News: A Long, Strange Trip - 2018 DCU Season Thread

Discussion in 'D.C. United' started by morrissey, Feb 21, 2018.

  1. Funkfoot

    Funkfoot Member+

    May 18, 2002
    New Orleans, LA
    I didn't include Kemp in my little list because h's injured, but I definitely think Mora is better. Ellis and Vytas, I haven't seen enough to have an opinion. Kelly, too, for that matter. I would say that the team has upgraded quite a bit since last year, but they need to keep going.
     
  2. Heist

    Heist Member+

    Jun 15, 2001
    Virginia
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is Bingo. If this is your current definition, I can work with it.
    Moreno and Mora are definitely better than deck chairs. Segura, I could go either way.
    I would say Jeffrey is not even a deck chair. He's a guy who only makes the 18 when there are many guys injured or on international duty.

    The bottom 5-7 on a roster doesn't even come close to fitting with what you just said that 60% of MLS starters are deck chairs. That would mean only the top 5 or so starters on any team AREN'T deck chairs.
     
    shawn12011 and griffin1108 repped this.
  3. fatbastard

    fatbastard Member+

    Aug 1, 2003
    Lincoln (ish), Va
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Can't have a good party on the Ledo deck without the deck chairs! :)
     
    Winoman and song219 repped this.
  4. griffin1108

    griffin1108 BigSoccer Supporter

    Dec 5, 2003
    Virginia
    Vytas has been injured almost since he arrived. He's probably an MLS depth player, but more useful than someone consiged to USL. Kelly is the Crash Davis of USL -- he hit his plateau a few years ago, he's not moving forward. Of the entire group, Miranda is the most intriguing. He's still young, he gets call ups from Bolivia (not that means much given Bolivia's current sad state in football). But he's on loan, so is there enough upside there for DCU to purchase his contract? As far as the others, I think everyone hopes (wishes?) that young Harkes would be as impactful as his father, but I don't think that is in the cards. O-A and Robinson just have too many deficiencies to make it in MLS. Kemp hasn't played in a year and a half. I would expect him to retire in the off-season as I'm sure he probably has moved on from seeing himself as an active player.
     
  5. pr0ner

    pr0ner Member+

    Jan 13, 2007
    Alexandria, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I would think Miranda at least is gone for next year, as it would open up an international roster slot for a player who can make more of an impact.
     
    GumbyG repped this.
  6. shawn12011

    shawn12011 Member+

    Jun 15, 2001
    Reisterstown, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    And I am not saying my numbers are 100% in line. I do however stick by the bottom 5-7.
     
  7. Potowmack

    Potowmack Member+

    Apr 2, 2010
    Washington, DC
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    MLS's salary cap rules basically force teams to have a bunch of generic players on their roster. If you wanted to spend $10 million on your roster and have a starting eleven making about $750K each, with the rest of your roster being paid the rest, you couldn't really do so. If you wanted to spend most of that $10 million on 3 DPs, with the rest of the team making a lot less, you'd have no problem doing so under the salary cap rules.

    I think the long-term salary structure for the league should be some combination of a salary floor combined with a soft salary cap (i.e., a luxury tax), with fewer controls on how the money is spent on players.
     
    shawn12011 repped this.
  8. DCUSA

    DCUSA Member+

    Jan 14, 2006
    Virginia
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    My mistake, 3's look like 5's to me in certain fonts, my eyes are shot.
     
  9. GumbyG

    GumbyG Member+

    DC United
    Mar 22, 2007
    Chesapeake, VA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I agree this is likely, but probably shortsighted. It's no surprise he's having trouble finding minutes, and it isn't for lack of talent. Honestly, I'm not sure how long we can keep bringing Stieber off the bench before he goes. He's a starter in this league, and he isn't getting any younger.

    If we could hold our midfield roster together for another year, it would be smart of us to keep him and give him a year of starts in USL2, unless he's getting itchy. I'm not sure what the int'l slot restrictions are there, but it does give us a bit of a relief valve for developmental players, in theory.
     
  10. tallguy

    tallguy Member+

    Sep 15, 2004
    MoCoLand, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Um, in my opinion, Stieber & Harkes are gone after this season. They just aren't good enough to start for this team.
     
  11. John L

    John L Member+

    Sep 20, 2003
    Alexandria, VA
    Stieber could start in at least two positions on the field for us. When injuries crop up to either Asad, Canouse, Moreno, Arriola, Segura or Acosta we will need him.
     
    Hedbal, TowsonDad, Winoman and 4 others repped this.
  12. GumbyG

    GumbyG Member+

    DC United
    Mar 22, 2007
    Chesapeake, VA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Are you trolling me? :D

    Stieber's an active Hungarian national team player with 26 caps under his belt. He's got very good vision and skill on the ball. He can score and he's an excellent crosser. He has 5 goals and 7 assists in 1700 minutes this season in midfield, mostly playing out of position.

