Cannon did not have the offense which provide 52 goals to back him. And still it was this close. I think our D-men sucked big time. But Cronin was part of it.
That's the game I am talking about. I was watching that goal right there. It's not a fast ball or a difficult ball at all and Cronin just stood there and did nothing, not an attempt to save it. The second half basically Galaxy just gave it up. Landon could not pick any ball. Becks disappeared a lot. The whole team did not even run. Although I cannot blame them since it's 100 degree there. The skin on my feet was burned by the buckle on my sandals. I am not saying he did not make some nice saves last season but it's not good enough. He got too many rebounds or got panic or slow reaction.
definitely motm in that game, much like his performance in the open cup match again new york in 2006 (i think). i won't judge him based on his time in los angeles, but he seemed to have the reflexes and raw talent, but for whatever reason we only saw it sporadically. i wouldn't be surprised if he went to the usl and had a solid career there, but never made it back to mls, equally it wouldn't surprise me to find after a season or two of confidence building he ends up back in mls - maybe replacing cannon in san jose or keller in seattle.
best move of the offseason, period. this guy can't hold on to a ball, therefore he is worthless as a goalie. as a goalie reaction time, quickness and positioning don't mean anything if you drop the ball every time you touch it. i hope he never comes back in a G's jersey. what percentage of last years goals came after cronin dropped the ball? i don't know the answer to that, but i would bet it was the highest in the MLS (for a starter) and at least double the next worst goalie.
Well to be fair, Cronin also was left high and dry last season with a shaky defense. The same could have been said about Brad Guzan who in his first season was about as bad as Cronin. Then Burpo was brought in who replaced Guzan. Then the next season, Guzan beat Burpo out, and became what he is today. Goalkeepers most of the time are only as good as the defense in front of him. But there are other cases'.
Maybe I meant that we put an inexperienced goalkeeper & offered him up as a sacrificial lamb behind a crap d for all the Galaxy fans to complain about...
According to the first poster's wording, he is being "sent" to Portland. If he were simply waived, he couldn't be "sent" anywhere, as his contract would be terminated. He would have to sign a new contract with Portland, and would be doing so voluntarily (as is customary anywhere but within MLS clubs). This leads me to believe that this is simply a loan move. However, perhaps I'm looking too much into the wording of this. As well, a loaned out player doesn't count against the roster spots or salary cap. Last year we had Adzemian and Bolkan in Portland at a time when we had 28 roster spots full: Alamo Allen Barlow Beckham Buddle Cronin Dominguez Donovan Franchino Franklin Gavin Gordon Jazic Jordan (returned in early September) Klein Lewis McDonald Munoz Pires Randolph Roberts Saunders (signed early September) Sesay Tudela Vagenas Valentin Vanney Wicks As well, when a player is loaned to another club, he actually signs a loan contract with that club that is loaning him. It is a seperate contract and stipulates many things involving the loan, including who is paying the wages, how long, etc. This is what happens in world football, and should be the same when being loaned to USL. Basically what this means is that the loan contract is the one he is playing under for the length of the loan. It simply doesn't make sense for a player to count against a cap when the contract he is playing for isn't even with that club (at the time). Then again, MLS rules are screwy, and perhaps I am wrong. However, in FM, you can loan players from MLS clubs to other clubs and not have them count against the cap/roster spots, and FM is always right... Long story short, I really hope its a loan. Could do him some good, even if he turns out to not be good enough at this level (which I still think he could be).
A loan would actually be a very good move. He gets playing time and the Galaxy keep him under contract for 2010. I think he'd have to count as a roster spot, though. I don't know about his salary - that seems like it would be fair for it not to count if he were playing elsewhere. I think the loaned players last year counted as DEV spots. (I also think those guys were payback for acquisition of Jordan and Wicks unofficially.)
If the salary is the major issue then fair enough, but Donovan Ricketts is utter crap. If anything he's worse than Cronin. His ability is limited to making a spider-man like wonder save one minute then dropping a corner kick straight at the feet of a bemused striker the next, before spending approx. 30 seconds rolling around feigning injury until he realises that the goal has been given regardless and bawling at his defenders for not giving enough protection. I know a lot of Bradford fans who had to endure his constant basic errors and horrendous decision making for several years until they finally got rid. I'm frightened that when he costs us three games in a row because he seems to grease his hands before kick off, we'll only be able to turn to Josh Wicks, with whom I was far from impressed last year.
