Curt Onalfo, like several coaches before, rolled the dice when he brought Carlos Marinelli to Kansas City.  Part and parcel to Onalfo’s plan for an “attacking” team is a skillful, ball carrying central midfielder.  Carlos Marinelli can be such a player when he’s healthy physically and psychologically focused, a balance he has not exhibited with consistency in his professional career so far.  His tenure in Kansas City seems to be going the way of his many previous stops as he finds himself outside of the Wizards line up more and more.

Marinelli is a special talent, one that has been noticed since he played as a teenager for the storied Boca Juniors in Argentina.  Argentina boasts some of the greatest footballers to ever play the game, none more prominent and noteworthy than Diego Maradona.  Carlos Marinelli showed such promise as a teen, he was labeled the “New Maradona” by the Argentinean media.  You can’t blame Curt Onalfo for taking a chance on a guy with that kind of scouting report.  Imagine even half of Maradona’s talent possessed in one person playing in the MLS.  Maybe the label was a curse.  At any rate, his reputation coming from Boca as a youngster landed him in the EPL with Middlesbrough (who paid a hefty sum for him) in 2000 at age 18.    The New Maradona never could establish a rhythm suffering various nagging  and sometimes puzzling injuries managing to play only 46 games in four seasons with Middlesbrough.  He did a short stint with Torino on loan from Middlesbrough, but ultimately was forced back to Argentina in 2004 in an attempt to re-establish himself.  Flashes of his predicted potential showed again as he bounced from Boca to Racing, then to Torino in Argentina.  The previous hype surrounding Marinelli could not have been empty as Portuguese scouts signed him to SC Braga in 2006.  Marinelli has a lure about him.  He has tremendous vision in the offensive half of the field and can do special things with the ball.  His accurate left foot makes him especially valuable as an attacking midfieler.  Marinelli has a way of impressing teams, lifting expectations, and making each coach think he’s about to break through.  Unfortunately he played just 4 games in the Portuguese first division with Braga before suffering another injury.  In 2007, even with a track record of puzzling injuries and seeming mental frailty (maybe these are related),  another coach decided to take a chance on the enigmatic halfback and he became a Kansas City Wizard.

If you have watched Marinelli this past MLS season and a half, he has moments of brilliance.  The moments just aren’t long enough to establish any kind of role for him.  At $115,000 per year, a talent like Marinelli could establish himself as a second half, off the bench spark for his team, much like he was against Real Salt Lake in Kansas City a couple weeks ago.  While the Wizards won the game on an own goal, Marinelli was the offensive catalyst that pushed KC over the edge in game they had to win.  Maybe Carlos will never be a 90-minute player, a solid offensive spark-type player is a legitimate role for a player in this league.  The problem with Marinelli is as local KC blogger Thad Bell wrote- “Carlos can play fantastic attacking mid for an average of 30 minutes every 4 games.”  It seems this has been Marinelli’s tendency his entire career, there are no signs it will change in Kansas City.

The Wizards pre-season line up was largely shaped around Marinelli’s attacking ability and creativity.  He had a very strong pre-season in his homeland, I am sure Onalfo and Vermes were salivating.  The Wizards charged out of the gates in the early games of the season and Marinelli had three pretty assists to Jimmy Conrad and many other solid serves and shots.  It really seemed after 3 games that Marinelli may have shaken his old demons.  Then came the Houston game.  Marinelli started the game, then seemed to tweak his groin.  He’s been spotty ever since.  After 16 league games for the Wizards, Marinelli has played in only 11 and has logged just 635 minutes.  Much of the Wizards floundering on the road after those opening games can be attributed to the absence of Marinelli.  Much stock was put in his being the main ball carrying midfielder, when he stopped playing regularly after the fourth game, it marked a clear change in the KC Midfield.  The few times he has played have yielded some good moments, but still more times when he disappears.  Maybe it’s a nagging groin pull or hamstring strain, perhaps it’s a psychological flaw, most likely it’s a combination.  He was mysteriously absent from practice earlier in the week prompting another local KC blogger, Mike Kuhn, to ask “Where in the world is Carlos Marinelli?”

Since 2000 Marinelli has played for 8 different clubs.  The first seven stints started with high expectations, contained flashes of virtuosity, then ended with injury and lack of production.  There are no signs that his current stay with the Wizards will be different.