5 days ago
What is inexplicable about Guillermo Barros Schelotto explains everything
What is inexplicable about Guillermo Barros Schelotto explains everything. It is captured, but not contained, in the moment that clinched the Crew's first MLS Cup in 2008, against the New York Red Bulls, in a stadium once known as the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.
The Crew are pushing forward. An attempted through ball into the box by forward Alejandro Moreno is intercepted. Moreno digs it out and leaves it for midfielder Eddie Gaven, who touches it back to Schelotto. The incomparable one is stationed eight yards above the top of the box. He has two defenders converging on him head-on and another on his right periphery. He has the ball on his foot, which is to say he is happy.
Somehow – does he have eyes on the right side of his head? – Schelotto spots fullback Frankie Hejduk screaming in on the diagonal. Or he sensed him.
Ninety hundred and ninety nine times out of a thousand, Hejduk would have stayed wide on the right sideline, looking for a ball that he could cross. This one time, Hejduk saw a chance and cut inside for a run at the goal.
'I don't know how he saw me,' Hejduk said. 'I just don't know. I don't know how to explain it. And that explains him. What happened next, well … Of all the players in the world, 99.97% of them would have tried a through ball on the ground, and it would have been blocked or intercepted. But this is Guillermo. I've watched that replay 1,000 times, and I still don't know how he did it.'
Schelotto toe-flicked the ball over a swarming mass of bodies. It was poetry amid chaos. The pass traveled in a lazy arc and came down, directly, on the forehead of Hejduk, who, while flying, didn't have to break stride. Hejduk had only to nod the ball over the goalkeeper to give the Crew a 3-1 lead in the 82nd minute, and that was it.
More: Massive: Schelotto, hard-working Crew trounce Red Bulls for MLS Cup title
The Crew won their first MLS Cup. Schelotto, who assisted on all three goals in the final, was the tournament MVP. He would also be named the league's MVP for leading the Crew to the Supporters' Shield, which goes to the team with the best record. He had seven goals and 19 assists as an attacking midfielder in 2008, the middle of his two-plus-season stint in Columbus. He was SI Latino's Sportsman of the Year. Under a new coach in 2009, he was asked to play as more of a forward and had 12 goals and three assists in 24 games.
On July 19, when the Crew host D.C. United at the new Crew stadium, Schelotto will be enshrined in the team's Circle of Honor. He will join his former coach, Sigi Schmid (RIP); his captain in Columbus, Hejduk; and the team's first star, Brian McBride. The Circle is a tight one.
There are things fans can gripe about: Presently, the wall where Circle members are posted for posterity can't be viewed as construction on high-priced luxury clubs continues. There's also the fact that Schelotto, whose coaching career continues in the Argentine Primera Division with Club Atletico Velez Sarsfield, has a scheduling conflict and can't be in Columbus for the ceremony. That sucks.
Schelotto is a legendary figure in the history of one of Argentina's most storied clubs, Boca Juniors. Schelotto won 15 trophies in his decade with the club. He's not at Diego Maradona's level on the adoration scale, but he's not far off. In fact, one of Schelloto's biggest fans was El Pibe de Oro (RIP), who watched a lot of his old team when his playing days were over.
Schelotto arrived in Columbus through the summer transfer window of 2007. When his new teammates spoke of him, they spoke of both the professional and the personal.
They marveled at his mastery of the game. Years ago, Gaven was among those who talked about how Schelotto simplified everything. 'I just go where he tells me,' Gaven said, 'and then there's the ball.'
Hejduk said, 'When he was playing his magic tricks, that's when everything happened. He took a couple of months to get used to the style of the league. After that, when he was running on all cylinders, every player on the team was on all cylinders. He ran the show. He made everyone better. It was like we were unstoppable.'
Schelotto loved Columbus. He liked the lifestyle. After years of opening the drapes and seeing Boca fans all over his front lawn in Buenos Aires, he relished his quiet family time in the Columbus suburbs. He also enjoyed having the whole team over for barbecues, something he did often.
'He has a great mom,' said Dr. Pete Edwards. 'He's a great man. A great person. It's what has made him a great coach.'
Edwards served as the Crew's team doctor from the inception of the franchise in 1996 until he and his family bought a piece of the team to help save it in 2018. Edwards remembers wondering what he'd find when Schelotto showed up as a 34-year-old. Arthritic knees?
'He was ready to go,' Edwards said. 'He wasn't Carlos Valderrama in terms of fitness, but he didn't have to run 10 kilometers a game like (current Crew midfielder) Dylan Chambost. When you know where everyone on the field is, you know when to pick your spots. Lionel Messi is the same way.'
Schelotto was most responsible for delivering the Crew its first MLS Cup. He did it at a time when the Nordecke was still being organized and yet was already 'Massive' – the ability to overcome when so much, including penny-pinching owners and a league that looks down its nose at flyover country, is against you – was entrenched in the lexicon of Crew fans.
More: Columbus Crew all-time Best XI 2.0: After two amazing years, major update required | Arace
Schelotto had that vision thing. He saw the past and was a harbinger of the future. Two more Argentine attacking mids, Federico Higuain and Lucas Zelarayan, made indelible marks in Crew history in a homage to the incomparable one.
In terms of iconic franchise players who had the biggest impact, it may be that McBride, the fearless striker of the early years, and Cucho Hernandez, the transcendent attacker of the Wilfried Nancy era to date, are (arguably) the only ones in Schelotto's league.
McBride was the face of the new team. He scored the ball with gusto. Cucho was the monster who proclaimed a new era. He was brilliant in terms of soccer IQ and technical ability. Between them was Schelotto, who saw everything.
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This story was updated to add a gallery.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew's latest addition to Circle of Honor was an MLS magician
