It’s something he hoped he wouldn’t have to do, but the time has come for Adrian Heath to plan for life without Kaká – for one week, at least.
The team elected not to appeal Kaká’s red card – earned just before halftime of Saturday’s game at Real Salt Lake – and will be without their captain for this weekend’s game at home against FC Dallas. The question now becomes how to replace, or rather just make up for being without, such a dynamic player.
“Obviously I’ve got a few decisions to make; whether we keep the same shape, whether we tweak the formation. We’re down to our bare bones at the moment,” said Heath after training on Tuesday.
Missing Kaká opens up a huge hole in the midfield and Heath has limited options to fill it. Players he would normally be able to put in his place (Pedro Ribeiro, Lewis Neal, Eric Avila) are already filling in for Cyle Larin and Darwin Cerén who are away on Gold Cup Duty (and square off against each other on Tuesday night) and the injured Kevin Molino, among others.
Still, the Gaffer has at least a couple tricks up his sleeve. He showed some creativity against Montreal on March 28 when he elected to go with a 5-4-1, using Danny Mwanga at forward, Kaká on the left wing, and Tyler Turner at right back. Against Portland on April 12 he went with a 4-3-3 with Kaká, Larin, and Molino up top with Cristian Higuita, Amobi Okugo, and Cerén at midfield. What he will do against Dallas, though, remains a mystery.
All these absences make the emergence of Carlos Rivas’ all the more timely and important. After encouraging performances against Colorado and Real Salt Lake, not to mention leading the U.S. Open Cup in scoring with four goals, Rivas will almost certainly prove to be part of the solution on the attack.
“There’s no other player that can do what [Kaká] does so we’ll miss that, but we have guys that are chomping at the bit to get in, waiting to prove themselves, and we have faith that they’re going to come in and be a positive difference and help the team win,” said goalkeeper Tally Hall.
It’s certainly not a problem Heath is neglecting, but it’s a bit too early in the week to start making lineup decisions at the moment.
“We’ll get through the week and by the time we get to Thursday or Friday we’ll come up with some sort of plan and some plan of action. The one thing I do know about the group is that they’re really honest and they’ll give us what they’ve got. We can’t ask any more than that.”
There is, however, a silver lining in this story – as difficult as it may be to see – which could be factor in the Lions’ pursuit of a playoff spot in the second half of the season. This one-game suspension gives Kaká an opportunity for some much-needed rest. He has started every MLS game this season – and the Round of 16 of the U.S. Open Cup. Aside from Saturday, he’s played at least 80 minutes in every one of those games. A fully rested Kaká eager to get back in the action could be far worse news for the opposition.
