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

Zaher's been let go according to Goff

 

^^^ Damn! Zaher IMO was one of the best, if not the best guy at his position(out of the subs) when we used him at LB!

 

So, does he end up in Minnesota or Vancouver?

 

This move, while not unexpected, still seems to be a bad move. Zaher was one of our best subs last year and, IMO, probably should have been starting over Burch this coming season. I wouldn't be surprised if Zaher ends up starting for another MLS team this year.

 

JoJo will be crushed - again.

 

If you go by the Noah's Ark approach of DCU pairs currently at USL teams, he might join Montreal or Carolina:

Minnesota - Quavas Kirk & Rod Dyachenko
Vancouver - Jay Nolly & Justin Moose
Puerto Rico - Nicholas Addlery & Peter Villegas
Charleston - John Wilson & Stephen Armstrong
Montreal - Stephan deRoux
Carolina - David Stokes (not sure if he is with them again this year)

 

DC Signs Dejan Jakovic

Who? I think this was done just to upset Srdan... Who is the odd man out then, Veris?

EDIT: GOFF UPDATE AND ROSTER ANALYSIS

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2009/02/dcu_signs_defender.html

So we offer Kocic a developmental deal, no senior deal. He has opportunities in Sweden. Also, Jakovic is projected to start. So...

Update to Zman's earlier post:

Senior Roster (18 – 20 spots)
1. Louis Crayton
2. Bryan Namoff
3. Devon McTavish
4. Greg Janicki
5. Marc Burch
6. Santino Quaranta
7. Clyde Simms
8. Christian Gomez
9. Fred
10. Ben Olsen
11. Boyzzz Khumalo
12. Andrew Jacobson
13. Chris Pontius
14. Ange N’Silu
15. Luciano Emilio
16. Jaime Moreno
17. Francis Doe
18. Dejan Jakovic
19. Reserve Goalie (Nic Platter?)
20. Reserve Defender/Midfielder (Kyle Veris – Anthony Peters – Domenic Mediate) [one makes the team if a senior roster goalie is kept - otherwise, two of them could make the team]

Reserve Roster (4 – 6 spots)
1. Reserve Goalie (Milos Kocic* – James Thorpe)**
2. Ryan Miller
3. Rodney Wallace
4. Reserve Defender/Midfielder (Mamadou Danso - Brandon Barklage – Lyle Adams***)

* - Kocic only offered a developmental deal
** - two developmental goalies may be kept in lieu of a senior roster reserve goalie
*** - Not in Camp

Roster by Position for Players in Current Camp (24 spots)
G – Crayton, Platter?/Kocic?/Thorpe? (2 will make team)
RB – Namoff, Miller
CB – Jakovic, McTavish, Danso?
CB – Janicki, Veris?/Peters?
LB – Burch, Wallace
RM – Quaranta, Khumalo, Mediate?
DM – Simms, Jacobson
AM – Gomez, Olsen
LM – Fred, Pontius, Barklage?
F – Emilio, N’Silu
F – Moreno, Doe

International Roster Spots (9 total spots – 8 for DCU + 1 from Colorado)
1. Crayton
2. Gomez
3. Fred
4. Khumalo
5. Emilo
6. Doe
7. N'Silu
8. Jakovic
9. Kocic/Danso (if one of them makes the team)

 

Awesome!! Now there's someone who can curse back at Srdan!!

 

Wow. I hadn't heard this guys name before in camp. Was he in camp? I guess I've been slipping. Well, I hope that this works out. I just wish I knew a bit more about him for my own personal and selfish reasons as a fan.

 

Not to mention we now finally have someone on the team we can later trade to Toronto
Or to a new team if one of the new expansion teams is in Canada.

I say hang onto Peters, show Veris the door

But do we even have room?

 

And that's precisely what we were missing last year all season and have missed in the playoffs every year for the last several years.

 

The Jakovic acquisition is an interesting one which was likely on no one's radar on B.S. He was midfielder/forward at UAB (what is it this season with centerback candidates - Peters and Danso were also college forwards) and was a Gen Adidas target before he bolted to Red Star. If he was a US citizen, I wonder if he might have required a weighted lottery (similar to Robbie Rogers) instead of being able to be acquired via allocation $ like DCU did with him.

