I know it's early, but let's take a look towards 2003. With Ramos & (we can only hope) Balboa retiring and Andy Williams getting his green card (assuming it has it by then), how can we improve this bunch. Defense: Let's face it. Petke is here to stay whether I like him or or not. Jolley is good for the most part despite his annoying habit of playing over the line balls that could have been moved up field. Akwari looks to be a keeper. Can they handle a three man backline or should we use the open SI spot on a defender? (a Des Walker type, though not necessarily Mr. Walker). I like a 4-4-2 myself. Midfield - Davis has looked good on the left side & Williams has looked sharp in center of the attack. Either Moore, who has been better than I thought he'd be, or Paule can handle D-Mid if we go with four in the back. If we go with three in the back, we could go with two D-mids. Again, I go with four in the back and play either paule or Moore at D-mid. Our right sided mid situation is a mess & always has been. I swear, we have never had a right mid who could actually cross the ball in all the years this team has been around. Frighteningly, Villegas may have been our best right mid. If we go with a defender in the MLS super draft (& some decent ones may be available), I suggest we bring in an Englishmam who can cross the ball at right mid. If we draft otherwise, I still say we go across the pond for a youth international of lower division stature who can cross the ball. I get sick watching our bad crossing year after year. I would play Mathis (he's not going to Europe; would you sign an injury prone redneck who doesn't care about training?) & Diallo up front, but I would keep a rotation going with Faria so that all three remain fresh. Drafting another forward (Eskandarian?)wouldn't be a bad move as Klinger & Alvarez are horrendous and that's putting it mildly. Obviously, Timmy is keeper. Oh, yeah & I'd send Klinger & Alvarez to any PDL team that would take them. What do my fellow fanatics think?
With Ramos and Balboa retiring, we should be getting at least one allocation. We need to ditch Faria and Diallo. I like Diallo, but in times when he isn't scoring, he does little to make the team better. Unfortunately, both Mathis and Petke are untouchable as well. Sweeper's 2003 plan....(man am I bored at work) Send Faria to LA for their first round pick (will probably be between 10-12) Gotta love his hustle but his finishing is very suspect at times. For the amount of shots he takes, he has to bury far more. Send Diallo, Ziadie and the LA pick plus a 2005 first round pick to KC for Chris Klein and Diego Gutierrez. Klein is 26 and playing absolutely brilliant ball down the right flanks for KC. He is a big boy, crosses very well with good speed and a nice touch plus tracks back very well. In a pinch, I believe he could also provide right back cover. Gutierrez would play left back for us and finally allow the team to have a good over-lapping left back on counterattacks, plus he would add some posession to the backline. I like the guy, but we need to deal Paule to Dallas for the out of favor Jorge Rodriguez, who will be ideal in the defensive midfield slot and also has a green card. Send the Dallas first round pick (DJ Countess deal) to New England for another out of favor player, Alex Pineda Chacon. Right now, he is riding pine in New England. With the Ramos allocation, sign Tyson Nunez who is playing in Uruguay. Give him good money. We still have our first round pick in the draft to use so that we can pick up a forward (Eskandarian anyone?) The starting lineup would be solid with Howard between the posts, Petke, Jolley, Akwari and Gutierrez along the back. We would have Jorge Rodriguez in defensive midfield, Klein and Davis along the wings and Williams as the number ten. Mathis and Nunez will be brutal up top. The bench would be strong with Grafer backing up Howard in goal, Chronoplous able to play mid or defense, Addo and Krupnik also fitting in along the backline. Lisi, Moore and perhaps a draft pick proving a spark for the mid and Chacon able to fill in up top or as a number ten. Throw in Eskandarian and maybe Diaz Arce (malign the guy, but he is feisty in front of goal and would be ideal off the bench) and we would have a good team with depth and fit in under the cap.
Are Ramos and Balboa both on $250K? And Mathis too? If all three are on the league max, consider how much better we could have been if all 3 were healthy/available for the whole year. With Ramos retiring and hopefully Balboa, that frees up a lot of money for new players.
None of this shite matters. OZ is still here. He will fook everything up no matter who we sign or deal for.
I believe that we're talking in a hypothetical sense, if we were running the show. I think its a given that we all want to see OZ go.
