TUCSON – When Jimmy Nielsen called it a career in the champagne-soaked aftermath of MLS Cup 2013, he left Sporting Kansas City with a huge hole in net.
Not only did Nielsen, the 2012 MLS Best XI and Goalkeeper of the Year honoree, help Kansas City to the 2013 MLS title and the 2012 US Open Cup, but he was also the heart and soul of SKC’s locker room, the club captain with a big, confidence-boosting presence.
Kansas City failed to find a proper replacement for Nielsen in 2014. The stable security blanket between the pipes was gone, and the club’s goalkeeping situation was unsettled. Eric Kronberg, Andy Gruenebaum and Jon Kempin all earned multiple starts last year, but none was able to lay permanent claim to the job during an injury-plagued, inconsistent season at Sporting Park.
Head coach Peter Vermes knew he needed to shore up his team’s goalkeeping spot for 2015 and set out to find an experienced netminder shortly after Sporting lost to the New York Red Bulls in the MLS Cup Playoff Knockout Round last October.
After identifying specific qualities they wanted in a goalkeeper – first-team experience, ability to play with the feet and a capacity to lead – Vermes and his staff narrowed their wish list down to five or so players.
At the top of SKC’s board? Thirty-one year-old Luis Marín, a Chilean international who had spent his entire career in his home country. Sporting liked what they saw and heard about Marín, but, before offering him the deal that would bring him to Kansas City in December, they needed to see him in person.
So, as he’s done so many times over the years, Vermes turned to Nielsen, asking his former ‘keeper – who has been head coach at SKC's USL affiliate Oklahoma City Energy since the start of the 2014 season – to fly to Chile to meet with the man the club now hopes will be his true replacement.
The trip went very well, with Nielsen successfully pitching Kansas City to Marín, who was wrapping up a loan stint at Universidad de Chile. Marín and
SKC made it official in December
, the Chilean signing with the club one week shy of Christmas.
It’s still early, but the signing feels like the perfect gift to Sporting, who think they’ve found a new Nielsen to slot into the lineup.
“There’s no doubt that Luis has strong leadership qualities,” Vermes told MLSsoccer.com. “He’s very demanding, which is a great quality to have within the team with any player, and especially in that position. He’s also a really class guy, so he kind of backs it all up with the way he is off the field, which is great within the locker room. I think it all comes naturally for him. It’s great, because I think we’ve added somebody that has a lot of the same characteristics as Jimmy had from that point of view.”
As thrilled as Sporting are about Marín’s presence off the field, they’re even more excited about what he brings between the lines. A 12-year veteran of the Chilean first division, Marín spent a year-and-a-half on loan at Universidad de Chile, where he helped the team win the 2014 Apertura championship to qualify for the 2015 Copa Libertadores.
Internationally, Marín has eight caps for Chile, making his country’s squad for the 2010 World Cup and captaining the national team as late as February 2012.
“He’s been very good [in preseason],” Sporting goalkeeping coach John Pascarella said. “This is a little bit of a stereotype, but when you look at a South American goalkeeper, you see great reactions, you see great mobility and movement, but you don’t necessarily see a good pair of hands. Sometimes you see the stereotype is erratic decision-making, whereas I don’t see any of that with him. The decisions he’s made over the last couple of games have been fantastic, his hands are very, very good and he’s a good, solid, dominant goalkeeper who I think is only going to get better and better with time.”
Perhaps the part of Marín’s game SKC are highest on is his ability to play with his feet. Vermes wanted a ‘keeper who wasn’t just adequate on the ball but excellent with it, capable of starting Sporting’s fast-paced attack equally well with both pinpoint short passes and precision long balls. They think they’ve found that player in Marín, whose comfort on the ball should add a new dimension to Sporting’s offense.
“His ability to play with his feet, whether it’s out of his hands to play long or whether it’s a back-pass situation, is outstanding,” Pascarella said. “It is top-quality, worldwide. It’s something that sets him apart with his game.”
Marín is fitting in well with Kansas City so far, with his open, outgoing personality meshing well in Sporting’s locker room. He’s already able to communicate in English on the field and will really throw himself into learning the language next week, when he and his family will begin private sessions with a tutor at their new home in Kansas City.
It’s all part of what’s been a smooth adjustment to a new club and country for Marín, who had options to remain in Chile but moved to MLS after positive discussions about the league with Nielsen, the Sporting staff and Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Pedro Morales, his countryman and friend.
“I’ve felt very comfortable since Day 1,” Marín said through a translator. “I like the mentality of Coach Peter, and I’ve gotten along with the whole group. What I really want is to form a really good group, to be really successful in the season and to win a championship.”
Just as importantly, after a year of uncertainty in net, Marín’s new teammates feel good about their goalkeeping situation. Not only are they comfortable playing the ball back to their new ‘keeper, they’re also confident that he’ll erase some of their mistakes with big, game-changing saves.
“He gives you confidence that if anything goes wrong, he’s there to bail you out,” said midfielder Paulo Nagamura, who has roomed with Marín this preseason.
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That's something Sporting didn’t really have last year, when uneven play and multiple injuries to Kronberg and Gruenebaum – neither of whom are with the club this year – kept things unstable in the net.
“No harm meant to [Gruenebaum] or to [Kronberg]; they were both very, very good goalkeepers. But when you look at the experiences that either Jimmy or Luis have had domestically, internationally, with their national teams, with their club teams, it’s different than what the other two guys gave us,” Pascarella said. “That’s what was missing. It’s not that the other two guys couldn’t stop the ball, it’s that the other guys didn’t have that presence, that feel that gave everybody else in front of them the feeling that, ‘It’s ok, we’re going to get through this.’”
Marín’s presence, personality and, most of all, talent, have Sporting once again feeling bullish about their goalkeeper. Becoming a club legend like Nielsen is, of course, a long way off, but Kansas City see the potential, and they’re excited.
“It’s no secret that I think he could be the best goalkeeper in the league,” Pascarella said. “I think he has the skillset, and I think he has the pedigree to be the best there is in the league. I think his ceiling is very, very high.”
