It’s not been a brilliant season so far for the Kansas City Wizards, but it might have been even worse had the team not signed Argentine veteran Claudio Lopez, 34 this week. The forward has missed only 14 minutes of league action so far, is tied for the team lead with three assists, and is second in scoring with three goals.
“More than the numbers, Lopez has a motor that won’t quit,” writes Pete Grathoff. Wizards coach Curt Onalfo agrees that Lopez is “an extremely hard worker. He’s an excellent leader, and he wants to do everything within his power to help us succeed.” Lopez himself, who played at Valencia in Spain between 1996 and 2007, and who also represented Argentina at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, says that he is really enjoying MLS. “I really like it. I like the fact that it’s a league that is progressing and putting forth the effort to really move forward and create something that’s good for everybody. I really enjoy it. It’s fun.”
Needless to say, he wasn’t really sure what was awaiting him. “I hadn’t followed it [MLS] all that much,” Lopez told Grathoff. “I wasn’t really familiar with it, so I was pleasantly surprised when I was received with open arms and with such great treatment that it made it easy to come and play soccer in MLS. It’s been great.” He also expected that it would take time to get used to his new team-mates. “It’s normal that … there’s a period of adjustment, where you adjust to culture, you adjust to people, in this case, to your teammates and you learn how to play together. It’s been a little bit of time now. We’re hoping from now on that we’ve passed that period and we can jell as a group and move forward.”