Our inability to control/win the midfield does appear to be a concerning pattern. Distribution from the back and Dmid areas has not been the greatest. Runs off the ball and chemistry in the final third have been subpar, overall. However, I won't get too concerned, yet. Sometimes, teams working on their fitness will work through these preseason games. The result is that the team can look flat as there is often less movement/runs off the ball. I'll suspend judgement until next week. Good to see that we picked up that additional int'l slot. Players should be on notice. Get the job done or management may look to bring someone in to take your spot.
One thing about the game yesterday is that missing Asad was very noticeable. Last year at our best, Asad could be that 2nd creator in midfield. He had that special extra creativity to dribble past a defender or try a no look pass. Without Asad, everything looked more static and predictable. Acosta was really the only creator in that area. Eventually Rooney dropped in to get on the ball, at times even dropping down to the holding midfielder areas. I'm not sure if having your striker that deep is ideal. Interestingly, Philadelphia just dealt CJ Sapong to Chicago. I often wonder how great it would be to have a real physical presence in the box. Maybe not as a full time starter, but at least to have that option on the bench. Sometimes when we come up against a well organized defense, they're not just going to let you walk the ball into the net. Would be great to mix it up and play more direct with crosses from the wing.
Wait...what? This team is known for keeping dead weight for way too long with no accountability. Unless the FO personnel change the only thing underperforming players have to fear is Rooney.
I figure it's for bringing in Acosta's replacement in the summer window (or one of his old friends if he signs a contract).
I feel like it was difficult to recruit talent when we had old facilities and a tight budget. Olsen and maybe the FO have been getting a pass up to this point. Now with the new stadium and more spending, there are no excuses. They need to put out an entertaining and competitive product to keep butts in the seats. Guess, I'm hoping for more accountability moving forward.
The ultimate problem is that the club decided that they wanted to be a big time club overnight but kept all the small time thinkers in the front office. So you end up with Kasper (whose only transfer I can think of is Alhadji Kamara) with no experience at the negotiating table fumbling away multi-million deals with PSG. Kasper, Olsen & co were good for when we were a small time franchise rummaging through the MLS dumpster for treasure but if we are now a"big time MLS club" then we need proper infrastructure in place. The window with Rooney is very short and doesn't allow for on the job training. However, I suspect that we are a small time club that is perpetrating as a big time club and the wind will eventually blow the straw house down.
You only need to look at how this ownership group has managed the decline of Swans to realize that its amateur hour in the DCU front office.
There's still a good amount of tickets available for the opener. I guess the public isn't clamoring to spend $45 minimum to watch MLS soccer in freezing temps.
Gee, you forgot the Najar transfer, guess it doesn't fit the narrative. FWIW, Matt Doyle predicts DCU to win MLS Cup. Season hasn't started and some folks here seem to already be writing it off.
Clearly said that was the only one I could think so the omission was not to "fit the narrative". I didn't really pick up DC United until 2014 so I'm not as aware of all facts before then. I also don't think changing his # of transfers from 1 to 2 is a material misstatement of the facts when it comes to experience in the field of selling players.
This remains my concern, especially because it still seems like the operation is being run a frayed shoestring from many aspects. While the team has spent on Rooney, Acosta and Arriola, its still struggling to do many things that the good franchises get done in executing with the fans, the transfer markets and much of the non-matchday elements. The botched PSG deal for Acosta prolly looks worse than it is, but its not without weight, with respect to competency. I think Kasper was a master of getting an MLS retread who was more than a 50/50 proposition and Ben Olsen was more than a 50/50 proposition to get another year or two out of a guy who done and buried at his last stop. That said, the expectation is that those days are over ... I am not entirely sure that they are, but the lens has changed and they'll be judged as spenders rather than bargain hunters. We're a middle payroll team now, having been the lowest or in the lowest fifth for the last several years, but the jump from basement payroll to mid-range payroll isn't all that far. We're 1 deep at full back, 1 deep at center back, ok depth in the midfield, 0.5 deep at striker. We're only a couple of knocks away from my 9 year old having to hop down on the field and play. Whether its like this at Portland, KC, Dallas or NYC I don't know. Long story short, Ben prolly needs to go to the conference final this year and if it turns into an injury plagued season we might see the depth exposed and perhaps Kasper gets the sword too. Then again, you know the motives of Kaplan and Levien and you're never going to know what they're pocketing, because the SUM money is always going to be a mystery, but you can be sure its substantial and growing. Many of us have questioned Levien's motives. The noises out of the Swansea fan base are wild, rabid baying about them looting the club. I don't know where the money is going, perhaps they did a shit job of structuring the debt of a ManU-like deal. Again I don't know. So you don't know what the limitations are on Kapser and Olsen, so who knows what to expect on the accountability front, because Levien knows Kasper and Olsen can do well enough with only 2 nickels to rub together. Whats the retool going to look like in 2 years or so when Rooney decides to retire?
I saw a list recently and I forget what number DC was but we were somewhere around 5th or 6th in the league with spending. If you look around the league, clubs like Seattle, Toronto and NYCFC have actually lowered their wage liability compared to 2-3 years ago. We definitely need to grade ourselves as spenders now. Conference quarterfinals should be the minimum expectation.
I am disappointed how penny ante some of these big market MLS Clubs are becoming. I am hoping for great Atlanta United success shaming these guys into spending more. Seattle draws 40,000 per game and has an open DP spot that they apparently do not plan to use. That is outrageous IMO and their fans should not tolerate it. You have to give DC United ownership some credit for stepping up to the plate in what has at least for right now become a medium sized MLS market. I really do wish they had tried to do better at finding a striker to back up Rooney. That could bite us.
I still think we are light at CB. We recently grabbed an international slot. I'm hoping we are looking to add an MLS level CB so Brill can move back to the bench as depth.
I'm more concerned about the season-long availability of Birnbaum than I am about Brilliant's play during a grueling stretch of frequent games. Birnbaum is just a head-butt away from another concussion and potential retirement.