    Harkes is an interesting prospect that's starting to age out of that phase. He's fine as third on the depth chart at the 8. Teams need those players, but those are slots best given to prospects or journeymen. His best shot at this point is to dominate the USL next year, or test the waters in a lower division overseas. But I'd agree that if he were starting for us regularly, we'd be in trouble.

    EDIT: Did you maybe mean Harkes and Jeffrey?
     
    JRHokie repped this.
  13. tallguy

    tallguy Member+

    Sep 15, 2004
    MoCoLand, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No, I wasn't trolling you. What I mean to say was that my reading of Stieber is that he won't want to stay if he's not starting and that Harkes, as you suggest, would be better off at this point in his career by starting over again somewhere else.
     
    griffin1108 and GumbyG repped this.
  14. Heist

    Heist Member+

    Jun 15, 2001
    Virginia
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm not sure Harkes would be better off on another MLS team, but playing weekly for DCU2 would be great.
    As for Steiber... that's a great question, whether he'd be happy with being the 11th or 12th man. It's more of a personal/lifestyle question. Maybe he wants to head back to Europe and be a clear starter somewhere...
    He's definitely going to get a lot of playing time toward the end of this season and I expect him to start the next 2 games for example. He seems to be better as a starter compared to off the bench (granted it's a small sample size), but he's an integral part of the attack. If any of the attacking starters leave this offseason, he'd be likely to be a starter again in 2019.
     
    Funkfoot and Winoman repped this.
  15. Kenobi

    Kenobi Member

    Jul 11, 1999
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    What's Asad's status after this season? He's just here on a 1-year loan, right? If United doesn't re-up or buy him outright (which would be an extremely odd move), seems like Stieber would slot right into that spot.
     
  16. tallguy

    tallguy Member+

    Sep 15, 2004
    MoCoLand, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well, I think that they're both going to get MLS opportunities with expansion teams. FC Cincinnati is coming into the league with mostly USL players next year and Inter Miami and Nashville FC will be coming into the league in 2020 or 2021 with no players whatsoever. Who knows? If Marc Busch is still starting in the league, I'm fairly certain that Steiber and Harkes will turn up somewhere in the league over the next two or three years.
     
    fatbastard repped this.
  17. Kenobi

    Kenobi Member

    Jul 11, 1999
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Never mind, I'm still thinking of Asad's deal with Atlanta.
     
  18. pr0ner

    pr0ner Member+

    Jan 13, 2007
    Alexandria, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Asad is here on loan with an option to buy.
     
  19. UnitedBorn

    UnitedBorn Member+

    Dec 7, 2015
    301
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Iirc the option is $700k.

    Hopefully Asad is close to qualifying for a green card to open up a spot.
     
    Winoman repped this.
  20. fairfax4dc

    fairfax4dc Member+

    Dec 5, 2008
    Fairfax, Va
    Just a note of gratitude heading into the season's home stretch, that this team has turned it around and is playing exciting and competitive football. As a STH I was beginning to dread the stretch of 15 home games in 15-16 weeks. Instead I'm looking forward to every game, even those (gulp) Wednesday night affairs. Of course the big questions are still unanswered - is ownership committed to to returning the club to the MLS elite? Will Ben be allowed to stay on until he qualifies for Medicare?

    But the acquisition of Rooney and return of Hamid have been smart moves that saved this season, whether or not we make the playoffs.
     
  21. Adler

    Adler Member+

    Aug 20, 2003
    das Schloss Adler
    Club:
    DC United
    Asad's future at DCU will be "Exhibit A" in the answer to this question.

    Let's see if the FO coughs-up $700,000 worth of Audi-coin.
     
    Winoman repped this.
  22. fatbastard

    fatbastard Member+

    Aug 1, 2003
    Lincoln (ish), Va
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    In what will likely be an unpopular opinion, I'd take a hard pass on buying Asad (that sounds evil to type, buying someone, but that's soccer), at least for that kind of money. I assume that's the "transfer" fee, regardless of salary.
    He has massive offensive talent - but he's so slow and lazy on defense most of the time.
     
  23. Funkfoot

    Funkfoot Member+

    May 18, 2002
    New Orleans, LA
    I agree with that, but I think it would be difficult to get somebody else equally good for $700k.
     
    Winoman and fatbastard repped this.
  24. song219

    song219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 5, 2004
    La Norte
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Vanuatu
    Besides DCU's track record for picking good players isn't all that good.
     
  25. Heist

    Heist Member+

    Jun 15, 2001
    Virginia
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It's getting a lot better. A few years back it was pretty bad, even if you account for how low our budget was and how little cache RFK and the team had.
    As for recent acquisitions, witness all the guys we brought in this year or even last year. Are there any failures? I can't really think of any and I can think of a lot of guys who are reached expectations, beat expectations, or crushed expectations.

    Ousted might be the closest, and even he is a competent MLS player and a good backup.
    Miranda perhaps... but he was always a project.
    Brillant hasn't been good, but he hasn't been a huge bust. Expectations for him weren't too high. He's a stopgap.
    Vytas has been injured so I suppose he's a failure in that sense, but we don't really know if he was a bad player. Also, expectations for him were pretty low.
     

Share This Page