From the Dispatch: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2009/03/09/crew09.html?sid=101 Sigh...there goes all of our depth at the midfield position.
Well, anymore midfield injuries and we are in trouble. Although, I'm confident Ekpo can hold it down and I'm glad that he will be getting some full 90 games. Might have to see what Nyazamba has as well as a sub. Could work out okay. Off the field injuries, really? Come on Noonan. Get a dolly.
Actually it says a herniated disc. That could easily mean surgery and could also mean he is out for 4 mos or more. That is all bad news. These small rosters leave no room fro depth.
Herniated disc is NOT good. Well, looks like Nyazamba will have to step up in the midfield. We could see more of Duncan than we thought. Also, could throw Danny in as a CM and slide Iro in at CB for late game defense. And Grendi may see some time as well out wide, with Ekpo in the middle we are also short on wide options. Up front we'll be OK. I'm fine with Lenhart and Garey getting the reserve forward minutes. Could be good news for Cory Elenio, Kevin Burns, or both.
The small roster isn't great, but it really isn't a deal breaker. They could put Noonan on the 6 week IR or if he's done for the year on the season IR and replace him with another player. There is room as far as the rosters go in that regard. The problem really is even though they have the option to replace players on the roster for a short amount of time, the league in it's infinate stupidity doesn't give teams any cap relief for the injuried player. That's what hurts the most. That's roughly about 125K the Crew may or may not have for the rest of the year depending on how severe the back injury is. That's the gamble you take with a luxury player like Noonan. Sure his experience and skill are great to have coming off the bench, but if he gets injuried, as Pat is oft to do, you're out a lot of cap room. This is going to hurt us most on Crewsmas. Rogers, Hejduk, Moreno could be gone with the Nats on the 28th.
Noonan, you moron. Moffatt, well, it sucks, but what can you do? And delays coming back from a knee injury aren't exactly unheard of. The good news, there, is that they sound confident he'll be fully fit soon. Re: the "this kills our depth" responses, well, obviously, it affects what we can do. But we do have real depth on this team, especially in the midfield. As-is, this doesn't much affect our starting XI at all. Maybe Robert had Moffatt penciled in as a starting central midfielder. Still, he knew Moffatt was coming off an injury, and he knew we have depth at midfield. A midfield of Rogers, Gaven, Ekpo and Carroll is pretty damned good. But Noonan... WTF.
I question our depth. I have no doubt that Padula and Guille will be out off and on this year due to various injuries. Padula has a gimpy knee and GBS has a finicky hamstring. If it was not for all the extra games this year it would not matter much but damned sigi for taking Evans. We could use another youngster like him. The kid played flank, forward, the center and even dabbled as a left back for Robbie.
Good news for the Crew that it happened earlier rather than later then. Even a 4 month injury at this stage gets Noonan back on the field in time for Columbus' busy run at the end of the season in the CL. It's a shame though. What an unlucky injury to a seemingly good guy.
I am going to guess you mean left midfield? Before the Noonan injury I would still have said Ekpo was more likely to be starting in the midfield so atleast its not a starter for MLS games. This gives several other players a chance to step up. I am very intrigued with Nyazamba because he was picked up late last season and if the team didnt think he could make the cut or they could get a better player they would have let him go in this offseason.
Hmmm.... So we kept Marshall. Iro is still here. We lost Evans and Moffat spends more time on the DL than I do in confession. Great.
SO the Crew is paying $175,008 for a guy to recover from a bad back? In "these economic times", is this a good investment? Say he is out 2 months, that puts us 7-8 games into the season and he will have had limited practice time. Assuming the starting lineup is at least playing well, and maybe Nyazamba steps up, that is going to make it even harder for him to break into the rotation. He didn't exactly cement a spot last season, so it's not like he has a defined role on the field. If you're the Crew FO, do you keep him and hope your greatest expectations (that he's a super sub and reliever for CCL games) come true, or do you cut your losses and startover paying another guy or two half as much that could potentially be much younger and a viable long term replacement when GBS and Alejandro leave? At this point, I feel like the Crew wouldn't lose all that much training or chemistry-wise by bringing in a new player or two. Tought call, but I guess that's why Brian Bliss is paid the big bucks...
Oh, bullshit. Evans wasn't so much as a twinkle in any of our eyes 12 months ago. And he was all but irrelevant in the club's performance for at least 1/2 of last season. "The kid played..." The kid played "bench" until both Moffatt and Migs were hurt, and was a sorry sub for both until he (much to his credit) settled into the position. Moffatt's a few weeks delayed in coming back from a knee injury, and Noonan messed up his back with a boneheaded move. Next thing you know, we're imagining injuries to Padula and Guille. Ah, Crew fans. We never really change, now do we?
First, I don't think you can cut an injured player. Second, Moreno's leaving now, too? How so? He's only 29 years old, you know.
Trade for a draft pick in 2015, free donuts for a year or something else then. No, but what's the shelf life of a 30 year old (in July, you got me) forward? Wouldn't it be prudent to maybe save some money and get a young quasi-proven player in return, or god forbid a left back? It seems like the Crew is paying an awful lot for not much in return thus far, and not much potential for return given our current starting lineup.
We won the f'ing MLS Cup minus a single player in the midfield... Plenty of "potential" for me. Good lord, some of you are on crack. We are MLS Cup Champions.
Somebody call Johnny Walker's back doctor, so we know who not to send Noonan to. St. Dunc might be a busier man than we thought. Or, DannyO could get some MC work in front of Iro & Marshall. All that said, agreed on the better now than later, and if we were going to keep the core from last year, we couldn't do better than we've done. And as for Evans, when the hell did he turn into Cesc Fabregas? He was a servicable center mid who could also play wide. He was arguably the tenth or eleventh best starter on the team. If we can't winning because we lost Brad Evans, then we must have stole that Cup last year.
These injuries are certainly no deal breakers... Moffat's delayed return to match play should be expected with his injury, but certainly Noonan's is frustrating because it occurred off the pitch or any other sort of training. It was really a matter of time before Noonan got hurt, its been the one blackspot on him, other than that he has been a great player throughout his career. I hope he comes back strong.
A herniated disk is a very serious injury and usually requires surgery. This is not the kind of injury that fixes itself with rest. I would not be surprised at all if it was career ending depending on the size, location and whether its causing stenosis and whether a fusion and hardware is needed to repair. Anyone have any details? I would like to see his MRI report.