MLS 2011 Preview: New Players Most Likely To Have Biggest Impacts

Ousmane Dabo is a 34-year-old French defensive midfielder. He came up through the youth ranks at Stade Rennais in 1995 and impressed enough to earn a move to Inter in 1998. Inter loaned him midseason to Vicenza, and then spent the next 3 seasons in Parma, AS Monaco and back in Vicenza on loan again. He finally settled for two seasons in Atalanta, making 52 league appearances with 4 goals.

He moved on to Lazio in 2003 and spent 3 seasons there before earning a move to Manchester City. His tenure there was known less for his play than for a training ground fight with teammate Joey Barton, which resulted in Dabo pressing charges against his fellow midfielder. Dabo moved back to Lazio for another two seasons, but has spent most of this season on the bench or not dressing for matches. Dabo is also a former French international, earning 3 caps in 2003. He’s the type of midfielder to stay deep and break up opponents attacks. He then uses his superior class and skill to distribute well and hold possession.

Faryd Mondragon’s time on Colombia’s national team has endeared him to the people of his native land and many others throughout the soccer world. At 39, Mondragon isn’t the same goalkeeper that burst onto the scene at the 1998 World Cup in France. He’s adapted his game to better suit his aging body but hasn’t lost his tough demeanor.

Mondragon began his now 20-year career at Deportivo Cali, the team of current Union loanee, midfielder Roger Torres. Moving around in South America between Colombian teams (Cali, Real Cartagena, Santa Fe), Argentine teams (Independiente and Argentina Juniors) and Paraguayan team Cerro Porteno eventually earned Mondragon a spot on the 1992 Summer Olympics team, along with a position on the 1998 World Cup squad. In ‘98 in France, the then 27-year-old goalkeeper was given the chance to play against England in Colombia’s last group stage match. Despite making some spectacular saves to keep Colombia in the hunt for the round of 16, Colombia fell to England 2-0 and finished with only three points from its three matches. German legend Franz Beckenbauer was quoted as saying that he felt that Mondragon was the best goalkeeper of the opening round of the World Cup.

Kenny Cooper returns to MLS after two seasons abroad, appearing in a total of 19 games with 1860 Munich and Plymouth Argyle. Prior to his less-than-successful European tour, which ended with two goals for 1860 Munich and none for Plymouth Arglye, Cooper was one of the more promising young talents in MLS. An 18 goal season in 2008 led to a best XI selection and increased interest from Europe and in July of 2009 Cooper was Munich bound. After failing to make an impact with the second-division German club, Cooper was sent on loan to English League One side Plymouth Argyle, the deal a loan with an option to buy at the end of the 2009-10 season. After making seven appearances without netting a goal, the option to buy Cooper’s contract from Plymouth was not exercised. On January 13 2011, Cooper was sold back to MLS and the Portland Timbers by 1860 Munich, becoming by far the most high-profile signing for the club in the lead up to their MLS debut.

Cooper began his career with Manchester United’s youth program, eventually working his way into the reserves but progressing no further. Loans to Portuguese side Académica de Coimbra and League One side Oldham Athletic resulted in little playing time and United allowed Cooper to move to FC Dallas in 2006. Upon his arrival in MLS Cooper quickly established himself as one of the better young American prospects at the forward position, scoring in his first appearance for the senior team after entering as a late sub. Cooper’s stock grew over the next several years, leading to his becoming a regular in the US National Team and scoring several key goals, including one each in the semi-final and final of the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

He doesn’t have the speed and flash of new teammate Kofie Sarkodie. What he will be is consistent, a non-problem. The one who transitions the ball safely forward and doesn’t commit errors. For a team with solid target forward options who want to put a head on the ball, he’ll also be someone who can serve a solid ball, even though he won’t be the primary man with that role.

Most of all though, Hunter Freeman is coming home. He’s been at national camps, college, the Colorado Rapids, New York Red Bulls, Toronto FC and IK Start over the past decade plus. Now, he is a Texan, not just in origin, but in the very badge on his chest.

His first spell with Chivas, seven full-year seasons and his very first three appearances with the club in 2001, saw him become one of the most successful players to ever play in the Primera División de México. From 2002-2008, just six seasons, Bravo scored a whopping total of 99 goals for his boyhood club. In that time, he won the Mexican League Clausura 2007 golden boot by scoring 11 goals in just 17 games. That same year, he also won the 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup golden boot by earning joint top scorer honors with D.C. United’s Luciano Emilio, scoring four goals in six games.

From 2006-2007, Bravo enjoyed the most successful run of his career. On top of his 2007 success with Chivas, he was also no slouch during this time with the Mexican national team, El Tri. 2006 saw Bravo score five goals for the Mexicans (including two in one game at the 2006 FIFA World Cup against Iran), followed by another four in 2007, though he never managed to score against Mexico’s most hated rivals, the United States. While it looks like his international playing career may have finally run its course, he currently sits on 15 goals scored inside of 62 national team appearances.

