Does anybody know why we are giving up promising holding mid prospect? Is it because we just love sucking when Ozzie is out and he's getting younger by the minute? Maybe the kid likes his chances of cracking the big club better in O town.
Atlanta made him an offer he couldn't refuse? The Sounders have other plans for their open DP slot (assuming Valdez is leaving this offseason *crossfingers*) The Sounders are doing a solid for a new expansion club in exchange for Atlanta not taking one of our players in the expansion draft? Cristian Roldan has done a perfectly fine job of filling in for Ozzie when he's not in and our actual problem isn't finding a replacement for Ozzie, but rather for the guy standing next to Roldan? The Sounders think a healthy Brad Evans is a fine backup for Ozzie? Etc.
D'oh.. Sorry.. I missed the link and thought you were talking about Miguel Almiron (who, even worse for me is an attacking mid). but, yes.. S2 is a mess. I saw an article/comment from Sounder@Heart that there were more Sounders academy players on other USL teams than there were on S2 last season and those guys were doing well, while S2 was not.. Everything about S2 is insane, IMHO..
Yes, I was sorry Almiron got away, too, but there is a difference between a "discovery" claim on a guy who is good enough to go where he wants and wipes his ass with your discovery claim, and a promising homegrown thinking purple pastures are rave greener. You must be right about S2. Fuera EZ? Brian might have somebody else in mind for that coaching spot.
The problems with S2 gonfar deeper than Ezra... Ezra isn't the one that put them at Starfire and guaranteed few weekend games. Ezra didn't hype the community ownership, then pull the plug after collecting something like a hundred thousand dollars from fans and hide that fact for over 6 months. Ezra didn't put those stupid ass seats on Starfire's bleachers. Etc. Etc. The problems with S2 are higher than Ezra and likely won't be resolve until the Rainiers take over the team..
Massive changes as far as options being picked up and what not.. Obviously the guys that haven't had their options exercised aren't technically free agents as the Sounders can negotiate new contracts with them, but: http://www.soundersfc.com/post/2016/12/12/sounders-fc-exercises-options-eight-players Already on Contract GK Stefan Frei DF Chad Marshall MF Osvaldo Alonso MF Nicolás Lodeiro MF Alvaro Fernandez MF Cristian Roldan FW Clint Dempsey FW Jordan Morris Options Exercised GK Tyler Miller DF Tony Alfaro DF Oniel Fisher DF Joevin Jones DF Román Torres MF Brad Evans MF Aaron Kovar FW Victor Mansaray Options Not Exercised GK Charlie Lyon DF Oalex Anderson DF Damion Lowe DF Tyrone Mears DF Jimmy Ockford DF Dylan Remick MF Michael Farfan MF Erik Friberg MF Andreas Ivanschitz MF Nathan Sturgis FW Darwin Jones FW Herculez Gomez FW Nelson Valdez
Sounders current roster: GOALKEEPERS (2): Stefan Frei, Tyler Miller DEFENDERS (5): Tony Alfaro, Oniel Fisher, Joevin Jones, Chad Marshall, Román Torres MIDFIELDERS (6): Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans, Alvaro Fernandez, Aaron Kovar, Nicolás Lodeiro, Cristian Roldan FORWARDS (3): Clint Dempsey, Jordan Morris, Victor Mansaray
Expansion draft list is in: Protected Alfaro, Tony Alonso, Osvaldo Dempsey, Clint Evans, Brad Frei, Stefan Jones, Joevin Lodeiro, Nicolas Marshall, Chad Miller, Tyler Roldan, Cristian Torres, Roman Jones, Darwin (HG) Kovar, Aaron (HG) Mansaray, Victor (HG) Morris, Jordan (HG) Scott, Zacharias (retired) Unprotected Farfan, Michael Anderson, Oalex Fernandez, Alvaro Fisher, Oneil Friberg, Erik Gomez, Herculez Ivanschitz, Andreas Lowe, Damion Lyon, Charlie Mears, Tyrone Ockford, Jimmy Remick, Dylan Sturgis, Nathan Valdez, Nelson
Dempsey's now making noise about being ready for USMNT camp next month, so those of us who were hoping for his quiet retirement are apparently SOL. I can only shake my head and pray we can figure out some way to unload this deuce before he stinks up another season on our roster. What a knob.
Can you explain this dislike of Dempsey? I agree with Mateo that he's a jerk, but he's our jerk and aside from the 6 game ban (and the entire team melted down in that one) him being a jerk hasn't really hurt us. Also like Mateo, I thought he showed very well once Lodeiro was added to the line-up and I was looking forward to seeing him playing with Lodeiro..
He is either going to retire to play another year for seattle. He isn't going to play for another team.
Darwin Jones' option was not exercised, but he was on the protected list. Does that mean they are still trying to work out something?
Jones was automatically protected because he was on a homegrown contract. My guess is that he's either headed for S2, or done entirely with the Sounders.
Leaving his jerk nature aside, I agree when he's good, he's good. The problem is he's not consistently even present. How many good minutes did that DP money buy Seattle in the last 2 seasons? How many good minutes will it buy next year? In 2015 he missed 8 matches in 2015 for injury in addition to that 3-game MLS suspension. In 2016, he missed 16 matches for injury plus another stupid red card suspension for whacking Juan Ortiz in the face in July (don't get me wrong, Ortiz made a meal of that and was appropriately yellow-carded, but this was entirely avoidable) I want a replacement that's going to actually show up most weeks, who's actually disciplined enough to stay on the field.
*shrug* Any international is going to miss a significant number of games per season. But even in his injury free year (2014), Dempsey wasn't that much more productive than he was in 2015. He got 5 less goals (10) and the same number of assists(10) in 2015 that he got in 2014.. 2016 he was certainly off on assists (2), but he was only off by 2 goals compared to 2015. *shrug* Any time you sign an older player the injuries are going to start piling up. Dempsey's injury this season was certainly an outlier and should raise concern, but if he's back next year, I'm not sure we see him missing 17 games next season like he did this year.. He should also be more effective in front of the goal with Lodeiro than he was this year. Given his history, both with the club and previously, I think we can get away with letting him stay for the final year of his contract and seeing how he pans out. We'll obviously need an effective backup for him, but now that Lagerway is free to hit up Central America, I would think we could get one at a reasonable price?
The only reason Dempsey is not on the roster next year is that he is forced to retire and we buy out his contract.
Will Bruin?? http://www.soundersfc.com/post/2016...ruin-houston-dynamo-exchange-allocation-money he better score some goals or Ozzie will fuq him up.