A Big Question:Should we still be fascinated by Cristian Higuita?
I swear to you that there are times when Higuita plays that he looks like the next Ozzie Alonso. He chews up ground in central midfield, turns every 50/50 into a 70/30, and then does a better job of connecting meaningful passes than almost anyone realizes. He has, on occasion, dominated entire games.
There are other times when Higuita constantly runs himself out of plays, comes late to every 50/50, and tries to turn every simple pass into a high-degree-of-difficulty, low-probability-of-success turnover. Or something like this:
Higuita is 25 years old, and is the last remaining OCSC original. He's entering his fifth year in MLS. If he was going to turn into Ozzie Alonso it would've happened by now, right?
Probably. But Higuita is also a guy who was a Colombian youth international, and as recently as 2016 was on the fringes of the full national team (he was part of their provisional roster for the 2016 Copa América). It is wild that he hasn't been able to bring his talent to bear in MLS.
That talent is still there. The clock is definitely ticking, though, and at this point it's hard to imagine he ever reaches his full potential in central Florida.
