Sounds right. I based success rate at/or near 100 appearances which is very similar to 3+ years work.
Yeah I doubt you get better. But even if you upgrade...one player for one player doesn't add depth. We still have two spots open we have to clear cap for.
I think our best hope for clearing cap space is trading a mildly valuable player (i.e. Watson) for a supplemental draft pick. That way the team he's going to doesn't have to give up anything too valuable and we don't have to take money back. If there's somebody like Lopez that we want to bring in but don't have money for that could be our best option.
I understand that it takes more than one move to clear more cap space. But that's a good place to start.
Yeah, I am very familiar with Dynamo draft history. IMHO, the issue you had the first 3 years of Dynamo history is that they were deeper than just about any team in MLS and DOM traded away a large number of our draft picks during those years for players. It was very, very difficult for anyone to break in and get minutes plus they were drafting late due to success as well. Regardless, you can get fantastic players in the draft both early (see O. Gonzalez and C. Pontius referenced) and late (See G. Cameron, C. Ashe). Why is it a bad thing to say that things are important and how you do in these drafts really does matter? Look at the teams that have drafted terribly and look at the teams that have drafted really well. You can see how they do in the standings. It matters.
Several of the mock drafts and discussions mentioned him as even a possible pick for us in the first round. Sounds like a pretty good day's work for the Dynamo brain trust.
Yes he is left footed I think Johnson wasn't our favorite player we would have liked, just that he was best available. It looks like he is good value for a low first round pick though. Nealis had a bad combine but it looks like he can cross / pass the ball and is comfortable with teh ball at his feet which is crucial for the Dynamo's style of play. This is why Hinault lost his spot at right back. I also like that Nealis is 6 ft tall. LA took the pick after us and they took teh other remaining left back who is 5'8".
Nealis sounds like a logical pick. Creavalle projects to def-mid now. As for Johnson, Dynamo Theory posted a video... Johnson does look like the type of player Kinnear wants: work the details hard, do much more than just attack.
No one ever listens to me anyways. I should change my name to Gllen Davvis. (Not equating, just acknowledging his word is important round these parts). Here's another one for you. In about 24-36 hours you will see a Darrell Lovell article quoting Dom Kinnear praising Jason Johnson's off the ball work. This was actually a very good pick for many reasons and I agree with you that Mikey Lopez was actually the best player left on the board, but the JJ pick has Dom Kinnear written all over it. More on it laters.
agreed. As I think about it, it makes long term sense given Ching's age, Weaver being Weaver, and even Cummings age. In 2014 we may only have Bruin and Cummings (depending on Carr's health) up top. The only challenge I have, is for the team right now, I personally am concerned over who is going to create for our forwards and would have loved an attack minded middie.