Healthy Monteiro ‘burning’ for larger role
CHESTER >> Jamiro Monteiro isn’t one for the role of spectator.
The impetus for the Cape Verdean midfielder’s loan move to MLS, you’ll recall, was his banishment from the lineup by French Ligue 2 club FC Metz despite an expensive transfer there last summer. The constant confinement to the bench was intolerable for the feisty midfielder.
So a recent four-game spell on the pine with an ankle injury has been, to say the least, unpleasant.
“I hated to watch games,” Monteiro said Friday after Union training. “I always want to play. For me, if I’m on the bench, it’s hell for me so I don’t like to be on the bench. Inside it’s burning me. I’m not a player that wants to be on the bench.”
Not hard to see how Monteiro has so quickly endeared himself to Union fans.
The absence ended last week when Monteiro entered in the 56th minute of the 5-1 win over D.C. United, replacing Warren Creavalle after a stellar starting shift that included an assist. Monteiro’s stint out began July 3 when Orlando City’s Sacha Kljestan leapt into him from behind, a redcard challenge in a 3-1 Union win that earned Kljestan a two-game suspension.
It’s hard to overstate Monteiro’s value to the first-place Union (12-7-6, 42 points). His arrival after signing in March had been somewhat delayed by paperwork issues, he’d played every single minute from his first start April 6 until limping off in the 72nd in Orlando.
Monteiro has four goals and eight assists, including the secondary helper on Fafa Picault’s fifth goal against D.C. United. The Union are 7-3-4 in games where Monteiro starts and 103-4 when he plays. In the four games without him, the Union were 1-2-1, conceding 10 goals.
Monteiro isn’t yet back at 100 percent, and the lingering effects for his fellow high-priced addition, Marco Fabian, show how tricky that last mile of recovery on an ankle can be. But he’s back and contributing.
“Not that close, close, close, but I’m getting better every day,” Monteiro said. “I need some time to be 100 percent, but I’m good.”
“It was great to get him 35 minutes or so,” manager Jim Curtin said. “I thought that he had a pretty good performance, saw a little bit of the rust, which is natural. The game is always at a little bit faster level than a training session can replicate. It was really great to get him those minutes, great that it was up a man and the game was under control at that time so it was not a situation where he had to do even more, he could just be himself. I thought he connected passes, saw some of the combinations that he and Ilsinho had toward the end of the game. That sharpness is coming back. Really happy with how he performed, and he’s had a good week of training so far.”
The Union are at full strength ahead of Sunday’s visit from Houston (6 p.m., PHL17). Picault, who was listed as questionable last week with a hamstring strain, shook that to score and has trained at full capacity all week. Sergio Santos (ankle) is training fully, as is Matt Freese (quad). Olivier Mbaizo is back from a meniscus tear and played for Steel last week; he missed training Friday to attend the birth of his son.