2017/18 Offseason Player Movement & Rumors

I'm perpetually at stage 5. Where is my Rogelito

 

Lest anyone get excited, this is just the 3rd round draft pick Aidan Apodaca getting a contract with Steel.

 

He was linked to the Sounders several years ago, that was my only previous knowledge of him.

 

I won't buy the travel requirements excuse with him. He is currently playing for a club in the middle of China, a country of similar size to the US, so the travel requirements will be similar in MLS.

 

I really only knew of him from playing FIFA with my kid. I’d be a Scandi team like Rosenborg or Djurgärden or Malmö and he’d pick Arsenal or whatever. Now he smokes me so I’m Barca and he can be the Union. He’s kinda Barnetta like, though the pouting didn’t come out in the game then. Wasn’t super quick but those final third passes were good.

I claim half credit.

 

Yeah, I remember him from FIFA at that time as well since he was teammates with Diskerud back when we all thought he would be a thing.

 

Point taken. However, the footprint (and the travel distances) of the Chinese league are more comparable to those in MLS than they are to the European leagues (Russia being the lone exception). England has approximately the same land area as Pennsylvania. Germany is about the same size as Montana. Portugal and Spain combined would fit inside Texas with room to spare.

 

Maybe. But they finished ahead of us last year. They are a team I can't figure out because they have a lot of good pieces that I have no clue where they fit. Pinella (new signing), Agudelo, Bunbury, Nemeth, Rowe, Fagundez, and Nguyen are there for 4 starting spots and I'm not sure how you play any combination of them that plays to all their strengths. The rest of the team is basically the same as they swapped out similar pieces that are likely similar in quality. The biggest question is Friedel an upgrade on Heaps and judging by his knowledge of the game when he was a broadcaster......I'm not sure about it.

 

Wikipedia says 3 month loan "until the summer transfer window."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bořek_Dočkal

I saw a line about a loan this afternoon and assumed it was a premature fan entry but it's been edited a couple times since. Last by user P Nowak.

 

I always reserve judgment until the start of the season.

The goals were AM, winger and CB. 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, but it’s not that great either...

 

No pressure, Borek. It's just the whole franchise depends on you.

https://www.philadelphiaunion.com/post/2018/02/28/get-know-borek-dockal
I suspect this was lifted directly from the Chinese club's website and put through Translate. "The Quick Glance of Bork Dockal"

 

We also used TAM to bring Accam below the DP threshold. That's at least another 300k in TAM used correct?

 

We have a young, relatively ineffectual defense and zero depth anywhere on the field.

What could go wrong?

 

I agree that the defense is young and inexperienced and without a traditional 6 will be exploited, but I don’t agree that the team has no depth. Compared to other teams, the Union’s depth is around average.

 

Say Dockal has a great year and the U squeeze into the last playoff spot. Great,right? With no option to buy, whats the point. We will be where we are right now, this time next year. The FO frantically trying to save face/STHs with a marginal midfielder acquisition.

 

“When we set out to identify targets for our number 10 position that would be a good fit within our system and parameters, Borek stood out as a leading candidate from the very beginning."

A 1 yr loan announced 3 days before opening day. Well done, I wish I could sound this promising when I underperform at my job.

 

To be fair, Dockal did say in his interview that he wished he had gotten there weeks or months ago, so it sounds like there has been contact for some time but that the negotiations may have been difficult.

Signing players is hard

 

Let's get through the year before we complain about the loan. For now its a positive move. That's about where we are right now. It seems the play is out score other teams. I'm hopeful that they will score goals and the games will be fun. Of course Saturday could change everything so...

 

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With roster compliance due tomorrow it looks like Earnie took advantage of NYCFC here. If I recall correctly, an international roster spot is typically traded for only 50k-100k. Also Blake and Ilsinho now officially have green card status. For some reason I thought Blake already had his?

 

This part of the story needs more attention.

100% agree with this, if he’s only here for the year that makes him even more of a “win now” signing... but the team definitely isn’t equipped to win anything this year as-is.. at best your looking at one of the bottom playoff spots...

The only way this makes sense is if they are planning to stay in contention until the summer window hits and then make a big splash and playoff push/run... Accam swapping from DP to TAM gives me hope.

Either that or they think they can some how lock him up for 2019 too....

I’m sort of getting optimistic one of these may be the plan, but then I remember the team I’m dealing with...

The pessimistic view of the signing would be it strings fans a long for another season with mediocrity.


Imo what needs to happen is one of two options:

1. If the Union get off to a decent start, some of the question marks establish themselves as legit and they look like legit playoff contenders you make a big splash in the summer window and bolster the weak points and get ready for a playoff run.

2. If they look bad and have too many problems to fix in the summer window you abandon ship and let them fail... lean even harder into the HGPs and youth to finish off the season.

Basically decide to shit or get off the pot.



4 biggest questions that make or break things for me is:

1. Dockal needs to be as good as advertised, he needs to deliver.

2. Young back line needs to over achieve and Blake needs to do a good job organizing them so he isn’t forced to bail us out as often.

3. CJ can’t regress too much and needs to stay healthy. (Accam provide some some relief if his production drops a bit)

4. Someone needs to emerge as the go-to-guy on the right wing... they’ll have less pressure with Accam and Dockal, but someone needs to finally step up and take over at that position.