jordy reyna is in a shit load of trouble with the death/possible murder of a 16 year old female- he admitted to the police about being in the condo (7 hours of being questioned) at the least, it shows poor judgement for partying with his pals with a 16 year old and then being in the same condo where she died- said he drove her to the hospital where she had extensive internal bleeding (brain and lungs)- sounds like more than a fall methinks he knows more than he is saying
his poor judgement might be 1 reason why he has recognizable talent, but never was able to settle into 1 team the Caps have had a tough year of bad news with its players- WC 2 players hazing, williams domestic abuse allegations and now this
Williams stopped being dressed so I am sure he will be released or traded or something (not sure of his contract). This could spell the end of Reyna in Vancouver because its clear they will dismiss players even without proof of anything in a court of law. Sad story ,and hard to know the truth as the Peruvian media are quite sensationalist I am told.
recent Cap roster moves: ROSTERED PLAYERS (17 of 30 spots filled as of Nov. 27, 2017): GK (1): Stefan Marinovic (INT'L) DEF (7): Sam Adekugbe, Marcel de Jong, Brett Levis, Aaron Maund, Jake Nerwinski, Tim Parker, Kendall Waston (INT'L) MID (8): Alphonso Davies (HG), Aly Ghazal (INT'L), Bernie Ibini-Isei (INT'L), Nicolas Mezquida (INT'L), Yordy Reyna (INT'L), Brek Shea (DP), Tony Tchani, Cristian Techera (INT'L), FWD (1): Erik Hurtado UNDER CONTRACT (10): Marinovic, Maund, Ghazal, Davies, Mezquida, Reyna, Techera, Hurtado, Ibini, Shea OUT OF CONTRACT (3): Jacobson (in talks), Harvey (in talks), Montero (in talks) CONTRACT OPTIONS EXERCISED (7): Adekugbe, de Jong, Levis, Nerwinski, Parker, Waston, Tchani CONTRACT OPTIONS NOT EXERCISED (12): Ousted, Edgar (in talks), Seiler, Williams, Bolanos (in talks), Bustos (in talks), Igiebor (in talks), Laba (in talks), McKendry, Rosales, Teibert (in talks), Greig LOANED OUT (2): Spencer Richey (on loan to FC Cincinnati through Dec. 31, 2018), Deybi Flores (on loan with CD Motagua through June 30, 2018) MY THOUGHTS: 1. mckendry, levis, greig, froese (on loan), adekugbeteibert and bustos should hit the road for the good of their careers- the club and the coach have never had confidence in any canadian player- the evidence is not even 1 young player has ever made it to the starting 11 on a regular basis, keeping in mind that the academy and reserve teams have been around more than 7 years canadian players are shipped to the 'back of the bus' so the Caps can sign ridiculous young players like dean, rodriquez, smith and especially flores 2. Laba, montero, ibini, shea, rosales, ghazal should all be traded or not re-signed (while montero did score 13 goals, he isnt the type of player who can make things happen on his own and is a streaky scorer- not worth $1.8 mill) ; ibini, ghazal and laba are too slow and dont offer any offensive punch; shea's play is sporadic; rosales' career is over 3. harvey, jacobson, igiebor should all be re-signed; not sure what to do with the multi-talented bolanos, but i think he is underplaying his talent for whatever reason; edgar is slow-footed for MLs but a smart player, so i might re-sign him if his injury can be 100% recovered 4. reyna might be finished due to the peru issue and he tanked in the last month of the season and playoffs- it might be his soccer DNA and its why he has never stayed long with 1 team- but he scored 3-4 great goals and might be worth another year- depends on peru 5. davies is so talented but he faded in the last 3 months, either through youthful lack of confidence or robo's insistence he play more defensively- alphonso was scintillating up until the end of the Gold Cup- when he came back to the Caps, he tanked and rarely looked like the same player that made the gold cup all-star team and best young talent- what the hell happened??!! comments??
