With Dema Kovalenko, there is no middle ground. Either you love him or or you hate him.
Fans love Los Angeles Galaxy defensive midfielder Dema Kovalenko because of his intense play. Fans hate him because of his intense play.
Just ask a couple of his former Real Salt Lake teammates.
"He comes out to battle every day, both in practice and in the games," defender Chris Wingert said. "He's a guy you love having by your side because of that. He never backs down from a challenge."
"He's borderline crazy out there," Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. "He's really intense. He likes to get into tackles. He likes to fight. He likes everything about a fight."
Whether it will be winning balls in the midfield or tackling an opposing player, Wingert, Beckerman and company will be reminded of Kovalenko's competitiveness at Qwest Field in MLS Cup 2009.
Kovalenko has a history of taking very few prisoners. Two incidents with the Dallas Burn have been well-documented. The leg of defender Brandon Pollard was broken with a dangerous tackle in 1999, and then that of midfielder Ronnie O'Brien in 2003. Kovalenko claimed on both were accidents and that he was not trying purposely to injury both players.
To Kovalenko, friendship ends at the white lines of a soccer field. For example, the 32-year-old Kovalenko is good friends with RSL midfielder Javier Morales.
"When we beat Houston, he was the first one to call me to congratulate me," he said after practice at chilly Qwest Field Saturday. "I did the same when they beat Chicago. We have a lot of respect for each other. Tomorrow is no friends."
And he means it, although Kovalenko admitted he can become too intense at times.
"Sometimes too much," he said. "I realize that and sometimes people take me wrong. I always say that I will do whatever it takes to win. And it's true. But what happened in the past before, a couple of times with Dallas players, and this and that -- I'm very competitive. You ask any guy in the locker room of any team I've played for -- D.C., Chicago and now New York -- man, I hate losing."
But that drive and determination go beyond soccer.
"I lose to [a teammate] in pool and I can't sleep," Kovalenko said. "I think about it until the next day so I can win. That's the truth. If I play with a little kid, I want to win. This is crazy but it's so true."
Kovalenko's competitive fires were stoked by his father when he was growing up in Kiev, Ukraine.
"He raised me that way and it shows," he said. "Sometimes I do too much. On the field I argue. In my early years I was thrown out so many times from the games. Some stupid things and sometimes that I'm very, very competitive."
He felt his father went over the top in every sports in which they played together. He said parents are supposed to let their children win, at least once in a while.
"He never did. Never. He never lost to me," he said. "He always beat me. He laughed at me and I might cry and I'd go crazy. I wouldn't come home. It happened many times. There was some point when he visited me here for the first time when I was here and he couldn't beat me anymore in anything. I got older and better a little bit."
Kovalenko remembered when his father put up a basketball hoop at their house.
"He was so tall and I was so short," he said. "He just put the ball in. I would shoot and miss and I went go crazy all the time. Everything we did was competition. That's why I'm like that."
Galaxy coach Bruce Arena has been a big Kovalenko fan for some 15 years. He recruited the Ukrainian midfielder out of high school when he coached at the University of Virginia. However, Arena became D.C. United coach in the fledgling MLS in 1996 and Kovalenko chose to attend Indiana University, leading the Hoosiers to the Division I crown in 1998.
When Arena became New York Red Bulls coach in 2006, the first player move he made was to acquire Kovalenko, obtaining his rights and Shawn Kuykendall from D.C. United for a partial player allocation. When Arena had an opportunity to trade for Kovalenko this past offseason, he did as the Galaxy sent RSL some allocation money and a conditional pick in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft.
"That was a weakness of the team from the year before," said Arena, explaining the acquisition "We just tried to fill that hole with more experienced players.
"He's done great, a good year. Obviously missed two or three months with an injury, but he's had a very good year."
Kovalenko likes that Arena tells it like it is.
"What I love about the guy is that he's always straight with you," he said. "He always tells it how it is. He's a funny guy and jokes around. He always picks on players ... but you know what, when it comes to game day and sometimes at some points in training, when you look at the man, he's the man. There is time for fun. There is time to have a good time and there is time to work and get results. If you're a player you have to understand that.
"This is not a high school team. This is not a house league. This is a professional team, and we make a living doing that. In any sport, it's all about winning. If you win, everything's OK. If you lose, it's tough. For coaches it's tougher."
Kovalenko was grateful Arena has throw him a lifeline a couple of times.
"He's always there for me," he said. "He's been there since high school. He helped me with my passport, my green card. I have a lot of respect for him. He gives me a lot of chances."
Another chance will be at Qwest Field Sunday.
The key to most soccer encounters is the midfield, and Kovalenko knows something about RSL's middle four players.
"They don't have a set midfield," he said. "They interchange. guys more left, right. It's a good midfield. It's been around, a veteran midfield. They've been in big games before. ... It's not easy to deal with them, but we are ready."
The Galaxy went 0-1-1 against RSL this season, playing to a 2-2 draw in Sandy, Utah on May 6 and a 2-0 loss in Carson, Calif. on June 13. But Kovalenko downplayed the previous two encounters.
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter," he said. "This is a new game, the most important game. It will come down to one mistake when you give them a chance. It's going to be a fight. we know that. But we are a good team, too."
Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
