Giacomo Vrioni: "I'm Never Frustrated Because I Think That if I Didn't Play, It Was Always for a Reason"

The striker reflected on his difficult start to the 2023 season.

Photo By ©J. Alexander Dolan

Giacomo Vrioni hasn’t started the 2023 Major League Soccer season as he ideally would have liked to but the striker isn’t upset over his lack of playing time.

Vrioni received his first start since the season-opening match against Charlotte FC and the 24-year-old had a solid performance. In 76 minutes played, the striker tallied 19 touches and four shots.

The Albanian international was constantly breaking through Columbus’ back line and almost found his second goal of the season. After scoring a goal in the previous game against CF Montreal, Vrioni seems to have his groove back.

While more focused on voicing his displeasure towards the officiating crew, head coach and sporting director Bruce Arena did touch on his striker’s performance.

“[Vrioni] did a solid job. He did a solid job,” Arena said. “He got some chances and held the ball up pretty well.”

Even though the 24-year-old has struggled to find playing time, he told media after the draw against the Crew that he hasn’t been frustrated by the competition for starts in 2023.

“I'm never frustrated because I think that if I didn't play, it was always for a reason,” Vrioni said. “So, I try everyday to work in training and my training after to try to better things and to not make the mistakes that normally I do. It's part of the process, so I have to trust the process because I think that in the end it will come. I feel good with the team, and I think we keep going now. I think that this game has to give us a lot of positive energy because today we played against a really, really good team away, and it really was a good performance.”

Vrioni has done enough to maintain his spot in the starting XI. The fact that Gustavo Bou and Bobby Wood missed out on this match due to injury appears to solidify the Italian’s place in the starting lineup.

The 24-year-old has handled his obstacles the right way and now he is getting rewarded for his hard work. He will look to continue cooking up some goals at home when New England faces Sporting Kansas City at Gillette Stadium on April 22.