Reyes Injured!

[Hedbal]

Goff reports today (Washington Post, April 6) that Reyes was injured yesterday in the first half of DCU's 1-1 tie vs. the Kickers. The staff fears he may have torn his ACL, in which case he may be lost for the season. He was replaced by Namoff.

Our defense, which was the best part of last year's dismal season, is getting shakier. Don't know when to expect Ivanov to return; Prideaux is not yet ready to play; Nelson may have to forget D-Mid and return to the back line. Does this post qualify as a new thread or does it belong in Joe W's "Doom and Gloom" thread?

[DigitalTron]

I'm no moderator, but I think this topic deserves its own thread.

This is a catastrophe. Reyes was almost unique in MLS and presented many problems for opposing teams. His speed, defensive savvy, unlimited endurance, and quick dribbling provided a dimension that few opposing teams could control. The closest player in the league to what Reyes provided was, IMHO, DaMarcus Beasley.

Without Reyes, my recommendation would be to go a different route, and play a true 352 with 3 center backs. Having David Stokes eventually join Petke and Nelsen (Dmid) in the lineup would provide some legitimate weapons for our inept corner kicks. At least one of those 3 should have a mismatch against the every team except the Fire, Galaxy and Wizards. In addition to all being tall, they are strong as well, allowing them to create space into which our corner service can land a corner kick.

-Digital

[rmacc3ng]

iiiiieeeeesh!

Not what I wanted to read this morning.

If he is indeed lost for the year i agree with DigitalTron about changing formations. I'd have to mull over who I put where.

Does this change who we might add to the team? If we were indeed still looking at players...

[mellon002]

If he is done for the year, Stokes is going to have to step it up quickly. Didn't Steven Goff mention that Carroll can play some defense too? That should be a last resort kind of thing but if Nelsen and Ivanov don't return to full strength we might need him.

[DigitalTron]

Actually Hudson mentioned that he saw Carroll as a left back or left winger rather than a Dmid. But frankly, Carroll isn't ready for MLS playing time at any of those positions. He's still extremely raw tactically and fairly raw technically too. He has the physical tools and attitude, but he needs at least a full season before he is anything more than a sub.

I don't think our priorities have changed regarding players. We still need subs at Dmid, left winger and a target forward. Perhaps with his increased speed Eliseo can be the sub left winger, but Dmid and a target forward are glaring holes I'd say.

Along the back line I'm comfortable with Petke, Nelsen, Stokes and Namoff until Prideaux and Ivanov return. I think we have enough talent there, we're just going through a terrible rash of injuries right now.

It's ironic that all of these injuries have been occuring to our iron men type players (Prideaux, Nelsen, Reyes, Ivanov) in the prime of their careers rather than the old (Stoichkov, Etch, Stewart) or young (Convey, Santino, Eliseo) guys. I was very worried about acquiring injury-prone players, as injuries are inevitable, but I would never have guessed that those four defenders would be our injuries while the usual suspects have all been healthy so far.

-Digital

[Juan Luis Guerra]

That is why I hate friendlies

[wrightcor]

If that is true that really hurts the United defence they already have a key injury in Galin Ivanov.

[greatscott]

Yeah, we discussed this topic last night... but here my input...

We need him and i hope he gets better before playoffs.

[Knave]

playoffs.
Like that's gonna matter ... :(

[greatscott]

Originally posted by Knave
Like that's gonna matter ... :(
there ya go knave! your halfway to lowering your expectations enough to the suicidal level...

[Hedbal]

Didn't Hudson recently speculate about Convey possibly playing some left back, as he occasionally does with the USMNT? With the injury to Reyes, that may just happen. And I was waiting for Ray to see the light and put Bobby in middle-midfield!

[GUTuna]

Originally posted by greatscott
playoffs.

(Jim Mora Voice) "Don't talk about playoffs. Are you kidding me? Playoffs?" (/Jim Mora Voice)

Maybe this is not the best time to push the panic button. But still, now I know why I felt so bad for Quakes fans when DeRo went down.

[greatscott]

Milton! Bring the finest meats and cheeses to the clubhouse!

[Funkfoot]

I agree that we still have some decent talent on the back line, but is the plan really to go with Chino at D-mid? Now that worries me.

[JoeW]

Well, it's terrible news on several fronts. I always hate to see any player lost for the season b/c of injury (United player or not). Professional careers are just too short to wipe out a season like that without really feeling for that unfortunate player.

D-tron is also right--Reyes is a very unique player. He added a lot of team speed (and not just on defense).

And this also comes at a very bad time (not that there is ever a "good time" for a season-ending injury) but with 4 defenders either hurt or hurting, the defense faces some challlenges.

