Just curious, how much salary do we have sitting on the bench or even traded away during most of our games? Kiro is gone, and he was about $190k? Then there's our "Senior PineRiders": Naldo, Pando, CHinchilla, Umana, Nagamura. The "small fish": Roberts, Gordon, Enfield, Grabavoy, Cronin. And GG (who I understand does not cost us anything while he finishes his weightwatchers program). "Starters"= Hartman, Marsh, Ugo, Albright, Dun, Pete, Saragosa, Jones, Herc, Angwa, LD. IS it wrong to say that about 40% of our salary is not on the field? That's a humongous planning problem! And it's not only that certain players haven't panned out. I love Saragosa, but he plays exactly the same position as Nagamura, as does Pete. Meanwhile, we have no left-mid.
doug hamilton has stated that he is comfortable and confident of the team. why must you question the back to back MLS executive of the year?
Well I'm guessing next year, Naldo, Pando and Chincilla and probably Umana are all gone, none of shown anything that would keep me optimistic about them being good performers in the future. Nagamura and Saragosa will both be around, I'd hate to see them move to another MLS team, they're too good at what they do. So hopefully some of the new imports next year can do alot better then this class (hell, they couldn't possibly do any worse).
"Master, please help us! We need you now, more than ever. We will sit and we will listen. You're our guidance and our teacher. Lead us through our journey to glorious victory. Please come back to us.......WE'RE DYING!!!"
Well, I was really just calling anyone who wasn't playing Saturday a "pine rider" but even if he comes back, is Saragosa benched? Either way...same thing. The point is, how can you win in MLS when you have so much money sitting on the bench? (and money is not easy to come by round here)
People may be offeneded at this, but I would rather have Nagamura over Saragosa. I say we get those pineriders(apart from obviously Nagamura and possibly Pandon't) out as quickly as possible, free up more salary cap space. I also think that although he has played well recently, Pete should be traded to a team like RSL, not crew as I was about to say, Szetela is way better then Pete. Lie to Naldon't that if he plays on he could be at risk of never walking again, so that he will retire, send Umana to a central American team(or RSL), and send Chinchilla to a central American team also(or RSL).
The thing is what should be done and what our org. will really do. I hope, but am not certain that Chinny and Umana will go. Noether have done anything to prove they belong and with our backline playing like they are now there is no reason to pay so much for benchwarmers. Naldo out plz out go away you are soooooo worthless. Pando Im not sure he really could work out he's come so close, hey he even came close on that PK and made that intresting! Id hate to see him not play but I just dont see a place to play him at Amid regularly or up top mid in a box formation so he's gotta go, being payed too much. Otherwise we should get an international expensive stricker to pair with Herc and prob a right mid to replace Cobi in a year or so. We can also draft on our backline as we are going to need help here in case of injury and callups and Ty's eventual retierment (hopefully long long away!), Troy is not ready yet even though he scores as much as Naldo. Wow Sean pretty generous to RSL if we wanna ruin Conference foes by dumping dead weight lets send 'em to SJ too, With Chinny's free kick stopping ability we'd win the cup fo' sho
The upside of all this is that with Kirovski, Chinchilla and Naldo gone, we could have over 300k in salary cap space (I'm assuming that Herc comes in at around 100k). We can at least afford to get a quality international striker - if we can find one. We still need some midfield help. Sao Paulo must have someone else we can get! I expect to see Pando gone. I'd assume he would rather be starting in Guatamala than sitting on the bench here. Umana, on the other hand, might stay. He is still a youth international and relatively cheap.
That seems sufficient enough for us. But possibly an a-mid would complete that pack, and another forward would complete our team. Now to get rid of that coach.
Offseason needs: 1: Coach 2. Striker (I would like to see Alan or Quavas work out too) 3. Backup defender (So a rookie Ugo like project would be cool) Use LD as our Amid and either draft another or use Ned/Alan when LD is away.
I agree with letting all those pineriders go, except Pando. He has such potential, and Cobi has one foot in retirement and the other on a banana peel. Did you see the shot Pando took on Dallas? It was wide, but it was below the crossbar. Of course, he flubbed a breakaway too. :/ As for a wish list, it would be nice to have a big target in the box. It would make crosses and set pieces much more effective. It would also be nice to have a leftie mid. Maybe Sean could talk to Damien Duff for us.
Well he's not a goliath but Kirk our rookie sensation for the U17's is 6-1 and they got kicked out of their tourny. Is he practicing with the team now? He's recovering from that broken foot, but anyone is better than "ooh-ahh" Joe
Quavas was really bad at u-17 tourney, uninterested and no heart, didn't even look proud to be wearing the nats jersey. He couldn't hack it at that tourney, so I dont think he is ready for MLS, yet.
He was also playing out of position and getting back in the swing of things. He was placed on the field just so he could be on the field somewhere. However no energy is definatly not our style. Im curious who we will see with SJ. Speed (joe) or skill(alan). No mo' joe!
I actually think that we will see Gordon instead of Joe, Stevo may be leaving it late, but he wants to see what is the best combination up top for the play-offs, better late than never I suppose.
Now your trying to predict what that half assed moron will do. Might as well throw a dart at a target. You are also asumming SS2 will do something correct, not something he does often.
Yeah yeah semantics right. BTW I have 4 brothers so everything I say is to be read with minmal ribbing and sarcasm. But if Steve can be crazy on his lineups why not keep Pando and put him up top?
maybe both. Though his boot is soooo strong and he's come thiiiiiiiiis close so many times. I could give Pando another year.
I said the same, I want to see him full of confidence and playing in position, I think we could then see the best of Pandon't. Remeber, this is a player that I am hoping is playing in the World Cup next summer.