Who ever said Kasper now has "nothing to do with selecting players"? Obviously none of us has the inside scoop over who has final say on player acquisition but if Losada and Rushton accepted the positions they have without solid assurances that they would have very substantial input into player acquisitions then they are stupid and deserve what they get -- and I don't think they are stupid. If Losada and Rushton are enthusiastic about Estrada that is good enough for me, until I have reason to question their judgement (and that doesn't mean missing on just one signing). It would be truly shocking if Kasper signed Estrada over the objections of the coach and general manager.
Pajoy is relevant to any DCU thread. Anyone who could be offside so many times in so many different ways is a zen master.
You are correct. I was not having a laugh. I was confused. If I read that post as sarcasm it makes some sense, but it's also something that the team might have said at the time despite his age and relative deck chair level of play.
I mostly remember people mocking him, being disappointed in him and wondering how he could be offside so consistently.
I don't know if this really closes the book on Junior Moreno coming back, but Brad Smith is wearing #5 in some of the Facebook stories that DC United have put up regarding their training in California.
Until proven otherwise, both signings should be treated the same. Actually, Pajoy arrived to us with a 5 goal 2 assist season. Why should this be exciting exactly? Isn't our social media being bombarded with "thank yous" from fans happy to get rid of him? We've already got the incompetent hype machine claiming he's worth 5-7 million after release, which is absurd. I'll give him a chance, but he better ********ing work or ********.
Maybe Estrada doesn't work out -- the one year loan deal is smart. But -- I don't get the vitriol over the signing. The guy is Ecuador's leading goal scorer on a team just about booked for Qatar. Beerholder would give both his right and left nuts to have a forward that productive. This isn't the EPL folks, have a little perspective. Estrada and Fountas are the type of players this league in general goes after -- good players who will be above average in MLS play. Or would you rather have Danny Alsopp or Steve Guppy?
There's no vitriol, just a sense of reality. The kinds of players we sign have limited upside and little interest from other organizations globally. We have to accept that. This guy isn't a world burner, he's not an unknown talent and he's had a cold year. He has something to prove, he's not some red hot star. Frankly though, Griffin, there are many better purchases than this dude that we could have done. I'm kind of disinterested in imagining them anymore because clearly the club had their typical strategy and blinders to everything else. I think Sean Davis could have been a Julian Gressel like acquisition, very useful and consistent and helping the midfield. I think looking for players to just run and run and hope the energy, lack of injuries and commitment is there all year is probably misguided. Anyway, it doesn't matter, our franchise is kind of on autopilot so we'll just see how it goes.
I'm just glad we didn't waste a roster spot (and salary cap) on Tevez. Here's hoping DP #3 turns out to be be an excellent choice.
How many international games did Pajoy play? And Estrada? How about World Cup qualifier goals? How old were each of these guys when they were signed by DC United? Who is saying he's worth 5-7M? Whether you should be excited or not is up to you. Whether Estrada is successful or not is to be seen obviously. But treating the signings as the same seems like a poor use of logical reasoning. That doesn't mean Estrada will be great. It just means you should look at the available information rather than leaning so heavily on pessimism in assessing this move.
The available information is as unproductive a season coming into the club as possible. I don't care about international duty, and I don't care about world cup qualifying goals, because a lot of role players and lower level players are on a number of CONCACAF/CONMEBOL teams. If you look at Jamaica, or Ecuador or whatever, there are a handful of decent players who make it to good clubs, usually as backups or for their developmental systems, and then there are a bunch of OK at best players who head to lower leagues or MLS. International duty doesn't necessarily equal being good or being a prospect.
If you are the leading scorer for a team about to qualify for the World Cup from CONMEBOL, you are more than a "backup" or fodder for "developmental systems". Look, I think Levien is an asshat, but in the past few weeks, the FO has brought in two forwards who could be impactful, replaced Paredes with Smith (and for all the woe is me about Paredes leaving, he scored one goal last year and sometimes had a disturbing tendency to dribble into traffic) which might actually be an improvement in production from the position. The biggest questions right now are in the middle of the park and the absolute shitshow for GK after Hamid.
Plus if reports are to be believed they're *still* looking for that third DP. 100% agree with you on the two biggest question marks left for the team, by the way.
From Grant Wahl: The Interview: Hernán Losada The D.C. United Coach on His Influences and Philosophy, His Team's Off-season Conditioning Program, Michael Estrada, Edison Flores, Prominent Girlfriend Evelina Cabrera (Also a Coach) and Much More https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/the-interview-hernan-losada (Note that only the beginning of the text of the interview is available here unless you are a paid subscriber but the audio of the entire thing is available on his podcast 'Fútbol with Grant Wahl' -- great podcast, btw.)
He's got 8 goals for Ecuador since 2017, 3 this year. Good for him. I think we should pay attention to new callups here for their team. The other two forwards for Ecuador are <24 years old and have a combined 7 caps. Altogether the current squad has 37 goals historically and only one current forward has goals on their record. Enner Valencia scored basically every goal for them during his tenure as forward and they are starting from scratch. But don't misunderstand what I mean by backup or someone placed in a developmental system. If you're a backup for Bayern or Manchester City, you're better than every player in MLS probably. Ecuador has some OK players on the squad. Angel Mena and Piero Hincapie are starters for decent clubs (Leon and Leverkusen). Then there is some dropoff, some OK prospects went to Seattle and and LA. This dude isn't yet part of the "played for good clubs," "developmental prospect for backup at a good club" or "shown effectiveness in MLS" categories. He's in the 0 goals last year category. That's all I am saying. He's firesale category. Hopefully he comes out like Kamara trying to prove himself and we get the better player than he's shown the last few years.
Nice interview. I listened to it on Apple Podcasts. His part comes in around the 20:39 mark, if you're not inclined to listen to the whole podcast.
DC tied NYRB 1-1 in today's preseason friendly. Flores scored the goal. Starting lineup: Starting XI for this evening's preseason match vs @NewYorkRedBulls 👇Hamid B. SmithBirnbaumHines-IkeNajarGresselDjeffal*NyemanCanousePerezFlores*SuperDraft Pick— D.C. United (@dcunited) February 10, 2022
Hopefully Flores is finally finding his form. Two recent goals with Ecuador and now a preseason goal for United are hardly conclusive evidence of that but it's still cause for optimism.
Yeah, I knew that, but thanks for pointing out the error. Brain freeze. One goal vs. Ecuador. One vs Colombia. And the preseason goal for DCU vs NYRB.