1. I would keep Teibert in the players of that list. He may not be starter quality but is an adequate substitute. Has been awhile since I have seen Adekugbe but I have a feeling he wants to be closer to Europe than BC. Bringing players in to first team from academies is not easy and few clubs in MLS have had much success doing it. Large metro areas such as Dallas, LA and NYRB are probably best at it. 2. Rosales is done, for sure. Montero is a tricky one as he is expensive and 31 yrs old. Problem with getting rid of him is replacing him and finding quality strikers in MLS is tough. Would be great to see them bring in a 25 yr old goal scorer, but from where? Ibini, never saw much there but he is only $175K and under contract through 2018. Trades are tough but you never know. If Caps could negotiate a contract with Shea for around $275K/yr, I would look at keeping him. His contract goes through end of this year. He had a spotty year but has some ability and size that the smallish Vancouver attack can use. Maturity and injuries have always been an issue with him but he is now 27, a father and seems to want to stay in Vancouver so it might be worth it and hope it comes together for him. Laba is a decent player but not really a DP. In MLS, you kind of need to save DP slots for players that make a difference in attack. He will leave as his contract is up end of year. Ghazal is under contract through 2018. I suspect he stays as he is cheap and if both him and Laba go, Caps will have to scramble to find a DM. Problem with Ghazal is that while he is excellent defensively, he is weak with the ball. Jacobson can fill in at DM but he is more of a holding kind of mid than a terrier. 3. Jacobson should be re-signed as he is inexpensive, dependable and versatile. Problem will probably be length of his contract as he is already 32 and not the fastest guy. Not sure about resigning Harvey. He seemed to have fallen off a cliff this year. He is 33 which is getting up there for outside backs. Re-sign Igiebor. Probably need to give him a little more money as it seems he was signed at minimum. Would be interesting to see how he fits with team after a pre-season. 4. We will see what happens with Reyna. Who knows? 5. Davies is obviously still young. Hopefully he recharges his batteries, has a good pre-season and shows improvement. Main thing for him is bringing more consistency to his game.
mckendry, levis, greig, froese (on loan), adekugbeteibert and bustos should hit the road for the good of their careers- the club and the coach have never had confidence in any canadian player- the evidence is not even 1 young player has ever made it to the starting 11 on a regular basis, keeping in mind that the academy and reserve teams have been around more than 7 years canadian players are shipped to the 'back of the bus' so the Caps can sign ridiculous young players like dean, rodriquez, smith and especially flores ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Levis is a keeper for now. Adekugbe can backup deJong or go to Europe. Teibert is a good utility player who gets between 127k-194k which is way too much so resign at a lower cost. The rest have never managed to impress either me or anyone else I've talked to. They get beat by D2 clubs in the V's Cup regularly. You have to bring in a lot of players to see who can take and hold a spot in the starting 11. NCAA, CIS, academy, free agents etc. You've got to beat them all and continuously every chance you are given. Parker and Nerwinski have done what no Canadian player has managed. Before injury Adekugbe had taken the LB spot but never regained form since. Davies has rendered Flores expendable to the point of shipping him off and he won't be back. As a general rule of thumb I say if a player hasn't been subbed on and got first team minutes before they are 18 they should go to university. Most players, Davies & Adekugbe are the exceptions, are just not ready at 18. NCAA or CIS would give them more time to mature mentally, physically and emotionally so that they have a better chance at 22 years old.
So, maybe Montero is out since they are bringing in new striker. Guy is big enough to be a legit target for crosses. Depth at forwards still thin if Montero goes. Relying on Hurtado and Ibini if there is an injury is a tough way to get goals.
there is NO WAY that the Caps owners and FO will pay for blondell's transfer fee and salary in the + $2 mill range and have montero getting paid in the + $1.5 mill range - its just not the whitecaps DNA- fredy is gone IMO- and anyways, i dont think he brings enough to the table to warrant his salary- too streaky a goal scorer and as we saw in the playoffs, just couldnt elevate his game when it was needed most- DPs on huge salaries can do that ibini is USL-quality (its another cheap and weak signing) and hurtado will always be a sub player who gives 100% (worth keeping around as long as he is happy in that role) unless the whitecaps are more ambitious in their finances (remember that MLS is going to allow owners- at their expense- to add an extra TAM in the $2-3 mill range), we will struggle to keep pace with our conference- we were lucky in 2017, but the playoffs really did show the lack of quality in MF and attack (only 1 weak shot in 2 games says it all!!!!!!!!!) WONT HAPPEN! with reyna riding a bubble (the peru murder), we will be in dire straits to repeat a top 6 placing in 2018- yordy is the only attacking MF with quality- plainly put, we have a lot of grunt players in MF (tchani, teibert, laba, ghazal, jacobson), but not a lot of quality (not sure about nosa and the underachieving bolanos) shut down our set pieces and we are toast we will be a hard-working, gritty team lacking punch when the playoff hunt comes in late august and september- i am resigned to the fact that the whitecaps- due to owners tight pockets and robo's weak player decisions- will be a teasing team with a disappointing ending result
https://www.whitecapsfc.com/post/20...esidency-product-david-norman-jr-mls-contract David Norman Jr. signed. Here's hoping he's a chip off the old block as I am old enough to remember his dad who rocked! As to Montero he was the best forward we've had since the halcyon days of Camilo. His hold up play and "fake, fake, pass/chip" routine always froze 2 defenders and opened space for his teammates. He did all the things a forward should do include scoring 13 goals.