With the new cap room (1/2 a mil), I would like there to be some consistency for a while. Stick with back line (Chrono off the bench) so they get their groove). I would only ditch Alvarez and Klinger. We need to bring in a right winger. We need backup in the attacking mid/central mid role. Mathis is probably gone in June (free transfer) so I think we need backup for strikers. With the two we have left, someone cheep and and up and coming would be nice. Diallo is a head case, but scores. Faria gets the goals by percentages, getting into a dangerous position enough times to overcome any finishing issues. I think they are keepers. And 'keepers, they look good to me.
I don't think we will lose Mathis in June on a free transfer...wouldn't he have to stay the season, since he is signed through next year? Didn't think he could just up and walk away once he felt like it. Is it certain that Balboa is retiring?? I actually would like to see him come back Healthy next year and free up Paule to get forward more often...As far as major changes....I say stick with what we have for the most part and concentrate on finding a coach who knows how to play the guys he has...
Not a bad trade for us when combined with what you've got below, but what does LA want with Faria? They don't need poachers. I don't see KC dealing Gutierrez. You have a better chance sending Ziadie and Faria to KC than Diallo and his bloated salary. Faria and Ziadie for Klein and Gutierrez has to give them some cap room, but we might have to throw in a pick to make that work. Maybe. I don't know enough about Rodriguez's situation to make an informed call on this one. To this day I think that something's been wrong with APC since before the allocation draft. There's no reason for a guy to be that dominant in one year and that invisible in the next. I can hear the howls from the other nine teams now. The untouchables are Howard, Mathis, Petke, Jolley, Davis, and Williams. The guys most likely to stick around because of good production/cost ratios are Grafer, Akwari, Moore, and Lisi. I think Zaidie probably stays, and Faria stays for as long as OZ is his agent/coach. That leaves Ramos, Balboa, Chrono, Diallo, Alvarez, Addo, Klinger and Krupnik. So long, all of them. Our greatest need remains right midfield. Somebody like Nunes would be massive, but I see him more likely getting allocated to DC if MLS is able to sign him. I think we'll go another year without an allocation, maybe pick up a P-40 to replace Klinger, and trade Diallo for right side mid help. That leaves us thin up top with only Mathis and Faria, which we'll try to solve through the draft. In other words, I don't see any huge changes to this team because they see '03 as the last chance for a while to win it all. We will bide our time and wait for the Mathis and Howard situations to shake out before asking for some league help.
LA had interest in Faria before the trade deadline, so I imagine that for a first round pick, they could and would go after him...... I would be willing as GM to take part of Diallo's salary if KC makes the deal. They really need another forward in KC, so it might work out well. If not, maybe send him to Colorado and then send their parts to KC to get Klein..... Chacon has been having familial issues, hopefully time and a change of scenery might work wonders for him. I certainly think that he would be an ideal option off the bench, and in a more offensive setting, his game might flourish yet again.
Trading half the roster every season has never helped us in the past, so why is everyone so sure it'll help us now? Trade Faria for a freaking draft pick?! A cheap striker with 10+ goals, a handful of assists and nearing a green card? I know he's this season's scapegoat among some of you, but be serious. LA would take that trade and laugh their asses to the bank. They gave up more than a low 1st rounder for Chris Albright. I also don't see the point in trading Ziadie. He's a versatile cheap young player, who is an average midfielder (on our weak side) and decent defender. We have 2 discovery picks and a likely allocation for Ramos. If I were running the team, I'd keep things consistant. I'd pick up a good young 4th striker and some defensive depth with our discovery picks and the draft (where we have 4 picks in the 1st 2 rounds). I'd use the allocation on a top right wing mid. As to the striker situation, I'd rotate them, as someone earlier suggested. Mathis and Faria start the game, with Diallo coming on for Mathis between 45-60th minute mark. With fewer minutes, Mathis could keep playing at a high level until he's eventually healed. Mathis always plays best early in the game, and Diallo has played well late. Faria never gets injured and can run all day. Consistancy in the lineup is what will make this group into a championship caliber team. JMac
I know no one likes OZ (I think he's mediocre at best too), but it's funny how Chicago had injuries & WC call ups and has posted a mediocre record and everyone thinks he's a genius. OZ has had injuries & call ups, posted a slightly better record & everyone thinks he's an idiot. I don't think we need a huge overhaul. I agree with jacen. Big overhauls unfdo whatever good you have going. Add a starting defender, a starting right mid, and a forward to back up the starters & we'll be okay. Plent of roster room without Tab, Marcelo, Addo (probably), the Klingon & Byron (son of socks) Alvarez.
