MONTREAL – If Enzo Concina ever were to leave Serie A for MLS, he figured, it would be for the Montreal Impact.
That was where he’d finished his playing career, in 1994. Concina had grown up next door in Ontario, having left Italy aged four. But he would return to his birth country as a young adult, playing in the fourth, third and second divisions over 13 years.
In 2010, Concina made it to the top flight: he joined Italian manager Walter Mazzarri’s staff at Napoli. Four years later, having followed Mazzarri at Inter Milan, club president Erick Thohir sent Concina to his MLS franchise, D.C. United; the last-placed team’s record of 24 defeats and 59 goals conceded needed addressing, and Concina was the man to do it, as an assistant to Ben Olsen.
United morphed into the best Eastern Conference team in 2014. They conceded 22 fewer goals. It was the only season in D.C. for Concina, who finally re-joined the Impact this January as an assistant coach.
“I tried to give [D.C. United's] defense some shape, even the whole defensive phase of the game,” Concina told MLSsoccer.com. “In Italy, we're used to working with a system. I tried to implement a system as much as I could. It’s easy to say we play four at the back, zone defense, but what are the players supposed to do? What are the rules of engagement when you’re on the field in different situations? I worked on that enough to show that there was something different from the year before.”
Humility sticks out of Concina’s message. He argues that, technically, he didn’t play into United’s transformation, as it would have required him to experience the 2013 “nightmare”.
Instead, Concina praises the D.C. staff. He points out that, first and foremost, the team found new players, mixing experience and youth, with Rookie of the Year candidate Steve Birnbaum standing out for his easy integration into the roster – “He’s going to be a reliable player for any coach and for any defense in the league,” Concina said.
Chances are that Concina won’t be showing off should Montreal manage a similar change of fortunes after their dismal 2014 – he didn’t endure that one, either. Yet his ideas on the work ahead are crystal-clear.
“In D.C., I worked on the individual, four defenders, and on the collective thing that regards the defenders and the whole defensive phase,” Concina said. “That’s what I've got to do here. I see, here, there are some players that, after one week, you can see that there’s work to do there, individually. And, of course, I think we can get a better organization on the defensive end, put more emphasis on it.”
The Impact tried too hard to be an attacking team last season, Concina says. Opponents, he swears, will have to work their hardest to score against them in 2015. Every man wearing the Impact blue will have to chip in. Enzo Concina may have left Serie A, but Serie A hasn’t left him.
“In Europe, you can’t permit yourself to have two players that don’t defend,” Concina said. “Maybe you can deal with one -- the striker. But everybody else has to defend. This league is going to become like that sooner or later as well. So I want to get a headstart on that.”
Follow @olitremblay
