The Kansas City Wizards announced Friday that the club has signed Omar Bravo for the 2011 Major League Soccer season. While Bravo will remain with Chivas Guadalajara for the rest of the 2010 Apertura season and for the championship series of the prestigious Copa Libertadores, Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes is already excited about Bravo’s impact next year.
“He has some intangibles that you can’t teach players,” Vermes said. “He’s got the tricks of the trade. He knows what’s needed at certain points in the game, whether it’s to score a goal or make an assist. He has that extra sense for the game that is a huge help in managing a match over the course of 90 plus minutes. The more of those guys you have on the field, the more tough games you end up winning or tying instead of losing.”
Bravo, 30, has only played outside of Mexico for one season, joining Deportivo La Coruna (Spain) in 2008-2009. Vermes thinks that Bravo will be able to adjust to life in Kansas City and MLS thanks, in part, to Kansas City’s style of play.
“I think for every player there is always an adjustment period,” he said. “Not only adjusting to the team, but to the style of play in the League. But I think for a guy like him and the way that we try to play, I think it would be a much easier settling-in period. Good players can play anywhere as long as the team is trying to play the game. Our team is constantly trying to build a style and make it better.”
Vermes is also confident that bringing Bravo into the team will help players currently on the roster, such as 20-year-old rookie striker Teal Bunbury, who has become a regular starter for Kansas City over the last month.
“It’s hard to teach those intangibles to someone, but when you’re around it enough as a player, you can learn them from other guys just by repetition,” Vermes said.
Bravo is a proven winner and has captured the following trophies: Mexico First Division championship (Apertura 2006), CONCACAF Gold Cup championship (2003, 2009), CONCACAF Gold Cup 2nd place (2007), Mexico First Division scoring title (Clausura 2004) and Copa America 3rd place (2007). Bravo has also been a key member of the Chivas team that has advanced to the championship series of the 2010 Copa Libertadores. Chivas is only the second Mexican club to reach the finals of the prestigious South American competition.
Vermes says that players of Bravo’s stature help lift the rest of their team thanks to their drive to win games and championships.
“I can’t say that I know Omar really well yet,” he said, “but players like him have a sense of wanting to teach the rest of the guys and bring them along so that they’re also winners. Winners normally want to make sure they do whatever they can to make sure their team is successful. He strikes me as one of those people from afar.”
Bravo has scored goals in big games throughout his career. He scored twice in the 2006 FIFA World Cup for Mexico and has 13 career goals in Copa Libertadores for Chivas Guadalajara. Vermes says that some players excel in pressure situations.
“It’s not just that they play better, it’s that they’re able to execute in the bigger games,” he said. “A guy like Tony Meola always seemed to step up when it was a big game. But if you go back and look, Tony was usually very consistent in other games as well. A lot of players don’t play at that same level in the big games. Omar seems to step up in the big moment.”
As a veteran of the Mexican First Division and Mexican National Team, Bravo has lined up in many different positions on the field. Vermes and the coaching staff have already looked at the lineup to see where Bravo might fit in.
“We feel he fits within our system very well,” he said. “With a player like him, you could play him in a 4-4-2, where he could be a link to another target guy. He could play the left, center or right side of our three up top. He could even play as one of the underneath midfielders in our 4-3-3.”
Wherever Bravo eventually lines up, he will be asked to create offense for Kansas City.
“That’s the key element that a guy like Omar brings to the table: his attacking prowess and his ability to see things. He can create off the dribble; he can create off the pass, and he can score goals,” Vermes said.
