After an encouraging preseason, the coronavirus pandemic brought the first chapter of coach Oscar Pareja’s rebuild of Orlando City’s roster to a grinding halt.
The MLS suspension of play and training moratorium has forced the coach to find creative ways to keep his team mentally and physically active. But the league-wide pause has also caused Pareja and his staff to rethink the way they approach player acquisitions.
“I think the soccer world is not going to be the same,” Pareja said. “I don’t think it will be even similar or alike.”
FIFA is currently scrambling to put together a plan of how to address the issue of transfer windows for leagues around the world, according to a report by the New York Times.
The governing body has proposed clubs extend player contracts, pushing back their expiration date to match the length of a season suspension.
For MLS, this period is even more complicated because the league doesn’t exist on the same calendar as most of the rest of the soccer world.
MLS set two transfer windows for the 2020 season. The primary window was in the preseason from Feb. 12 to May 5, and a secondary midseason window followed from July 7 to Aug. 5.
Now the season suspension has also frozen transactions. Because MLS remains uncertain of when a return to play will be possible, the league also has yet to announce when or how its trade windows will be rescheduled.
The rescheduling of MLS and FIFA trade windows will have a major impact on player acquisitions for the Lions. In collaboration with scouting director Ricardo Moreira, Pareja entered the season with a set plan for player scouting.
That plan hasn’t been scrapped. But Pareja said it is changing as the trio carefully watches the next steps for both MLS and leagues around the world.
“Through my life, in every kind of crisis and challenge, we can see that as an opportunity also to move on and try to do our jobs in terms of scouting,” Pareja said.
Pareja believes the changes brought on by the pandemic will stretch beyond a delay in matches or trade windows. An additional economic shift could upend deep-seated leagues or clubs, allowing players more mobility.
And to the coach, this shift goes even deeper. Pareja said the pandemic could cause a major change in the way many people — including coaches, owners and players — look at their own lives. He believes this will create a fundamental shake-up in both sides of the recruitment and acquisition process.
“I think the acquisition of players and the ways we negotiate players and values, for me at some point [they] were all crazy,” Pareja said. “That’s going to completely change.”
For Pareja, the focus right now remains the same — creating a winning culture in Orlando. The suspension, he says, has only deepened his desire to build a strong program when the sport returns.
“Our hopes are the same, probably bigger now,” Pareja said.
Moreira and executive vice president of soccer operations Luiz Muzzi have worked for several years now to develop a system of player acquisition centered on low-cost, high-reward players.
The Lions made one of their biggest acquisitions in the midseason window last season — snatching up designated player Mauricio Pereyra at the end of his expiring contract in the Russian Premier League to avoid any additional transaction fees.
As the trio continues to plan the next step for the Lions, Pareja said they must remain adaptable as they navigate an unpredictable period for soccer.
“With Ricardo and Luiz, we are always being proactive and studying how the teams are and how the teams can become,” Pareja said. “Based on those targets, we are trying to guess the future, trying just to imagine how it can be. We’re still working, too. The world is changing and soccer is changing in every area. We don’t stop thinking how we can help just to bring the best players to Orlando.”
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário