Looks like FCD is trying to up their game after Atlanta has run away with best signings in S. America. Thing is if you spend correctly you make all your money back and maybe even make money while helping your team win. Spend a lot but not correctly and you lose money. So last year Almiron vs Colman? Atlanta by a TKO. Now this Barca vs ?
Hope it's true. Need something to get excited about this club for 2018. Maybe I'll go watch the 5-1 hammering of the Gals again...
The big surprise is the rumored price. $4M, who by using the same scale to compare, for Mosquera who TransferMarkt shows to be the #318th ranked Columbian player as compared to Castillo who they rank as #38. We're also told Oscar asked for him specifically - so #TrustInPapi and all that stuff. Just smells like overpaying.
That seems to be more realistic, and Papi discusses (kinda) the guy in Buzz's practice notes from Thursday. https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/soccer/soccer/2018/01/26/fcd-practice-observations-january-25th
Well, Buzz just started doing them again since moving back to the DFW area a few months ago. So you've really only missed a couple. He did another on Monday and you should be able to find it easily in the link above.
This is official. Technically opens up both a DP and international slot on the roster. NEWS: FC Dallas loans @AnibalChala_ach to L.D.U. Quito; left back to remain in Ecuador for 2018 season.📰: https://t.co/jYQkjmXl1W pic.twitter.com/R82QBtUDe5— FC Dallas (@FCDallas) January 30, 2018
So .... what's the deal with Chala? Do they not want him but no one will pony up the money to buy him? They need to look hard at whoever made the big decisions last year on acquisitions and if there are more like that this year find someone else. I'm not sure about the high dollar player they are trying to bring in. He's better be clearly better than what they have or it's a waste of money. I worry that he'll be slightly better but they'll have to play him because of cost and the young HG attackers don't get any minutes to improve.
With their acquisition of players at both left back and left wing this off-season, I'd say Chala is never going to suit up for FCD. Why? I don't know. Something going on there. My gut feeling is they'd have sold if they could have.........................
I wasn't that impressed last Spring and have the same feeling. Lots of pace but not tons of skill. Reggie Cannon was much more impressive.
On what is wrong with Chala: Maybe i said it here before, maybe not. The rumor is that the Hernia injury Chala suffered, is Chronic. It will bother him for the rest of his career.It is very likely the reason FCD is looking to part ways with him. He was excellent for LDUQ last season, but his blazing speed he had displayed in FCD preseason, was seldom on display. Again, this is only a rumor. It should be pointed out that last year Chala was the only option at Left Back for LDU Quito, and is a fan favorite. This season, besides retaining Chala, LDUQ has brought in another quality Left Back. Which makes you wonder why?
They failed to properly scout him, he got here wasn't good enough, very raw AND then got hurt. There were some significantly "raised eyebrows" over his skillset, ability and level of readiness when he got here.
Any idea who pushed for him to be acquired? Do they use foreign scouts that they trust or did someone see him once and was impressed?
The problem was that the team from 2016 returned basically intact and the new signings were supposed to elevate the team into an MLS contender. Instead the whole team went in the opposite direction. And I still to this day can't figure out why. I'm pretty happy with the squad right now. Maybe I'm just a delusional FCD homer, but there's a lot to like in this group. For me the front office has had a pretty darn good off-season. The team looks like a good mix of proven first team MLS players and developing high-ceiling youngsters. We brought in international-caliber defenders in Ziegler and Nedyalkov to fill the glaring weaknesses from the 2nd half of 2017. We'll see how they work out, but the effort was put in to improve there. I think we did just about as well as one can expect from a draft. We signed a bunch of homegrowns. I like it. Its back to the FCD way......................... if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. We all know that to a large degree it all depends on what Mauro Diaz we get. The front office has put in the work. I know there are those that would like the club to sign a big name Chicharito type, but the rest of us know that's unlikely to happen. WIth the model the team is working with, I think we did well. I mean, I take what we've done this off-season over what San Jose, Vancouver, and others that finished ahead of us have done.
We're all in the "wait and see" boat. Look, before last season we were all impressed with the signing of Colman, Lamah, Grana, Chala, Morales. The first four came in as people we knew little about, had never seen play in person and had to trust Clavijo's evaluation skills, and the 5th was 'does FCD really think he's got something left in the tank?'. We know know Clavijo flat out bonked on all of those signings. The Morales thing we can more spread blame, but those other signings are all on him. So, my point is, until we see Ziegler and Nedyalkov actually put time on the field, I have no idea how good or bad they'll be. How will they handle the summer, the travel, the league? What I do know is this is essentially the same team in attack, which was never very good or consistently dangerous last season. even when in 1st place, that was more the result of a quality defense, organization and hard work - because Diaz wasn't there. 2018 is 100% going to fall on Mauro's shoulders and how Oscar deals with the 50% of the games Diaz won't be around for. And of the 50% he plays in the 20% he shows up not really interested.