Greg Garza stood on the sideline Tuesday morning with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the field. Garza, who’s injured with a low-grade quadriceps strain, was not a full participant in FC Cincinnati’s first practice as a Major League Soccer club.
But he was there, which is more than he expected early last week when he was in U.S. Men’s National Team training camp. Then, the injury sidelined the left back. He decided to leave training camp early so he could join his new club from day one.
While he’s a new face to MLS’ newest club, he’s a proven left back with national team experience, and more important for FCC, has proven success with expansion clubs.
Cincinnati the third expansion team that Garza has joined. The first was Club Tijuana earlier this decade, followed by Atlanta United in 2017. Those two sides won a league championship in their second seasons.
“Hopefully, we can bring something home to this city in a year or two,” Garza said.
So, as FC Cincinnati conducts its inaugural MLS preseason, perhaps there’s no better source than Garza to help explain what works best for an expansion club to find early success.
“Every guy on this team is chosen for a specific reason,” he said. “Alan and Luke and all those guys built this team, so they know why we’re all here. I think the most important thing for us is gelling on and off the field as much as possible.”
While this injury kept him out of making his first national team appearance in two years — and out of practice Tuesday — it allowed him to join his new expansion club from the start. That means there’s more time to build chemistry.
“Getting those relationships started and chemistry built is probably the most important thing for a pro coming into an environment where you have so many different languages and different cultures,” Garza said. “I’ve been there before. Now to be at another new project feels wonderful and hopefully we get started as quickly as possible.”
