Oh Yordy! Rash of talent
Call-up to Peru’s national team reinforces the shifty Whitecaps midfielder’s rise
The Vancouver Whitecaps, failing to contain their excitement about the play of Yordy Reyna, say he might be the best athlete to ever play here
It appears the normally loquacious Carl Robinson has exhausted his vocabulary in an attempt to describe Yordy Reyna.
Six weeks ago, following a performance in which Reyna drew a penalty and then scored the game-winning goal against Houston with a clinical 20-yard strike, the Caps head coach said his attacking midfielder was “like a rash, he’s all over the place.”
This week, Robinson was asked about Reyna again. “He’s a little rascal,” said the Whitecaps head coach. At still other times, Reyna has gone by the relatively simple “Magic.”
So the man is in urgent need of a nickname and there are some beauties to chose from: The Rash. Magic. The Wascally Wabbit. But whatever moniker is settled on, Robinson delivered the definitive word on the 24-year-old Peruvian this week when, just 16 games into his Whitecaps career, he suggested he might be the best player in the club’s MLS history.
“Now he’s fully fit and we see what he can do,” Robinson said. “He’s so enjoyable to watch. He creates, He scores. He works hard. He’s a little rascal. That’s what he is. But he’s some player.
“Arguably, he’s the best player the club’s had. If he keeps going like this, I won’t disagree.”
And if that’s not as much fun as The Rash, you have to admit The Best is catchy in its own way.
Reyna, who’s been called up to Peru’s national team for a pair of critical World Cup qualifiers, will be lost to the Caps this weekend when they travel to New York, but his promotion only highlights the remarkable season he’s had in Vancouver. After missing the first four months of the MLS campaign, The Little Rascal has scored five goals — all game-winners, all of the highlight-reel variety — and set up three others, while forming a lethal partnership with veteran Fredy Montero.
The real measure of Reyna’s impact on the team, however, can be found in its win-loss record. Before he stepped into the lineup, the Caps were plodding along at a pedestrian 6-6-3 clip and were out of the playoffs. They’ve since gone 9-4-3 — including 5-1-3 in games Reyna starts — and moved into first place in the Western Conference.
“It took me four months to recover (from a broken foot at the start of the year) and I used that time to see how the Whitecaps developed their team,” Reyna said through an interpreter. “I think that helped.” Evidently. Robinson, a sturdy midfielder in his playing days, was asked how he would have dealt with Reyna.
“I would have kicked the s--- out of him,” he said before pausing. “No, I would have never got near him. That’s the funniest thing about it.”
Robinson brought Reyna to Vancouver after a lengthy and determined manhunt that stretched out over a year and to Austria, where the Peruvian was playing for Salzburg, sort of. While in Europe, he was loaned out on three different occasions, including a stint with Leipzig in Germany.
The Caps’ belief is the younger Reyna simply had difficulties adjusting to a new team, a new culture and a new language in Austria. He would sign with Vancouver in January of this year, break his foot in the team’s final pre-season game in Portland, then make his Whitecaps debut four months later. In his second game, he scored the game-winner against the New York FC off a spectacular header in the 88th minute and hasn’t looked back.
He’s also forged something special with Montero. The MLS veteran has eight goals in Reyna’s 16 games and against Colorado a couple of weeks ago, the pair took turns setting each other up in a crucial 2-1 Caps win. Reyna first found Montero with a perfectly weighted left-foot cross. Montero returned the favour with an elegant chip over the defence to a charging Reyna. At times, it seems like the two South Americans have been playing together their entire careers.
Montero advises it’s not quite that simple.
“Honestly, it’s still a work in progress,” Montero says. “Sometimes I want him to hold the ball and sometimes I prefer him passing me the ball. But, either way, I know he can do something special. We’re just letting him be free in the game and the field and it’s been successful for us.”
The call-up to his national team, meanwhile, might be the most articulate expression of Reyna’s season. On Thursday night, Peru faces Argentina in Buenos Aires before meeting Colombia at home on Tuesday. Los Incas currently hold down the fourth and final World Cup qualifying spot in their group, one spot ahead of Argentina. Now they meet the powerhouse and Lionel Messi in their own backyard in a match for which both countries will stop.
“I’m delighted for him, but disappointed because I don’t get to use him (this weekend),” said Robinson.
That’s OK. He’ll be back and maybe by then the coach will know what to call him.