KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Dom Dwyer and Preki have two things in common: They're left-footed, and they each hold a share of Sporting Kansas City's single-season scoring record.
With six matches left in the 2014 campaign, starting with Friday's away date against Chivas USA (10:30 pm ET; MLS Live), there's a pretty decent chance that the list will drop to one – unless Dwyer someday follows in Preki's footsteps by naturalizing and playing for the United States national team.
Dwyer's next goal will be his 19th of the year, breaking a record that had stood since 1996 – when MLS was in its inaugural season, Kansas City was known as the Wiz and Preki was in his 15th professional season. Dwyer could own the mark outright in just his third year as a pro – and if he does, Preki will be happy for him.
“It's great,” the Belgrade-born former US international and current Sacramento Republic FC manager told MLSsoccer.com by phone on Thursday. “I think the records are there to be broken. It's great for a young player like that to break records. You've got to congratulate him.”
Preki said he hadn't even known the record was about to be broken until a reporter called him on Wednesday.
“I don't really follow that,” he said. “You guys are the ones who follow that kind of stuff.”
Still, he has seen Dwyer at work – and he praised the young English center forward's muscular, high-energy game.
“He obviously works very hard, leads the line play well, finds a way to get around and make plays around the goal,” Preki said. “You've got to give him a lot of credit. It's not easy to score that many goals. It's obviously well-deserved.”
Dwyer also had some admiring words for the longtime No. 10, who still holds Sporting's career- and single-season assist records – 98 and 17 (twice, in 1997 and 2003), respectively.
“His name's up in the stadium,” Dwyer said Thursday. “You check him out and you hear stories, you hear guys talk about him. It's a huge honor to tie his record and be in the same sentence with someone like that who helped build this club. I've watched him a little bit. He had some left foot.”
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Preki was more of a threat to use that foot from distance – both with club and country, as Brazil discovered on the short end of a 1-0 defeat to the United States in the 1998 Gold Cup – while Dwyer is a far more physical player who does most of his damage inside the penalty area.
“I think the difference for Preki, being a playmaker, was that he was a guy who had a nose for the goal,” said manager Peter Vermes, who was Preki's teammate when the then-Wizards won their first MLS Cup in 2000 and managed Sporting to the 2013 title. “A lot of playmakers don't have a nose for the goal as much as he did. But Dom's quality is that he's courageous as well. And that – that wasn't Prek.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
