On Thursday morning, Mike Chabala awoke as a member of thePortland Timbers. Sure, the sixthyear player hadn’t been a regular contributor for Portland – making just threeappearances since the beginning of June – but he was a fan-favorite with thelegendary Timbers Army.
Then, as is often the case in the career of a professionalsoccer player, things changed in an instant. D.C. United had long had an eye on Chabala, and with DanielWoolard sidelined for the foreseeable future with a concussion, General ManagerDave Kasper pulled the trigger on a trade. By Thursday afternoon he was on a flight to Washington. On Friday, he trained with – and met -most of his teammates for the first time.
And on Saturday, he played the eighty minutes in D.C.’s2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City at Livestrong Sporting Park.
“I just flew across the United States and then back halfwayagain to Kansas City in 24 hours,” said an exhausted Chabala afterwards. “I always thought in the back of mymind that it could be a possibility. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes. I’m not surprised. I’ve been playing well all year I just wasn’t getting the opportunitiesin Portland.”
If Chabala was hoping for an easy re-introduction to life inthe Eastern Conference, he didn’t get it. Sporting Kansas City loves to do twothings: pressure the opposing outside backs and attack through theirwings.
On Saturday night, Chabala often found himself opposite KeiKamara - Sporting’s most dangerous player. In the 20th minute, Kamara and Chabala were isolated in thefar corner and D.C.’s defender won a key one-on-one duel. Ten minutes later, Kamara flashed openon United’s back post – only to see Chabala beat him to a well-served crossfrom Graham Zusi.
“[Kamara] is a player that I know how to play against,” saidChabala, who played with the lanky striker in Houston from 2008-2009. “It’s good to play against one of thebest forwards in the league. Itkind of brings the best out of your game.”
After the trade, Chabala told reporters on both coasts thathe agreed to the cross-country move because of a greater opportunity forplaying time in Washington. As aresult, the 28-year-old may not have been surprised to travel with D.C. toKansas City on the weekend. Butwith Dejan Jakovic expected to fill-in at left back Saturday night, Chabala wasnot supposed to start – or even play - so soon.
The circumstances add up to make Chabala’s performance rather impressive.
“He’s going tocome in and certainly give us not just some depth but some good quality at leftback,” said Josh Wolff. “This isabout as tough a team as you are going to face with some of the matchups theycan cause with the wingers. Ithought he handled himself well. Ithought it was a tough night for us, but he hung in there and grinded [it out].”
