What a week it’s been for Kei Kamara.
First, Kamara’s Sierra Leone squad drew African giants Ivory Coast before he jetted back to the States to join his club midweek. Days later, an MLS Insider piece revealed why playing for his country means so much to him, sharing intimate thoughts on his childhood in Africa.
And to top it off on Saturday night, Kamara scored his sixth brace of the season to give Columbus Crew SC a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Union, vaulting him even higher in the MLS Golden Boot race with 20 goals on the season.
“It’s really a special week,” Kamara told MLSsoccer.com after the match. “Having my Insider come out and show a little bit of my story to people, I think I was really thinking about that going into this game and thinking about everywhere I’ve been and where I’ve come from and how happy I am to be here.”
Kamara is only the 16th player in MLS history to reach the 20-goal mark in a season, a first in his career and a special moment in and of itself. But the striker says he isn’t done.
“I didn’t know that, but 16 is a special number to me,” he said. “I really cherish that number as I came to the US at the age of 16, so it’s always been my favorite number. But I don’t want to stay as the 16th player. I want to go on and hopefully get some more goals that will put us in a good place going forward.”
With five matches to play, Kamara is now just six goals away from Stern John’s Crew SC single-season scoring record and seven away from the best mark in MLS history. But as the season winds down, he says that’s not what’s on his mind.
“I’m not focused on [the record],” he said. “I have one focus, and that’s the [playoff] race and getting the boot for this year and going into the playoffs. [I’m not] really focused on breaking the league record.”
And with the season Kamara is having, head coach Gregg Berhalter says he should be in the Landon Donovan MVP discussion.
“To come out and get two goals coming back from international duty, he shows how important he is to the team,” Berhalter said. “He’s been having a fantastic year, and in my eyes an MVP-caliber year.”
The MVP talk is new for Kamara, but that doesn't mean he is running away from the discussion.
“It’s an honor,” he said. “Come on, every player wants to be in that position. I’m just going to keep doing some more good things, and hopefully it’s meant to be and it will be a special year for me.”
Kamara often has a superstitious moment – his daughter’s birth, for instance – to credit for his performances. Saturday was no different, but it was his clairvoyant teammate who helped him out.
“It was Justin Meram’s Snapchat before the game saying I would score two,” Kamara laughed. “I didn’t even see it until after the game, and he said, ‘Look at my story.’ I guess he was the superstitious one today.”
Andrew King covers Columbus Crew SC for MLSsoccer.com.
