So it's the long dark offseason, and as fans are wont to do, it's time to wildly speculate about next year. From my perspective, the core group is good, and we should play well next year, presuming there's a league, because a) there will be more expansion sides (will almost have to be for any league to get sanctioned), b) after Bruce Arena publicly admitted that Yohance Marshall came back better than he left, our ability to sign promising players on loan should be increased, and c) we should be able to pick up some good not-quite-ready-for-prime-time players from Vancouver and Portland. Also, realistically you'd think we'd lose either Eddie, or Max, or both to MLS. So from my admittedly not-insider-information perspective, here's my keep, go, unknown, and hope-come lists for 2011: KEEP: Tsuyoshi Yoshitake - was only a loan signing, but was also a loan signing from a side that pretty much is guaranteed to not play next year, so we might have a shot to get him. I thought he looked great when he started, but seemed a little more lost coming in as a sub for Jaime. Given that I think Jaime will be here next year, I'm not sure he'll be willing to stay for a backup role, but I wish he would. Sam Brill - Played well for us in the limited time we saw him. In retrospect, Marshall definitely had more upside, but given that Marshall was then recalled, I wish we'd let Brill play more to gel with the back line. Still, he's poised for a great year next year. Miguel Gallardo-Aparicio - Brilliant at times, prone to weird mental errors at others, he's a great keeper (watch last night's game if you need reinforcement) and we should keep him at all costs. Eddie Johnson - Probably our MVP this year - total package of goals and assists and a genuinely good guy. If I had one criticism, it would be that the training staff need to surgically attach a TENS unit to his lower back and make sure it runs every minute he's not on the pitch. Lance Watson - Good player, started amazingly well out of the gate but fell off as the season went on. I don't know if that was due to the record number of elbows to the head he took (uncalled by our glorious referees in USSFD2) but definitely worth keeping. Mechack Jerome - Looked good in limited play. I think he deserves another shot. Sullivan Silva - Oh Sully. Not very good most of the year (admittedly maybe due to injury), he redeemed himself and showed a burst of his old form at Portland. He's still young (21 I think) so he gets one more year to come good. Sean Kelley - Eh. Backup keeper. Didn't really impress me or make me cringe every time he touched the ball (though he is no Miguel). This is US D2 soccer - I don't think we're going to get much better in a backup keeper honestly. Yordany Alvarez - KEEP. We played SO much better with him than without him. Next year I believe he'll have his green card and can leave the country. Unfortunately I think that might make him an attractive target for MLS teams. The Aztex should try to hold onto him at all costs. Yohance Marshall - I wish we could keep him, but he was never ours, and I don't think the Galaxy will be giving him back... Randi Patterson - Looked very good out there. Given that I think we're going to lose EJ or Max to MLS, I think keeping Randi is a high priority. Kendell McFayden - Played I think twice for us, and scored on his debut. I think he deserves another shot and a little more time to develop. Lawrence Olum - Dangerous with a free kick, solid in midfield, all around nice guy. Definitely deserves to stay. Jay Needham - Great at the back, especially after Yohance left. Definite keep. Jamie Watson - Tintin. Need I say more? Leonard Griffin - I read/heard from someone that his major problem is that he's too nice a guy and so doesn't have a killer instinct. That's why he's in D2. But when he's up for it, he's great. Even when he's not he's certainly good enough to warrant keeping. Maxwell Griffin - A star in the making. If the Aztex ever get a guy in the USMNT it'll be Max (and, seriously, if Edson Buddle can make the USMNT, then Max has a shot). I fear he'll get sold on, but I really want him to stay. Go: Joey Worthen - He wins "Aztex player who looks most like Djorn." Past that, I honestly feel he's useless to this squad. He plays like I do, which is clumsily and with more desire to wreck things than skill. There's a reason I'm in IT. I'll be happy to help him break in. I do MCITS training at reasonable rates, Joey. Call me. Ian Fuller - I'm sorry - I was not impressed by Fuller on the field. Admittedly it was limited time, but he just didn't do anything to distinguish himself on a team that can score scads of goals. Maybe he can come good given time, but