When sporting director Ali Curtis and coach Jesse Marsch began to revamp the Red Bulls in the offseason, one person quickly came to mind: Sacha Kljestan. He and Marsch played together at Chivas USA, Kljestan at the beginning of his career and Marsch at the end of his.
“My history with Sacha is such that I know he’s a good man and I know what a great player he is,” Marsch said. “But I thought given the way that we wanted to play, and the pace that we wanted to play, I knew he was a guy who could run all day. I knew that he’s a guy who’s a good competitor; he’s a smart soccer player. I thought in all ways he would be an instrumental part in our midfield. And the flexibility to play almost any spot in the midfield has meant that he was going to be an asset and we could build things around him where ever we needed him.
“There’s been more than him that we built around, but the way that he plays the No. 10 role fits who we are perfectly. He’s been a big part of things. I knew he was an important piece once we were actually able to get it done.”
There were other building blocks, of course. Defender Kemar Lawrence and midfielders Felipe and Mike Grella have become integral players in the starting lineup, but Kljestan’s presence was the key. Now it was just a matter of prying him free from Anderlecht. Kljestan had become a fixture for the Belgian club and was a fan favorite. Fortunately for the Red Bulls, Kljestan was up for a new challenge.
“There were a couple of different factors,” Kljestan said. “Family is one. We wanted to be living back in the states. We had a daughter born in Belgium and we had no problem living in Europe, but the opportunity arose. Jesse played a huge factor in me coming back. I wasn’t going to come back to MLS and just go into some lottery draft. There was some discussion with the L.A. Galaxy and with the Red Bulls, and in the end Jesse made a big move to sign me.
“He and Ali convinced me that this was a big project, that it was a big chance to succeed at a team that’s never won something before, and to be a leader. The biggest part for me is that the Red Bulls have never won MLS Cup and I want to be one of the guys to help them lift MLS Cup. That was the big challenge.”
It was a bit of a rough going in the beginning for Kljestan. Much was expected of the U.S. international, but it took a while to adjust to a new team, new teammates, a new style of play and a new position.
“The only guy I had played with before was Dax (McCarty), so we had a good relationship from the beginning,” Kljestan said. “Our relationship has been good but it’s gotten even better, but getting used to Lloyd (Sam) and Grella and Bradley (Wright-Phillips), it takes time. Early in the season we had some good wins but I didn’t score any goals or have any assists, but those relationships have built really well lately.
“I think you just see the attacking players get used to each other more. I was finding Bradley more, finding Lloyd on the run and got the ball to his feet. It takes time to build these relationships, and I feel like now they’ve really come to fruition and we’ve gotten a real sense of comfort with each other. I think that’s elevated my game. We were still creating chances in the beginning of the season, but maybe not so clear-cut, but you see in the past 10 games or so I’ve got a couple of goals and a bunch of assists so it’s really coming together with the relationships on the field.”
That may be an understatement. In the past 11 games Kljestan has four goals and nine assists to raise his season total to six goals and 10 assists. He is also perfect on three penalty kicks. Oh, and he also takes all of the corner kicks and most of the team’s free kicks.
“From Day One he’s established himself in the group in training,” Marsch said. “Everybody saw what a classy player he is early on. It was just a matter of having it add up to more goals and assists. We all knew he was capable of it, but that somewhat had to do with the transitioning to a different tactical demand.
“I’m asking him to play a different role than he played at Anderlecht. That was his biggest adjustment, positioning himself around the field and understanding that so he could be effective and put more attacking plays together. At Anderlecht, they asked him to sit more and be more of a tactical balance to the group. He had a good start (here) but then overall, even in the beginning, he was adjusting to certain things, like his aggressiveness around the goal and his eye for the final plays. Now he’s gotten to the point where his clarity around the field is at a pretty high level.”
Kljestan played three years under Manny Schellscheidt at Seton Hall University and set a school record with 15 assists in 2005, when he was named the Big East Offensive Player of the Year. Drafted with the 5th overall pick in the 2006 MLS SuperDraft by Chivas USA, he played through the summer of 2010 before leaving for Belgium.
So he knows a little about pressure.
“There’s always pressure. I always feel pressure on myself to always perform,” Kljestan said. “It’s funny. A game like at Philadelphia, probably my worst game of the season, I come away with a goal and an assist, and things happen like that. Maybe my best game was against D.C. and I had five great chances to score and got stopped every one.
“Games happen like that, so I don’t try and pay attention so much to the goals and assists, but in the end goals and assists matter a lot. Those are what win and lose you games. The more I can score, the more I can assist, the better off the team’s going to be.”
Playing a more offensive role seems to suit Kljestan. That was not the case in Belgium.
“The Belgian league is much more defensive,” he said. “When you play for a big club like Anderlecht, 80 percent of the teams are sitting back very deep against you and it’s difficult to deal with. You look at a league like Holland, which is right next to Belgium, and the leading scorer has like 30 goals. The leading scorer in Belgium usually has like 18. It’s a much more defensive league.
“MLS is pretty defensive but it’s not as tactical as the Belgian league. Those teams are very tactical and they sit back. Here, you start to find spaces open up in a game eventually, but for the most part the leagues are on a similar level, but lately I would say MLS is very much on the rise and the Belgian league in on the decline a little bit.”
The Red Bulls are on the rise as well, thanks, in part, to Kljestan. With a 13-7-6 record, they are tied with D.C. United for first place in the Eastern Conference, and still have three games in hand. They are also three points behind the Vancouver Whitecaps in the race for the Supporters’ Shield.
Kljestan has been everything Curtis and Marsch hoped for, and many fans feel, with the way the Red Bulls are playing, this could turn into a magical season. Maybe that challenge of bringing home MLS Cup isn’t too far away after all.
