Alexey Miranchuk is the fourth Russian foreign player in the history of MLS since the American-Canadian league was founded in 1993. His predecessors were a former national team striker, the best player of one of the first Russian championships, as well as two players whose names hardly mean anything. We remember all our legionaries in America.
Everything you need to know about Miranchuk’s new club
The main thing about Alexey Miranchuk’s new club in the United States is that Russia would be envious of such a presence.
Igor Simutenkov: He almost won gold in MLS
The first Russian to play in the MLS was the current Zenit coach. Simutenkov started his career brilliantly: at the age of 21 he became the top scorer of the Russian Championship in the 1994 season, scored 21 goals for Dynamo Moscow and was recognized as the best player in the league. Then he made his debut in the national team. It is not surprising that the striker soon left for Europe. Over the next seven seasons, Igor played for Reggiana and Bologna in Italy and Tenerife in Spain.
In the 2001/2002 season, Simutenkov played little for Tenerife due to injury and the restriction on foreign players. He sued the Spanish Football Federation to have Russians no longer considered foreign players in the local championship. But only years later he won this case. And in the summer of 2002, the striker had to leave Spain so that, at the age of 29, he would not waste time on the bench. Igor unexpectedly accepted an offer from the MLS: he moved to the Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting Kansas City) as a free agent.
“I had almost a full option to move to Colorado in December, but at the last moment, in January, two MLS teams went bankrupt and their players were redistributed to other clubs in the draft. Colorado took two players from each team and there was no place for me anymore. Then, in May, we talked again, but this time with Kansas City. I gladly accepted because I was interested in playing abroad. I fully understood that this would be a different reality, but I still wanted to try. I wasn’t really looking for adventure, but just a new challenge for myself. I had a short conversation with the coach and it was he who showed interest in me playing for him,” Simutenkov recalled about his departure to MLS.
Igor Simutenkov in the MLS
Photo: Brian Bahr/Getty Images
Simutenkov joined the team during the 2002 season. Kansas City was champion in 2000, winning both the regular season and the playoffs. Then the team took a serious step backwards and in 2002 it completely became one of the outsiders of the MLS. It finished eighth in the 10-team tournament and lost to the Los Angeles Galaxy in the first round of the playoffs. The Russian played 22 games that season and scored 5+4, including a goal in three playoff games.
Simutenkov then played for Kansas City for two more years before returning to the RPL at the end of his career. The first of these two seasons turned out to be quite good: 7+3 in 21 regular season matches and 2+1 in two playoff matches. Kansas City finished in the top 4, and in the playoffs they lost only to the future champion San Jose in the semi-finals 2:3, despite Igor opening the scoring. But in the last season, Simutenkov played only nine matches and scored only one goal. In the regular season, Kansas City took second place, and in the knockout games they reached the final, where they were defeated by DC United 2:3. The Russian participated in three playoff matches and gave one assist.
Overall, Simutenkov came very close to winning the trophy in the United States, but fell short. The Russian, who is used to playing European football, was surprised by something in the MLS.
“In the United States, there is less psychological influence. There is not so much enthusiasm from the press, television and fans, everything is calmer. For example, at nine in the morning you arrive at the stadium, you get ready for training and classes start at 10:00 or 10:30. The work continues for an hour and a half, then you have physiotherapy or massages, and then at one or two in the afternoon you are free and left to your own devices. The United States definitely has its own specifics. I was also surprised that when the team leaves, each player is left alone for the night. You are free to go wherever you want. You choose where to go for dinner. That is, you get money for dinner and then you decide. The youngsters always went to McDonald’s and tried to spend less to leave money for the future. And the Spanish-speaking players, Colombians, Mexicans, Argentines, more often went to a Brazilian restaurant to eat meat. Another specific thing is that in MLS everything is very well organized in terms of flights, transportation and infrastructure,” Simutenkov noted.
Reaction to Miranchuk’s transfer
Officially
Alexey Miranchuk is in the United States! He is going there for football and must become the best version of himself.
Rodion Dyachenko: He left Russia and grew up in the United States
Attacking midfielder/forward Dyachenko is a completely unknown footballer in our country, as he has never played in Russia. Originally from the Stavropol Territory, he moved with his family to the United States as a young man, where he studied football and played for the University of Nevada in Las Vegas team. In 2005, he was recognized as the best football player in the student league, after which DC United selected him in the MLS draft with the 31st pick.
