Wizards waive Armstrong, sign Vuk Rasovic

[SamPierron]

Since it isn't on their website yet, I'll provide the full release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Justin Gorman, 816-920-4734
Staci Schottman, 816-920-4739

WIZARDS SIGN SERBIAN DEFENDER VUK RASOVIC
Experienced Defender Arrives in Kansas City Tonight, Team Waives
Stephen Armstrong

KANSAS CITY, MO (Tuesday, April 27, 2004) - Kansas City Wizards General
Manager Curt Johnson announced today that the team has signed Serbian
defender Vuk Rasovic as a Discovery Player. Rasovic previously played
with Krylya Sovetov of the Russian Premier League and had acquired his own
player pass and therefore was out of contract. He will arrive in Kansas City
on Tuesday evening and join the team on Wednesday, April 28th.

"We spent our preseason in Portugal with Vuk and he impressed us. He
is an experienced, wily and technically clean defender," said Head
Coach Bob Gansler. "We feel with where he has been and the experiences he has gathered both in Yugoslavia and Russia, he is going to serve us well. He can play anywhere across the back line and maybe even in defensive midfield, but we brought him in to be another option in our back four. We haven't seen him in a month so I'm sure he is anxious to get on the field and we are anxious to get him integrated with our team."

Rasovic, 31, joins the Wizards after an impressive playing career in
Europe in which he has taken part in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA
Cup and the UEFA Cup Winner's Cup. He has spent the past two years with Krylya Sovetov of the Russian Premier League following a four-year stint with
Partizan Belgrade in Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia). Prior to that, he
played professionally in the Bulgarian Premier League in 1997 with Slavia
Sofia and has also appeared ten times for his country.

The Serbian International trained with the Wizards in Portugal in
March of this year during their preseason trip and was impressive on
the Wizards back line. He will count as a Senior International on the
Wizards roster and has already received his P-1 Visa paperwork. He is scheduled to receive a physical on Wednesday, April 28th and will be available for the Wizards this Saturday for their match against the Colorado Rapids.

To make room on the roster for the Senior International, the Wizards
have waived midfielder/forward Stephen Armstrong. Armstrong has
appeared in 49 matches for the Wizards, including 24 starts, while scoring five goals and adding six assists since joining the team prior to the 2002 season in a trade with D.C. United. He had yet to appear for the Wizards in 2004 while recovering from a sports hernia surgery that took place during the
offseason.


VUK RASOVIC (VOOK RAS-o-vich)
Position: Defender
Number: 2
Height: 6-0
Weight: 170
Born: January 3, 1973
Place of Birth: Dortmund, Germany
Hometown: Belgrade, Serbia & Montenegro
Previous Clubs: Krylya Sovetov - Russia (2002-2003), Partizan Belgrade
- Yugoslavia (1998-2001), Slavia Sofia - Bulgaria (1997-1998)
Acquired: Signed as a Discovery Player, 4/27/2004


www.kcwizards.com

[jdoppel]

defense isnt our problem!

we bought a 31 year old defender! how stupid is that. we need creativity in the attack, and we give up someone who was going to be able to provide that relatively soon, for someone who is OLD, and plays a position we have plenty of depth at right now?

WHY?!

this was a HORRIBLE move. armstrong may never have turned into preki, but he at least was somewhat creative in the attack and a good passer/possessor of the ball. this was a travesty!

i know i havent seen this new guy at all yet, but we honestly dont need defense. we need offense, and i cant see this move as anything but a total failure.

also, why on earth is Gomez still with our team? he is horrible.

i am majorly disappointed with the management of this team right now.

lame.

[BenC1357]

Huh, I try to find a way to defend this to be the "devils advocate" to what I know will be the general opinion of this board, but I just can't find anything to say. Through three games we've given up ONE goal. We have a four man back line of Zotinca, Conrad, Thomas and Garcia in place. We have very adequate subs for the back line in Gutierrez and Burciaga. If anything this takes away from the development of Burciaga and/or Zotinca.
Maybe Armstrong wasn't/isn't going to make it back from his injuries? Maybe there's another move coming? (That rumor about Joe Max Moore is still out there) I'm not sure what is going on here, but this does seem a little out of place and ignorant. Hell maybe we're going for the "2000 method", if the other teams never score you can't lose. In that case where's Molnar?

[EAwizfan]

The only explanation that I can think of is that this guy came on cheap and is a hell of a defender. Besides that, I'm not sure why we picked him up. I would have preferred an attacking midfielder. Lets face it Diego and Francisco aren’t getting the job done. We are probably going to win 1-0, loose 1-0 or tie 0-0 until Preki and Igor get back.

[LSNsoccer362238]

Rasovic must be one hell of a player because he sounds like he has some good experience, as in he will have a high salary. We don't need a defender though, which is the crazy thing. We just gave up Stephen Armstrong, who was very versatile in my opinion and probably should have been back from his injury soon as it was just a sports hernia, nothing overly serious. There must be something we don't know, i.e. when we signed Igor- he didn't sound wonderful but look at him now.

[jdoppel]

ben - you are going to have to try a lot harder than that to make me feel better about this move. i appreciate the effort, though.

i think its possible that they made this decision a while back and have just had difficulties getting it all finalized. That would explain things better. its possible they were still worried about some of their defenders during the pre-season.

im still not really all that happy about that though when you consider some of the moves other clubs have made (Colorado and New York in particular).

