Tough love for slumping midfi elder
Midfielder with ‘ massive potential’ benched after coach detects slip in intensity
Gershon Koffie may be the future and face of the MLS Vancouver Whitecaps, but coach Martin Rennie is not cutting the 21- year- old midfielder any slack for not playing up to his present potential.
Gershon Koffie isn’t the most enlightening interview subject on the Vancouver Whitecaps, although he’s quick to flash a wonderful smile and appears to be a pretty happy- go- lucky guy most of the time.
All of which makes it somewhat difficult to gauge any real anger or true frustration from him due to the fact he has been a reserve the last two Major League Soccer games and didn’t play at all in Saturday’s 1- 1 tie with Real Salt Lake after a solid run of starts in his first two seasons.
“As you know, any player would like to be on the field, but it’s a coach’s decision,” he said Wednesday after responding with a little chuckle to a question about his level of frustration. “I am not that frustrated, but I’m looking forward to playing when they want to put me in.”
The Ghana- born midfielder with the accented English also demonstrated a pretty good grasp of one of the oldest clichés in the book about dealing with adversity.
“Whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger, so I’ll be stronger next time ( the coach) puts me in.”
Whether that will be this Saturday in Dallas as the 2- 2- 2 Caps go back onto the road remains to be seen.
Koffie, still only 21, played in 58 of the Whitecaps’ 68 MLS games in 2011- 12, starting 56 of those. He scored four goals and earned a reputation as a sure tackler, unafraid to take on anybody.
Just before the start of this season, it was announced that he had obtained Canadian residency and signed a new contract with Vancouver. When he scored the lone goal in the Caps’ season- opening 1- 0 win over Toronto, the youngster, whom head coach Martin Rennie expected to begin dominating games on a consistent basis, seemed poised for a real breakout season.
But he was ineffective in back- to- back 2- 1 road losses to Houston and Chivas — Rennie said he wasn’t playing with the same level of grit he had in the past — played 22 fairly strong minutes as a substitute against San Jose, and then didn’t see the field at all last Saturday.
Young Canadian Russell Teibert started in Koffie’s spot each of the last two matches and was a standout Saturday. And now Koffie finds himself in a battle to get minutes.
“I think it’s important for players to be put into that position sometimes,” Rennie said after practice on Wednesday.
“The reality is, you’re not always going to be an automatic starter and you do need to remember what got you to the point of being a starter. And you have to have that incredible drive to keep getting better.
“Gersh has got massive potential and we want him to fulfil that and I’m sure he’s going to do that. He just needs to really have that desire to do it and I think he does.”
On Tuesday night, Koffie played the first 45 minutes of the reserve team’s 1- 1 tie against the University of Washington Huskies as a holding midfielder, a role he played very early in his Caps career.
It’s a position held by Jun Marques Davidson, but with Vancouver’s schedule about to get busier with some mid- week Amway Canada Cup matches, Rennie was looking to see if it’s a position he could slide Koffie into on occasion.
Rennie said he doubts Koffie will be sitting out first- team games for too long as the Caps are about to play five games over 15 days, including home and-aways against FC Dallas and second- tier Edmonton and a road game in Salt Lake.
“I think there’s opportunities for everybody to play,” said Rennie. “Gersh will be involved over the next few games and I’m sure he’ll do well.”
Even with the release on Wednesday of midfielder Paolo Jr., who couldn’t crack the Caps’ roster after being acquired from Real Salt Lake in the off- season re- entry draft, Vancouver is loaded with quality depth in midfield.
Veteran acquisitions Nigel Reo- Coker and Daigo Kobayashi have brought technical ability and leadership, Teibert has improved immensely and Matt Watson, who came on strong at the end of last season, has looked good in reserve games after injuries disrupted the start to his 2013 campaign.
“There’s lots of competition and they’re all good players,” said Rennie. “That’s what we want. ( Koffie) is one of our best players.
“He just needs to make sure he’s doing everything he possibly can so that when he’s playing, he’s at his absolute best. We’ve seen him take over games and be the best player on the field, but we want him to be like that consistently.”
CORNER KICKS: Forward Kenny Miller, who leads the Caps with two goals on the season, has had another setback with his troublesome hamstring and is unlikely to travel with the club to Dallas ... Striker Corey Hertzog suffered a slight knock to the head Wednesday, an incident that allowed Rennie to get off a quality line at the youngster’s expense. “I don’t think it’s anything too bad. There’s not a lot of brains in there anyway, so he should be fine.”