Sure, players similar to Hassli have come to MLS before. But most of them have been past their prime, or not as accomplished. Hassli comes to MLS at 29 years old and with significant European experience, having once scored 17 goals and assisting on 10 more in 27 Swiss league matches. Of course, if Hassli had been playing that well over a longer period of time, chances are a big European team would have picked up his contract.

That he ended up in Vancouver was not much of a shocker, but plenty of people were surprised that it took at a Designated Player contract to bring him there. Hassli’s signing is definitely another experiment with the DP. How successful he is will likely determine how often its repeated.

Simply playing match in and match out will be the biggest adjustment for Davies. Oct. 10, 2009 was the last time Davies played in a competitive match so he hasn’t been tested at the top level in a year and a half. The physical demands of playing 90 minutes, of dealing with the physicality, of regaining his health and then coming back and doing it several days later after a long trip will be a gigantic challenge for Davies.

It’s tough to say what a reasonable expectation is with someone like Davies because there isn’t another player who has gone through similar injuries to compare him to. The injuries that Davies suffered were at one point possibly life threatening so how is he supposed to respond and recover back on the professional soccer stage? Is it physically possible to get back the speed, explosion and strength that he once had? Those are all questions that cannot be answered so the best that one could hope for is that he’s recovered enough to play match in and match out and score a handful of goals or so.

Despite that, his goal-scoring prowess was undeniable and he was the type of player who you loved to have on your team and hated to see in the opposing team’s shirt. After three seasons away, Ruiz is back, this time in Philadelphia. While the 31-year old wasn’t exactly lighting things up in Paraguay, Mexico and Greece, he still produced some goals and more importantly was able to play fairly consistently.

Having spent many years in MLS, Ruiz shouldn’t have too much trouble adjusting to life back in the league. The key for Ruiz is staying healthy, especially if Nowak plans to start him regularly. Many players who come to MLS struggle at first with the often over zealous physicality of play, but given his previous experience, Ruiz should have no trouble adjusting.

After a strong college career DeMerit went undrafted in the MLS SuperDraft and couldn’t get picked up as an undrafted free agent so the Wisconsin native temporarily gave up on soccer and worked as a bartender. DeMerit’s itch to play soccer was still there though so with a Danish passport acquired via his grandfather and barely enough money to afford the plane ticket, DeMerit went to England in hopes of catching the eye of a club. Catch the eye of a club he did, joining Southall for £40 a week in the ninth division. After playing well there, DeMerit made the big jump to seventh division Northwood where he caught his big break. Playing in a preseason match for Northwood against Watford, DeMerit impressed the Championshiop club and was signed to a contract. At Watford, DeMerit became a regular starter and scored the winning goal in the promotion playoff to send the club to the Premier League.

Thanks to good play for Watford, his promotion winning goal included, DeMerit got his first call up to the United States national team in March of 2007. Three months later, DeMerit was on the U.S. team that won the Gold Cup to secure a spot in the 2009 Confederations Cup, where DeMerit would shine. An injured teammate gave DeMerit the chance to start in the Confederations Cup semifinal against Spain and DeMerit was spectacular, playing his best match as an international and drawing praise from all over the world for his role in the 2-0 upset of the eventual World Cup winners. A year later, DeMerit was in that World Cup and started all four matches the U.S. played, cementing his place as a true and valuable U.S. international.

Rochat was at Zürich for five years, but last August Rochat officially announced that he would sign with the Vancouver Whitecaps. It was a peculiar sort of contract: Rochat remained in Switzerland on loan to Zürich. The premature signing was simply to ensure that the Whitecaps could get Rochat without risking Major League Soccer’s Byzantine allocation process. It worked: the 28-year-old Rochat is almost certain to be Vancouver’s starting left back in the 2011 season.

Anybody who’s started matches in the UEFA Champions League can play this game at an MLS level. Rochat is a reasonably tall, quick player with tremendous ball skills and was one of the best players for years in a league currently ranked just below Scotland in UEFA. He’s capable of scoring the occasional goal himself but at his best making slick plays and sending his team thundering downfield on the counter attack. Unlike some MLS-level counter-attacking fullbacks, though, Rochat combines this with a formidable presence defensively. His weaknesses (aerial ability, anything right-footed) are few and unlikely to sink him.

With two teams joining MLS this year, it should come as little surprise that there are a ton of players joining the league that weren’t here last year. In SB Nation’s ongoing effort to preview the upcoming season, we’ll be writing a series of mini-profiles looking at the 10 players who weren’t in the league last year most likely to have the biggest impacts.

That group includes a few Designated Players, some players returning to MLS, a few more with U.S. National Team experience and some others that were well established players overseas. The only player in this group who could really be classified as “old” is Faryd Mondragon, and he’s a goalkeeper. Just one other player is older than 31 (New England Revolution midfielder Ousmane Dabo, and a few of them are in the primes of their careers.