http://www.dcunited.com/news/2015/07/dc-united-acquire-forward-alvaro-saborio Straight swap with RSL. I guess it is a benefit as Saborio and Espindola are familiar with each other from the Kreis era.
Interesting. Definitely an upgrade from Silva IMO, but he's 33 years old so this is clearly a short-term move.
Short term move that will make us weaker in the long run. There must be another trade in the works to bring an A-mid.
It would seem to be the quintessential 'win now' move. Sabo will probably score more goals the rest of this season, Silva will probably still be earning minutes five years from now. But if it's a win now move, I'm guessing most of us feel it shouldn't be the last one, because even if he puts a few in the net, do we think we're a championship favorite?
This trade would seem to indicate that Coria has impressed enough that Silva became expendable. I would assume that Ben sees both Coria and Farfan as useful distributors in midfield and Pontius and Arrieta as substitute withdrawn forwards. (This assumes Rolfe stays out wide). I'll take a national team players over one who had 3 hot months in his professional career anytime.
And apparently he has bite off the field too: "According to reports from Costa Rica, Saborio was "drunk and aggressive" on an American Airlines flight after attending Keylor Navas's wedding on Saturday. Navas is a backup goalkeeper at Real Madrid and a fellow Costa Rican international." Maybe they just wanted to get rid of him? If he can channel that aggression against Mexico in the QF of the Gold Cup that would be nice.
Just seeing the names I got excited. Silva had his nice run last year and I appreciate his skills but he has looked really bad this year outside of one free kick and he appears to be one of those players who just can't find his best position on the field. Saborio is a goal scorer and we already know he works well with Espindola. Then I see that Saborio is 33 and costs 3 times what Silva does. Then I think about the fact that we are hoping to win a title with a frontline that was jettisoned by an RSL team that has been good but not great for many years. This doesn't completely sour me on the deal, though. I have no problem being in Win Now mode. The team is full of veteran players. Hamid, despite the new contract, will always be a good Euro offer away from leaving. It'd be nice to create some on field excitement before entering a new stadium. A skillful AM to pass the ball to Saborio would certainly add to the excitement, but if we're taking on this extra salary that seems unlikely. A new left back might be enough to make a playoff run.
Sabo is on his last year of a contract and we are only responsible for the rest of the year - so essentially $225K for this year. If he sticks around next year it won't be as a DP and we will not have to pay him down. James
46 years without a drop, I'll cast that stone. I lived through DC United's 2013 season sober I earned my stripes.
For 2015 these feels like a +, but 2016 on not so sure. It really is hard to say with Silva as a healthy Silva can be dangerous, but with the injuries he has not really figure din at all this year. As for Sabo we needed something up top and guess thinking is he can work with Espindola. Will see how it plays out and how we handle his contract after this season.
Unless Silva bolts for Mexico. In which case this is an A+ for 2015 and could be anything for 2016, but is certainly an average (C) at worst.
DeRo worked out great for the remainder of 2011 (his age 33 year), so much so that we we signed him as a DP in the offseason (13 goals and 7 assists during the DC portion of the year). Had a decent year, but not nearly as good 2012 (7 goals, 12 assists), Then fell off a cliff in 2013 (3 goals, 3 assists). Sounds like a pretty apt comparison. Hopefully Saborio is able to provide a lift like DeRo was in 2011. Hopefully United shies away from making him anywhere near a DP level contract offer for next year or the year after.
I hope because DeRo was on fire at first. That level of performance on this team could mean silver ware.