My prediction:
Senior Roster
1) Platter makes the senior roster - Crayton's injury status and mid-season contract end date make it too risky to just have a rookie back-up given that the team's veteran roster composition means that the front office has a "win now" mentality.
2) Mediate makes the senior roster - Veris and Peters cut. Mediate's versatility (outside mid, outside back, even some center back) and experience with the club give him the edge.

Developmental Roster
3) Kocic goes to Europe - if he is as confident as he talked at the beginning of camp, taking a $13K 3rd string developmental roster role is quite the come-down (plus it keeps DCU's 2nd round drafting trend intact in terms of European adventures - jacobson last year, Adams and possibly Kocic this year) - Thorpe keeps his developmental spot. If Kocic stays, I would loan him to a USL or USL2 team to get game experience - doing the same with Thorpe would also make sense.
4) Danso (although his fate is tied to what the team does with Kocic as he requires that last international roster spot) makes the developmental roster - Barklage cut.

 

Well at two guys in the middle at 6 feet up (Dejan Jakovic & Janicki) i think we should be ok.

 

Absolutely!

 

I would think that Janicki may sit behind McTavish on the depth chart at the start of the season. Jakovic ought to be good with the ball at his feet given his college experience being a midfielder/forward. DCU has definately added some size this off-season at both ends of the field with Jakovic and likely a Danso/Veris/Peters on the backline and Pontius & N'Silu up top.

 

I don't think he will. McTavish is a good, general purpose player who can sub in a lot of different positions, but we sorely lacked a solid, central defender last year. We didn't have one until Janicki showed up. I think it will be he and Jakovic who start at CB.

IMHO, McTavish will be a very valuable #12-type player, who will see considerable minutes due to being the first sub off of the bench, unless a forward/striker is needed.

 

I agree that the long-run role for McTavish is probably a 12th man utility role but I would bet that for Opening Day, DCU opts to have at least a little MLS experience that McTavish brings for one of the centerback positions in terms of knowing the opposition and working with Crayton, Namoff, Burch, etc. - given the MLS experience that Janicki (3 games) or Jakovic (0 games) currently have.

 

Craig Stouffer reported that Veris has been let go without a contract offer:

http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/ThePitch/20090227-Whatd-I-miss-40438387.html

Also, Sunday's game against Maryland is now on Tuesday due to the weather

 

I think I'm with Winoman on this one. Jakovic is apparently earmarked to start when he shows up, barring the unforeseen. Janicki, even in the 3 league games last year (plus CCL game), showed himself to be a better centerback than McTavish. At some point the leadership should have learned their lesson that you go with skill, not some sort of seniority system. Payne's comments in the online chat belied that fact when he was specifically asked if the new Canadian addition would likely mean that McTavish would be pushed to duty as an outside mid. Payne essentially responded that it would, although McTavish's use as a utility player was a bonus. So my point is that if the front office already sees it that way, why would they delay playing who they believe are the starters together on opening day? The way you are ready in week 10 to play together is by starting to play together in week 1. I could be wrong I suppose, but it simply makes sense to me.

 

According to Goff, he is going on trial at San Jose.

 

The President says one thing (Payne's chat has him saying that McTavish is more of a midfield option - he also includes Quaranta in the forwards for his depth chart and Mediate with the defenders - it has been a while since QUaranta played much forward here and I am not sure that it will increase soon with N'Silu, Doe, and Pontius on the team) and the Technical Director says the opposite (Kasper in his comments to Goff that McTavish and Janicki are competing for the other starting CB spot) - so it does not seem as if the front office viewpoint is a unanimous one in terms of McTavish's role, at least in the short-run. While McTavish may be a good option at RM for defensive purposes, Quaranta is the RM starter there now and it is likely the spot at which Khumalo and Mediate would get playing time as well - not sure if McTavish will get major minutes there.

 

Peters has been signed by DCU.

 

Where'd you see/hear this?I haven't seen anything on BtB, Goff, or dcunited.com.

 

From the lips of Tom Soehn.