Artur well-adjusted for second Crew season
If Artur is in the starting 11 as expected Saturday against D.C. United, it will mark the first time in his Major League Soccer career that he won’t play with usual defensive midfield partner Wil Trapp.
Trapp, the 25-year-old Crew SC captain, will be with the U.S. national team along with goalkeeper Zack Steffen and will miss the game at Mapfre Stadium, meaning Ricardo Clark or Mohammed Abu is expected to start alongside Artur.
The change will require some adjustments between now and Saturday, but nothing that worries Artur, the 22-year-old Brazilian midfielder. D.C. United at Crew SC When: 6 p.m. Saturday TV: Ch. 53, Spectrum Sports Radio: WWCD-FM (102.5)
“I think it will be not so hard,” he said Tuesday. “We have players with quality. Any player who plays in Wil’s spot, I think, will be good.”
It helps that the Crew has two viable fill-in options in Abu, who joined the Crew before the 2017 season after a lengthy stint with Stromsgodset in Norway, and Clark, who has been playing professionally since 2003. But Artur’s calm heading into Saturday also is due in part to his comfort level early in his second MLS season.
Acquired on a permanent transfer from Sao Paulo FC in December after his seasonlong loan ended, he entered his second MLS season with fewer questions and a better sense of what to expect.
“His mindset is about improving and becoming a very good midfielder in this league,” coach Gregg Berhalter said. “He has been working on certain elements of his game and you can see that. He is able to shoot from distance and score a number of times and he has really worked on that, so we’re pleased with his progress.”
Artur’s improvement has been multifaceted. First, there is less of a learning curve this year with respect to the Crew’s complicated playing style, which can be overwhelming for new players in the focus and attention to detail it requires.
“I think almost everything,” Artur said, asked the most difficult part of the system to learn. “The right moment to do movements in space, it’s much better when I know my teammates more. It gets a little bit easier.”
He also is physically a much different player, adding muscle mass during the offseason and preseason. The change is less a reflection of Artur making up for the physicality of MLS — he experienced plenty of that in Brazil — and more a means of increasing durability.
When on the field last season Artur was one of the Crew's most dynamic players, but he dealt with a couple of minor hamstring and calf injuries in addition to a broken wrist that limited him to 19 starts.
“He has such good timing, such good speed, tremendous endurance, so that helps, but now it’s about how do you keep taking knocks and how do you play through cold days where the recovery is more difficult because the temperature isn’t always warm?” Berhalter said. “How do you get through that stuff? That’s why he has put on muscle, to get that durability.”