Caps look to Laba to do the dirty work
Vancouver hopes to have addressed midfield’s shortcomings by adding Argentine as well as Pedro Morales
PORTLAND, ORE. — For all the off-season talk of Camilo Sanvezzo and his 22 goals gone to Mexico, the Vancouver Whitecaps’ midfield was always the area that required the most attention.
“Midfield is the engine room of the team and where games are won and lost,” Caps coach Carl Robinson said after Friday’s practice.
It’s a line heard as often as any in the sport, and it’s a part of the game the Caps have been trying to get right since joining MLS in 2011.
The proof will come later, but with the addition of tough-tackling Argentine Matias Laba, the impending arrival of Málaga attacking midfielder Pedro Morales as a designated player, and the return of English Premier League veteran Nigel ReoCoker, this group of men in the middle has a better hope than any previous incarnation to dictate games.
In Laba, Robinson believes he’s gained two things the squad was missing: a link between the back four and attacking players, and a defensive midfielder with a mean streak.
Robinson wouldn’t speak to reports of Morales’s addition — other that to say, “We’re going to get linked to good players because we’re a good club” — but the coach has stressed the importance of adding an experienced No. 10 since he took the job in December.
The Caps have lacked a pure playmaker since selling Davide Chiumiento to FC Zurich in the summer of 2012. “I said from Day 1, I think that’s what we missed last year,” Robinson said. “We missed a creative type in that area.
“The midfield’s going to look totally different. The guys I’ve got already have fantastic qualities, but it’s important that we added to the group. We’ve done that, and I hope it’s successful.”
The early returns on Laba were positive. The 22-year-old former Toronto FC midfielder joined his new teammates for training on Friday and played a spirited 35 minutes in the second half of Saturday’s 1-1 tie against the Timbers at Providence Park in Portland, Ore.
Laba and Reo-Coker were up against one of the best midfield pairings in MLS: Canadian international Will Johnson and Colombian Diego Chara.
“You can see what he’s about,” Robinson said of Laba after the Caps claimed the Rose City Invitational tournament with a 2-0-1 mark.
“He hunts the ball. He wins the ball. He does the not-so-pleasant jobs.
“The way we’re going to play this year, you need a guy who tactically understands the game, and he does. It was competitive today — our (midfield) group and their group.”
Caps’ play-by-play man Peter Schaad likened Laba to a dog going after raw meat.
Acquired on Wednesday for future considerations, Laba spoke through an interpreter at Friday’s practice. He said he was happy to join Vancouver, and that coming to a team with so many Latino players will “help me a lot and make me feel more comfortable.”
The expectation is that Laba will start alongside Reo-Coker when the season kicks off on March 8, allowing Reo-Coker to play more of a box-to-box role, while Laba does the dirty work.
That means Canadian Russell Teibert will have to earn a starting spot on the wing, which is where he played most of Saturday.
Morales, meanwhile, is supposed to be the missing piece of the midfield puzzle, the man who can pull the strings and score goals, too.
He’s mutually terminated his contract at Málaga in La Liga and will join the Whitecaps, a report from El Desmarque Málaga said Friday. The Province confirmed that report.
Morales, 28, met with Caps officials in Portland for a few hours Friday and Saturday and was headed back to Spain. He’s expected to arrive in Vancouver late this week, so an opening-day start seems unlikely.
The Chilean international will be the Caps’ third designated player, joining Laba and Scottish forward Kenny Miller in that category.
Laba is a “young designated player,” which means his cap hit is limited to $200,000. Morales’s cap hit will be $368,750.
Among other attributes, Morales is known for his set pieces and will surely take over those duties from the departed Camilo, who was deadly on free kicks.
It’s been a quiet season for Morales, who’s only started eight times for a Málaga side that’s trying to avoid relegation. He’s scored once.
But Morales’s goals record over his career is impressive: about one every four games at Huachipato and Universidad de Chile in his homeland, before moves to Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia and then Spain.
A lack of goals from midfield — as well as the right mix of players — has been an ongoing concern in Vancouver, where left-back Jordan Harvey scored more than any midfielder last season and fans fretted over the use of holding midfielder Jun Marques Davidson.
Combined, Reo-Coker, Gershon Koffie and the departed Daigo Kobayashi tallied just six times in 2013. Portland were the gold standard in that department: 19 goals combined from central midfielders Diego Valeri and Johnson.
“My challenge to all the forwardthinking players and attacking midfielders is they need to get eight to ten to 12 goals individually,” said Robinson, who believes he’ll have a mix of midfielders that can thrive in a 4-2-3-1 formation, or in a diamond midfield.
Morales, who earned a contract at Málaga after impressing on loan — three goals and three assists in seven games for then-coach Manuel Pellegrini — had signed a deal through 2015 with the Spanish side.
Málaga, though, have endured financial problems and UEFA sanctions since a 2011 spending spree by their Qatari owner.
It’s hard to imagine the Caps had to pay much for Morales, who can only have a better time in Vancouver than predecessors Kobayashi and 2012 Scottish signing Barry Robson, who agreed to a mutual parting after one season.
And as for depth in central midfield, Nicolas Mezquida, a 22-year-old Uruguayan signing, has impressed in the No. 10 role in pre-season.
He’ll push Morales for minutes, while Robinson has Teibert and Koffie hungry for time, too.
Asked how much better the midfield can be this season, Teibert said: “Anyone can give their opinion. It’s down to us to make it better.”
So time will tell, as always. But at the very least, the midfield pieces finally seem to be in place for this franchise.