Official 2009 Pre-Season Roster Thread Part 2:: Vide's Gone

Wasn't he LA's best defender/rookie of the year candidate last year? This should be worth at least a look...

 

My thoughts since i found this out yesterday is that we should be all over that like white on rice. This guy is going to be a good player for a long time in this league. Young, cheap, big, strong, hard tackler, fast, with a powerful shot. Nope, we couldn't use a guy like that.

 

It wasn't Franklin they waived. It was Mike Randolph.

 

They also waived left back Mike Randolph and goalie Steve Cronin but Sean Franklin is still with LA.

 

Damn the bad luck. I knew it was too good to be true.

 

I like Franklin. However, I like Brandon more. He's shown me more ball skills in his admittedly limited time, relative to his position (dmid) than Franklin (rb) ... and has more natural physical gifts.

 

Yeah that's right. I transposed the two in my head.

 

If they had waived franklin then there would have been a war between clubs getting in line for him.

Macdonald would be a good pickup if we could get him, though he wouldn't address our biggest need at the moment (CB).

 

Franklin wouldn't address that either though. Franklin to me was the beneficiary of being the rookie guy who played next to a couple of stiffs that made him look great (Xavier and Vanney, and later Dominguez). At 5'10" and not very strong, he was never the answer at central defense. Lest we forget, he was an anchor in the worst defense in the league last year. I like him, but I personally think he is overrated. Brandon is 6'1", a better tackler, better shot, and stronger. He was tested at CB when the Galaxy, with Beckham, played the Oceania All Star team. He was excellent in the game, although admittedly that means pretty much nothing when looking at the quality of their opponent. As I said before, I think Franklin is a good player and will be decent at right back given a chance with the Galaxy, but he simply doesn't have the upside that Brandon does, IMO.

 

No -- its the Third Division of Swiss soccer. According to Soccerway, Swiss leagues are organized into the "Super League", then "Challenge League" then "1. Liga" which has 3 Divisions. Offhand, looks like FC Mont de Lausanne is, at best, like a team in the "Nationwide Conference" in England.

 

I hear what you're saying and I respect your opinion but I am going to disagree.

There is maybe one team in the league that Franklin wouldn't start on immediately. He is very athletic, has plenty of pace, above average ball skills, very good distribution out of the back (something that isn't common in this league), and most importantly good decision making. It's true that he isn't the best tackler in the world and isn't one of the top 3 CBs in the league, but I'd be hard to convince that he isn't closing the gap with Wynne. The fact that he was playing out of position and was the best player on that team for most of the season, as a rookie no less, speaks to his talent.

He sure as hell would improve our backline.

 

I've heard that Wynne comment many times, and I laugh a bit more every time i hear it. Wynne is lightyears better than Franklin and I don't see that changing. Wynne gets tons of crap for his crossing ability, yet he is better at it than Franklin. Better with overlapping runs. Better recovery speed. Simply better. I don't see how Franklin would improve us THIS YEAR. If we didn't have Namoff, sure. But the guy isn't a true CB, so he wouldn't help us in front of the goal. He wasn't the best player on his team for most of the season. He was the best defender on his team for most of the season. With Xavier, Dominguez, Vanney, etc., that doesn't say alot. They were the worst defense in the league last year. I would rather have Erpen back than Franklin.

 

Agreed. Somewhat reminiscent of Shalrie Joseph, though a little less physical and a little more finesse.

 

I'm not arguing that Franklin is a first XI CB this season, but you would honestly rather have McT or Janicki ( no offense ) in central defense over Sean? For that matter, you'd rather have namoff at RB? Namoff is solid, experience, and doesn't make any huge screw-ups, but he doesn't really add much in the offense or distribution departments. That's fine for us, but lets not be unrealistic.

Now you're moving into crazy talk territory.

 

I think you, and many others, are totally overrating Franklin. Again, I point to the fact that Franklin was a player anchoring the worst defense in the league, by far. McTavish, maybe. Janicki, who appears to be a real CB, absolutely not. Franklin isn't a CB. And Namoff at RB is as you said a solid player. But what has Franklin added to the offense from that position? Hell, he was the worst player on the field in the Galaxy's last game, getting continually burned on defense, and adding nothing on offense. The fact that the Galaxy get so much attention because of Beckham, while people saw how absolutely putrid the rest of the team was, is a large part of the reason that Franklin is rated so highly. And yes, I'd take Erpen in a heartbeat. We'll both see how it pans out. None of this dissuades me from rather having Brandon. This is going to bite Arena in the butt, guaranteed.

 

I take it you've not seen United play the game before?

You might not like how exactly he contributes offensively, but to say he doesn't is just making shit up.

The question needed to be asked here is: What is so terribly wrong with these guys that they can't be used in LA where they really need cheap players, and if they are also good it is a bonus.

Or does il Bruce already know that Becky and Landy are gone and he needs to spend more on the rest of his players this year instead of just those two.. I still cannot figure out how they can afford Dema, but it was painful to see him in that uniform when I watched a bit of one of their games last week.

 

I was very impressed by Wynne's work on the ball in tight spaces in the US vs. Swededn game...looked like real improvement to me

Donovan will be back, until the summer at least. Unless Toni picks up a long term injury in the next two weeks.

 

You're trying to lose credibility, aren't you?

 

Okay - now LA has waived Ely Allen - Personally, I thnk we should seriously think about this kid, I was really hoping we'd draft him last year and was very pissed he went to LA.
I'd think he'd rather play in Seattle as that's where he went to school, but he is a fairly decent left wing/forward type.

 

Allen is awful. I'm not sure that I've ever seen him play a decent game. I would have rather picked up Josh Gardner last year than have Ely Allen.

 

Does "seriously think about" = Bring in for trial or make the roster for Game1? If it's the latter, please identify who he's replacing from:
http://dcunited.mlsnet.com/players/roster.jsp?club=t103&sort=pp&order=asc

I just don't see him cracking the top 24...unless you're doing a George Allen and getting him on the payroll to divulge all of the Galaxy's secrets to win game 1.

 

Gracyzk is done.

Now we are down to four goalkeepers.

Crayton
Kocic
Thorpe
Platter

 

The 1st League is mostly semi-pro at best. Many of the Super League teams have their U-21 teams in this division. The League is broken into three divisions, one for the west of Switzerland, one for the central part, and one for the east. The top two teams, plus the next two highest point totals go into a playoff for two spots in the Challenge League.
http://www.football.ch/1l/fr/start.aspx
Le Mont was playing well in the fall, they are in a mid-winter break. I would not associate the 1st League with Nationwide. Think USL2, there are some good players, but most have other jobs.

 

I doubt that DCU would even bring him here for a trial given that his positions (left mid and forward) are the same ones that DCU's 1st round picks can play (Chris Pontius can play left mid and forward, Rodney Wallace can play left mid) - now if he was a decent centerback, it would be a different situation in terms of potential DCU interest level.

 

With what it is worth, N'Silu was the 2nd leading goal scorer (12 league goals) in the division at the winter-break.