FLORIDA
Matias Cordoba started off with RSL on the wrong foot. Highly touted in the offseason, and described by Garth Lagerway as the "most important offseason acquisition" and as "a mix between Kyle Beckerman and Javi Morales", he seems to have failed to impress to this point. Obviously there were extremely high hopes that he would be a key contributor this season. He arrived in the United States meeting up with the team in Florida on Feb 15th for the opening day of practice there. The first observation came from James Edward's DNews Blog on Feb 15:
• Fatigue and a knock or two got the better of RSL's jetsetters. Singapore trialist Indra Sahdran appeared to tweak a calf muscle about 20 minutes into practice. He tried to gut it out for about five minutes but eventually came off the field. The same goes for Argentine midfielder Matias Cordoba. He was noticeably laboring throughout practice, and eventually called it a day when fellow countryman Matias Mantilla clipped him on the shin.
He saw his first action in the second half of RSL's preseason match against FIU. He played alongside Javi Morales in this match, which is what I believe was the original vision for him. Afterwards Garth Lagerway had this to say (from James Edwards DNews Blog on Feb 16):
• Garth Lagerwey had the following interesting comments about a few of his players: "You've got a guy like Matias Cordoba that's really struggling with his fitness and the long flight, all that takes a couple days to get adjusted. You see the flashes you see the talent, and now you want to give them a couple days, I'd say ditto on that with Indra.
On Feb 19th RSL suffered a preseason loss to Lynn University and Cordoba was again alongside Morales as part of the team that took the field, but was substituted at half when it was a scoreless draw.
On Feb 22nd, Cordoba saw his first action against an MLS foe as RSL faced the Colorado Rapids in another Florida preseason match. He came on at the 60th minute as Javi Morales was subbed out at the same time. From the lineup he appeared to be playing the #10 role for the club, and it payed off with him teaming up with Espindola for an assist. The next morning he played the full match as RSL wrapped up the Florida leg of its preseason as the midfield position was shorthanded with Talley and Morales sitting out with injuries.
That next day word got out that RSL was acquiring Dema Kovalenko. Described as a move to add depth and toughness to the midfield. Was this the first signs of a lack of confidence in Cordoba? Probably not, as this was less than a week into his arrival with the club.
On February 28th, Garth Lagerway held a chat at Applebee's with a handful of fans and said essentially that if there is a player that they have been disappointed with "it's Matias Cordoba". As I understand there were repercussions as a result of this and either Garth or Jason had to sit down with Matias (presumably through a translator) and work through this issue as Matias was upset at the comment.
ARGENTINA
At this point I assumed that all would be well as the team headed off to Argentina. Cordoba saw action along with Carey Talley against a lower-level Newell's Old boys squad on March 5th. He played the full 60 with a team composed mostly of RSL rookies, and the result was a scoreless draw. He did not see action against Newell's main team.
On March 10th, Cordoba came on at the half against Jockey Club Rosario and scored from the spot to help the team in a 3-0 victory. Two days later Cordoba came on at the 67th minute as the team played to a 2-2 draw against Rosario Central as their Argentina leg of training camp came to an end. It was obvious that at this point Cordoba was on the outside looking in, with fitness as the issue identified by the club and media alike.
In the final preseason match against Kansas City, Cordoba did travel with the quad but did not see any action as he was reportedly ill.
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER SEASON
Since preseason, Cordoba has played in two league games. First, he came on at the 90th minute against the LA Galaxy. He also came on in the 84th minute in Thursday's match against Colorade. It was this latest match that apparantly led to some frustration on Cordoba's part as as James Edward explained in his post game blog on May 15th:
Matias Cordoba (6) -- Only played six minutes, and he seemed extremely ticked off about it after the match. He was the first one to leave the field, and on his way out he kicked Nick Rimando's water bottle next to the goal as hard as he could. He obviously believes he should've been inserted into the game much sooner when he could've done some good.
Matias also played 58 minutes in the USOC match against San Jose as the #10. He had a wonderful takeaway that led to a beautiful assist to Yura. He followed that up with another takeaway a few minutes later, but was brought down from behind on his way toward the top of the box (with no call from the referee). Cordoba has also scored 3 goals and 2 assists in 3 reserve matches this season.
QUESTIONS
With the recent trade of Talley, and the injuries to Morales and Sturgis, Real Salt Lake's preseason depth at midfielder appears to be rather anemic. For the Colorado match, RSL had 5 midfielders available in the 18 man roster, with Kenny Cutler getting the start and Cordoba being the only one of the group on the bench. Kreis' recent comments after the Dallas match on Saturday telegraphed this, but it was still a bit surprising as Cutler was thought by many to be on the bubble when roster cuts were made prior to the season opener.
The question now is where does Cordoba's involvement with the team go from here. Although I believe that Kenny has worked hard to show that he belongs on the pitch, but it seems like if ever there was a time that Cordoba should see the pitch - it's now. If not, is this a sign that "he may be on his way out" as one informed RSL fan commented? I'm not sure the answers to this or what Kreis and the rest of the staff think about Cordoba at this point, but I for one would like to see him get a chance on the pitch during a league match. In my opinion, he did well in his one opportunity against an MLS opponent (the open cup match against San Jose).
If you look back over the stats, Cordoba has played in about 583 minutes (equivalent of 6 1/2 full games) over a combination of 12 league, preseason, open cup and reserve matches. In those matches he has scored 4 goals and recorded 4 assists. Not bad stats, but as a midfielder your play can't be judged on stats alone. It's also difficult to judge stats when you are playing against opponents and with teammates at mixed levels of skill.
From what I understand, Cordoba is a natural wide midfielder who plays box-to-box, with strong technical skills including good foot skills, good crossing ability, and high quality corner kicks, free kicks, and penalty kicks. These sound like attributes that could help our team. I assume that the coaches are seeing something that we aren't, but what is it? Is it still a fitness issue?
What are your thoughts?
