Interesting metric. If you're going to role out the tired "limited budget" argument, how do you explain that, when looking at the yearly published team salaries from the players union, teams with lower budgets regularly outperform United? Three of those teams have won MLS Cup. Understanding the MLS salary regs and looking for role players makes good intern work.
My favorite time talking to him was in the elevator at Audi Field when I was the only person who knew who he was. The only DC United related conversation I had that beat that for lack of awareness was walking into RFK with John Harkes one year. We went from the tunnel at Lot 8 all the way to the stadium, and no one interrupted us. And there was a solid stream of people heading away from the stadium to Lot 8 still, so it's not like no one saw him.
The one thing I will say is that while there's no mistaking him today if you hadn't seen him in 20 years, he did retire in 2003, and it's not like they used his image all that much around RFK. Even what I can recall, wouldn't leave me with the unmistakable image of a guy. A healthy chunk of that lot 8 crowd are younger and looking booze pregame, but someone in that crowd should have recognized him. We're pretty big Caps fans and I am not sure I'd recognize Kolzig, Dale Hunter, Adam Oates or Peter Bondra if they walked by me at CapOne. Not sure I'd recognize Eddie Pope or Christian Gomez today either.
I sat and chatted with Harkes one morning during a reserve match. Almost as good as the conversation I had with Garth Lagerway I've told you guys about.
When Harkes' wife was coaching at our club (at least 12 yrs ago) they asked for volunteers to put trophy plates on before the tournament we hosted. My daughter who was 13 or 14 offered the guy next her gum, and she said he looked familiar. (She was at the 1st ever DCU game as a 3 yr old and went to a lot of games after) She couldn't figure out who he was the whole time. When Cindy came in she said "Mr. Harkes it's time to go" and he and my daughter had a good laugh about it.
Here's a high-level but thorough video presentation by Rushton on her role at Atlanta. I'd assume a lot of this will apply to her approach at DC.
There also is a piece on the MLS website that discussed the relationship between data driven analytics and the fitness levels that Losada wants from his team.
It's an interesting read: What the Lucy Rushton hire says about DC United’s rebuild https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/what-the-lucy-rushton-hire-says-about-dc-united-s-rebuild
Looks like the team still plans on claiming poverty. Either way there at least seems to be a commitment to a vision and an admission that the Olsen era was rudderless.
I was always an Olsen apologist. He got the benefit of the doubt because he was a club legend and there was no front office strategy to support his development as a coach. Their only strategy was to use Ben as a shield against, well, not doing anything. Now it seems someone at the club has decided to try and run a proper soccer club. All the front office moves indicate a desire to develop an identity both on and off the field. The good news for the supporters is that there should be more accountability for results going forward. Owners don't make all these moves and then just allow poor returns year after year.
So instead of a best guess while Kasper stood over the bargain bin, Lucy Rushton will sit home with an iPad and sort by stat while less than X dollars.
I read it as moneyball for soccer with actual data. Pablo interviewed her for the Athletic as well. https://theathletic.com/2522219/2021/04/15/dc-united-lucy-rushton-interview/ She noted that while Atlanta is a big spend team her experience at Reading is applicable to the DC situation. I'll take her know how over DKs best guess.
So DCU signed Alfaro for defensive cover -- then comes the Calvinball BS. To make the signing, DCU had to trade a 2nd round pick in 2022 to Seattle and other considerations to obtain priority to sign him. This is a guy that since leaving Seattle, played to 2 teams in Mexico and last year was in the USL with Reno. What other league in the world gives former teams perpetual rights to a player they have cut loose? I guess I shouldn't complain because Cincy had to cough up money for the "right" to sign Lucho. But jeebus, neither of these things should have happened.
But they should when it's not a league but a single company that doesnt want individual locations sniping employees....
Kasper rarely if ever decided WHO to sign. He said who we COULD sign given the Calvin Ball Rules of MLS roster caps, etc. We still need him. If anybody was Money Ball, it would have been somebody who thought they were clever. Like Ashton. But in soccer, once you have a bunch of Money Ball players actually on the field, you can't sub them in and out at will. You're stuck with them.
I have never quite understood how this shit worked with gaining or retaining rights. I've never seen it sufficiently explained how we owed LAG anything for Arriola as he wasn't with them long enough according or my understanding. Nor do I recall that we got much of anything for PK who returned from Europe to start a couple of seasons for LAG, so not like he was some scrub.