Actually, Bolkan and Adzemian counted against the roster the entire season. Alamo and Gavin did not count against the roster after they were placed on the season-ending DL, which allowed us to sign Barlow and Munoz to developmental contracts.
Welcome back, Leeds! I've missed you. If Ricketts is crap, we'll probably be turning to Saunders and not Wicks. I hope.
hence the reason i gave him one last chance this preseason . . . and cronin was still doing the same thing, dropping every ball he put his hands on. aside from the one US open cup game, he has done nothing for the G's, and that can't be blamed on the poor back line. maybe i am just foolish, but when a ball is shot at you, and as a goalkeeper is constantly dropping it . . . there is no one else to blame for the drop.
Thanks for clearing that up, as I had forgotten about Gavin and Alamo having season ending injuries. It makes sense that they could count on the roster. It still does not make sense to me that a player not eligible to play would count against the roster, other than that maybe a team could sign a ton of players and loan them out (spending money in the process) and MLS could do nothing about it. Then again, like I said earlier, MLS is screwy. Oh well. I looked around the MLS rules and regulations and could find nothing definitive either way. I still hope its a loan agreement where instead of keeping a third keeper just laungishing without a reserve league, we loan him to Portland, he gets minutes, and if we ever need him (injury crisis, Ricketts turns out to be terrible, etc) , we can recall him. It takes up a roster spot, but its better than keeping a third keeper on the roster when he'll get no playing time and consequently limit his development.
Wow... that is a scary report. I wondered about him b/c he was on the bench in a third-tier league, but hoped that Bruce had done more research than watching him in a couple of WC qualifiers. Appears not. OTOH, while Saunders may not have the athleticism to be a top MLS keeper, he has good hands, doesn't seem prone to making repeated stupid errors, and is more aggressive/confident than Cronin was. He saved an almost certain goal vs the Bluewings, sacrificing his body to do so. That was the kind of save that turns games around and that we missed last year.
If a MLS team were to "sign" an entire USL1 club to contracts, and loan them right back out, it would be in effect creating an entire reserve squad without any of it counting against the roster limit. By "recalling" players from loan or sending them back, the MLS team gets to play with a roster of 40+ players. And given the disparity in resources between MLS and the USL, this is something that I can actually imagine happening.
Sounds an awful lot like how MLB works, and they've had success with it. On the surface, it doesn't seem a bad substitute for a reserve league. It also sounds a bit like some leagues where a reserve team is played in a lower division, like Spain. Its not a loan really, but if an MLS team were to loan out an entire USL team' essientially the club is just playing a reserve team in a lower division. Again, this has worked well for Spanish teams. I'm not saying that MLS should switch to either of these, but just some food for thought. Also, many (lower) soccer leagues prevent this from happening simply by only allowing a certain amount of loans per club per season. In England, only a certain ammount of long term loans can be made to a club per season, and a few more short term loans. I'm not sure the exact numbers off my head, but you can see how it would prevent someone like Chelsea from "buying" a reserve team in, say, the Championship. I'm not sure if USL has this measure in place. Still, I see your point, and can understand why MLS would keep loaned players on the roster. I just personally believe that they shouldn't count against the cap, especially with the reserve league removed, and the lack of roster spots available. Personal opinion.
This sounds correct. My FIFA08 game I just installed to research layers more shows these player ratings out of 100: CRONIN: 61 RICKETTS: 57 Yikes!!!! My thread here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=951556 I also let the computer handle Ricketts in goal in PK shootouts. He won all three PK shootout games. Whatever it really means, I dont know... its just a game Could be another dumb Bruce Arena decision.
Who can argue with that? I just remember my old next door neighbour who I'd drive down into Bradford for their games before I went to watch Leeds, and every time I did, maybe ten times in the season when both sides were at home, he complained about Ricketts. He's just not very consistent and his handling is poor. That said its clearly a golden chance for Saunders. Maybe he's seen how bad DR is in training and might just grab the No1 spot if he works hard enough. Yes Ricketts is an international, but he's just not a very good player and not anywhere near good enough for MLS. Even the mighty Farsley Celtic who play in the 6th tier of English football didn't want to offer him a deal.