Simpson left in the offseason. He's now an assistant coach at the A-League's Hampton Roads team. http://www.dcunited.com/index.cfm?section=main&cont_id=156708 (at bottom of article)
Congrats to AJ! It's nice to see United maintaining ties with some of the former players and local products. I think he'll do a great job with the youth programs.... Peace...
very good move to get dave v. rimando still needs solid coaching (simpson did wonders last year) and dave is one of the most experienced keeper/coaches we have. great snag by dcu. i have always like AJ (though "local idol" might be a bit much) and think he'll bring a lot to the team. it would be nice if we develop a stronger youth program.
hardware is good, but more is better, unless its minutes spent with a lawyer, or veterans on a squad or cars on the freeway.
Agreed that more is better... unless it is worse It would be nice (although only a dream right now) if the DC United youth clubs could feed into either the top United team or into MLS (and the WUSA)... hell I think it would be cool if United had a professional women's team (but that's not really feasible).
There could not be a better choice for DCU's goalkeepers. Vanole was Rimando's GK coach at UCLA so the two obviously have a good rapport. With the Bruins, he also coached Chris Snitko (KC, Chicago, Dallas), Kevin Harman (LA), Matt Reiss (LA, KC) and DJ Countess (Dallas). He was also Sigi's assistant on the 99 U20 team where he coached Rimando, Timmy Howard (Metros) and Dan Popik (just signed with LA after 3 seasons in the A-League). With the Freedom and the US women's national team he's coached Siri Mullinix and Brian Scurry. As a player, he won an NCAA title at UCLA with the Bruins, started in the 1988 Olympics, started in some qualifiers for Italia 90 and was Tony Meola's backup on the 90 World Cup team. He also played in the APSL. He's a giant teddybear of a human - nick-named Dino, a la the Flintstones - with a great sense of humor and serious credibility because of what he's accomplished as a player and coach and he will be great assett to the locker room and training environment. Other than Milutin Soskic, who has coached the senior team's GKs since 1993, I don't think there's a better person in the US available to coach the goalies. Again, a great, if minor, addition to the staff. Rimando will be thrilled and he'll he a great teacher for Warren and Behonick/Geddes. I don't know what the Freedom's schedule is - nor do I really care - so I don't know about any potential conflicts when teams have games on the same day in different cities, but hopefully there won't be too many conflicts and he'll be available to United for as many games as possible. (I say this knowing that the bulk of his work is done during the week when he's tutoring and mentoring and preparing but it would still be nice to have him their game day.)
I'm never adverse to hardware, but to me, the most important thing--and really the solitary purpose of a youth team--is to develop the individual players' skills. Thus far it appears our youth programs are doing a fantastic job with all of these things. Hiring AJ Wood sounds like yet another step by DC United to invest time and money in developing the local talent in this youth soccer hotbed of NoVa, MD and DC. Kudos--yet again--to the DC United front office. You guys are simply the best. We are immensely grateful for your bold and wise decisions as well as your tremendous vision for the future of DC United. Every step is in the right direction. Thank you. -Digital