He can play either one of the wingback positions. His best position is probably left back, but his ability to play either side is what made him so valuable. As for what got him sent to the bench, Sinovic and Myers have just been playing better than he has for the last two years. Harrington had a great 2010 in a contract year but was unimpressive when he was starting last year. Myers and Sinovic got chances to start due to injuries and the Gold Cup (Sinovic's play at left back really allowed Espinoza to push into the midfield where he's become even better) and never gave up their spots.
Honestly, it is hard to say what his natural position is. He started playing in the midfield for us and then got put in at left back. He started until we acquired Seth Sinovic and he took his starting spot. You guys got a good player. My favorite attribute of Harrington's is his fearlessness when running at opposing players. He forces players to challenge him and he is very good with the ball at his feet which is why I always felt he was better suited for the midfield. He can be a good utility player which is what Jewsbury was for us. I hope Harrington will start with you guys. I actually think he could have been a hell of a player but PV and Onalfo didnt handle his development like they could have. At one point, I thought Harrington was headed for the National Team.
You will love him. Totally committed. He's quick and when he's on his crosses are deadly. He does some extra little flourishy things that are absolutely unneeded. But the guy is solid. The only reason he's not staying is Chance and Sinovich have their spots on lock. He had his best season and Chance rose to the top during a US Open Cup game and never gave PV any reason to give Mike a start. Sad to see him go. He'll fit in nicely over there.
I think he's naturally a left back, though he spent time on right back for Chance when he was out. I think he also can hit up defensive mid, too. A very solid player in a lot of positions. Only reason he wasn't getting playing time... we found even better defenders, I guess.
His ball retention was a bit poor at times. Another great thing about him though is that he can play on the left or the right. Who know, for us he was a bit pricey. We know who are starters are might as well let him go and play and find a cheaper useful backup. I liked K. PV gave him his shot and he just never took it.
http://www.noshortcorners.com/2012/12/ugh-are-shops-playing-goodiepalooza.html Good news, Seltzer is reporting he's close to re-signing.
Mike Chabala ($75k/$83) is the only guy that jumps out as even worth consideration for stage 1. Stage 2 I am intrigued by Avila, Opara, Tchani, Wynne (would be tough to negotiate down, probably goes somewhere as a starter), Wallace, Bone, and James for stage 2.
Chabala re Chabala is intriguing. Wynne maybe but at a significantly smaller contract, he is in a contract year and he made 250k last year. Opara from San Jose is in a contract year but is only at 100k. Wahl is making more than I thought he would at 65/85k, contract year as well. Starting to see a theme here. Hesmer coming off an injury at only 17ok, It is a good year if you haven't found out your starting goal keeper situation yet with Hartman(165k) available too. I would laugh hysterically if Hartman came in and replaced Reis for the Revs.
Wynne would be great to have since he could play CB or RB, but there is no way he takes a 50% pay cut. He's going to wind up making closer to his current salary as a starter somewhere. Not really a depth guy.
Hunter Freeman would be a good pickup for depth at the right salary. He can play both in the back and in midfield.
Hell... bring Scott Sealy back. With all the shots we end up missing that end up rebounding out, he probably would have won the Golden Boot this year if he were playing here. Never seen anyone pick up the garbage better than he was able too.
i'm sorry, it's a massive pet peeve of mine for fans to not even get their own players' names right. actually, i probably would've glossed over it had the misspelling not been an indicator that you were spelling his name phonetically (and incorrectly there too). i'm not sure he'd be anymore effective than anyone else we start. the shots we miss hardly ever come back into play because we can't hit the target to begin with. it's hard to get rebounds and second chances when the ball is behind the goal in the stands. although he does have one of the better goals kc has ever scored.
http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/...jder-move-120512?pk_campaign=twitter&m_n=true It's from the Sun, but it's linking Southampton with Besler as well.
traded the higher of the 2nd round picks (presumably the #32 pick KC has of NY from the Auvray trade) to Montreal for D/M Josh Gardner. http://www.sportingkc.com/news/2012/12/sporting-kansas-city-acquires-josh-gardner-montreal-impact Weird description, by the way. Is MLS considering a different way of setting the SuperDraft order?
Nice to see the first story about ADDING instead of subtracting from a team that lacked depth to begin with.
Looking at things, Zusi is the only second-round pick that has ever done anything in the last five years. Most of them didn't even make it through camp. Gardner is probably a better value (in terms of finding someone who can contribute off the bench) than you're going to get in the 30s.
Does it matter when the story comes out? Because I'm pretty sure we weren't planning on going into next season with 8 or more?) open roster spots. As long as they're ready to play be March, timing doesn't matter that much. That said, I'm anxiously awaiting player acquisition news, but I'm sure it's coming and I'm not too worried about it.
I think Tim Ream, Seth Sinovic and AJ de la Garza might have issues with your statement... seems like 2-3 2nd rounders end up being decent MLS players every year
I'm talking about KC draftees. Even then, round is really less relevant than pick. Ream and DeLaGarza would be first-rounders today (Ream was #18 in 2010, DeLaGarza was #19 in 2009, there are 19 picks today). I don't think there's a lot of value in draft picks past #30. You can get good players in the 20s (in 2010, Sinovic, Morrow, and Beitashour all went between 25 and 30) but once you get past #30 there aren't a ton of guys. There are more guys without wikipedia articles (basically never played professionally) than contributors. Yes, KC might land another Zusi type, but they're more likely to land a guy who doesn't make it out of camp based on history. In that regard, I think flipping it for a proven fringe contributor is worth it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_MLS_SuperDraft#Round_Two http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_MLS_SuperDraft#Round_two http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_MLS_SuperDraft#Round_three http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_MLS_SuperDraft#Round_three