[ultraviolet]

EVERYTIME I begin to think Curt is starting to redeem himself, he pulls this sh**

[terp fan]

defense isnt our problem!

we bought a 31 year old defender! how stupid is that. we need creativity in the attack, and we give up someone who was going to be able to provide that relatively soon, for someone who is OLD, and plays a position we have plenty of depth at right now?

WHY?!

this was a HORRIBLE move. armstrong may never have turned into preki, but he at least was somewhat creative in the attack and a good passer/possessor of the ball. this was a travesty!

i know i havent seen this new guy at all yet, but we honestly dont need defense. we need offense, and i cant see this move as anything but a total failure.

also, why on earth is Gomez still with our team? he is horrible.

i am majorly disappointed with the management of this team right now.

lame.

Wow, I agree this is a very embarrassing move for the organization and their fans. Is management aware of the team's current situation? The team can't score goals...that won't be solved by bringing on an other defender, that's the team's strength stupid. A bargain is only a barain if you need the product and KC didn't need another defender. This move ranks up there with taking Taylor #4 overall in the draft when he would have been there in the second round, the other GM's continue to laugh at these moves.

[Revolt]

Vuk, Wiz. I'll bet some opposing supporters can work with that material.

[Jambon]

I thought you couldn't cut/waive a player who is currently injured.

:confused:

[Uppa 90]

yes,,, another step backwards...

the lack of offense defends me... i mean... the lack of offense offends me...

[Helghallen]

I'm not sure what the FO thinks at times. This is truly a strange move, by any way of thinking. Maybe they thought Stephen was not going to be back for some time to come. If that's the case, then why not a midfielder with some attacking ability. Strange.

[Autogolazo]

KC--too many defenders
NY--too many strikers

Either a trade is in the works with Garcia going for Wolyniec/Magee, or Bob Gansler is going with an 8-1-1, keep it level at 0-0, then hopes to win on penalty kicks when Blatter abolishes ties.

No, really, I'm thinking there HAS to be another shoe about to drop here.

There HAS to be....

There HAS to....

There HAS....

Thu....uuuuuuuuuu.......

But hey, in other news, Tony Meola has lost about 100 lbs., so that's nice.

[KC_KID]

I truly can't believe this! I am very sad to see Armstrong go, he was one of my favorites. He always seemed to create some kind of spark on offense I thought. I pray to god something else is in the works here.

[Turk from Pigs Eye]

I did a Yahoo search on this guy. He scores goals. Some of it was in other languages but he takes PK's. He's 6 feet tall so maybe he can head the ball. He has good credentials. Let's see what he brings. Might be a good fantasy pickup, similar to de la Torre at Colorado.

[emp2b3]

I too will miss Armstrong...he was one of my favorites. I realize that we are thin at forward, but as others have alluded to a sick Armstrong is better than a healthy Gomez. I just don't see Gomez ever scoring goals consistently and would rather give Arnaud more chances. Way too many shots flying over the crossbar.

[BenC1357]

I too will miss Armstrong...he was one of my favorites. I realize that we are thin at forward, but as others have alluded to a sick Armstrong is better than a healthy Gomez. I just don't see Gomez ever scoring goals consistently and would rather give Arnaud more chances. Way too many shots flying over the crossbar.

I'm pretty sure Arnaud is getting more chances than Gomez, considering Arnaud has started every game and Gomez has been the #1 sub for the midfield.


Setting aside the fact that we picked up a defender when we need an attacker, is losing Armstrong that big of a deal? I ask that openly, because I've seen good and bad from him. He's not a great attacker and had a tendancy to keep the ball a little too long trying individual moves instead of making the pass. I think he's a good player, I'm just not sold on if he was all that valuable to our attack.
I think two questions still remain: 1) Is there another move coming soon, one that will see a defender leave and an attacker come in? 2) Armstrong has been injured for quite some time, was/is it more serious than once thought?

[amcwiz5]

I am very upset to hear that Stephen has been waived. I think Stephen did a good job for the Wizards when he was given the chance to perform. I wish Stephen luck and I hope he gets picked up by another team.

[Unorthodox Yank]

I just plain don't get it.

I dont really think that it's out of the realm of possibility that we made this move without any kind of intention of signing anyone else.

Something inside me says that this will push Zotinca into the Midfield. PERHAPS, on the right wing, and then letting Klein play centrally, and act as out kind-of "playmaker". This would mean having the 2 Diegos fight for time on the left, a battle which Guti is winning pretty well now.

this means, basically :

----------------Meola---------------
-Garcia---Thomas--Conrad---Vuk----
-----------------KZ----------------
-Guti-----------------------Zotinca-
----------------Klein----------------
----------Wolff-----Arnaud----------


Armstrong was probabaly one of my favorite figures on the team, but If you ask me, if we end up lining up like i showed, then this move may turn out to be pretty decent.

[kuhnscoot]

this means, basically :

----------------Meola---------------
-Garcia---Thomas--Conrad---Vuk----
-----------------KZ----------------
-Guti-----------------------Zotinca-
----------------Klein----------------
----------Wolff-----Arnaud----------


My only problem with this lineup, is that it puts us with two "defensive" players on the wings, and 3 total in the midfield.

This signing is still weird though, I mean our defense has at least sounded likes it's been solid this season, and only 1 goal allowed. I know it's been said once, but could this be damage control after we make a trade, possibly for Moore, even if he is hurt right now.