield, complimenting Mastroeni's defensive strengths with his own offensive orientation.
"We've got Christian Gomez with Pablo Mastroeni holding behind him," said managing director Jeff Plush. "For me, it's the best midfield in the league. There's certainly no better. We have the talent. That's the bottom line. If we play to our ability, we'll be a very dangerous team."
After establishing himself in a 13-year career in his native Argentina, Gomez, 33, came to the MLS to play for D.C. United for the final nine games of the 2004 season. Over the next three seasons he scored 35 goals, second in the league only to Taylor Twellman, and recorded 29 assists, second to Landon Donovan. He led the league in both categories in his MVP season.
"He's a tricky player," Mastroeni said of Gomez, glad to suit up beside him after so many years facing him across the field. "He's so committed to the attack, it made me hang back. I was so worried about him doing his thing."
With Gomez doing his thing for the Rapids, Clavijo expect to see the team raise its offensive profile. The Rapids have developed strong young players in recent years, blending them in with a veteran core, but Gomez has the chance to be the catalyst to take all these players to another level.
"We look at Conor Casey, Nicolas Hernandez, Jovan Kirovski, Jacob Peterson - we have some very exciting young players right now who are going to benefit directly from having Christian Gomez on the field," Clavijo promised.
"Conor's more of a post-up target man. Christian coming from the middle with a play will have somebody else who can definitely play off him. Look at Herculez Gomez. Christian's going to get the ball and Herculez is going to run, and you're going to have somebody who's going to play the ball just in front of him running. A give-and-go with Kirovski, Peterson, everybody," Clavijo said. "Sometimes they're quick, but we never find them quick enough to play the ball up front until it's too late. So we have somebody coming from the midfield who is going to help us. Little by little it's going to make us all better."
Clavijo is confident that Gomez can relieve some of the pressure players have experience both offensively and defensively, bringing proven prowess as both a scoring threat and a creative playmaker to an offense that struggled to implement a consistent attack in 2007 and freeing a midfielder like Mastroeni to focus on a more defensive role.
"I'll always be defensive minded," said Mastroeni. "My No. 1 job is to make sure I hold down the midfield. When he goes up, it's not his job to get back and help defend. He can continue attacking. I'm willing to do the dirty work."
Another veteran likely to welcome some pressure relief is midfielder Terry Cooke, one of the Rapids most effective playmakers, albeit from a wide role, and a reliable instigator on set pieces, handling the bulk of the Rapids corner kicks. Gomez should provide a perfect compliment to Cooke and Mastroeni, adding an element of versatility and unpredictability to an already strong midfield.
"A lot of people don't realize he's lethal off free kicks," Mastroeni pointed out. "His ability to put the ball into dangerous spots is amazing. There's no telling how much he can add to our attack."
Aside from his experience with Mastroeni in last year's All-Star Game at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, the only other Colorado player Gomez has much experience with is Facundo Erpen, who was his teammate for two years in D.C. before a midseason trade brought him to Colorado. But after more than three years competing against the Rapids, he is familiar with their strengths and enthusiastic about joining their ranks.
"The Rapids are a strong team that's been playing together for years," Gomez said Friday, speaking through an interpreter. "They've got a solid defense, and they've got a good midfield. I hope to bring a creative, attacking mind that will get the ball to the forwards, to those on the wings, so that they're in a better position to score the goals we need to score.
"It's going to be a war in there with the players we have," Gomez added. "We're going to go to battle, we're going to win the ball, and when we've got the ball, we're going to play, we're going to score."
And although Gomez's arrival adds clarity to the Rapids 2008 game plan, Clavijo resisted the urge to begin inking in lineups, revealing that the team is not done making moves to improve their roster.
"We haven't finished adding pieces yet," Clavijo said. "We're looking and we're working and hopefully we can announce something pretty quick."
Look for a possible defensive cog to add ballast to the Rapids backfield.
"I want to make sure that Christian Gomez has anything he needs defensively to be able to go offensively," Clavijo said. "I didn't bring him here to play defense. So I have to make sure that the defensive part of the team is in place. We're working extremely hard to make it happen."
The Gomez acquisition should offer immediate dividends in an international elite player who has already adapted to MLS and proven his value. And though it might seem like a move to "win now" at the cost of a 2009 first-round draft pick, Gomez has the potential to boast the best of both, elevating the team as early as March 29 when the Rapids play host to the Galaxy in the season opener and continuing as a force for years to come.
"Christian just turned 33," Plush said. "I don't think he looks 33. I don't think he plays like he's 33. I think the way he plays, he's got a lot of years left in his body.
"The reality is the draft is a mercurial thing. You can get players who are stars in the first round, or you can get those same players in the third round. They're young men. When you're drafting young men, sometimes when they're 16 or 17 years old, you're betting on what they're going to become. We know what Christian is. Christian has been the MVP of this league and the Best XI each of his years in the league. We feel good about what we're doing right now, but we always look to the future. We want to sustain something that's built for the long term."
After coming up short in 2007, the Rapids and their fans have found reason to believe that their future is now.
Owen Perkins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
