Ola Kamara emerged as one of a few beacons of light in an otherwise dark 2016 for Columbus Crew SC.
Just a season removed from nearly clinching the club’s second MLS Cup title, the postseason itself proved elusive. Columbus stumbled to a ninth place finish in the Eastern Conference and ended up 18th in the overall MLS table.
Injuries, a leaky defense and down years from some key players played a part in the pullback. But amidst all the doom and gloom, Kamara established himself as one of Major League Soccer’s elite goal-scorers.
Ola Kamara Looks to Build on Last Year’s Scoring Success for Columbus Crew SC
Kamara’s 2016 Coming Out Party
It’s a far cry from when he first joined Crew SC in the off-season last year. Back then, Kei Kamara (no relation) was the go-to number nine up top and expected to be for the foreseeable future. After all, his 26 goals across the 2015 regular season and playoffs paved the way for the club’s MLS Cup appearance.
But then the events both during and after Columbus’ May 7th fixture with the Montreal Impact transpired. There’s no need to give an exhaustive account considering it’s pretty much common knowledge to anyone familiar with MLS. But it forced Crew SC to trade Kei to the New England Revolution and gave Ola his opportunity.
Needless to say, he made the most of it. Though he started just 20 games and appeared in 60.75 percent of the team’s overall minutes, Kamara netted 16 goals. Only four other players in the entire league (Bradley Wright-Phillips, 24; David Villa, 23; Sebastian Giovinco, 17; Ignacio Piatti, 17) found the goal more often.
Another way to gauge scoring effectiveness as a function of time on the pitch is a metric called goals per 90. It involves taking goals scored and dividing it by the quotient of a given player’s minutes played and 90. The following graphic gives a pretty clear-cut example of Kamara’s finishing ability last year.
Major League Soccer Goals per 90 Top 10, 2016 (minimum 1,000 minutes played, includes playoffs)
Bigger and Better Things for 2017?
In Major League Soccer, there’s a certain threshold that turns an impressive yearly scoring haul into a one-of-a-kind campaign. A player who reaches 20 or more goals in a given season truly enters elite territory in the history of this league. Such a notion becomes particularly evident considering only 19 players have ever crossed that plateau in 21 MLS seasons.
This is, of course, a logical next step in the 27-year-old’s MLS career. Now the incumbent point striker in manager Gregg Berhalter‘s 4-2-3-1 shape, Kamara will have a full 34-game slate ahead of him to reach this milestone. The requisite increase in minutes might allow him to get there even if his goals per 90 comes down from last year’s lofty number.
Ultimately, Kamara isn’t too worried about his final tally in 2017. What’s important to him is playing his role in getting Crew SC back to playoffs within a broader team concept.
“I don’t like to put numbers on (a goal-scoring total) but, of course, you always want to improve,” Kamara said during Crew SC media day Thursday. “16 was (what I had) last year and I hope to do better this year.”
“I’m taking it game for game and just trying to score as many as possible and not putting a limit (on it).”
Will Another Prolific Season Garner a Norway Call-Up?
Crew SC’s current squad contains a plethora of players with extensive international experience. The off-season signings of Jukka Raitala and Jonathan Mensah to shore up the back line makes that even more apparent. Kamara himself has seven caps with Norway’s senior national team. His last appearance came on January 18, 2014 in a friendly with Poland.
There are quite a few recent examples of MLS players parlaying dynamic play with their respective clubs into a national team call-up. Montreal’s Laurent Ciman (Belgium) and Colorado’s Shkelzen Gashi (Albania) even made their respective teams’ Euro 2016 squad last summer. If Kamara’s form holds up and even improves, will it warrant interest from new Norway manager Lars Lagerbäck?
Challenges certainly abound at present. The Norwegians boast a few in-form strikers right now, including Joshua King. He currently leads English Premier League side AFC Bournemouth with seven goals. Another EPL-based forward from Norway is Adama Diomande who’s made seven starts for Hull City.
Additionally, Alexander Søderlund is worth mentioning, currently plying his trade with French Ligue 1 outfit Saint Etienne. Though he’s only made nine starts combined in domestic league and European play, he scored a brace against Belgian Club Anderlecht in the Europa League on December 8th last year.
Kamara mentioned on Thursday that he’s had conversations. But the above situation certainly warrants a realistic approach regarding the possibility of getting called up.
“They talked to me a little bit last year,” Kamara noted. “But, you know, we have two strikers in the Premier League and we have one in France as well.”
“But we’ve got a new national coach now with Lagerbäck and hopefully I can get into the squad. Because if I can perform here I should be able to perform there.”
