We all know what the announcement is: 'The potential owners have backed away because all the local governmental officials are going to jail.' It's one thing to work with corrupt politicians (redundant I know) but it's another to work with ones that are getting caught. also Goff just wrote
Could the announcement be the re-signing of Boskovic? Not a big announcement, really, but an important one.
So DC United traded a 1st Round Supplemental pick in the 2015 draft to Vancouver for Long Tan (F). This really makes no sense to me. Adding a someone at forward is totally unnecessary unless they're getting rid of one of the current ones, which would be stupid.
They were desperate to get rid of him after he publicly moaned about playing time. He's going to have just as hard a time here as he did there, in that respect, which is a bad sign. I recall that DC has looked at him a few times in the past, but never pulled the trigger. I predict a few late-game minutes here and there, waived in the off-season, and then he scores a game-winner against us next year.
I like the move. Our stable of strikers has a lot of strengths but speed and mobility are not one of them. Long Tan can help in that area.
When I traveled to Vancouver last season I definitely remembering him coming on to a chorus of "Oh! We so horny! Oh, oh! We so horny! We love you Long Tan!"
It is a 2015 pick, so who knows what United's situation will be then. Wolff will retire after this year, so if he's any good, there's your fourth forward. They have an open roster spot and the reserve games coming up, so they took a flyer.
I'm surprised that fans in Vancouver, home of a very large Asian population, wouldn't know the difference between a (North) Korean and a Chinese
I'm sure Tommy called his old boys in DC and asked them to bury this kid on their depth chart...then sent an email to Will Chang saying please sign Andriy Shevchenko.
The ownership announcement seems more and more likely. Really interested in hearing what they have to say about United's future.
I'm filing this under Wild Speculation at this point. TEAM // PPG SJE 2.00 SKC 1.88 DCU 1.83 NYRB 1.82 RSL 1.74 VAN 1.71 CHI 1.64 SEA 1.50 HOU 1.41 CREW 1.47 CRAP 1.29 NER 1.19 CDCUSA 1.19 POR 1.19 LAG 1.11 MON 0.95 PHI 0.93 DAL 0.83 TOR 0.63 Is it too presumptuous to start rooting for other teams to take points off Shield competitors? My personal feeling is that neither SJ or DCU is as good as the table indicates and that SKC will snap out of their funk and run away with it. RSL and RB may also near the top. I also think Houston's a lot better than the table says but they're gonna get KOd by ConcaChamps.
No. I don't know how I feel about SJ; but I definitely feel that way about us. We've certainly done well up to now; but our schedule up to this point has been heavy on teams at the bottom of the table. How have we done against teams near the top of the table? SJ/KC: bad, Jersey/VAN/SEA: mixed, RSL/CHI: haven't played yet. I would feel somewhat better about us if we'd taken care of business up in Jersey a couple of weeks ago; but we didn't. From Aug 11 to Sep 1, we have six matches, and four are against teams in the above list (@KC, v Jersey, @RSL, vCHI). So come mid-August, we should start getting a real handle on whether we're simply a team that's improved respectably over last season, or whether we really are one of the best teams in the league.
I'd agree that it feels like we've been playing over our expectations. But then, as someone who backs Newcastle, I saw that in the EPL this past season and kept waiting for the bubble to burst and it never really did. So, let's ride it while we can and enjoy it. As for SJ, I dunno, I've watched a few of their games on MLSlive and they can be scary good. I do expect sKFC to get out of their rut eventually. Chicago may have some potential to move up too but I see the RSL bubble continung to burst.
I put United on 50 points at season's end. Conservative estimate. KC has a ton of home games and a very favorable schedule. I could see them at 60 or more points. NY, same thing, could see them at 58 or more. Chicago I put around 49 points going into the last game of the season, against United at Toyota Park. So, who knows of course, but I put United in fourth at the end of the season, the same place I predicted in the midseason thread. The best chance for United to move up the table, imo, is for Columbus and NE to trouble these teams while United takes care of Columbus (3 games) and wins the two head to head against Chicago (ugh).
It's not wild speculation that DC has a running rate of third best in the league; because DC does. Sure DC could slow down but they could also speed up. I would take a rematch with SJE and like our chances. The west was clearly better in the recent years but not anymore. The unbalanced schedule makes comparisons a waste of time IMO. I would look at form and I like DC's form right now over SJE's. But this is the MLS where playoffs dwarf season results, DC's form in Sept/Oct is far more important. Besides, what is it, three of the four last MLS Cup champions were either the bottom or next to bottom seeded teams?
Close. RSL (09) and Colorado (10) squeaked in, but Crew (08) and LA (11) won the Shield. It's a flip of the coin, just gotta get in.
Of course, they've changed the format in a crucial way. In adding the wild card round, they're making the 4 seed (along with the five seed, of course) play an extra round vs. the teams in front of them--but they're also making them play a brutal schedule to get through to the Final. Don't count on those seeds pulling it off very often; if last year's playoffs is anything to go by, it's shaping up as a war of attrition as much as anything else. So you're gonna want that bye, big-time. I think there's not a whole lot of difference between the 2 and 3 seeds in terms of playoff odds (the 1, and the 'easier opponent' factor starts to come into play), but there's a significant difference between the 3 and the 4, or the 4 and the 5 (since that's a single-elim with HFA, which historically higher seeds win about 70% of the time). And of course, higher seed hosts the Final, so if you're in contention to be that team, you want it (again, higher seeds with HFA tend to win single eliminations at a fairly strong rate).