In early 2017 Daniel Lovitz was unemployed, hanging around his childhood home in Wyndmoor, PA, waiting for a phone call that might not ever come.
Things weren’t going as originally planned. He left Toronto FC after the 2016 season and had just trialed for 10 days with the Vancouver Whitecaps in the United Kingdom.
“The Vancouver trial was very promising,” Lovitz said. “I didn’t know exactly what position they were going to play me at, but I thought I had a really good camp and I’d shown well.”
Lovitz, a natural winger with a knack for crossing, had been slowly transitioning into a more defensive role during his three years in Toronto, and was still in a positional-limbo.
“I thought whether it be left wing or left back they’d find a way to use me the way they see fit,” Lovitz said, “but that didn’t end up working out.”
Back in Wyndmoor, a suburb of Philadelphia, Lovitz grew anxious. He didn’t know who would be on the other end of the line.
As time winded down to the start of the 2017 season, Lovitz’s prospect of remaining an MLS player started to dwindle.
“I heard a couple teams were interested but no one was inviting me to come to camp,” Lovitz said.
“That was a pretty dark time to be honest. It made me contemplate some things – whether this was going to work out for me. I knew I was good enough, but maybe that was my shot in Toronto and was it ill advised to force my way out or make it clear that I wanted out.”
Lovitz was drafted by Toronto FC in the second round of the 2014 MLS Superdraft and spent three years there.
He ended up making 18 appearances in his first year and started five times and notched two assists.
It was a respectable rookie campaign, but in the following season, Toronto switched to a 3-5-2.
Without any wingers, Lovitz was forced to change his role. Head coach Greg Vanney tried him at both forward and wingback, but never anywhere on a consistent basis.
“At the time, I wasn’t getting consistent minutes, so that was frustrating for myself and for the club as well, as they were looking for someone in that position,” he said. “Luckily Justin Morrow was able to be there and have a couple incredible years there.”
In 2015, Lovitz made 11 apperances, and started just three matches. He ended up playing just 350 minutes total in that season, almost of half his total time in his rookie season.
“My rookie year I was just excited to get on the field,” Lovitz said. “The next year I was looking to solidify a spot and never really had that, but I had to deal with some injuries, to be fair.”
The following year wasn’t any better.
Lovitz made 12 apperances and played just 400 minutes. Toronto ended up losing in the MLS Cup final, and in its six-game run, Lovitz didn’t make the 18 once.
“My biggest regret looking back was that I wasn’t more forthright and upfront with the coaching staff in Toronto,” Lovitz said. “I feel like I was too respectful and maybe too quiet when I was worried or frustrated about certain things. For a guy that’s not playing to not get feedback, that’s difficult.”
In the end it was a learning experience. Lovitz’s biggest takeaway was to that he needed to be more open and have a discourse with the coaching staff where ever he ended up playing.
“I think If I had done that, at times they would have dealt with me differently and things would have been different,” Lovitz said. “At the end of the day that falls back on me and being shy or being too uncomfortable having confrontations. It didn’t really help me out career-wise that’s for sure, so after that whole experience I’ve decided I’m going to put myself out there and everything that I am is going to be on the table: take it or leave it.”
Because of that revelation, Toronto wasn’t lost time, but something that Lovitz looks back on fondly as a place where he grew professionally.
“My time in Toronto was great for a lot of reasons, I grew up in a lot of ways as a player and as a person it was a great learning experience for me,” he said. “We agreed that communication wasn’t great and towards the end of my third year it was pretty clear that I was going to look to relocate somewhere and it was just a matter of finding the right fit and landing on my feet. I never expected it to be Montreal.”
Lovitz knew he belonged in MLS despite his playing time in Toronto and that it was just a matter of time that a club realized that as well.
“I thought I was good enough to play in MLS and frankly I thought I was good enough to play for the team I just left,” Lovitz said. “I was just holding on and waiting for an opportunity and I thought Vancouver was going to be it.”
After the failed trial with Vancouver, he realized that there could be a possibility that an MLS team wouldn’t come knocking. However, Lovitz didn’t want to get into that mindset.
“I wasn’t allowing myself to go too far down any of those roads [retirement or USL]but I definitely knew what lied at the end of each one,” Lovitz said. “At the time I didn’t feel like I was a USL player, I knew that I could find a team most likely and get some playing time.”
“If I thought I was a stretch for me to be in MLS player or starter I wouldn’t have blinked I would have gone down the USL road and worked my way up.”
Eventually, it was a call from Montreal that came. He was asked to fly down to Tampa Bay the following morning for the final preseason trip.
“They were looking for depth,” Lovitz said. “I thought I showed pretty well and understood they really liked the squad that they had, and it would be an uphill battle for some time.”
That didn’t demotivate Lovitz. At this point, he was glad to have a team that was willing to take a shot on him.
“I know my parents especially where happy to have me out of the house,” he said. “I was pretty miserable to be around.”
