Union beats clock, seals deal with Dockal
The offseason shot clock had ticked down to three days, but just before the buzzer, the Philadelphia Union made good on its pledges.
The second of its two-pronged addition strategy came to a belated fruition Wednesday with the signing of Borek Dockal to a oneyear loan deal.
Dockal arrives on loan from Chinese club Henan Jianye, the 29-year-old occupying a designated player spot. The veteran of over 350 professional matches has 35 caps for his country and was acquired by Henan for a 7.65 million transfer fee just a year ago.
In addition, the Union used discretionary Targeted Allocation Money to pay down the salary cap hit to David Accam, the other big offseason addition, so that he no longer occupies a DP spot. It also traded an international spot to New York City FC in exchange for $175,000 in General Allocation Money, a spot freed up by Andre Blake and Ilsinho acquiring green cards and no longer occupying international spots.
“Once we set out in this offseason, we had two main targets that we had, a left outside winger and No. 10, and kind of everyone in the outside world knew that as well,” sporting director Earnie
Stewart said. “Once you say those things, people expect you to deliver on them. … I think we’ve added a quality player to our group and everybody’s happy with that.”
Dockal was not with the team Wednesday as he finalizes paperwork. He has had the chance to familiarize himself with the group during their preseason trip to Florida and earlier this week, though he is nursing what manager Jim Curtin called, “a little ankle tweak” that casts more doubt on an already questionable status for this weekend’s opener with New England.
Nonetheless, the Union fulfilled a glaring need and got the player it sought.
“To sign a player that makes all the individuals around him better, which is what a true No. 10 does, is something that we’ve needed, and something that now we have,” Curtin said. “When you add a piece like this, it adds to what CJ Sapong does, it adds to what David Accam does, it improves Fafa Picault, it improves Ale Bedoya, it makes Haris (Medunjanin) now when plays through lines with his incredible passing ability, it’s to a guy who can turn in a tight window in a pocket of space and make the final pass.
“This is a guy who has done it in the Champions League environment, has done it in the national team environment as a captain, and we’re excited to work with him.”
Dockal has played primarily in his home country, debuting with the club of his youth, Slavia Prague. He’s been loaned out to Turkish club Konyaspor and played in Norway with Rosenborg. He won a HET Liga little with Sparta Prague in 2013-14, registering 20 assists in 25 games, then scored 10 goals the following season in the league.
The deal, Curtin indicated, was a belabored process with the relative arriviste Chinese league, known for splashing around ridiculous sums of money. But it finally came to pass in a way that lets the Union — with a surprise bye week in the second week of the season thanks to Seattle’s date in the CONCACAF Champions League — ease Dockal into things.
The parameters also ensure the other half of the offseason guidelines is preserved. Curtin has spoken about giving chances to young players throughout the preseason, with Anthony Fontana and Adam Najem battling out for starting honors Saturday once Ilsinho suffered a hamstring injury.
The arrival of Dockal on a short-term deal doesn’t block those two players’ progress in the long run, but it provides both instant impact on the field and a role model at the position to push them.
“What we spoke about is at every position that you have double players in there,” Stewart said. “One, making sure that you give the opportunity for young kids when those moments arrive to play those valuable minutes and gain experience, and then two, to have players that perform from day one. Yes, you do look at what you have in your backyard, I think that’s very important. That’s the club that we are and that’s what we set out to do, and at the same time, you sprinkle that other stuff in.”
Curtin Wednesday tossed around some of the more prominent names in the club’s history — Tranquillo Barnetta, Medunjanin — as players whose temperament Dockal is reminiscent of. Those two and Bedoya traveled many of the same, under-the-radar leagues in Europe and come to MLS with similar profiles.
There’s the hope that as those players impacted the Union, so too can Dockal.
“Character wise, he’s a guy who’s serious, professional,” Curtin said. “The first instinct when he gets off the plane and we speak, he reminds me of Haris, a Barnetta, they take their professions very serious. They’re guys who fit the city of Philadelphia in terms of seriousness and doing the job and gaining respect of players and also the fans.”