United might not be done. One source said the club is pursuing other free agents before the Sept. 15 cut-off.
Joe Ledley, Jason Lowe would also be legitimate targets in midfield. Ledley's a 30 year old Welsh national team player with 106 Premiership games under his belt - he'd be a good get. He's left footer who could challenge Harkes, and provide some quality when Acosta's not on the field, too. Someone who can help out in the box. Lowe's more of a 6/8 for us, as he couldn't score playing Yahtzee. A former England U21 player, he does the dirty work and has a collection of cards to prove it. Both guys are at least Championship material, and would either be starters out of the gate or raise the level of play. Ledley, despite his age, is sought after, and out of contract of his own accord. Not sure what he's waiting for, but he turned down two offers from Championship teams this week. Lowe's captained Blackburn to relegation. Despite the ignominy, leadership is leadership, and it's not like he can do worse here. In fact, at this point, he's probably up for playing for a team that can't be relegated, and at 25, he's got a chip on his shoulder and plenty of time to play and learn ahead of him. He's also likely to be a player whose cap hit we can bring under the DP limit with TAM.
It was announced this morning that Bruno Miranda will be called up for the 2 qualifiers the Bolivian National team has coming up (8/31 & 9/5). I checked United's schedule and they don't have any games from the 26th to the 9th. Bruno will probably leave on the 27th and returned the 6th, so this should not affect his availability if he is considered for some playing time. Hmm, is this purely coincidence or is MLS now working around FIFA dates (and the days in between) to accommodate clubs with players being called up?
Props to @Hedbal on posting this above in another thread.... This is Bruno's opportunity to shine and I wish him all the best. In one week, he went from being mainly considered for 2018 (possibly Richmond bound) to having a spot on the bench and now to starting. Just as how quickly his situation has changed for the best, it just as quickly go in the opposite direction and I'm sure he knows this but he needs to perform very well on Saturday night so he can remain in the starting lineup. ¡Vamos United!
Assuming Marco Etcheverry doesn't book his travel. He had a habit of missing his return dates by a week or so
He made a very intelligent and accurate pass during his moments in the last "game", something that others haven't managed to do this season. Play him
I dont remember that but I believe it, especially if Bolivia had a month/week long festival during those dates, which is almost every month. hehehe El Diablo being El Diablo.
Speaking of El Diablo, I remember a while back how Arena mentioned that he would consider him as part of his coaching staff in the future. Whether that is true or not, he has done some coaching and was considered as an option to coach the Bolivian National Team but he pulled himself out of consideration due to the corrupt climate in the Bolivian federation at the time. Anyways, if there's interest on both sides, he would be a nice addition to United as an Assistant Coach, if not Head Coach.
We remember him. And I'm sure Ben does as well. But if Olsen is squeezed out by the FO ( as so many people here want), then there's nobody in management who's ever heard of him.
Can someone remind me (in all seriousness) if we dominated any game/team this season? How many wins have we had that were really handed to us by the other team? I think we played well in Atlanta but can't remember the specifics and we started off dominating the flounders but we all know how that turned out. James
Just for curiosity, I went back and reviewed each win. 2-1 win over Philadelphia at RFK - we lost possession battle 57% to 43%. They outshot us 19 to 9. 9 to 3 on goal. 2-1 win over NYCFC at RFK - We were outshot 15-13. Although even with shots on goal with 6. 3-1 win over Atlanta at Bobby Dodd - We lost possession 74% to 26%. Outshot 26 to 9. But again even on shots on goal with 7 1-0 win over Vancouver at BC Place - We lost possession 53% to 47%. Outshot 22 to 7. It's becoming a trend to say this, but yet again tied on 4 shots on goal 2-1 win over Atlanta at RFK. Wow we actually outshot them 17 to 15. But they had 5 on target, to our 4. They also won possession 55% to 45% 1-0 win over Colorado DSGP. Again, we lose possession 61% to 39%. We were outshot 18 to 14. But we were more accurate with 6 on goal to their 4. So the pattern for our 6 wins seems to be consistently losing the possession battle and being outshot. The magic sauce for us to get a win is depending on the other team to have an abnormally poor night of shooting accuracy. But for us to be able to dominate a team through possession and chance creation is basically impossible.
I was pointing out in the Rapids threat that this is just Ben. I've come to the stark realization that even with a bigger budget, we will simply get a better executed version of this from Ben in the near future. We may get more wins, but it's ugly, and I don't think there is enough $ in the salary cap/etc. to have a team that is as strong in the back as Ben wants, but is also able to put away the few chances they will create.