Practice Notes & Quotes 08-09-02

Interesting stuff,

Hudson said he made the move he regrets a few weeks after joinig United.

Any ideas?

Sachin

 

I have absolutely no idea who the "regret" trade is.

Could it be Lisi/Ziadie in that Villegas/Perez has shown little to nothing to this point?

Kudos to me for nailing the starting lineup dead on..

 

Maybe drafting Alavanja in the allocation/dispersal draft? (whichever it was). I would have thought that not getting a forward was his biggest mistake. Possibly he was referring to not trading up and drafting Twellman, but I don't know that this was a real possibility.

In any event, we need a third starting-caliber forward, no doubt about it. I'm fine with getting him in the offseason, but he's gotta arrive. No more spouting off at the mouth about some washed up old player who may still have some magic left or some retread. We need a honest quality player added up top.

I think this draft is going to be a very good and deep (quality in the third round) SuperDraft, but I'm scratching my head thinking of a single kid that can come into United and be an instant goal scorer. So, it's going to be an allocation/discovery or a major trade. Time to get it done.

 

He said it was within a few weeks of coming:

Talley to KC for future considerations
Kamler and future considerations to MET for Richie
Albright and picks to LA for picks
Prideaux for Armstrong

Those were in his first month. Doubt it's the last two. Maybe Talley as reinforcement for the defense? Maybe he wished he had Kamler's versatility?

 

I'm excited about Reyes' new role. Having him on the left helps Convey with someone to combine with up the flanks, and helps minimize Klien's offense as well. It also really really exposes Burns ... not that this is too difficult to do.

I'm concerned that Williams will lose Preki though, and I know McKinley cannot keep up with him, so Preki becomes dangerman #1, with Simuntenkov dangerman #2. I think we'll contain Fabbro this time.

More shots from distance .. and FOLLOW YOUR SHOTS! I'm fairly certain that Meola is going to give up a few rebounds, so for once, let's be in position to slot those home.

 

Excellent article Diceson!

Thanks!

 

How do these comments affect the players??

I don't fault Diceson for asking the questions about regretting trades and moves, etc. - since we are all certainly curious - but why in God's name does Hudson keep answering these questions???

He should have left it at "those questions are best answered at the end of the season" or perhaps said "well, hindsight is 20/20, but I'd rather not get into that."

Why does he give vague answers like he regrets a few, he got bad advice, some moves were slight steps back, but not much, etc.

He knows that his comments will be on the internet, and that at the very least it will get back to the players and the teams hard core fans.

How does this affect the players and their confidence? If they believe that their coach may regret having them on the team??

While players should obviously know if they are in the coach's doghouse for not performing well, to make these sorts of comments to the media seems to me to just invite the team to speculate about where they really stand with Ray, and to feel self-doubt that they even belong there at all. How is this going to get them to play better??

If you need to "scare" players to motivate them, the fear should be about what might happen in the off-season if we fail to make the playoffs again - not "If I had only known how'd you'd really turn out, I'd never have traded for you / drafted you / signed you, etc."


Anyway, since Ray continues to fuel the speculation . . .

Maybe he regrets letting some players go for future considerations, but I doubt it (Talley? Albright?).

I'm guessing that even though Prideaux has been effective, Ray might like to have Armstrong back, as he's been pretty good for KC, and may even be more effective on offense than Convey has been (or at least better than McKinley).

He could be regretting the loss of Lisi, as we might have been able to plug him in at forward when we were without Jaime and Quaranta. And Villegas has not contributed goals from midfield, while Lisi had a fair number for DCU last year. (But this may be more of a slight step back)

Regretting the loss of Conteh? While he only scored vrs. New England and A-league teams, we sure could've used a goal vrs. the Revs a few weeks ago!!

I still thinks that Ray feels that they wasted their draft pick on Mapp, as he has added nothing to the team this year. And as a non-playoff team, DC could not afford picks that cannot contribute at least something in the first year.

 

I'd say the answer lies here too. The Lisi trade was more than just weeks after he signed on and I see no reason at all to regret that trade.

I can't imagine him regretting giving up Albright.

Possibly Kamler, but Ray likes Richie, so doubtful there.

Very possibly Talley if only because talley is that type of blood and vomit player that Ray cherishes adn we gave him up for nothing really.

Very possibly Armstrong. Yes we got value for him AND we had to get rid of an SI anyway so we were lucky to get much of anything for him. Still with our offense and how Armstrong has played I can easily see how we would have gone most of the season with Armstrong as left wing, moving Convey to the right wing. Looking at it through a very hard lens, we would have gotten loads more value this year from Armstrong than Moreno and that value discrepency will only grow in the years, I fear. I'm sure KC would have jumped all over Jaime.