Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United PORRA!!! Well folks, I'll be the first doomsday voice of the year. We're going to suck. These kinds of things are supposed to happen to other teams in MLS. That they seem to be happening to us now bodes very poorly for the direction that the team is headed. I'll show up to as many games as I'm available as always, but I'm fully expecting a slow and agonizing death march to the finish line (read: October 24th in Kansas City).
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United Yet another player brought in during the off-season expected to shore things up and busts. Years and years of awful drafting have left this team so thin that each terrible acquisition (or attempted acquisition) that fails is exasperated even more.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United It was really obvious that Roger wasn't ready for MLS. At least to me, it looked very much like a repeat of Emilio last year - not in either top physical condition or game shape. I kept thinking, "Maybe the team thinks they can play him into shape before the start of the regular season?" He could pass and looked slick on the ball, but he was huffing and puffing after 10 minute drills.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United Glad DC did their homework. How has a team that used to be so savvy in player acquisitions dropped to the point where two guys brought in from USL.1 mid-season are instantly some of their most effective players?
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United So a guy with his resume wasn't ready for MLS? It wasn't that long ago that this guy was playing well at the highest level of club ball in the Americas. I can understand being out of shape, but dammit, this is a new guy with 7 weeks left before the season. Something still sounds fishy to me.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United he is 34 with serious back problems. this seems like disaster averted to me.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United I would say (glass half-full) - the team did a great job realizing that this was the wrong player with 5 weeks to go before the first game of the season, and 9 months before MLS Cup And, you have to remember that this team has been one of the more successful clubs, record-wise, over the last couple of years. OR (glass half empty) - When was this team ever savvy about player aquisitions? Outside of Gomez this team hasn't acquired a good player. Granted Gomez was a great player (let's just write that up under the "Blind Squirrel Theory") Of course, this team foolishly traded away Gomez in what was probably his last truly effective season. As I remember, Earnie Stewert was handed to DCUnited. The team hasn't yet managed to "develop" a young player, even though it has been given, and I use that word specifically, three of the best in Convey, Adu, and Quaranta. I'll even give the team a break on Nelsen and Namoff drafts. The former extremely successful. The latter still an integral part of the team. But, if I remember correctly, and please correct me if I'm wrong, then you have to credit Ray Hudson, not any of the current braintrust. KP was working for Anshutz, and DK just showed up.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United "When was this team ever savvy about player aquisitions? Outside of Gomez this team hasn't acquired a good player." Moreno was acquired during the first season . "The team hasn't yet managed to "develop" a young player, even though it has been given, and I use that word specifically, three of the best in Convey, Adu, and Quaranta." The fact that Convey and Adu made it to Europe shows they were developed. They were always going to leave just as they started to improve for us. They were young with talent. Quaranta would have gone the same route already, but he didn't have the right attitude. We will see what happens with him in the future since he played in most of the games last year and signed a better contract this year due to his improved play. I just think you guys have expectations that can't be met from this league right now. MLS is a stepping stone for young players to make it to Europe, although more players are making the jump directly now from college.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United Actually, those players came in under Rongen. Thomas actually drafted and developed players quite well. It was game-day stuff where things fell apart.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United Goff updated his post, don't know if you all saw this: UPDATE: Roger apparently decided with his family that he did not want to live in the United States. As for United's backline, Kasper told the Insider: "There are additional options that we have been pursuing." So, although he was apparently unfit, it was not a case of United giving up on him. He apparently didn't think he could hack living in the US. His only other foray outside of his home country was to Japan and it only lasted one season before he went back home.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United Don't get me wrong. I love DC, but why doesn't stuff like this happen to New England? It is looking more and more like a lucky roll of the dice happened with Christian Gomez and we have been rolling the dice ever since, hoping it comes up sevens. Emilio and Fred were both good signings, in my opinion, but neither one was signed out of South America. Other than Christian, when was the last good player we pulled out of South America? Not player with South American roots - last good player out of South America? Heck, didn't we even get Jaime from Middlesborough? We have certainly tried going to South America many, many times. At what point do we recognize that this strategy does not seem to be working with consistancy and we either need to get much better at it or we need a new strategy with a higher percentage of success. There are some other things that we are doing that are working. We just need to add other high-percentage strategies to that repertoire. Clearly the South America strategy can be a roller coaster if you are not completely prepared. For every club that it makes a difference for (Columbus) there is one that it didn't help (Kansas City). Are our scouts and coaches savvy enough to be able to work this region effectively for MLS on a consistant basis? I question it. Obviously, the region is very, very, very rich in talent. THAT is never in question. The question is, are our people up to the task of exploiting it consistently, given our limited resources? DC already understands the limitations of going to Europe for top shelf talent. Why have we been so slow to understand the parameters of going to South America? My guess is that sometimes getting lucky early can actually cloud your judgement over the long term. What do other people think? I'm not saying stop going there. I'm questioning these constant signings that don't work out. At what point do we recognize the limitations of our ability to exploit this resource as consistantly as we are trying to do so?