I concur. Ramos, Alvarez and Klinger must go. Probably Balboa too; if he hasn't recovered by now I wouldn't count on him recovering in the off season. That's four spots, which is a good amount of change in a 22 man roster. Anything above and beyond that should be weighed very carefully. And let's make sure we do physicals on everyone.
All this team needs is to play with heart. We have a much better team that went to the semi-finals in 2000, and theres no reason why we shouldn't win the championship this year. The Metros problem is that they're always making moves. There were a lot made in 2000, but several of the players previously played together (Mathis, Jolley, Myers, Hernandez all played for the Galaxy). We need to keep the the the main players, and work from there. Only players I see that should be leaving are Ramos, Balboa, Alvarez, Klinger, and Forko. The last four barely played this year. LINE UP: Howard, Petke, Jolley, Akwari, draft pick, Williams, Davis, Moore, Paule, Mathis/Faria/Diallo.
I agree that these guys need to play with heart, but all the heart in the world won't improve the horrendous crossing we get from from the right MF position.
Anyone else still hoping that Arthur Numan ,(dutch defender from Rangers) is comming over to the MLS. He would be an amazing pick up for our defense and would add a lot of leadership to the locker room. I could even see him being put into a defensve midfield position, helping to link the defense and midfield properly and more importantly , it would keep Jolley from making those ridiculous runs into the upper midfield.
Thank god Tab is finally retiring. Total bust. Balboa. Poor management decision. How about get a really good player from Europe and pay them the 550,000 those two will free up. An attacking midfielder possibly.
They pay more for certain players(Luis Hernandez, Donadoni, Mattheus). They would pay 550,000 for a name player.
But its under the table, so why do we need to free up space with Ramos and Balboa? We can sign them now and pay them 100K but pay the rest under the table. But MLS wont do that anymore, specially the way that those 2 turned out to be. Donadoni didnt make extra money. He got paid league maximum.
I thought Donadoni played his heart out for the metros when he was here. The other 2 were disasters. Too bad we cant get another Donadoni.
You gotta trade away half the team if the players you have don't mix well of aren't playing up to par. I love Jeff Moore, he's feisty and played well, but if we can do better, then we have to go for it. Same with Paule, the guy has been gold for us this year, but if we can upgrade to Klein by dealing him, then we do it...... The key is to make trades for players that will come in automatically and play with the team concept. Klein, Gutierrez, Rodriguez all fit that mold. Throw any of those guys onto a field with ten different players they have never played before and you will still get the same solid result from them. All three are smart, gifted players..... This team needs a shakeup. Diallo is great when scoring goals, but he adds precious little to the team when not scoring. His passing is inpet and he doesn't track back well. We need some fight and toughness up top, and Nunez can bring that game in and game out....
Someone else posted that the roster churn is part of the reason the Metros suck. This is very true. The fact though is, not only has the current team been together for a very short period of time, they were also very badly put together. Honestly, Sweeper had a good plan there. I think that deal would solve most of the problems on the team However, I would rather try to find some cheap Latin American forward, like Ruiz. If we had any decent scouting, we'd be able to find some.
I'm all for cheap. God forbid Metro has a season like Chicago did this year. Being far enough under the cap to bring in a couple decent replacement players is a luxury that could be the difference for us next season. Who knows? C in SJ
my only requests for the off season: 1. dump oz. 2. progress on stadium. 3. dump balboa, alvarez, klinger. 4. draft Diego Walsh (no relation) to take tab's spot. 5. sign a FA worth a damn. 6. get a coach who will only play moore or paule, not both at the same time, and who isn't averse to right wingers. With a decent coach and the above, I think we can win the MLS cup.
You're selling Faria short, he's worth a lot more than that. Faria is cheap, young, durable (very, very important in this league) and is on his way to getting a green card. Most teams would love to have a player that can get 11 goals/5 assists in a season and only take up $45K and hardly every miss a minute due to injury. I would consider trading Faria for the #1 pick overall depending on who enters the draft (like if Oguchi Onyewu comes to MLS since his French deal fell through). Other than that it's not worth it. According to the KC boards, Klein sounds like he'll win MVP for KC this season. Why would they want to trade their MVP? They also have 3 SI's, which means if they take Diallo they have to cut or trade one of them. Poor move on their part. Also, 2 of their SI's are strikers who've only played together for half a season. I'd be suprised if they didn't try to build on that chemistry instead of starting from scratch. If I were KC, I wouldn't make that trade. I don't if KC's management can be counted on to be that gullible. Have you heard if Eskandarian is leaving school early to join the draft? It's definitely time for him to go pro.