Martinez running with starting opportunity

Describing the changes with Crew SC midfielder Cristian Martinez to begin the season, it helps to start with his hair.

The 21-year-old Panamanian bleached his hair blond late in the preseason, a throwback, he said through a team translator, to his days playing for Chorrillo FC in Panama.

“It’s a good look,” he said.

An improved look has been paired with an improved level of play to the point where Martinez opened the season starting on the right wing.

The step up in responsibility came as something of a surprise, considering Martinez scored only one goal in his first 13 Major League Soccer games in 2016 and '17, less so that Crew SC played much of the preseason with an available wing position.

The team traded starter Justin Meram to Orlando in late January, Niko Hansen continues to build his fitness after a hamstring injury and Mike Grella continues to recover from a knee injury. The Crew also has an available international roster spot but has not used it to sign a young forward or wing.

For now, Martinez is the next man up and has played like it.

“Last year, he performed reasonably well at times and then some of the inconsistency issues led to us not giving him opportunities,” coach Gregg Berhalter said. “Then, when you don’t get opportunities, your confidence goes.”

This year, however, Berhalter said Martinez has taken advantage of his many chances.

“His movement off the ball has been good. He’s shown power in places, the defensive side has been pretty good,” Berhalter said. “We know it’s a work in progress but we like what we see so far.”

A correlation exists between opportunity and confidence. For the first time in his MLS career, Martinez has an extended opportunity, one that was made clear to him over the course of the 2018 preseason.

“After the end of the season last year, (Berhalter) said that this year could be a year of big opportunity for me because Ethan (Finlay) left and then later on (Meram) left, so he told me to take advantage of it,” Martinez said. “Now that I have the opportunity, I’m working twice as hard and things are coming together little by little.”

Martinez nearly produced the opening score of the season Saturday in the first half of a 2-0 win over Toronto FC. After taking a feed from Federico Higuain, he sidestepped a defender and clipped the right post to miss a goal by inches.

His performance didn’t lack intensity. Martinez was shown a yellow in the 24th minute for not retreating and risked receiving another after shoving a Toronto player in the second half.

That intensity, Martinez said, is a reflection of his opportunity. He has a spot in the starting 11. Keeping it is the next challenge.

“Work twice as hard,” Martinez said when asked how he can stay in the starting 11. “Score goals and assists so they can keep counting on me.”