KANSAS CITY, Mo. – On Tuesday, Amobi Okugo flew to Kansas City to meet his new teammates. On Thursday, he flew back out again – as part of Sporting Kansas City's traveling squad for Friday's match at Real Salt Lake (11 pm ET, UniMás).
That's a quick turnaround by anyone's standards, but especially for Sporting manager Peter Vermes, who prefers to work his midseason acquisitions in gradually. But with Sporting still dealing with injuries and international absences, and playing their third match in seven days on Friday, Vermes needs all the rested bodies he can muster.
“Obviously, there's still an acclimation period, and it's more with the way that we want to play and understanding what his role is when he's on the field,” Vermes told MLSsoccer.com on Thursday. “The benefit is the fact that he's a transaction that happened within the league. So he knows our league. I don't have to teach him the league. He knows that, so that part's great. It's now just understanding how we play and how he's going to fit into that role.”
Or, rather, roles. Vermes, who swapped defensive midfielder Servando Carrasco to Orlando City SC on Monday to get Okugo, said the new arrival – Sporting's only acquisition so far during the current transfer window – meets several roster needs.
“He can play three positions, the way I see it,” Vermes said. “He can play central defender, he can play defensive midfielder and he can play the No. 8 in the attacking midfield role. So he's a versatile guy, which is a huge, huge benefit to us, because we're going to have to go out and get at least two guys to cover those roles and now we've got one that's covering three, which is tremendous.”
Another benefit for Kansas City is that Okugo is no stranger to Vermes' managing style, either, after Sporting's coaching staff led a Generation adidas trip to the Netherlands following Okugo's sophomore MLS season in 2011.
“The Generation adidas trip is supposed to be a casual trip,” Okugo told reporters on Tuesday, after watching Sporting come back to beat Houston 3-1 in the quarterfinals of the US Open Cup. “The year before, it was with the [former] Dallas coach, Schellas Hyndman, and we were in Spain, and it was kind of free, so the next year, I'm telling all my friends who are GA, 'You've got to go on this trip. You've got to go on this trip.'
“And then Coach Peter's our coach, and from the very first day he's like, 'I'm not here to mess around. We're coming here to win.' We had a good time. It was good. He helped a lot of those guys on that trip to improve and develop and gain confidence as players.”
- Check out more Sporting news at SportingKC.com
Okugo was impressed by Vermes' attention to detail – and Vermes saw much to like in the young player, who was with the Philadelphia Union at the time after being taken in the first round of the 2010 MLS SuperDraft.
“Excellent athlete, great work ethic, good understanding of the position, real competitor,” Vermes said. “And you could see a real passion for the game. It was a short period of time, but he was definitely a leader within the group. There were a lot of new guys there, and right away his personality came out, which was a good thing.
“It's good to see that in guys, especially when you come not only together with them, but when you come to a new group and you can see the guys who aren't afraid. And he was not afraid.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
