head coach of the Western Conference-leading, playoff-bound, eight-game-unbeaten-streaking, holy-cow-fun-to-watch San Jose Earthquakes -- with one question perched on the tip of my tongue like a bug buzzing around my mouth and bursting to escape:
How the heck have you done it?
"On the day before the expansion draft," he started, "we were sitting in the locker room and we put up a potential starting lineup for opening day. I don't think we had 11 players contracted. We had a lot of work to do."
Think about all that Kinnear had to deal with in the offseason and the first month of the campaign. After the 2004 season, a decidedly down season for the two-time MLS Cup winners, the squad was decimated. Landon Donovan shuffled off to Leverkusen then made his triumphant return -- to the wrong end of California, it turned out. Richard Mulrooney wanted out (or more money to stay in). Dwayne De Rosario was in Europe trialing. Jeff Agoos was riding the PATH train in New Jersey. Then, early season-ending injuries to defenders Troy Dayak and Craig Waibel that decimated the defensive core to such an extent that even I contemplated a comeback. On top of that, both star striker Brian Ching and sometime U.S. international Brian Mullan went down with extended injuries.
But Kinnear had two very important things going for him: 1) salary cap/allocation space from the loss of Donovan and Mulrooney. And 2) his gut feeling about players.
"We were patient," he said. "We went after the players we wanted."
You know that thing about dogs and their owners looking alike? Well, I've always wondered something: Is it that the owner resembles the dog? Or the dog resembles the owner? I've watched a lot of Westminster Kennel Shows -- one of the perks of a freelance life -- and still have no clue.
Here's the soccer corollary that I've pondered many times, too: Does a coach reflect his team? Or does the team reflect the coach?
The answer to the soccer one is easier: A coach -- or at least a successful coach -- will reflect his team when he first takes the job, but will then begin to build a side fashioned after himself.
But Kinnear -- like the founding coaches back in 1996 (which helps explain why some teams have such long miserable histories and others have such glorious ones) -- had the unique opportunity basically to build his team from scratch. As a player, Kinnear was what I like to call one of those players. He wasn't super-fast but he was quick. He did things that soccer people understood as invaluable. He was a tenacious pest on defense, one you hated playing against, yet he was capable of a mesmerizing flickering maneuver in attack as well. He was just as likely to tackle you from behind as he was to beat you with a stepover. He was a Ben Olsen type. Or more apt, a Ricardo Clark type or an Alejandro Moreno.
And there's the key. He's built a team that resembles himself. The "players we wanted" included Clark, Moreno, Ronald Cerritos, Wade Barrett, Danny Califf, Kelly Gray, Mark Chung and Brad Davis. What do they all have in common?
"They all played in MLS," Kinnear explained. "They understood the rigors, the travel, the hotels, the time changes. And they're good guys. They work hard for each other."
They were also all players who, until they reached Spartan Stadium, had never fulfilled their potential. They were often praised for being good players, but everyone felt they weren't as good as they should be -- and possibly might just fade away like countless other young prospects. Kinnear saw something else in them. He saw the little things they did that, when sewn together, made for something beautiful. And something successful.
At the heart of that success is De Rosario, who Kinnear repositioned as the attacking midfielder this season. The coach cites the Canadian's relentless midfield work as one of the team's catalysts: "He runs so much. He's fast enough to pull away and he keeps going. Seriously, he doesn't stop."
He also points out the progress of centerback Eddie Robinson, who had to step it up quickly after the injuries to Dayak and Waibel. Playing alongside the experienced Danny Califf has helped Robinson grow.
But it's players like Clark and Davis and Moreno that reflect the team and Kinnear the most. Kinnear often describes Moreno as a "pain" -- a characteristic he loves about the striker. In fact, Moreno and Cerritos are playing so well right now, that the Hawaiian God, Brian Ching, may have to wait to get back into the fold.
"The team keeps winning," Kinnear explained. "I'm a believer that you don't make a move when you're winning. Also, we want Brian to be totally healthy because his injury is the kind that could happen again. It's a difficult situation, but we're playing well. But, you know, you need more than 11 to go far in the playoffs."
Nice. Unlike certain amplifiers, some MLS team don't just go up to 11. They get even louder.
Greg Lalas played for the Tampa Bay Mutiny and the New England Revolution in 1996 and 1997. Send e-mail to Greg at cheapseats@g73.org. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