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United Umm ... New England is hardly the poster child for overseas signings. Granted their Gambian youngsters look okay (though their stats are not great) but the guys they typically sign ... Badilla, Castro, Khano Smith, etc are distinctly underwhelming year after year. Badilla may yet be good, but the strength of their player acquisition system has been collegiate talent.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United I've said it before elsewhere, but I'll say it again: Getting players from South America, particularly Brazil and Argentina, is especially risky because the culture, including the soccer culture, has an intense gravitational pull on its natives. If you don't think you will be especially productive or happy in the U.S., then there are always options back home, where good players are treated like royalty. All the more reason to scout Africa. Europe can't have a lock on ALL the decent players, and they can thrive here. Sure, everyone likes the old home town, but I suspect the lure of Accra or Abidjan is somewhat less than that of BA or Rio.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United I agree. The point here is that, yes, DC developed these players, but no, they weren't around after development to help us win. Adu was a classic case of a signing only for publicity and revenue--not for contribution. None of them, save Quaranta (version 2), lasted in DC long enough to contribute to anything. Adu was a sub on a Cup-winning team who wasn't really integral to anything that team accomplished. And Quaranta contributed in a significant sense only to last season's totally disappointing team (well he had some goals for some crappy DC teams). The point with developing players has to do with developing players who stick around long enough to help the team once they're developed--like Nelsen and Boswell. Not like Convey and Adu. They were a lost cause from the word "go"--too hyped to be around once they could contribute. They were here for the transfer fee. It's a dicey proposition signing superlative talent in MLS. In recent history, Altidore was an interesting case in NY--he blossomed early enough to contribute AND earn a transfer fee. To get back to this thread, Rogers heads back to Brazil. Some on these boards are happy we didin't commit to him, others are not. I don't have any idea who he is or whether I should prostrate myself after his defection. My take is: absent any other moves we're entering this season as one of the worst teams in the league (and especially one of the worst defensively) and we expect different results only by subtracting players (and adding a rookie, Wallace, sho is not expected to start much less play much)? Our back line is Namoff (who I thought got burned time and again last year--maybe a decent MLS bargain but no MLS stopper), Janicki, McTavish, and Burch? and you expect different results? Yeah right.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United please cite any reputable source that contended he had 'SERIOUS' back problems... As far as anybody can tell he missed 3 weeks of last season due to back issues of unknown type and origin...and that was inflated here
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United I hope the FO dosen't go into freakout mode and make a hasty signing. We do need to bring in another defender, but maybe we can make a trade for a proven MLS player. If not, let's not just throw money at another Peralta. Also, the Gals haven't signed Osman Chavez yet have they...
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United As it's been posted on the Insider, this doesn't appear to be "disaster averted" by United. It appears that Roger bailed on a ready and willing team. And when was this team savvy about acquisitions? I never meant to imply that the current braintrust is good at it. In fact, that's pretty much my point that they aren't. Like others have said, Rongen had a good record here in the talent that was brought in. I wish he were in Kasper's position right now. Moreno was a mid-season acquisition. The Roy-for-Roy trade. I'm not saying the team has been perfect but their track record on the whole has decreased, in my opinion.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United Again, that's not what happened. Roger bailed on coming to DC from everything that's been quoted to this minute.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United Point taken. But my issue is not who made the move, roger or dc, but what we have now in defense. Which is pretty much what we had last year. And which, thanks only to LA, was not the worst defense in the league--though it was still pathetic to watch.
Re: Brazilian Roger to play for DC United Unfortunately, we don't have a good enough roster to claim addition by subtraction. We actually NEED some addition. There will be no moral victories this year.