JoeW
26 Dec 2002, 01:33 PM
I know just about all of us complained that we wanted Hudson to be making moves prior to now, narrow down the foreign selections, get some focus.
Well folks, the next 30 days are going to be MLS madness. Cap day (Jan. 3) plus waivers prior to that. Superdraft day (plus the several days of roundrobin games prior to that). Euro transfer window (when suddenly some players will get cut loose that aren't even on the radar screen right now--b/c a team expects to be able to sell a promising player and discovers they will get nothing--so they must dump other players on the roster previously thought secure. Another MLS waiver draft. Probably a few more trades. And most of this happening within the next 30 days. And then camps start up.
Doing your homework matters--a lot. I personnally think that DC United may be one of the better prepared teams for this big crunch period. Not only do we the tools (draft picks, allocations, cap room) but as near as I can tell, this team has been ACTIVE. Hudson has been mostly living overseas since practice stopped. I bet Hudson has had more contact with more potential allocation/discovery players than the rest of the MLS coaches combined. Kasper has had substantive talks with all MLS teams (part of the Jaime Moreno across America trade tour).
I don't think all the pieces will necessarily be in place in the next 30 days (which will frustrate all of us. For instance, Ian Bishop was a late addition to the Fusion. But in some cases, if you've scouted the domestic talent (MLS and Superdraft) than you know to pass up an option for one that will be better in February or March. So the homework really counts.
I hate to see Eddie, Jaime and Richie go. But right now, I really, really, really like where DCU is positioned. Not only in terms of the tools, but in terms of the preparation and analysis. This is going to be a very crazy period coming up that is going to have to call for some snap decisions at times (such as: a player becomes available to MLS--say it's Hwang. We either claim him or pass and the next team in line goes for him).
Well folks, the next 30 days are going to be MLS madness. Cap day (Jan. 3) plus waivers prior to that. Superdraft day (plus the several days of roundrobin games prior to that). Euro transfer window (when suddenly some players will get cut loose that aren't even on the radar screen right now--b/c a team expects to be able to sell a promising player and discovers they will get nothing--so they must dump other players on the roster previously thought secure. Another MLS waiver draft. Probably a few more trades. And most of this happening within the next 30 days. And then camps start up.
Doing your homework matters--a lot. I personnally think that DC United may be one of the better prepared teams for this big crunch period. Not only do we the tools (draft picks, allocations, cap room) but as near as I can tell, this team has been ACTIVE. Hudson has been mostly living overseas since practice stopped. I bet Hudson has had more contact with more potential allocation/discovery players than the rest of the MLS coaches combined. Kasper has had substantive talks with all MLS teams (part of the Jaime Moreno across America trade tour).
I don't think all the pieces will necessarily be in place in the next 30 days (which will frustrate all of us. For instance, Ian Bishop was a late addition to the Fusion. But in some cases, if you've scouted the domestic talent (MLS and Superdraft) than you know to pass up an option for one that will be better in February or March. So the homework really counts.
I hate to see Eddie, Jaime and Richie go. But right now, I really, really, really like where DCU is positioned. Not only in terms of the tools, but in terms of the preparation and analysis. This is going to be a very crazy period coming up that is going to have to call for some snap decisions at times (such as: a player becomes available to MLS--say it's Hwang. We either claim him or pass and the next team in line goes for him).