Kamara sets his sights on greatness
Striker vows that Caps will be the ‘most dangerous team in the league on set plays’
More than once as players, Carl Robinson and Pa-Modou Kah banged heads with Kei Kamara.
“Everytime I say it, it makes me sound old,” Kamara, the 33-year-old striker who joined the Whitecaps this off-season, said with a laugh. “It was always a battle.” There was always respect between them and while they clashed skulls one or twice in the past, it’s on a decidedly more friendly nature now that his former nemeses are his coaches.
“Now we’re all bringing our brains together and trying to build something,” Kamara said. “Really, I can’t emphasize just how excited I am to be part of this group. Things are building really well.”
It started with this week’s pre-season in Hawaii, culminating in Saturday’s 1-0 loss in the Pacific Rim Cup final against Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo. Kamara had scored against Sapporo in their friendly at the start of the week, but didn’t make the scoresheet Saturday.
As he had all week, Robinson fielded completely different teams in each half. In the opening 45 minutes, Sapporo dominated possession, never giving the Caps a chance to feature Kamara in the offence.
His targetability was why Robinson sought him out. As pointed out by whitecapsfc.com editor Farhan Devji, eight of his 12 goals last season came off crosses. The two seasons before, 20 of 31 were from crosses and he has more headed goals (19) than any other MLS player since 2015.
The Whitecaps led the MLS in goals off of set pieces with 18 last season. Fredy Montero was third in the league with five set-piece goals, followed by Kendall Waston in fourth with four.
“I don’t want to say I’m a better fit right now — we’re still working on it and it’s only pre-season — but obviously Fredy is a different player and did different things, but my athleticism and style of play … maybe does make me one of the candidates to fit this system,” said Kamara. “And that’s what we’ve been working on the past few games. We can see that our relationships are building slowly.”
When it comes together, it should be impressive. There are nine regulars who are 6-foot-2 or taller on the roster, led by the 6-5 Waston and 6-4 Tony Tchani. Tim Parker might only be 6-3, but he plays taller.
In their initial meeting with Sapporo, Parker scored twice off set pieces, the second one coming against an overmatched defender at the back post, something Kamara predicts will happen a lot this season.
“I actually think we’re going to
be the most dangerous team in the league on set plays,” he said. “We’ve showed (it) since the first pre-season game that we played, when Timmy scored two off set plays. But it’s not about me, it’s not about Timmy, it’s not about Kendall, it’s about all of us.
“If we make that run and you want
to mark us, there’s always going to be someone else that’s open. We’re seriously going to be the most dangerous team on set plays, offensive and defensively, when it comes to this season.”
With the Hawaii portion of pre-season over, the Caps will head to Nevada for an exhibition with the
United Soccer League’s Las Vegas Lights FC Saturday, then a matchup Sunday with MLS expansion squad LAFC. A game against the L.A. Galaxy Feb. 24 wraps up the pre-season.
It’s been an important time for K amara to get to know his new team and judging by the smiles we’ve seen on the team’s Twitter feed, he’s
establishing relationships and putting to bed any question of him being a disruptive locker-room force.
“You can’t just work, work, work and not bring your personality into it,” he said. “That’s the best way to work hard — to have fun while you’re doing it. So that’s all I’m trying to bring in; just being myself.”