Minnesota United’s brain trust were all smiles on Tuesday as they officially unveiled their showcase summer signing, Emanuel “Bebelo” Reynoso, after pursuing the Boca Juniors schemer for the better part of a year. Both excitement and a sort of relief were palpable as coach Adrian Heath and technical director Mark Watson addressed media in a video call with their newest arrival.
“I’m sure over the next few years he’ll become one of the best players in MLS,” predicted Heath, while Watson confirmed that the Argentine attacker is the most expensive signing in Loons history, costing half again beyond their past record fee and, they hope, the missing link for an aspirational side.
“It’s a big investment,” said Watson, “and it's a big thanks to ownership for supporting us and wanting to bring in this type of player that can hopefully take the team to the next level.”
As the old chestnut warns: Be careful what you wish for.
Over the past year and a half or so, Heath has sought to build his team’s self-image around being overlooked and underrated, fashioning a rugged, edgy group who love to prove outsiders wrong almost as much as they love clean sheets and bruising wins. An avowed daily reader of this very website, he’s taken issue with the Power Rankings and called out MLSsoccer.com pundits, aiming his sharp West Midlands wit at what he believes are false narratives and unfair slights in his team’s direction.
All in all, it’s worked. Fueled by their stingy defense and pacey transitions, the Loons notched their first MLS postseason appearance last fall, reached the 2019 U.S. Open Cup final and mounted a semifinal run at the MLS is Back Tournament. The latter achievement was particularly impressive given the absence of 2019 Defender of the Year Ike Opara and other difficulties encountered inside the Orlando bubble.
Now he has to fit a blue-chip playmaker into that mix in midseason. And while that’s the kind of problem most coaches absolutely love to grapple with, it might be trickier than it looks. Because it’s accompanied part and parcel by higher expectations and an unspoken challenge: to raise the ambition and complexity of Minnesota’s approach, in both tactical and psychological terms. To be proactive. To play from the front. To punch upwards and down with equal effectiveness.
Bebelo is an elite player and I’m sure he knows very well how to fit into an organized defensive framework, how to see out 1-0 wins, feast on the counter and so forth. It’s not that his arrival risks unbalancing his new side so much as the fact that his quality, and the resources expended to bring it to the Twin Cities, may require a more adventurous outlook to be fully maximized. This is a handcrafted sports car – albeit one that didn’t rack up the gaudiest statistics at Boca – not an SUV, and must be handled as such.
“We know we’ve got a really talented footballer, so we want to get the best out of him,” acknowledged Heath on Tuesday. “We think we can get him further up the field, we can get him in and around the penalty area; we feel as though he will make things happen in the final third – a great final ball, great delivery into the box and we think that if we can get him closer to goal more often, he’ll score more goals than he has done.”
To put it another way, Reynoso represents a walking embodiment of what it means to climb into the MLS elite and stay there, which is exactly what MNUFC have aspired to since their 2017 entry into the league. That doorway has opened up for them; now they must stride through it.
