Columbus Crew: Caleb Porter apologizes for comments made about trading Gyasi Zardes
Jacob MyersCrew coach Caleb Porter acknowledged and has apologized to fans who were angry about comments he made regarding why the Crew no longer viewed striker Gyasi Zardes as the long-term solution as the team's go-to goalscorer.
Porter said on Tuesday that he was starting to see Zardes miss a few chances that he would normally make. He said the Crew needed a player who would consistently score 15-20 goals in a season and believed the 30-year-old Zardes would regress as a reliable goalscorer over the years he would be on a new contract if the Crew re-signed him.
"We just feel like right now is the time," Porter said. "He's not on the up. I'd say he's not falling off the cliff like some players do, but slowly he's going to start going down because of his age, and again, we just need a little bit more."
Following a 3-0 win against D.C. United at Lower.com Field on Saturday night, Porter shared that he was sorry for those words.
"One of those moments I want to address about being better was my comments about Gyasi," he said. "To be honest with you, in reflecting on that, I didn't like my choice of words that I used in discussing the trade. I reached out to him and apologized personally to him as well. By no means were some of the words I used and the phrases that I used indicative of how I feel about him as a player, as a person. Obviously, it's a great win tonight, but I'm sure a lot of the fans — for good reason — didn't like some of those comments, and I didn't like them myself afterwards."
The apology followed a question about whether or not he felt a win helped his job security. The Crew ended a five-game MLS winless streak, and a six-game winless streak in all competitions.
"I don't think like that. I just do my job," Porter said. "I've been doing this a long time and obviously there's external pressures. We talk about that a lot as a team internally in our locker room how there's a ton of external pressure. But what we focus on is the internal process and staying positive, focus on preparation and our performance, and we block out the pressure and the noise. Otherwise I wouldn't be in this as long as I've been."
The Crew improved to 3-3-3 and rose to fifth place in the Eastern Conference.
