Re: And the reinforcement is... Definitely the offense. Out of 16 matches, we have 6 wins this season. Making us 2 pts away from the last playoff spot currently held by Metro. How many 2 goal wins do we have this season? Saturday, April 2 @ Chivas USA W, 2-0 (notice the dates btw wins) Saturday, May 7 Columbus Crew W, 3-1 (notice the dates btw wins) Saturday, June 18 New England Revolution W, 2-0 (bit of a winning roll here... but) How many 1 goal wins do we have this season? Saturday, May 21 Kansas City Wizards W, 3-2 Wednesday, June 15 Chicago Fire W, 4-3 Saturday, July 2 @ Columbus Crew W, 1-0 Definitely the offense. We have 4 draws, had some of those gone our way... We also have 5 games lost by 1 goal. So the defense is clearly keeping us in the game, but the offense, slump or no slump has to finish the chances, otherwise there won't be a 5th star this year.
Re: And the reinforcement is... Not to bust your chops on the translations and paraphrasing but here it is.... ..in english. http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20050712&content_id=36246&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp
Re: And the reinforcement is... Anyone willing to post a pronunciation guide (phonetic spelling)? Thanks.
Re: And the reinforcement is... Crap, how good can a Argentine player be without a nickname? Facundo Erpen sounds like a lower G.I. malady. Please tell me they call him the Maldini of the Pampas or El Cannibal, or something.
Re: And the reinforcement is... His club (Talleres) has the nickname of "Los Matadores" or "The Killers" so "El Matador" would seem to fit. In terms of pronouncing the name, I believe it is: Fa-kun-doe Er-pen
Re: And the reinforcement is... Absolutely. I've said all along that the defense as it stands is a servicable MLS defense. I think that the deletion of Petke and the addition of Wilson is an even trade in on field skills ( but a positive on the financial side ). The key seems to be getting goals, and getting them fairly early. I don't think that they need to score in the first 10 minutes, but not getting one until after the 70th minute puts a lot of pressure on the back line to hold. If they don't get somebody who can score, then we better hope that Tino comes back from Camp Arena ready to go....and do it for the duration.
Re: And the reinforcement is... Somebody told me that he had a boyfriend, that looked like a girlfriend that I had in February of last year.....
Re: And the reinforcement is... I watch the Argentine league but I've never heard of him or at least don't recall. I won't write him off though he may still be a good player, at least hes young so they'll be room for improvement.
Re: And the reinforcement is... Was that the mustache or the one eyebrow that made you think of the similarity? (couldn't help it) Are you implying the guy's a **************?
Re: And the reinforcement is... I think this is the hairy chested Argentinian that Nowak has always wanted.
Re: And the reinforcement is... There's already been an "El Matador" in MLS, didn't work out so well. Let's try to come up with something else. Maybe "La Araña que Ladra" (can that be masculinized?) to pay homage to his lower GI disease sounding name (at least according to nickthegreek). Cherno
Re: And the reinforcement is... Except things that get you a yellow card in Argentina will get you a red card in MLS!
Erpen - The Argentine Defender? MLS Net is reporting that DCU will sign Facundo Erpen from the Argentine second division club Talleres de Cordoba. He is a 22-year-old central defender. http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20050712&content_id=36246&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp
Re: Erpen - The Argentine Defender? There's already a thread about this (with the non-obvious title of "And the reinforcement is . . ."). Thread merger with title change time?
Re: And the reinforcement is... "Características técnicas: Un jugador con buena técnica, fuerte y con mucho temperamento; tiene muy buen salto, lo que le permite cabecear tanto en su área como en el área rival." I believe "temperamento" is more akin to "temperance". In other words, he is NOT the type to pick up unnecessary cards and such. From my Velazquez English/Spanish dictionary, temperamento, def. #2: Arbitration, compromise, means for ending disputes or dissensions. The rest of this description (http://www.balon-sa.com.ar/web/erpen.htm) re-states what has already been translated on the MLS Website (...a very skilled player, strong and level-headed; he is very good in the air, in his own box or in the rival team's box). I'm not the most cunning of linguists but I would say that someone with good temperamento is "level-headed", not someone with "a temper".
From La Voz del Interior Martes, 12 de Julio (July 12) [???] Espera a Facundo Erpen ("Waiting for Facundo Erpen") Con la salida de Luciano Nicotra, el Tomba necesita urgente un marcador central. Todos los cañones le apuntan a Facundo Erpen, quien podría irse de Talleres porque al club le decretaron la quiebra y hace rato que no paga los sueldos. De todas maneras, aún no se resolvió el tema y siguen las negociaciones. TRANSLATION "With the leaving of Luciano Nicotra, the Tomba urgently need a central defender. All the gun barrels point to Facundo Erpen, who may be able to leave Talleres because the club declared itself bankrupt and has not been paying wages for a while. At any rate, it is still not resolved and the negotiations continue." In other news, I propose the following nickname for Mr. Erpen: El Vaquero ("The Cowboy").
Re: And the reinforcement is... Oh. I thought that meant he was born in 1883, and I was a bit concerned.
Re: And the reinforcement is... Yeah, "Fvckin Erpen?!????" is exactly what I was thinking. I am always excited to get new and exciting players on DC United, but I just hope this doesnt stop us from addressing more important needs on the team (say a forward IF Esky continues to be hurt/ineffective) While I try to be an optimist, I always get the bad feeling that we are always a step behind in player aquistions... I mean are we getting Erpen based on real current need? Or is this simply because we thought we needed defensive help, pre Wilson/Boswell and already had our line in the water? I have never liked the way we obtain players, it just SEEMS (and i could be wrong and will admit it) so half assed. --Does this team even pay a scoutllet alone a staff? We always seem to go into a season thinking we are set... panic... amass a stack of VIDEO TAPES (mind you not first person scouting reports... our coaches oddly have to fly off to do that in person) and then piss around for 3-4 months trying to get a guy in for a workout/visa/god knows what.
I have a good feeling about this bandido.... Even if we needed this lined up end of last year...he may be a nice spark for our team! ~worm~ Unless he is bench fodder?
With Namoff out for a while and with no guarantee of him coming back quickly, a move for a defender is a pretty good idea. Prideaux is fluctuating between good and bad now on a weekly basis and Boswell is showing signs of hitting the rookie wall. Stokes keeps getting hurt in games, and no other rookie has shown signs of being able to step in if one of our starters go down. We need this move for depth and for flexibility, as we have way too many games to play in the next few months to be forced to rely on less than a handful of players.
Maybe I am missing this in other places but can someone tell us/me how Erpen's signing effects the teams ability to bring in other players (if necessary) later in the season? IS this it as far as adding new players goes?
Since he's from Argentina, "The Cowboy" should be El Gaucho. My cousin in Argentina named his son Facundo, and they call him Facu for short. I've always hoped they don't bring him to the States and call him that.
We waited all this time for a player from a 2nd division Argentine side that has recently gone bankrupt? Why does this not make me feel better?