DC United front office, or lack thereof

Fortunately for me, I was able to view this slow motion collapse from a considerable distance in Italy while donating tickets to charity. Again, fortunately, I was at my niece's wedding on Saturday rather than at the match. My first "live" match at Audi since March will be next month. I don't relish the thought. I went to all but one game in 2013 and I think that experience will rank as "better" than watching 2022 unfold. This roster is shit, the coaching is shit and Dave Kasper is uber shit.

 

I lived with us staying in our lane when we were watching games in a shithole like RFK, but when you move us to a new stadium that's going to fix everything and you cut all the perks while jacking up prices ... go f_ck yourselves. We're on the precipice of MLS4.0 while our ownership is still sitting at the MLS2.0 table.

But Levien is king shit because he drives all these results. It's Levien who lets Kasper continue on, its ownership that leaves this team with a bottom third payroll, its ownership that make this team unattractive to come to with our TX high school football stadium and warehouse space out in Loudon for training. The foundation of all this team's failures and shortcomings comes from the ownership group. Perid. Hard stop.

Pretty much agree with your player assessments. I have to wonder what Junior Moreno & Felipe would be doing for us at DM. Both are contributing to playoff teams while we look lost in the middle of the field. I realize Losada prolly had a heavy hand in those decisions, but Felipe cost like $85k. He could at least create with the ball at his feet. I am not sure I've seen that Djeffal, Durkin, Skundrich, and we sure haven't seen it from Canouse. I think we've got a host of guys starting who probably don't start many/any other places in the league and there is obviously zero depth.

I put all of this on ownership. Every single failing, small and large, staying our lane. Right now our lane is an off ramp to the NPSL. The way in which ownership was blind to how Losada was running things is a massive failure. Someone (team docs, trainers, PT staff) somewhere in this organization had to be aware that he was pushing some players in an unhealthy way, It was obvious from looking at all of the player's faces how much leaner they were last year. The fact that they didn't act until this season had been poisoned is a colossal act of mismanagement. Whether that's on Kasper's head, someone else, or the owners themselves, it's Levien who enables Kasper and everyone else who is failing this organization, it's Levien who handcuffs Rushton, its Levien at the root of all our failings. Maybe this is the year Kasper is sacrificed, but it will not change anything until there is a change in the owner's box.

Levien was outside in the field box early yesterday like he usually is, but he didn't show his face again after it hit 2-0. I'd like to think he was conferencing with leadership, talking about how to unf_ck this shit show, but I am sure he was just hiding.


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I think Benny might have been underestimated in his ability to get blood from a stone. Year after year he was handed a group of disparate players who didn't fit together, rarely played together more than 2-3 years, most of whom were on their last stop and more often than not, he got more than the sum of the parts.

 

Here are some former DC United players who have gone on to success elsewhere in front offices and on the sidelines: Ali Curtis; Jesse Marsch; John Thorrington; Greg Vanney; Josh Wolff.... there probably are others. We had a chance to make use of these guys but passed. I remember years ago when Vanney was closing out his career with us and was interviewed after a match. What he said showed such comprehensive knowledge of the match and of soccer in general that I would have hired him as coach or GM on the spot. Thorrington and Curtis have gone on to success in high positions, and Marsch is holding his own in Europe. These were once our guys but we let them make their post-playing careers with others.

 

I've often wondered what it would look like if you created tree of MLS coaches starting with Bruce Arena and having a branch for every "played under/coached with" connection.

 

Add to the mix Pat Noonan who was "considered" for the spot before Losada. Look at Cincy now, we are now the old Cincy -- bereft of talent, ideas and leadership.

 

Don't confuse us with Cincy. Cincy has money we appear to have jack shit based on Pablo Mauer's most recent tweet.

 

You also have Ezra Hendrickson who is manager at the Fire and Carlos Llamosa who is an assistant with the Portland Timbers.

 

My one interaction with a player during game time was tossing the ball to Ezra Hendrickson so he could throw it in during a Reserve League game. I believe he had just been acquired.

 

Which tweet?

 

DC United's sporting department in the boardroom as the summer progresses and they sink lower and lower in the standings pic.twitter.com/JpFABQdx06

— Pablo Iglesias Maurer (@MLSist) June 27, 2022

 

Too bad it’s made in St. Louis these days.

 

I didn't know that. That's too bad it's not made in Latrobe any more.

 

Rolling Rock was acquired by Anheuser-Busch in 2014. After the acquisition, Rolling Rock initially was brewed in St. Louis. Now it's brewed in Newark, New Jersey, at a brewery that Anheuser-Busch recently acquired. Anheuser-Busch has sold the old Labrobe brewery works to another entity. InBev bought Rolling Rock in 2006 in an effort to diversify its American offerings before selling the brand to Anheuser-Busch.

 

You do know that InBev owns Anheuser-Busch. There are about 3 major brewing companies left in the US market - Anheuser-Busch InBev, Heineken and MolsonCoors. The other major players don't really try to compete in the US. (Of course I'm leaving out the jillions of IPA's made by itinerant local breweries.)

 

No, I didn’t. It’s all very confusing. A lot of the old time local brands - like National Bohemian & Rolling Rock - are still around but I suspect that they are all zombie labels that are owned by faceless corporations and are brewed in locations far from their original hometowns. It’s too bad. Rolling Roack used to be my go-to cheap American lager. These days, my fav summer beers are D.C. Beau’s pale ale & pilsner.

 

The world is populated with zombie brand names. One of the most bizarre is this. After Pan Am went bankrupt, Timothy Mellon, owner of Guilford Transportation (a railroad), purchased the name and logo. He then renamed his rail system "Pan Am Railway" and slapped the old Pan Am logo on the locomotives and freight cars. He even (temporarily) started a "Pan Am Airways" scheduled plane service between Bangor and Orlando. GE appliances are made by Haier, a Chinese company, who has the license to use the GE name in the US. Maytag, Amana and Kitchen Aid are all just brands of Whirlpool. In Italy, Peroni is an InBev brand and Moretti is a Heineken brand.

 

In New York, Red Bull is the brand name of a football club.

 

Stone just got bought last week.

 

Sure, for awhile. In a few years, it simply will be brewery capacity to produce Sapporo branded beers. Never, ever, believe the BS that talks of "melding cultures" or that the acquired entity will continue to operate as it did before. If that's really the case, why the acquisition? Sapporo could have just built new breweries. It bought Stone for capacity and the "Stone" brand is simply an obstacle to a nationwide distribution plan. There are no laws governing PR statements, they lie and figure most folks will forget what they read (if they ever read anything) in a few months.

 

. Did not know that (largely because my college days are significantly behind me).

 

$2M for a Arriola is looking like a steal. Armed robbery no less when Toronto is a goal a game player in Alejandro Pozuelo for $150k. Yes you read that right, one hundred fifty thousand dollars in GAM. Sure he makes $4.7M, but what are they gonna pay Bernedeshi?

This doesn’t add up.