Claudio Bieler has his chance to be the first choice up top again – but back in his native Argentina, not with Sporting Kansas City.
The center forward, who found himself marginalized by Dom Dwyer's breakout season in 2014, parted ways with Sporting by mutual consent on Tuesday and has been linked to first-division side Quilmes.
The issue wasn't Bieler's talent level or work ethic, manager Peter Vermes said, but the firm hold Dwyer has on the starting job.
“It was a situation where Dom has come on and has won that place in the field,” Vermes told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday afternoon. “It was going to be tough for Claudio to get playing time. He's a guy who wants to play. It's not as if he's a bad player. It's just that things have changed.
“It was a mutual agreement, to see if there was an opportunity for him to go play somewhere else.”
Bieler signed as a Designated Player in December 2012, transferring from Ecuadorian side LDU Quito. He led Sporting with 12 goals across all competitions in 2013, helping them win their first MLS Cup since 2000, and had 16 goals and five assists across all competitions during his two years with the club.
His biggest moment in Kansas City came in the 2013 Eastern Conference semifinals, when his goal in extra time gave Sporting a 3-1 victory over New England and put them through to the conference final.
“The first year, he was a big part of why we went to the championship,” Vermes said, “and so that part was huge.”
Bieler struggled with injuries for much of the second half of the 2013 season, though, and Dwyer came on late after a record-breaking loan spell with then-USL PRO affiliate Orlando City SC. The two began 2014 in an every-other-match rotation, but Dwyer quickly made the job his own and shattered a handful of single-season records with 24 goals across all competitions.
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Vermes praised Bieler's professionalism in a backup role last season and did the same again on Tuesday – but Bieler also made it quietly clear that he wanted to be more than a 75th-minute sub.
“Dom is the guy, and it wasn't going to change,” Vermes said. “[Bieler] understood that it was going to be one thing or the other. He was going to have to be the guy who was coming in and trying to push for the opportunity to play or have to move on somewhere else.”
Bieler's departure frees up one of Sporting's three DP spots, the other two held now by defender Matt Besler and winger Graham Zusi. Vermes said Tuesday that he had not decided how soon – or even whether – to fill that slot.
“We're dealing with a couple of different things,” he said. “We're still looking to make some other additions to the rosters, draft picks and some other players. We're still working on those, and hoping that some of them might come to a conclusion, maybe even before this weekend when we start preseason. If not, I would hope it would be some time early next week.”
