KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Maybe a letdown was inevitable for Benny Feilhaber. Maybe after his career-best 2015 season, anything less is going to feel more disappointing than it should.
Twelve goals and a club-record 20 assists across all competitions, an MLS MVP nomination: Those are some hellaciously big boots to fill, after all, even if they are your own. And when the numbers aren't coming – and this year, they aren't – past successes can work against a player as well as for him.
“You get frustrated,” Sporting Kansas City's veteran playmaker told MLSsoccer.com on Tuesday, ahead of the team's Friday clash against D.C. United (9:30 pm ET, UDN). “I'm obviously hoping to be a bigger creative force for our team right now. It's not coming as easily as it did last year. Sometimes it's OK. Maybe it'll come later in the year.”
It will have to, if Feilhaber is to hit double digits in either offensive category this season. Fourteen matches into Sporting's season – though he missed the first three with an abdominal strain and was benched for a road loss at Colorado earlier this month – he has two goals and two assists.
“It's obviously frustrating,” he said. “You want to be able to help the team, especially when the creative aspect is not as good as it has been in the past – so some guys on the offensive end, including myself, have to take it a little bit more upon ourselves to try and help that in the right direction.”
More troubling, perhaps, is that Feilhaber – though he's hardly the only veteran with turnover issues this year – has had several costly lapses in possession. Opponents have been quick to punish those mistakes, too, as Real Salt Lake did in last weekend's 3-1 victory at Children's Mercy Park, when Feilhaber's giveaway in midfield led to Yura Movsisyan's insurance goal.
“If you made a mistake that leads directly to a goal, you think about that issue for a while, things you could have done differently,” he said. “But for me, there's a lot of perspectives that I think about. It's usually pretty even, whether it's the defensive side of things or the offensive side of things.”
Whatever's not clicking, Feilhaber said, it's not due to any lingering effects from the abdominal strain.
“Physically, I'm fine,” he said. “There's always lingering things around the season. You've got to get treatment ever day and just make sure your body's in check. It's a lot of maintenance to make sure that nothing gets worse, but nothing to complain about.”
Nor, he said, is he worn out from becoming a father for the second time earlier this year – and now having two daughters under age two at home.
“My kids bring me more energy than anything else,” he said. “That's definitely not an issue. Plus my wife does 99 percent of the work, so I'm the lucky one.”
Feilhaber is in the last year of his contract, adding another layer of expectation to his season, but said that can't change his approach.
“You try and play the same way,” he said. “If it's gotten you to this point, if it's been successful in the past, I think that's the way you want to continue to try and do things. You don't want to try and change anything from what's made you the player that you are.”
Feilhaber has shown what kind of player he can be, obviously. And one big plus for him, as he works to return to his previous production levels – and for Sporting, as they look to start racking up positive results again – is a locker-room atmosphere Feilhaber calls the best of a well-traveled career that includes stints in Germany, England and Denmark as well as two years with the New England Revolution before his trade to Kansas City.
“I think it's one of the reasons why we've been so successful for such a long time,” he said. “I have no doubt that because of the strength that we have amongst the players, that'll be the reason why we come out of this, hopefully stronger than we went into it.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