being canadian, and judging from the whitecaps past, young david wont get many opportunities- he will develop his game in the USL in fresno and, if he is smart, head for other digs when he is more mature as a footballer- players like teibert, froese, bustos, greig, mckendry and adegugbe have to ackowledge the truth- canadian players get- and will continue to get- little opportunity in vancouver actually, montero got 12 goals- 1 was tim parker's- you make some valid points about fredy, but i still believe that the Caps wont have both blondell and montero- they can release fredy back to china with no cost as he is a loan player which fits their budget- with reyna maybe heading out of town, we still are a team in dire need of a creative, dynamic #10- until the hard times of mid-september and during the playoffs, yordy was that player- his diving header goal from a nerwinski cross was the best Cap goal of 2017; i think i lifted 2 feet off my chair!! Yordy hasnt wandered around soccer teams for no good reason and i was always suspicious with the signing- his soccer DNA has been sporadic and he might just be another wasted talent who makes poor decisions away from the field to go anywhere in MLS as a serious contender, a team needs a dynamic, inspirational #10, like montreal has in piatti, portland has in valeri, TFC has in vasquez, seattle has in lodeiro and atlanta has in almiron sorry, but we are heading into another teasing, disappointing season in 2018- when co-owner, steve nash, says that the whitecaps are developing something great in MLS, its all spin and just plain hog-wash- no goals in the last 4 playoff games says it all; no shots on goal in the last home playoff game before 28 000 says it even moreso (playing for a home tie shows weakness, fear and unbelief- we got what the coach instilled in his players and we went down without even a whimper- simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR MY TEAM)
"have to ackowledge the truth- canadian players get- and will continue to get- little opportunity in vancouver" - hot potato Uh no. That is just plain wrong. I know is some circles it is popular to "blame the whitecraps" for not "giving" playing time to Canadians but only Sam and Alphonso have taken the spot. Playing time at the top level in any club is never given, it is taken. Chances are given but aside from those 2 few have impressed me. Even against division 2 teams like Ottawa and Edmonton they did not look great. Adekugbe had taken the LB spot and kept it almost 2 months until his injury. If he is back to form he may split time with deJong as they are the 2 most experienced LBs in the club. Davies will continue to get time as his play warrants. He's got the goods but 1,000+ minutes for a kid who just turned 17 at the end of the 2017 season is not bad, it is bloody great. Levis was looking great in his brief debut before he injured himself. He looked every bit as electric as Davies and he'll get his chance. So that is 3 Canadian players that will get substantial first team minutes next year and one who might break through. 4 in total that have and will continue to have the chance to prove themselves (over and over as pro sports demands). Teibert is an enigma to me. His cardio and non-stop buzzing around have been his trademark but needs to take a spot this year or try somewhere else. As for Froese, Bustos and Mckendry, they all had some good moments but then turned the ball over etc etc a lot more. Froese was the one I was sure of making it but more mistakes than good plays will limit your time. Greig is American not Canadian and Richey is dual eligible for either US or Canada MNT and hasn't declared or been recruited by either yet. Both are in Cincinnati on loan to get some playing time at a level they can start at.