I haven't seen it. Kieron Bernard - I love Kieron, and he's an Original Aztex, but his legs are made of glass, and I sometimes question his mental abilities. Maybe it's time he moved on. Wes Allen - I dunno. Wes didn't do it for me. I don't remember him being especially bad, but not that good either... Kevin Sakuda - I think he's useless. Yes, he stabilized a REALLY bad backline last year, but has done nothing since. And unless hairgel is somehow a leadership attribute, I have no idea why he was team captain. Tyler Hemming - Started 2 games, and wasn't impressive in either of them. I know Adrian rates him quite highly, or wouldn't have signed him midseason, but I don't see why he's still around. Michael Callahan - Plays with great injury, and is awesome for breaking up opposition runs. Unfortunately he can't pass to save his life. I think that's just too much of a liability. Stephan Campbell - I honestly have no real memories of Stephan. Maybe he's a work in progress, but in the absence of evidence for keep, I'm placing him in go. Ronald Caicedo - Same as Stephan Campbell. Hope Come: Lionel Messi - hey, he's proved all he can on the world stage, but can he survive stupid heat, a plastic pitch, and unskilled challenges? Also, we're talking Lionel Messi of Greenwich, CT, of the Greenwich Messis. Freddy Adu - this one actually has a grain of seriousness - he needs to come home, get some training, and get his head on straight. Who better to do that than Adrian, and in a fairly low pressure place for him. Ali Gerba - Oh please, please piss off Saputo. You'd love it down here. I promise. #10 for the Haitian National Team Whose Name I Can Never Remember - big, strong, FAST center forward - I remember Phil saying he wanted to get him in, but it never happened. Maybe for next season? Adam Braz - Just so we can make him disappear somewhere on I-10 between here and El Paso. The same goes for Nevio Pizzolito.
I'd have to disagree on Sakuda and Callahan. I thought Sakuda was pretty much the only guy defending last night other than Lance, not to mention the only guy sending in crosses other than Lance. I do think that Sakuda might be a better wide midfielder than defender, though. Callahan just seemed to improve his game and improve the team every time he was on the field. I started out as a big Olum supporter, but in retrospect I wish we had stuck with Callahan to end the season. As someone who only hopped on board for the last seven or eight games, my opinions are probably skewed, but for what it's worth here they are. Keep: Tsuyoshi Yoshitake - Admittedly, we haven't seen much of him. We need the width he seems capable of providing. He also seems to have a decent amount of speed. Also, I bid on and won his jersey. Sam Brill - Probably a good enough backup central defender. I seem to remember that he was an important part of those draws in Portland and Vancouver. Miguel Gallardo-Aparicio - In the last two or three games I really started to see what all the fuss was about. If he had more support from the back line I think we'd see a lot more clean sheets. Kieron Bernard - His positioning and height on corner kicks was great, so I'd keep him for that. I might even start him over Needham, to be honest. But one of them will have to sit to make room for a new backline anchor, since that's our biggest problem area. Eddie Johnson - Obviously. Lance Watson - Consistently an important ball distributor who also knows how to fall back for defense. Yordany Alvarez - I'm still not as big a believer in him as some of you seem to be. He's very conservative, maybe too conservative. But when he has the ball I don't worry about soft giveaways or aimless passing, so I think he's an important part of establishing a rhythm in the midfield. Michael Callahan - See top paragraph. Kevin Sakuda - See top paragraph. Randi Patterson - Really made things happen every time he came off the bench. Could easily be a starter somewhere, so I hope we can keep him one way or another. Jamie Watson - He's in a slump, and I think by extension the team was in a slump. I only saw the final third or so of the season, so I know I missed the best parts, but nevertheless I'm not a Tintin convert yet. We should keep him, but we shouldn't feel afraid to bench him when he's in a funk like he has been lately. Leonard Griffin - One of the best players on the team, IMO. Maxwell Griffin - Ditto. Go: Wes Allen - Based on last night, no. But I seem to remember him playing in the midfield in one of our better recent away games, so perhaps that's his natural position. Ian Fuller - I didn't see what he was supposed to add. Sullivan Silva - Where did he go? When I started following the team