Playing in Montreal wasn’t what Lovitz expected, but neither was what happened next.
The starting left back, Ambroise Oyongo, ruptured his patella tendon in his right knee while on international duty in June with reigning African Cup of Nations champion, Cameroon.
“The one thing I learned in Toronto and my first year in Montreal,” Lovitz said, “is that you never know when your opportunity is going to come and it’s never going to look like what you think it will.”
He quickly solidified and earned the left back role for the remainder of the 2017 season.
Lovitz wasn’t an experienced defender when his time came. He had some appearances in defensive positions but never at this consistency and had even played on the wing for the Impact before the injury to Oyongo.
There were some growing pains to adapting to that defensive role.
“The main thing [to learn]is defensive instincts,” he said. “I think that is pretty easy to wrap your head around it once you’ve been exposed once or twice in a game. That kind of hits home and you sort yourself out.”
The Montreal Impact named Lovitz the defender of the year that season. Oyongo left at the end of that year and currently plays for Montpellier in Ligue 1.
“In hindsight I was really lucky to land in a place like Montreal,” Lovitz said, “and to get a bit of luck, unfortunately at the misfortune at someone else, but I was able to step in and play and not really look back.”
The next year, 2018 was then the first full season where Lovitz saw consistent game time. He started 29 matches that year, and notched five assists and one goal, which also won Montreal’s goal of the season.
VOTRE but de l'année 2018 #IMFC, présenté par @husqvarnaca
On laisse @FLord_TVA de @TVASports vous l'annoncer ???
This is YOUR 2018 IMFC Goal of the Year, presented by Husqvarna@dlovitz11 ??? pic.twitter.com/x79qYdgdGC
— Impact de Montréal (@impactmontreal) November 27, 2018
Things began to snowball quickly for him. He got the recognition from Montreal, but in December of 2018, he received a call from the U.S. Mens National Team for January camp.
“Obviously as an American growing up playing soccer from like four years old and you always watch the national team,” Lovitz said. “I tried to wrap mr head around what that would be like and to get to the point in my career.”
The January camp was just MLS players, as it was their offseason. The group trained for the first time under new coach Gregg Berhalter and learned his new system.
“I loved the system, I thought it was great, but I was a little bit – well it was new,” Lovitz said. “I thought I was going to come in and we were going to play some traditional system with out-and-out fullbacks. But when it came down to it, if they asked me to play goalie I would have grabbed the gloves and I wouldn’t have cared.”
The system was new for a lot of the players. A lot of traditional roles changed, but the fullbacks had one of the biggest adaptations.
The right back tucked in, and played as a pseudo defensive midfielder, while Lovitz at left back was essentially playing as a center back in a three-man backline.
It was quite a jump for someone who just two years ago was considered a winger.
“It wasn’t exactly that clear in terms of that position and it was something that the entire group was trying to wrap our heads around and that’s why camp was so awesome,” he said. “Everyone, including myself, was trying to figure out exactly what we were trying to do and the details of how things flowed.”
The camp ended, and many U.S. fans were still trying to decipher what the final squad would look like once the players from Europe were incorporated.
The 2019 MLS season started a few months later and Lovitz returned to his role in Montreal, now a veteran to MLS time.
Then the March international break arrived – the last international break before the Gold Cup in the summer – and the players from abroad were incorporated into the team.
Lovitz once again made the squad and was one of the 11 MLS players to get a second call-up under Berhalter.
“I looked around and saw I’m in the conversation for being the best left backs that are American in MLS which is incredible to think about,” he said. “But I want to look around and say I AM the best in this position in the league. I don’t want it to be a surprise anymore.”
It’s been a long time since that 2017 offseason where Lovitz was without a team.
One of the potential roads Lovitz was contemplating, if an MLS team didn’t come knocking, was to get an MBA. He graduated from Elon with a Bachelor’s in Business administration and management, and getting a masters was the next logical step.
Lovitz later decided to pursue the MBA as well as his soccer career. He’s currently in his second year and his studies have become something he’s passionate about.
“Maybe it was a blessing in disguise, to get that ball rolling,” he said of his time between clubs. “To work on something during the day that’s productive versus watching Netflix or playing video games: It’s a lot of work, it’s certainly hectic at times but it’s something that I’m proud to be doing.”
After receiving the March call-up, Lovitz looked back on his mindset throughout his development.
“I was just having this conversation with my parents on the phone last night. When I got drafted I felt like ‘you know what, whatever happens, I can die happy, I got drafted in the MLS, that’s so amazing I never thought this would be – who would have thought that would be in the cards for me that’s amazing.’ And then I’m thinking ‘jeez if I could sign a contract how amazing would that be’ and then ‘if I could get into a game, imagine being able to say I’ve gotten into an MLS game’ and things progressed.”
“Eventually the call came in December and everything has changed since then. It’s been a new recalibration to find out what’s possible because, like I said when I got drafted, I thought I could be happy there and stop there but I just want to keep pushing forward.”
