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Columbus Crew 10 Questions: Dante Washington | Coachspeak: Tom Fitzgerald
Posted: Saturday March 11, 2000 09:15 PM
By Jeff Diecks, CNNSI.com The Columbus Crew has used the departure of striker Stern John as an opportunity to shake up its roster and reshape its playing style. John left Columbus to join Nottingham Forest of the English first division following the 1999 MLS season. He commanded an MLS-record transfer fee that included a guaranteed amount of $2.7 million with a chance to reach as much as $6 million depending on John's performance. In place of John, a Trinidadian who scored 44 goals in 55 games with the Crew (including a league-leading 26 in 1998), Columbus signed Colombian midfielder John Wilmar Perez. The Crew hopes Perez, 30, can fill the crucial playmaker role occupied by stars like Marco Etcheverry in D.C., Peter Nowak in Chicago and Mauricio Cienfuegos in Los Angeles. "We are very excited about the signing of a creative midfielder," Columbus coach Tom Fitzgerald said. "We think that this is the piece of the puzzle that we've been missing. He will be a very exciting player for us and will complement our existing players very well, especially our front-runners, Brian McBride, Dante Washington and Jeff Cunningham."
Columbus sought a creative midfielder with its allocation after it was able to fill the hole at forward with Washington. The Crew traded the third overall draft pick to Dallas for the former MLS All-Star, who was pushed to the Burn's bench last season behind Jason Kreis and Ariel Graziani. Columbus had gained the draft pick by shipping midfielder Andy Williams to the Miami Fusion. In attempting to fill the playmaking role in the past, Columbus used a combination of Williams, Robert Warzycha and Brian Maisonneuve -- who played for the U.S. in World Cup '98. Warzycha has been a steady contributor (12 of his 44 career assists for Columbus came last season). But Maisonneuve has struggled with injuries, and Williams showed a creative flair but apparently not the work rate Fitzgerald wanted. Maisonneuve, who missed all three games of the Crew's Eastern Conference Finals series loss to D.C. United last season with a strained groin, will miss the first three to four months of the 2000 season while recovering from reconstructive surgery on his right ankle. Maisonneuve originally injured the ankle in 1998 and missed a large portion of the season. With Maisonneuve in the starting lineup, Columbus has a 46-37 all-time record. Without him, the Crew is 18-27.
Columbus also made a two defensive changes. The Crew picked up veteran defender Mario Gori and traded Thomas Dooley to the MetroStars for the younger and faster Mike Duhaney. Dooley created a stir at the conclusion of the 1999 season when he skipped Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals to attend a coaching course in Germany and also reportedly attempted to recruit Columbus players for a German agent. The Crew brought Iranian sweeper Javad Zarincheh into camp for a tryout as a possible replacement for Dooley in the middle. Mike Lapper, Mike Clark and Matt Chulis are also in the defensive mix, along with midfielder/defenders Ansil Elcock and Dominic Schell. Schell, a fifth-round draft pick from Mobile, has pushed for a roster spot with an impressive preseason showing. Defender Todd Yeagley had athletic hernia surgery on Jan. 14 and will miss two to three months. In addition to Schell, the Crew drafted Bolivian midfielder Roland Vargas in the second round, Portland midfielder Brian Winters in the third round and Loyola College's Christof Lindenmayer in the fourth round. Vargas is a product of the famed Tahuichi Academy, which also produced D.C.'s Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno. Lindenmayer, a forward, hails from the Columbus suburb of Pickerington, where he set the Pickerington High School record for career goals with 71. But Lindenmayer faces long odds at breaking into a talented strike force -- even after John's departure. Fitzgerald said he plans to play McBride, Cunningham and Washington in a three-forward formation. Cunningham helped force Fitzgerald to use the formation last season, as he enjoyed a breakout year with 12 goals and five assists. He also scored three goals in the playoffs. McBride leads Columbus with 102 career points (38 goals, 26 assists), and he should benefit from the addition of Washington, who often took a beating as the lone target man for Dallas before Kreis moved up to forward and Graziani joined the team. When McBride is away on U.S. national team duty, Brian West will likely fill in. Perhaps the biggest offseason change for the Crew -- even bigger than the roster shuffling -- stems from the MLS rule changes announced by new commissioner Don Garber. The realignment of the league's two conferences into three divisions means Columbus could find path to the MLS Cup final without D.C. United standing in the way. Columbus has never beaten D.C at RFK Stadium, losing 13 times. As a member of the Eastern Conference, the Crew fell to United in the conference finals in each of the past three seasons. Under the new system, Columbus joins Chicago, Dallas and Tampa Bay in a tough Central Division. But the playoff format seeds the three division winners and the next five teams from any of the divisions with the best records. Although the Crew has reshaped its roster and added a playmaker, few in Columbus would complain if three-time champion D.C. wound up in a different playoff bracket this season.
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