thx tm13- you make some good points but after near 10 years of the Cap residency and WC 2 teams- and costing in the millions- , for whatever reasons- canadian youth have less talent/athletic abilities, lower soccer DNA, poor coaching, the programs have almost been a total BUST- even davies was mostly developed in edmonton- there has been little to celebrate and its little wonder that the WC 2 team has been folded and moved to fresno- maybe the american air will help the canadian youth develop to MLS standards i for one dont see any difference between teibert and other defensive MFs and yet the others get far more opportunities- if i were him, i would have blown dodge 2 years ago- personally, i think the Caps have too many MF plumbers- tchani, ghazal, laba, teibert, bustos, jacobson, ibini, mezquida, shea- and not enough quality- to me, its the Caps weakest area and until we upgrade (i think its distinctly possible that the talented reyna is gone- and he seems to disappear when games are ramped up anyways), we will suffer mediocre results i am concerned for davies- he was dynamic up to the end of the gold cup, and then he tanked , was benched and called on to do a lot more defensive work when he did play, rather than allowing him to use his God-given explosive offensive talents- from august on, alphonso was a shadow of himself and i think he was overcoached to hold back his natural instincts- how can a team put a all-star and the best young talent at the Gold Cup sit on the bench for most of the playoff run from august to october?? the Caps and coach robo have no proven pedigree that they can develop young talent, but instead have made multiple mistakes in evaluatiing talent- flores, jordan smith, salgado, fraser aird, rodriquez, dean to name a few the Whitecaps are a team in the proverbial rut of aiming for mediocrity and the odd canadian and cascadia cup and the odd playoff game (1 home game in 7 years and no goals in their last 4 playoff games says it all, doesnt it ??)
I posted this in the "Status of the 3 Canadian teams" thread: "Larin and Laryea are both from SigmaFC and both on Orlando. Edwards for TFC is from Erin Mills SC (13 years!!). The key as far as I can see is that they stayed with one very good club for 7 (Larin) to 13 years (Edwards). The others who seem ready for their shot (Jackson-Hamel, Tabla, Hamilton, Davies, Adekugbe) were all from non-MLS academies for ages 6-16 (Levis went the CIS route). Maybe it is just way more involved than we think?" If you don't see a difference between Laba and Teibert (or anyone else on the team for that matter) as DM then I don't really know how to explain it but here goes. On closing down a player with the ball Laba approaches more controlled in a left/right stutter step manner so the attacking player doesn't know which way to go. Teibert tends to go straight at them and then has to catch up when they make their move past him. His entire life he's been the Energizer Bunny and it's worked but at the MLS level that one step opens up a passing or shooting lane. When closing down a player hustle is great but positioning is way better. To me Davies seems capable of playing the Yordy Reyna role. He can play wing as well but I see in him a true attacking mid. His defensive work is excellent and reminds me of Koffie (who I thought was better at DM than Teibert and I hated it when they traded him). Like I said above, he just turned 17 at the end of the 2017 season and played 1000+ minutes for the first team. That is GREAT.
re: davies- maybe you can explain to me as to why robo basically restricted the playing time for alphonso for the last 2 1/2 months of the season after a terrific Gold Cup- he was the most explosive Cap player who could put fear in the other team when he got the ball, has a termendous thrusting speed and then>>>>>>>> benched and did more defensive play when he got on the field- DUMB, DUMB, DUMB; he isnt ready for the #10 role, but it could be his best position once he learns the skill of connecting with his teammates and helping create chances re: teibert- he has a better passing accuracy than laba or ghazal- russell is near 90% and that has to be worth a lot for counter-attacks; but laba is a pitbull for interceptions and is noted for his hard-tackling- but is he worth 5x the salary - 5x the player?? neither player adds an offensive punch to the team; ghazal is just too slow in distributing the ball and adds no offensive punch- i would take tchani and jacobson over him bottom line- the Caps are weak in the MF when it comes to offensive punch and ball control and until it is addressed, the team will struggle to be anymore than a mediocre team... at best
Explain Robo's decisions? Do I look like a psychic or a shrink to you? I lost count of how many times I've said "WTF?" when I saw our starting lineup Davies has a ways to go but I think he could do that role. A lot to learn but he's ahead of the curve by a couple of years so definitely a chance. Russ's passing is the strongest part of his game. Maybe if we got a Latin coach he could do the Xavi Hernandez role. Marcel is similar to Laba so we'll see if he is played as DM. Probably not as some combo of Tchani, Aly & Nosa may be our 2 DMs in the old 4-2-3-1 that Robo is addicted to.
I think a problem with Teibert is that the Caps attack is on the smallish side (except when Shea is in) and then adding Russell makes for a lot of small players. Obviously, you don't have to be big to be a good player, but there needs to be some size sprinkled in the line up. Hopefully Blondell works out as some size up top will help. Not sure what happened with Davies but not being played because he is Canadian is not the issue. Could be the season, travel and tournament took a bit of a toll on a young, still developing player. Or, maybe ownership is telling Robbo that whatever he does, do not get Davies hurt before he turns 18 and we sell him to Europe . Academies across MLS are notorious for developing few first team players despite money spent and cap incentives by the league. Vancouver is not unique in that respect. There are a few clubs doing ok but they are in much larger population centers than Vancouver.