he was OK, nothing too special, but then he disappeared. I remember being frustrated by his decisions to cut inside rather than get wide and cross, and by his tendency to hold the ball too long. He seems similar to Jamie Watson in that regard, but without the periodic results from it. If we can keep Yoshi, I'm not sure we have a need for Silva. Joey Worthen - What I saw from him wasn't impressive. Jay Needham - Honestly, he just seems too slow. As a fellow Fort Worth native I hate to say it, but he's probably part of our backline problem. I saw him get beat on speed probably dozens of times. Not sure: Lawrence Olum - The very first game I saw, he was a rock. He was playing pure defensive midfield, keeping pressure off the backline and passing forward really well. The last few games he was helpless to stop the tailspin. Not sure what to make of it. Mechack Jerome Sean Kelley Tyler Hemming Stephan Campbell Ronald Caicedo Kendell McFayden
I don't know about speed, I never really noticed Needham in particular getting burned. Not saying it's not true, just that I didn't notice. But I do disagree with your overall opinion of him, because I feel like lots of times he was in the right place, with the right clearance (talking about the whole season, not last night alone). Ability to read the game can go a long way toward making up for lack of speed, and I think he's got that. Jay +1.
I am not comfortable with some of the strong negative statements in the first post. But in particular, I don't think Fuller got a real shot to show what he can do. He's big strong and fast enough. I'd like to see him get a season-long test. More generally, I think that all season long our play was directly related to how we played in the midfield. When we could attack not just with long balls from the back but with shorter passes through the midfield, we were an offensive juggernaut. I thought Lance Watson was a bigger part of that (along with Alvarez, who seemed crucial) than the original poster. I agree that Silva deserves another shot because his upside seems big to me. He is enough of a threat to occupy defenders, and we need someone who can attack off the dribble. I think he ran into a bit of a cultural adjustment (I mean, on the pitch). There are too many people in English soccer who think of stepovers and flair as almost a kind of character defect, unfortunately. I don't think Adrian is one of those people, but I will say that when Sully tried unsuccessfully to get the ball to Eddie, the reaction (from Eddie) was usually a lot harsher than when any other midfielder did the same. JMO, as they say. But all in all, what a fun season! I'd like to see as many of these guys back as possible. I agree that Johnson can play at a higher level, but selfishly hope he stays.
It's possible that I got him confused a few times with Brill and Allen. Fair point about his positioning, which I do agree tended to be better than Kieron's (except on CKs, where Kieron has the height upside.)
for what it worth these are the players i like to see in the red and white of the Aztex next year Miguel,Eddie,Lance,Jamie,Yoshitake,Hemming,Needham,Brill,Sakuda,Alvarez,Max & Leonard Griffin,Callahan,Patterson,bernard, plus kelly, Mcfayden, ? mark players Silva,Campbell,Jerome,Olum players i would let go are Fuller,Worthen,Caicedo and the player i would want back as La Galaxy do not need him is Marshall
Sam Brill is a good player. It needs to be remembered that when Sam joined the club, he hadn't played competitively in almost a year due to a situation at his old club in Sweden that was out of his control. I won't delve into specifics, but it wasn't Sam's fault that he came in a tad rusty. A fresh start to a new season would be great for him. Jay Needham most definitely needs to stay with this club. Arguably our most intelligent player. He's a coach on the field.
The problem is that we have several defenders who are clearly good enough to play at this level - Needham, Brill, and Kieron - and yet our backline is a mess. During these last several games, it was embarassingly predictable that teams would play the long ball to their onside forwards who then easily outran our two central defenders. Something has to be done to change that situation, probably in the form of a new troubleshooting defender. One could argue that Sakuda and Griffen need to stay at home more and stop their flank runs, but I think that would take away one of the strongest but least exploited parts of our attack. To me, Kieron and Brill both have more upside. For me Needham is the odd man out. I know there's a lot of support for him, though, so I'm willing to keep an open mind and continue to observe next year.
