Photo Credit: MLS Soccer
HARRISON, N.J. — The match was reaching its final stretch, 74 minutes having come and gone and Kemar Lawrence was still running like the opening whistle had just sounded. Down the left flank he went, pushing through with another blistering run made worthwhile by a smart ball in from his teammate Felipe.
The left-back took a touch into the space he found himself in, peaked his head up for a second before delivering a delicious ball into the far post, finding teammate Daniel Royer for the goal that would hand the New York Red Bulls all three points in a 2-1 win over regional rival New England Revolution.
It put an exclamation mark on the latest of a string of brilliant performances from Jamaican, another 90 minute outing where he was everywhere on the pitch, a controlled freight train going through his stops as quickly as possible, maintaining a high level of composure the whole way.
Lawrence provided the third assist in his past six appearances — not including his cross which was fumbled by New England’s Cody Cropper and put away by Bradley Wright-Phillips — a stretch in which he also contributed a game-winning goal against the Chicago Fire.
“I think Kemar, for the past six weeks, has been easily our best player,” Wright-Phillips said, a high compliment from one of the greatest to ever don the club’s jersey. “Even when we lost, the guy, I don’t know, he’s been possessed. He’s really hard to deal with and not just going forward, going back, his recovery tackles, everything. He’s been really good.”
The stretch of success comes following a difficult start to the season for the Jamaican.
Struggling through a slow start, Lawrence was not in the squad when the Red Bulls traveled to Seattle to take on the Sounders in their third match day in early March, the reason at the time being named as “personal reasons.”
It’s now known that those reasons were due to the death of his grandmother, who passed away earlier this year, something Lawrence referred to in his post-match comments Saturday.
While he admits that the passage of time has allowed him to focus more on soccer, Lawrence said you can “never just put an essential part of your life away.”
“My grandma was my rock, my best friend. She’s the person I spoke about every day, spoke to every day and it’s weird some days when she’s just not around,” Lawrence said. “Everyday I miss her and there’s still a space in my life … I pray every day and ask God to fill that spot with some joy for me and every day, it gets easier and easier.”
Lawrence said he’s had “so much anger lately,” an emotion he said he’s expressing on the field, where he allows himself to escape from his thoughts.
That anger has led to a high level of production on the pitch that hasn’t gone unnoticed, with each of the last two man-of-the-match awards voted on by the fans in a post-match Twitter poll being given to him.
It’s moments like the assist from Saturday night that will win him those awards and will catch the attention of those watching the match on highlight reels but it was just one of the many blistering runs he made to support the attack, his overlaps consistently causing fits to the visitors attacks.
His best moments against the Revolution came doing what his position demands and what he loves doing the most.
Lawrence was nearly perfect on the defensive end of the pitch, never letting his contributions in the final third take away from his other responsibilities. He found the energy to negate not one, not two but three counterattacks from New England, the last of which an impressive trackback in which he caught up to Kei Kamara when the Revolution striker saw nothing but green between himself and Luis Robles.
“I love defending. It’s just natural for me,” Lawrence said. “I like to get up and I like to get down the field but it’s just a joy sometimes to have that feeling (of stopping a counterattack), to have a guy feel like he’s going to get it and i’m just right on time to sneak it off his foot.”
Lawrence uses the word ‘joy’ numerous times in a three-minute interview, a short glimpse but enough to notice nonetheless. It’s the emotion one thinks of when speaking to Kemar, watching him smile as he talks about his assist against the Revolution to a small pool of reporters at his locker or to MSG Network’s Tina Cervasio after that game-winning goal against Chicago.
His infectious personality is among the many things his head coach highlighted in the post-game praise he delivered to the left-back.
“I think Kemar has been, if not our best player, than one of our best players. He started out slow, he had some personal things he had to fight through with his family, but my gosh, he’s playing the best he’s ever played,” said Red Bulls manager Jesse Marsch. “We all, I think, have a high belief in Kemar, in his personality and his talent and his way of committing to all this. I’m really proud of him, I’m really happy for him. Hopefully, we won’t miss him too long this summer.”
Marsch is referring to Lawrence’s likely appearance in the Gold Cup — the bi-yearly international competition between members of CONCACAF, North America’s football federation — for his home country this summer. It begins the first weekend of July for every team and runs through the last weekend of the month for the two countries which make the final, meaning Lawrence would miss up to four of his team’s matches if Jamaica sees the same success it did in 2015.
It was then in the competition’s last edition that Lawrence’s side reached the ultimate match, defeating the hosts United States in the semi-finals before eventually falling to Mexico in the final at Lincoln Financial Field, a stadium just under 100 miles away from his home at Red Bull Arena.
And though he’s having one of, if not the best stretch of his career at the moment back home in Harrison, Lawrence won’t be in a rush to return from international duty.
“I’m trying to make it to the finals and win this time, so I hope I’m away as long as possible,” Lawrence said with a laugh, a smile as wide as the pitch on which he covers every blade of grass flashing across his face.
Follow Brian Fonseca on Twitter @briannnnf for updates. Email him at brianfilipefonseca@gmail.com with questions, concerns, tips or story ideas.