I think mr potato is drawing a fair point that Carl will pick a non Canadian ahead of a Canadian even if there is not an upgrade in the performance. There is plenty of evidence of that, and with young players, they need playing time to "Grab that spot". Whatever potential Bustos had is long gone. Flores got his 5 year deal and is so crappy he keeps being loaned back to the team he was purchased from. I bet that happens again after 2018 training camp. Yet he got more chances than Canadians. Sam will not come back to Vancouver, he refused after his Brighton loan was up so they found him something else. Russell could have played many times over Jacobson for example. The academy itself has done a poor job, however, that seems to be a league issue more than just the Caps. Hard to say what happened to Alphonso. he flourished under Zambrano's style and fizzled out under Carl. Either way, I agree that he probably should be protected and not played full time as there is a juicy transfer fee waiting a year from now. Use him a super sub to look his best. He is cap tied to Canada so I am fully in support of him playing in England,it will be a good place for him. Norman Sr in his prime would have been an MLS starter. Not sure where Jr will end up but hopefully somewhere solid. Thinking of Norman brings me thinking about those 88-92 86ers. A low level league really, but there were half a dozen guys at least that would be starters in MLS here i 2017 if they were in their prime. (Dolan, Norman, Valentine, Mitchell,Catliff for sure.... Dom would be fine if he had a Catliff to give him space as he was pretty slow, Ivor was quick enough back then he could have stuck around an MLS club.) It was quite a team of guys playing for shit wages as they had nowhere else to go.
Not defending or even trying to explain Robo's choices but Flores is a classic case of a young player not working out. Dynamic and offensive minded he looked good when first brought up but has not managed to carry through on his potential. Along comes Davies with a similar skill set plus more potential (IMHO) and off goes Flores in a classic "what have you done for me lately" routine typical of pro sports. Flores had 10 appearances (6 starts) for under 500 minutes at the age of 18-19. Davies took his spot at the age of 16 and got more than twice the minutes. So you can't say Flores was favoured over Canadians as we had no box to box, attacking mid to compare him with until Davies. As for Sam I don't think he has any choice in the matter. He is signed to Vancouver and will play where they tell him to. I'm glad he got some time in England but he has little if any say in the matter. I think he will be in Vancouver this year backing up Marcel at LB.
Flores was favored in the sense he was given a 5 year deal. That sent a message to everyone else in my opinion. There was no reason to give him that length of a deal based on what we saw when he came here (which wasn't much). I can assume he will be loaned back again next year, I can't see him being even MLS bench material. He does not have a similar skill set to Alphonso. They are in different universes as far as ability and potential. Flores also was clearly not going to make it before Alphonso made his debut, he wasn't buried due to Davies coming a long.
hopefully shea and montero are not resigned- $2.6 mill can buy you a better player for MF, coupled with the MLS sponsored TAM of $1.8 mill; they will also save money after shutting down the WC 2 team- the question is- will they open the purse strings in a significant way in order to keep pace with teams like seattle, portland, TFC, atlanta and LAFC? personally, i dont think that will happen and the Caps will go after cheaper players- loans, reclamation projects- free agents, trades that basically balance out the ledger and selling players to acquire some money there is NO WAY the ownership group will spend the extra TAM of $2.8 mill at their expense- we lucked out in 2017, but the cream always rises to the top come the playoff hunt- we will curdle as we have done every year of our existence
Hey OldFan2015, are you the same OldFan from the southsiders board? I haven't been to that board in years but I remember someone named OldFan there. If so good to see you again. Flores was brought in as an attacking mid but was very poor defensively. Davies can also play AM but can also play wing and is much better defensively (reminds me of Gershon sometimes). I could never figure out why Robbo was so high on Flores. He had his moments but meh, was all I could say. Hey Hot Potato, we are the Monty Python of soccer ... Bring out your dead, bring out your dead.
[QUOTE="tm13, post: 36162708, member: 119928 Hey Hot Potato, we are the Monty Python of soccer ... Bring out your dead, bring out your dead. [/QUOTE] yup!! even saltyBugR shows up sometimes- cranky as always- so whats your prediction for2018 ?
Predicting 2018? That will have to wait until we get an actual lineup. I do know that both LA teams will be very tough as they have lots of money and excellent coaches.