The other thing to note about Jay is that he brings experience to the team and the backline. That experience means he knows how to handle different situations a bit better than some of the younger players.
Keep everyone with exceptions: 1) Question marks on Caicedol and Campbell. didn't see enough of them on the field. 2) Let go of Fuller (Paul's favorite ), Sakuda and Worthen who is the winner of the 2011 Kyle Brown Award for the doing the most effort with no results on the field in the course of the season. I'm would stick with Brill, Allen & Leonard Griffin because: Brill - He's still working on his fitness and there's some potential for him to partner up with Needham (who's is still a solid defender with leadership). Allen - A potential utility player either on defense or in midfield. L. Griffin - Could provide his brother Maxwell in guidance more with playing at the professional level. As for Needham, you can't fault him most of the time because both Sakuda & L. Griffin get caught off position on their opponet's counterattacks which makes it more difficult for center backs to cover either flank player or central striker. We just need to add quality flank defenders in the off season. Honestly do you ever wonder why Heath placed Bernard out of place at left back in a couple of matches?
I don't think anyone needs to say 'let go of Fuller'. He was a loan player from Charleston, and as he's still (AFAIK) their assistant coach, I'm sure they're going to take him back. It will be interesting to see what happens this off-season. I remember last year's 'who to keep, who to drop' thread, and my memory is that we were all pretty conservative about our choices. Having seen the Aztex drop well more than half, keeping only Alvarez, Tintin, Gallardo, Bernard, Sakuda, Callahan, Silva and Johnson (I think I got the list right) (remember, Wes Allen was dropped, then picked back up) makes me think that y'all are still being a little too cautious. It's weird looking at this season, at the huge jump of improvement we got in the midfield with the additions of Olum and Lance. I remember being shocked at how much better things were than the previous year. And now, looking at the end of the season, having gotten used to the quality and finding myself thinking "hmm, maybe player x isn't that good..." Now, I'm not saying that's exactly what Adrian and Phil are going to be thinking over the next couple months. But I'm sure they're looking at Minnesota (again), St. Louis, Portland, Vancouver and the rest to see who they can pick up to make things better. And at this point we're pretty much at the limit of the number of players they can afford without dropping some. They'll be looking to make things better, and I expect that we'll see up to 10 players move on.
Interesting hypothesis. Personally I like to see a lot of stability, as I think even average players can combine to form an above-average team when they know each other well and play together for a long time. For the same reason, I don't like to see a lot of coaching turnovers. We're going to be sticking with Heath, so why not stick with the bulk of the roster too? That's why I'm thinking in terms of problem areas more than problem players. The backline players are individually fine, but aren't clicking at all as a unit. The midfield players are individually quite good, but aren't maintaining possession and stringing together passes. And even still, we wound up near the top of the league. So rather than dismantle the team I'd like to see us make a couple of surgical alterations to address these underperforming areas. With all the changes that might occur to the league next year, teams possibly coming and going, carrying most of our roster over from this year might give us an automatic advantage.
