KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The odd minor mishap aside, Graham Zusi is feeling more and more like his old self every time he steps on the pitch.
That's good news not only for Sporting Kansas City, but also for the winger's chances of playing on the international stage once more this summer.
“I'm feeling stronger and stronger every game,” said Zusi, who spent most of the preseason recovering from a stress fracture in his foot and then missed two games in early April with a hamstring strain. “The LA game, the first game back from the hammy, was getting back into full game fitness. The Houston game felt even better. The Chicago game was feeling very good until the unfortunate strange thing at halftime – but other than that, it was very good as well.”
Wait … what unfortunate strange thing?
“It was a tape malfunction,” Zusi told reporters with a laugh on Wednesday, during the club's weekly news conference. “Kind of strange, but it ripped some skin on the bottom of my foot. But I'm feeling very good. My body's responding better and better each game. I feel like my match fitness is getting up here as well.”
Since his return from the hamstring strain, Zusi has recorded his first two assists of the year – and both in clutch situations for Sporting, who travel to D.C. United on Saturday (7 pm ET; MLS LIVE).
His headed layoff set up Benny Feilhaber's thundering stoppage-time equalizer in a 4-4 draw at Houston two weeks ago, and his pass from the center of the pitch to Jalil Anibaba on the right flank started the play that ended with Paulo Nagamura's game-winning header in last weekend's 1-0 home victory over Chicago.
If he can keep that up for his club, Zusi – a mainstay of the US national team at the 2014 World Cup and a long-distance hero for Mexico during qualifying – hopes he'll be in Jurgen Klinsmann's plans for this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup.
“I'd love to do it,” he said. “I was held out of the last Gold Cup because I'd missed so much time with [World Cup] qualifiers. So it's something I really want to be part of. When the time comes, I'd like to be – but right now, I'm going to focus on the games at hand here.”
Despite his candor when it comes to his health and his hopes for a Gold Cup invitation, Zusi would rather talk about his club. Asked on Wednesday what his role in this year's team is, for example, Zusi's first answer was that Sporting just wants to win games.
And when prodded, Zusi got off the topic of Zusi as quickly as he could.
“I'm an outside winger. Scoring goals, setting up goals – this team, it's not just one role with my position,” he said. “We're a defensive team. We're an offensive team, and there are so many different roles, depending on what the game brings. So you could answer that in a ton of different ways.”
Or, in a roundabout way, in none – and that's just Zusi being himself, manager Peter Vermes said.
“He's very humble,” Vermes said later in Wednesday's news conference. “He actually doesn't like talking at all about himself. It's probably the hardest thing for him to do. You ask him a question, and he starts talking about somebody else when it pertains to him.”
Vermes was happy to warm to the topic of Zusi, who had two assists – including the corner kick that set up John Brooks' late winner against Ghana – last summer in Brazil.
“His intangibles are endless,” Vermes said. “Great pro. Leads by example, isn't like a rah-rah guy. There's not a play in the game that he ever gives up on. No matter what I ask him to do, he does it. He doesn't ever question it.”
And in those respects, Vermes said, Zusi is like a couple of Spanish greats who also star for FC Barcelona.
Vermes recalled a conversation he had with late Barca manager Tito Vilanova, who was his club teammate with Spanish side UE Figueres in the early 1990s.
“I remember we had lunch, and I was asking him a question about Barcelona,” Vermes said. “I was asking him what it was like to manage the team. He said, 'To be honest with you, a lot of people think it would be difficult. But it's very easy to manage the players when I can take Xavi or [Andres] Iniesta and stick them on the bench. And I don't even tell them for this game why they're not in the game. I can call one of them at halftime and stick him in the game, and he gets ready, goes in the game, and he gives me everything. And then I can take the other one and stick him in in the 89th minute, and he gets ready, he steps in the game, and he's willing to give everything for whatever time is left in the game – never complains, never asks a question.'”
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Vermes paused, and went on:
“I would say the same thing if somebody asked me about Graham. He has a true winning mentality. He really does.”
Zusi's quiet, stoic approach to the game has a downside, though, Vermes said, and likely has contributed to the knocks he's taken over the course of his career.
“I don't think he gets the kind of respect that he should in the league, when it comes to the referees,” Vermes said. “I think he gets taken down, hit, grabbed, pulled, all those things quite often, and there's other guys in this league who come in that haven't done half of what he's done, and he doesn't. It's beyond me. It really is. I think that he's – I don't think there's a team in this league that wouldn't take him on their team, because of what he brings game in and game out.”
Zusi could try to sell contact more to officials, Vermes said, but – like going on at length about his own importance to the team – it wouldn't be in his nature.
“It's not his style,” Vermes said, “and you would think that if you were a ref you would understand that and have respect for that.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