“He’s a very intelligent player, he has good ball handling skills. Rod is still young and inexperienced, but he has great skills. Maybe like no one else in the league has done,” DC United coach Peter Novak said of Dyachenko.
Dyachenko made his MLS debut in 2006 at the age of 22 and played three seasons in the league with United. Rodion has yet to become a prominent figure in the local championship. In total he played 42 games (13 starts), scored one goal and provided two assists.
Rodion Dyachenko in an MLS match
Photo: Fake Images
It is true that Dyachenko also had his best time in the MLS. In the 2007 season, DC United reached the playoffs in Chicago. The first match the team lost away from home 0:1 and Rodion remained in the reserve team. But in the return match at home he came on as a substitute when the score was 0:2 and gave two assists. But DC United only managed a 2:2 draw, which was not enough to reach the semi-finals. In addition, in the 90+4 minute, Dyachenko received a direct red card for a blatant foul.
“I was young, I hadn’t yet developed as a footballer. I lacked experience, stability and… tenacity, perseverance or something like that. There is a lot of competition in MLS clubs. If you don’t make the list, you will be eliminated and others will be invited to take your place. I lasted three years. That’s still not bad,” Dyachenko admitted, explaining why he didn’t stay in MLS.
Rodion then played briefly for U.S. minor league teams and then played for eight years in Asia, in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Maxim Usanov: spent a year in Canada and played in the Champions League
Usanov graduated from Zenit. He started in the blue-white-blue youth team and was recruited to the Russian youth team. In 2005, the St. Petersburg club sold the versatile 19-year-old player, who played as a defender and defensive midfielder, to Skonto Riga. After that, Maxim played on loan at Riga, Nalchik Spartak and Alania, and in the 2009 season he ended up in Krasnodar. But Usanov played only two matches in the RPL during his career, while still in Nalchik.
In general, this player was not a star, but in the 2010 season he unexpectedly ended up in an MLS club. The Canadians liked Maxim and signed a contract with Toronto. Usanov himself told how this happened:
“It was winter, I almost signed a contract with a Russian team, when suddenly they announced that there was an option with Toronto. At first I thought it was the Canadian championship and I wasn’t particularly inspired, but they explained to me that it was about the top American league – MLS. We had to fly to see it. This is a different story. The team is training in the United States, we need to apply for a visa. I arrived at the US embassy in Latvia, they saw that I had an invitation from the MLS club, they did everything in one day and wished me good luck. But when the training camp was over, the team returned to Canada. I needed a Canadian visa, but there is no embassy in Latvia. The closest embassy to Riga is in Warsaw. I got in the car, left at night, arrived during the day and got the visa in three hours. Visas are on your own, the flight to Canada was paid for by the agents.”
Maxim Usanov in MLS
Photo: Abelimages/Getty Images
Toronto was still far from being in the running for the MLS title. At the end of the 2009 regular season, the Canadian team finished 12th in the 15-team tournament. It did not make it to the playoffs. The following season, with Usanov already in the lineup, Toronto finished 11th and the league expanded to 16 clubs. Maxim needed time to adapt: football in MLS seemed easy to the Russian legionnaire. But the projection was a success.
“I hardly knew English. Coaches shout, throw balls, everyone runs faster and faster, but I don’t understand anything. At first I thought: ‘Where have I ended up?’ But then they started playing and I got involved. After a month or two I began to understand what they were talking about in the locker room, and after three or four I began to communicate normally. The American league has a similar style to the English league. A lot of fighting, high pace, running back and forth. The goalkeeper, having caught the ball, doesn’t think at all, doesn’t stop and immediately kicks it forward. We even asked him not to rush and let us catch our breath,” Usanov said.
As a result, the Russian played 14 games for Toronto in the MLS (almost all as a starter, only once as a substitute) and four in the CONCACAF Champions League. Maxim did not make any effective action and was eliminated. The team again did not make it to the playoffs and Usanov himself returned to Russia at the end of that season.
The material uses quotes from interviews with Zenit’s official website, Sport Express and Nevskoe Vremya publications.