My perspective, given that I was a season ticket holder and made it to most home games, but watched only 2 home games: we have to improve the defense. I'm not sure how we do this, but this seems to be holding us back a bit. These judgments are without any knowledge of the contract value. The front office will obviously weight performance against cost. We must also keep an eye towards development and future sales worth. Ideally, I'd imagine we'd want to bring in 4-5 guys age 23 or under next season (find another Max please). Eventually, we could have an established youth team and pull guys from that group, but for now, I think we have to have some experience in the starting ranks, and reach out a bit early in the season to give some younger guys an opportunity. Keep: Veterans: Miguel Gallardo-Aparicio - Inconsistent at times, but generally makes good plays. Getting a bit old. Jay Needham - Older veteran, but a solid presence. Hope he's not too expensive. Lance Watson - Another veteran who is likely peaking. Great work rate, good contributor. Eddie Johnson - Not the youngest player, but goals are goals. May get sold anyway? Yordany Alvarez - Good player. Seemed to get better as season went on. Lawrence Olum - Another midfield stalwart. Missed when either he or Alvarez couldn't play. Sam Brill - Looked good in substitute work. Not sure if he's a starter, but a great 3rd option at centerback. Would be great if versatile enough to move outside. Leonard Griffin - Good at times, but frustrating at others. Can make great plays, or can spend too long on the ball and get caught in possession. Kevin Sakuda - Solid player, not spectacular. Young talent: Maxwell Griffin - This is the way forward for the Aztex. Young player, played exceptionally well. Young enough to get even better. Tremendous asset. Jamie Watson - Good work rate, passion, technical skill. Creates a lot. Still reasonably young. Sometimes passion gets the best of him on the field. Sullivan Silva - Intriguing prospect that is still only 22. Needs to improve, but won't likely get the playing time to do so. Backup or loan out? Michael Callahan - Worked hard for team in backup role. Still young, but needs some improvement. Don't see as a starter for next year. Let go: Kieron Bernard - Replaced early in the year, struggled at the end of the season. Not sure if its going to work out. Joey Worthen - Works hard, but not sure the technical skill is up to par. Not enough info: Mechack Jerome, 20 - Really small for a defender, but so is Phillip Lahm. Wes Allen, 24 - Local kid, but not sure if there is enough talent. Ian Fuller, 31 - Nearly 31 in the midfield. Tsuyoshi Yoshitake, 29 Randi Patterson, 25 - Good goal scoring record, might be worth holding onto. Sean Kelley, 22 Kendell McFayden, 22 Tyler Hemming, 25 Ronald Caicedo, 21 Stephan Campbell, 20 All in all, I like that we appear to have some young kids in the squad. Looking at the players to keep and the projected starters, we need depth all over the field, but particularly on the wings and outside backs. A great year for the Aztex, I just hope for continued success.
I guess I have another MLS team to follow. Best of luck, Eddie. Except if we play you in the Open Cup. I wonder if BS will explode if I'm a fan of both the Sounders and the Timbers.
Best of luck Eddie. It will be difficult for me to see him in a Timbers green instead of the Aztex RAW. BTW Two Meters is going to choke a bitch for misspelling you-know-what.
"He was loaned to Austin by the Timbers and therefore is not an allocation selection." Huh? I think there's something wrong there. Unless he was signed by Portland some time ago, and has been playing on loan for the Aztex and we never knew about it. Which is possible, I suppose.
Rest assured that no bitches were choked during the addition of KPTV Portland to the Wall of Shame: http://aztexan.net/its-aztex-with-an-x/
From Twitter: WhitecapsFC won't offer deals to GK Dan Pelc, Ds Nelson Akwari, Zurab Tsiskaridze & Chris Williams, M Alex Elliott & F Jonathan McDonald. Think the Aztex would want Akwari & Tsiskaridze for 2011?
Word on the street has Portland trading for Johnson at the trade deadline (cash is the best guess) and as a part of the agreement, loaning him back to Austin for the remainder of the season. That's why he was a Portland player and not requiring the allocation process to obtain him. Hey, I just realized something... Officially speaking, my favorite Div 2 club is Austin now. Hurray! Now, let's just hope they are in fact in Div 2 next season, and that there is a div. 2... but that's for another (probably 5-10) thread(s).
We want Akwari back in Charleston! He is a great guy and a solid defender. Besides we cant keep sending you our former players! (patterson, Yoshi, Hemming, Fuller, hell even Jamie Watson was on loan with us after his season with the Hammerheads a couple years ago) I know you guys have stripes as well and maybe the guys get used to wearing them
As I recall, Watson was loaned to you for one match (maybe 2) during the USL2 season, and then came on loan to the Aztex after the USL2 season had concluded.