Shortly after Jesse Marsch was hired as Red Bulls coach in January he made a trade with the Montreal Impact to acquire midfielder Felipe Martins. It didn’t seem like a major move at the time, but it turned into the first major building block in the revamping of the team.
Ten months later, as the Red Bulls prepare to take on the Columbus Crew in the Eastern Conference Finals, you have to wonder where the Red Bulls would be without him.
“I try to do my best every day. I try to learn from other players,” Felipe said. “Having Dax (McCarty) and Sacha (Kljestan) and some of these other guys, there are a lot of guys in the team you can learn from. It’s important every day to keep humble, keep working hard, and try to do your best for the team.”
While most fans turn to statistics to judge a player, they wouldn’t give Felipe a second look. His three goals and five assists from a defensive midfield position won’t turn many heads, but in Marsch’s system the 25-year-old Felipe has been one of the key players of the season.
“Dax usually leads our team in interceptions and recoveries. Felipe and Sacha are very high always on ground covered,” Marsch said. “Felipe actually leads the league in sprint meters covered and meters covered. He’s one of the highest in passing percentage. He has savviness in the attacking third to set up plays. Overall, I think it’s been a good fit.”
Although Marsch only coached one year in Montreal, he was the one who scouted and signed Felipe, who was playing in Switzerland. In his first year with the Impact Felipe scored four goals and collected a team-high 10 assists.
“It’s hard to build a team, but he built a strong team,” Felipe said of the 2012 Impact. “I think the players didn’t fit into his system. With the precision he had he always emphasized the way he wants to play. Just putting 30 guys together in the first year is hard. Now he has much more experience. As good as he was, he is maybe even better now because he has much more experience.”
When Marsch was hired by the Red Bulls, he immediately thought of Felipe, who had started 86 of 93 games the past three years in Montreal and registered 12 goals and 24 assists while playing more of an attacking position.
“We watched him a lot and thought highly of him and thought we had uncovered, I used to call him a little gem,” Marsch said. “And when he came into the first day of preseason in Montreal I could see he was even better than we expected. When I came here I thought that he would be an important guy to bring along because of our relationship and knowing each other, but also because he is a very talented player and he fits the way I wanted this team to play.
“Over time I think he’s shown his value and I think he’s grown this season as well. I’m asking him to play differently than how I asked him to play in Montreal, but I know he’s versatile. I know that his talents are that he can cover a lot of ground.
"He’s very sharp on the ball. Tactically, he is very savvy. He’s a smart player. He’s a great competitor. I felt that once we got him and Sacha, and sort of actually tilting each of their roles to be the opposite of what they had played with the previous team they’d been with, was the way to make them fit here.”
When teams prepare for the Red Bulls they have to first figure out how to deal with the triangle of Felipe, McCarty and Kljestan in the middle of the field. And if they pinch in too much, wingers Lloyd Sam and Mike Grella are free to move into the attack.
“I also knew that having a guy like Dax McCarty in there meant that those were three guys I felt like we could really rely on and that would be the base for how we were going to build this team,” Marsch said. “I think Felipe’s fit in really well, I think he’s gotten better as the year’s gone on and I think he’s grown as a person and as a player. It’s exciting to see him get the opportunity to show himself in big games like this and hopefully he can continue to prove to everybody how good he is.”
Although they spent the 2013 and 2014 seasons apart, Felipe says nothing has changed with Marsch.
“He was the same type of coach (in Montreal),” said Felipe, who has started all 34 games this season. “This year he has a lot more freedom, he can work the way he wants to. That was a new team, it was a different situation. I just feel here he has all the freedom to do whatever he really wants to do and play the way he would like to play. Since I have known him he is as good as he is. The freedom he has here is different than there.
“As a coach he is much more confident. As a player he was confident. He is passing that to us. Everybody really believes in what he is doing and that is important for the coach. He knew me from before. He knew I’m a guy who likes to do whatever it takes for the team. I think I fit into his system. I hope to continue to do my best for the team.”
The 5-9, 150-pound Felipe started the season strong, then slumped a bit, and when the Red Bulls signed Gonzalo Veron as a designated player in the summer, many fans wondered which midfielder would be replaced in the starting lineup, Felipe or Grella.
It turned out to be neither. Both have proven their worth as starters and Marsch didn’t want to mess up the chemistry of a winning team. Veron’s time will come, but right now the Red Bulls are only thinking of the Crew.
“We just have to get everybody on the same page,” Felipe said. “We’ve got to do what they coach us to do. Just go to the field knowing what we need to do. We’re prepared and we are ready for this battle. We are ready for this series.”
