FRISCO - Frank Sinatra once said: “The best revenge is massive success.”
Massive success is what Maxi Urruti found in his return to Providence Park yesterday, but certainly not in the way you would expect from a striker.
Usually, a forward’s preferred currency is goals. However,as he has proved this season, the former Portland player is much more than just a scorer. In his first month wearing the FC Dallas jersey, Urruti has become a crowd favorite not only by scoring, but by his effort pressuring off-the-ball too.
It’s not often that you see a team’s number ‘9’ leading their side on defensive statistics. Maxi is FCD’s second best tackler this season averaging 2.9 per game, only behind d-mid Carlos Gruezo(3.9 p/g). Added to that, he’s leading MLS forwards in that category, with San Jose’s Quincy Amarkiwa coming in second at a distant 1.8 tackles per game.
With pressure as his calling card, Urruti’s defensive effort continued Wednesday night against Portland. He had 4 ball recoveries, second in the team behind left-back Maynor Figueroa. His main victim was midfielder Jack Jewsbury, who lost two balls to the Argentinian.
His first dispossession came early in the game, on the third minute. Jewsbury was pressured by Urruti, with Tesho Akindele picking up the loose ball, and Michael Barrios coming up with the finish inside the box seconds later.
Portland's number '13' would be Urruti's victim again in the 26th minute. Maxi pressured him from behind and stole the ball, setting up Fabian Castillo for an easy 1-on-1 chip opportunity against the keeper which he converted for the second of the night.
For goalkeeper Chris Seitz, Maxi’s pressuring efforts did not go unnoticed.
“He put an unbelievable amount of pressure on their back four tonight,” he said. We knew how much this game meant to him. He left here on top and he came to us and he’s hungry. You can see the work ethic he has. I think he got the touch on Jewsbury to put [Fabian Castillo] through. That’s huge for us. He’s been doing that all year and that’s been working well for us. We knew this game meant a lot to him and you could see how he played on the field.”
CoachOscar Parejawent even further, praising Urruti’s performance against his former team as the best he’s seen from ’37’ so far.
“I think it was his best game since he arrived at Dallas,” he said. “Maxi was one of the best players on the field, I couldn’t take him out because he was doing a near perfect job out there. He was controlling them by pressuring, he was holding the ball for us, he was assisting, and he was keeping the rhythm of the game for us. I want to congratulate him because he played against his former team and he has demonstrated a lot of personality. We’re very happy to have Maxi.”
