TUKWILA — To watch Miguel Montano in practice is to understand why so much excitement surrounds a 19-year-old who has made very little impact in his two seasons with Seattle Sounders FC.
The young Colombian possesses a combination of speed, dazzling moves and skill with both feet that is ver
y rare in Major League Soccer, talents that are regularly on display at Seattle’s practices and in reserve games.
So, when, fans have often wondered, will that tantalizing talent be on display regularly in games? The answer will depend as much on Montano as it does Sounders coach Sigi Schmid.
After playing in the season opener, Montano spent most of the first half of the season as an afterthought, but after impressing Schmid in practice and reserve league games, Montano got a shot as a 65th-minute sub against Vancouver last weekend. And unfortunately for Montano, who turns 20 later this month, his return to game action didn’t impress his head coach.
“He had played better in the reserve games; his training had become a little more consistent,” Schmid told reporters Monday. “So based upon that, you give him the opportunity to take the next step up. We’ve always felt that he’s one of the players, when he’s on his game, to take some people one-vs.-one. Unfortunately, I think his impact was very small when he came into the game. I didn’t think he really impacted the game. Maybe he hadn’t been out there for a while, maybe it was the occasion. I don’t know for sure exactly what it was, but that’s another step for him to take.”
Montano was excited to get back on the field, even if it didn’t go exactly according to plan, and admitted that spending so much time on the bench has been difficult this season.
“It’s been a really long time,” he said through a translator. “After the first game, it was 15 games that I didn’t play, and it felt like a really long time. It’s been a long season so far, but I finally got an opportunity and I’m thankful for that. I think I did a pretty good job, and hopefully I’ll be given the opportunity again.”
If his struggles last weekend lead to a diminished role in the near future, it won’t be the first time that Montano has earned playing time only to fall out of favor. As an 18-year-old rookie, Montano appeared in four games as a sub early in the season, making him the youngest player to appear in a regular season game for the Sounders. In July, Montano earned his first start against Dallas, but was sent off with a red card early in the second half when he threw a retaliatory punch. From that point on, Montano appeared in only one game the rest of the season.
For all of his talents, Montano is still unmistakably young, which means there will be ups and down. The sooner both he and his coach can figure out how to eliminate the inconsistencies in his game, the better it will be for Montano and the Sounders.
“I’ve always said, what you do in practice, what you do in the reserve games earns you a shot on the field, and what you do on the field keeps you on the field,” Schmid said. “So he’s got to do the same things that he’s doing there, play with the same level of confidence, make good decisions. For young players, consistency is the hardest thing for them to strive for. That’s what experience is. … It’s just a matter of bringing that same mindset into the first-team games.”
As he battles the ups and downs of a young career, Montano has a good support system to turn to when times get tough. Among the many veterans on the team, Montano has a pair of fellow Colombian he looks up to in Fredy Montero and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, the latter of whom dishes out the most advice according to Montano.
“He tells me to be patient and not be mad when I don’t play, because sometimes I lose concentration and it distracts me a little bit,” Montano said. “He says be patient, keep training hard and everything will be fine.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.
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