Reading the tea leaves, Part II: Mediocampistas

By: Sean | March 12th, 2008

Hello again and welcome! The tea leaves have acted strangely about the midfield. Twice in a row, I prepared a ritual cup, muttering the ancient and forbidden words, casting the fates upon the pure unmarked cloth … only to have them arrange themselves as a picture of a leg broken by Dema Kovalenko. Twice in a row!

After some meditation, I think I see what the leaves are getting at. But we’ll get to that. Here’s the lineups in the midfield, with the most recent last:

Justin Mapp - Cuauhtémoc Blanco - Logan Pause - Chris Rolfe
Mapp - Peter Lowry - Pause - Pius Ikedia
Mapp- Pause - Rolfe – Blanco
Mapp - Pause - Rolfe - Blanco

Much more consistent than the defense, which gets me thinking the midfield picture is more settled (or less compromised by injury, contract squabbles, and what have you) than the D. Pause working hard as a destroyer behind Blanco, while Mapp and Rolfe play very advanced on the wings, sort of a Y-midfield.

This midfield (like the defense) looks to be one that strives for a bit of the joga bonita – the irresistible combinations and triangles, the extended bouts of possession as they stretch and tease the defense out of shape. At least, they’d better be, because a midfield of Mapp, Pause, Rolfe and Blanco contains exactly one (1) player who can tackle, or mark, or run down mistakes over a 90-minute period.

I’ve decried the Rolfe-to-midfield move here in the past, but it’s hard to look at the forwards on this roster and find one you really want to cut. I just wonder how Logan Pause is going to deal with being a true sideline-to-sideline destroyer – does he have the wheels to get the job done all game, every game? Because Rolfe, Mapp and Blanco are going to soak up more than their share of substitutes if they’re truly asked to work like midfielders. And if they’re not asked to, then the quintet of Pause and the four defenders are not going to enjoy their football.

Who knows? Maybe that’s all bunk. Maybe Mapp and Rolfe will terrorize opposing fullbacks so completely that they won’t dare venture past the center stripe. Maybe Blanco’s reworked his game in imitation of Andrea Pirlo, and will make plays from defensive midfield. To me, though, this midfield has too much balsa and not enough oak.

The rot began, of course, when Juan Carlos Osorio (may his private parts whither) exposed Ivan Guerrero in the expansion draft, thereby allowing one of the best possession midfielders in the league to leave for absolutely nothing. The loss of that piece means there’s less juggling possible in the midfield. It’s not the lack of variety that bothers me, though – it’s the lack of steel.

In the two months since the braintrust was replaced, the midfielders who’ve passed through Fire camp have been almost exclusively slashing wingers. Steve Marlet is still in camp and may make the team – in him rest my final hopes that Rolfe may still get time at striker. But Jose Jesus de Mendoza? Left-footed winger. Pius Ikedia? Right-footed winger.

Which brings us back to the tea leaves, and the puzzling image of Dema’s shin-shattering love taps. The leaves, it seems to me, were pointing out the flaw in the lineup – there’s no one to perform the Dema role. Logan Pause would be the logical candidate. However, I usually prefer my leg-breakers to come from a place that’s more the Sopranos than the Untouchables.

So there it is: What this midfield lacks is an enforcer, someone who will answer the inevitable provoking of Blanco with some provocation of his own. Oh, and winning the ball back would be lovely, too. I fear a spring of 40 percent possession. Of course it’s early – hope springs eternal – there could be a master plan I’m not privy to – etc., etc. I’m just not seeing it right now.