With Platter having a good game against PR and looking good, Crayton locked in as the starter(at least until the summer), and Thorpe showing some promise over the last year, is Kocic the odd man out? He seems unwilling to take a developmental deal and has had quite a few mistakes in scrimmages. Not to mention he takes up a foreign slot as well.
I haven't seen any of the GKs play except for Crayton. It sure would suck to waste a pick on the guy when we could have gone after a center back to compete with all of our div 3 prospects. I hope he turns it around.
I don't think Thorpe is going to beat Kocic out for a roster spot, so I guess it all depends on if we can reach a contractual agreement with him.
If Kocic will only take a senior roster spot and not a developmental spot (a rookie stance which never seems to too popular in the front office when players are drafted in the middle rounds - ask Jay Needham), it does not look great for him as of now. The fact that he would take an international roster spot does not help although with their current crop of players - they have enough international roster spots for all of them. With Crayton coming off a shoulder injury and having a contract which expires in the middle of the season, I am guessing that DCU would rather have an experienced back-up like Platter as opposed to a so far inconsistent Kocic (although he has only played two preseason games). Whoever the 3rd string goalie is, he will be on a developmental contract - no way that the team carries 3 senior roster goalies. As of now, Thorpe gets the spot by default unless Kocic comes down off his salary demands or Graczyk (the goalie acquired from Colorado in the Gomez trade) decides to show up to camp and wins the job but it looks doubtful as of now). If they want to sign Platter, they would have to pay some sort of transfer fee to Minnesota as he is still under contract to them.
On the same (goalkeeper) front, some people here defended the high price of the deal that brought Gomez back here by saying that our acquisition in the deal of Mike Graczyk, who was a league pool goalkeeper in 2008, wasn't simply a throwaway despite his past pool status -- it was a solid acquisition for a backup. He lasted a week of pre-season before we dropped him.
I dont see Kocic staying with us. Didnt he say he had an offer to play for the red star of belgrade or something like that? Unless he gets a senior roster spot, i see him walking away from us. Alsoi find it strange he hasnt impressed much, because through a friend who played keeper in college and knew about kocic and how good he was, he was described as solid, and crazy, something like crayton i guess you can say. I hope we can get him, but truthfully i dont see it happening.
Unless he has an uncle in charge of a club in eastern Europe, I don't think he's going there - If he was really THAT good, he'd be there already or every team here would have noticed him - He'll either have to take a developmental slot here and bid his time and hope that injuries and loss of form offer him a chance, OR go to a USL team and make an impression in that league and then hope for a loan or signing to an MLS team - Without a full reserve roster and league, these guys have to be more realistic about where they are in the food chain
Well, didn't Kevin Payne say he was about as good as Stefan Frei? If we bail on Kocic, I guess that means Toronto will ditch Frei. "We thought [Kocic] was very close to Frei in ability, so to get him at No. 21 [overall] is a steal," Kasper said. As Chico said, Platter will have to do a lot more than have one good friendly against a Coca-Cola PDL team to supplant Kocic. And since there are more senior roster spots this year and fewer developmental slots, the "no developmental" stance shouldn't be much of an issue.
It seems like getting a goalkeeper in MLS is easier than filling other positions. I hope that somebody explains this to Kocic. DC has a long history of filling the goalkeeper position with guys that were not high draft picks or big foreign signings (Simpson, Garlick, Perkins). Last year for DC United was a very, very unusual situation as far as being weak at the goalkeeper position is concerned. When a guy talks like Kocic did coming out of college, he is either an amazing, charismatic talent or too cocky for his own good. I was interested in seeing which one of these that Kocic was. I still don't know which one he is, but I guess we will get more information real soon.
I agree with the overall sentiment of your post but can we please stop referring to Puerto Rico as a joke team? A very legitimate argument could be made that in 2008 they were a better team than DC United.
^^Yea seriously, They beat friggin Atlante at home pretty badly if i remember right, and were one of the better teams to go to the next round in the Concacaf Champ. League. They derseve respect, and to dismiss them just as a USL side is disrespectful IMO. They did tons better than any MLS team.
I doubt they'll drop somebody they're so high on. Platter tried out for the Fire last year and got beat out by Nick Noble.
Given his age, Platter has to take a senior roster spot - likely $ for a back-up goalie from the USL is likely in the $40K - $50K range if I had to guess. Kocic can still take a developmental contract (likely the $18K senior developmental type) and bump Thorpe from the roster. I would be willingly to guess that more 2nd round picks like Kocic will sign developmental deals as opposed to senior roster deals heading into the season. Platter trialed with both San Jose and Chicago last year, IIRC. I believe that both teams went with younger, cheaper (i.e. developmental roster) reserve goalies instead of Platter.
Our back-up goallee has to be close to be a starting goallee - Doesn't have to be as good as one, but has to be close - I don't think Thorpe's there - If he was, he'd be there by now - I think this comes down to Kocic or Platter - Apparently Platter did well with a thrown-together defense in front of him and facing an attack that had at least played together previous seasons - Kocic could take the #2 slot, but he's really going to have to prove himself