I'm not so sure I see Convey at left back. He's a big part of the "legs" that Hudson talks about having around Etcheverry. For instance, the big reason Hudson gave for not playing Convey in the middle is b/c his speed is minimized then. Agree or disagree with that statement and at least you start to see why Convey is invaluable (as well as Olsen and/or Kovalenko) when Etcheverry is out there.

Stoichkov played some at left back. This might mean a starting role for Namoff. Or, (especially given the shortage of defenders) it may mean playing with 3 stay-at-home guys on back and flooding midfield. In which case, maybe Stokes does get the start.

And, for the record (and FWIW), I think the Reyes injury does indeed deserve it's own thread. I started the "doom and gloom" thread prior to this injury. Let's hope the initial diagnosis was wrong.

[shawn12011]

I think this also begs two further questions.


1) If it is season ending does this warrant cap relief?

2) Does Matt McKeon then become a viable option to sign?

[JoeW]

I don't know if there would be cap relief. I'd think we'd get roster relief (since our season hasn't started) but that's just a guess--who knows for sure with MLS rules changing from season to season or even lottery to lottery. Got to say, this makes the Digi lottery result a bit tougher (since Reyes was being looked at as a left back and Digi can indeed play that position).

As for McKeon, I think this is an apples and oranges deal. If anything, it would make it less likely we sign McKeon I think. Why? With Ivanov, Prideaux and Reyes all hurt and Nelsen gimpy, priority now has to be on a backliner. Thus, even if we were close to signing McKeon (and I gather we weren't), it would mean making a left back the priority now.

And of course, since Reyes had a green card, his injury (if it opens a roster spot) does not open up an SI slot. So we'd still be looking at TI or American talent. Not too many veteran left backs out there. I wonder if this would increase the interest in Salyer (rumor was he has signed with the league and was to be allocated by lottery pretty soon).

[shawn12011]

Originally posted by JoeW
I don't know if there would be cap relief. I'd think we'd get roster relief (since our season hasn't started) but that's just a guess--who knows for sure with MLS rules changing from season to season or even lottery to lottery. Got to say, this makes the Digi lottery result a bit tougher (since Reyes was being looked at as a left back and Digi can indeed play that position).

As for McKeon, I think this is an apples and oranges deal. If anything, it would make it less likely we sign McKeon I think. Why? With Ivanov, Prideaux and Reyes all hurt and Nelsen gimpy, priority now has to be on a backliner. Thus, even if we were close to signing McKeon (and I gather we weren't), it would mean making a left back the priority now.

And of course, since Reyes had a green card, his injury (if it opens a roster spot) does not open up an SI slot. So we'd still be looking at TI or American talent. Not too many veteran left backs out there. I wonder if this would increase the interest in Salyer (rumor was he has signed with the league and was to be allocated by lottery pretty soon).

I waas thinking that since Nellie and Namoff would almost have to shift into the back now McKeon would be a fit at D-Mid. Before I got to the end of your post I was thinking about Salyer as well.

[Sandon Mibut]

Unless the rules have changed - and with MLS, you never know - DCU would not get any roster or cap relief.

Remember when Benny was on the shelf for so long, he still counted against the roster and the cap.

Dallas had to carry Chris Gbandi on the roster and cap all last year and he has yet to play an MLS game.

This year, San Jose will carry Dwayne DeRosario on its books and he just did his knee.

As I understand it - and again, this is MLS so it could have changed and they didn't make it public - the only time a player who is injured doesn't count against the roster is when the injured player is a GK. The league graciosuly allows teams to not count the injured GK against their 18, as was the case with Mike Ammann and is currently the case with Jon Conway.

So, if DC signs a player to replace Reyes, someone else will have to go.

I like Joe's idea about Salyer. He's versatile enough to play several positions, including both wing back spots and I imagine that, while he won't be P40, he won't take up much cap room. To sign him, someone will likely have to be dropped and if I were Chino Alegria, I'd be checking out aparments in Richmond or Tidewater right about now.

I also agree with something Tron said, either in this thread or another, that we're likely going to be seeing a lot more of Stokes earlier in the season than originally planned.

[JoeW]

The Amman case was a special exception (b/c he suffered an injury that was obvious career threatening and the team KNEW in preseason he wouldn't be able to play--but MLS had previously made a ruling that you couldn't cut players injured during the season--the Clint Peay rule we might call it).

As for Olsen, the deal there was that MLS had (at the time) a marquee player rule where you could designate in pre-season a couple of players (can't remember the number) as marquee--meaning if they went down, the league would get you a replacement. At the time, Payne and co. thought Olsen (who had been very hardy anyway) was likely being sold to England so it made no sense to designate him as a marquee player. But he went down and DCU ended up with both him and Amman on the roster and the cap.

I can't speak to the DeRosario situation. And I thought the situation with Gbandi was that he was a rookie and there was some thought at the begining of the season he might be able to play in 2002.