DCU Acquires...wait for it...Dwayne De Rosario

When Dax came on board I thought that Simms' days in DC United were limited (with King backup).

But playing two defensive midfielders side-to-side showed me who was best at that position, and it was clearly Simms.

What DC United needs in midfield (specifically more centrally) is someone who can hold the ball under pressure and occassionally dribble (a more dynamic type). With Fred leaving, the team lacks that type of player (I always wished Quaranta would grow into that role, but alas, it has not happened). Also a player who can feed both Davies and Wolff more consistently, which had not been happenning as much.

So DeRo, despite his UGLY goal celebrations, brings that for this team. Good trade.

I am with Jeremy (and Chico) on this one.

 

It's a good trade. Basically, we got something in return for nothing. Um, actually I think that Dax is a good player. It's just that he's not a no. 10 - basically, Dax & Simms are really sort of interchangeable.

I kinda got the feeling that getting DeRo at this stage in his career is a bit like the Brooklyn Dodgers getting Babe Ruth for the last two years of his career. My gut feeling is that DeRo probably will be out of the league in another year or two, but he's a great pick-up for a playoff run and may be a good influence (i.e., I hope that some of his vinegar rubs off) on our younger players.

This is a good trade.

 

Babe went to the Boston Braves and lasted less than a season so I hope it's a better pickup than that.

 

I remember thinking the same thing. Didn't we call him and one of his teammates up once, I'm brainfarting, but we took his teammate for the loan and then signed him and didn't go for DeRo then next season he's with SJ. Seemed to me at the time like a missed opportunity.

Of course if DeRo came here then who knows what happens, maybe no Gomez, no 4th title or maybe we have 6...

 

-------------------Davies-----------------Wolff-----------------

------------------------------DeRo-----------------------------

Pontius----------------------------------------------------Najar



Make no mistake about it, this is the most offensive firepower DC United has put on the field together in years.

This trade helps both teams, in theory. NY is leaking goals and needs help in the defensive midfield. Dax wasn't working out as planned here and DeRo fills a huge need for United.

 

I think both dudes were sort of victims of their formations.

If they think McCarty is going to help their central defense they're in for a rude awakening. People keep making the mistake that because he's short and fit that he's a DM. He's really much better going forward in a 5-man midfield, and I think that's what NY will do. I think they see him as more of a replacement for Mehdi Ballouchy than to shore up their defense. But who ever knows with NY? The have more than a quarter of the league's total salary tied up in a team that's currently 3rd place in the East.

Also, while your lineup has a lot of firepower, I have a feeling we'll see DeRosario as a forward with two defensive MFers behind him. That's been Olsen's preferred formation since he took over.

 

Diceson is so full of shit, he needs two pairs.

Thank you , tip your servers!


I am just not sure how to feel about this trade. I liked Dax, but wow he couldn't seem to pass his way out of a wet paper bag this season. I was really looking forward to seeing him work next to Boskovic, but that never got to happen.
I hate DeRo, but have to admit I often like to watch him play, especially around the 18, he sucks in the defenders, leaving other guys open - sometimes he's unselfish enough to lay it off and make folks look great, some(most?) other times he isn't and just makes the defenders around him look foolish and gets a shot off anyway - what's not to love(ish).
Maybe I just hate him because he has the second-worst hair in MLS and that gawd-awful goal celebration - but you know what, for me to hate you because of your goal celebration, I guess that means you score a decent enough amount of goals

I do not think Simms is the guy to play behind a DeRo, but I do think that's exactly who Benny will play there. I hope we can move Kitchen up there after a little while, or the new guy - I think both Kitchen and him are too small for CB, but put the older, more "solid" body back there for now, which I think is McDonald based on what I have seen and read.

So we lost a guy yesterday who is probably going to play in MLS his whole career and be pretty good at it, and picked up two guys who want to be out of MLS already. McDonald stayed the extra year cheap so he could go to Europe on a free transfer and can't wait to go, DeRo went and trialed in the UK without permission he wanted to leave MKS so bad.
So I am not so sure Benny (or Dave) see these as long-term moves at all, but just to help us out this year. I don't have problem with that if it means they are trying now to find some replacements for 2012

DeRo may want to stay 2 or 3 if he likes the team, maybe his issue was solely with Toronto's stellar management, not really with MLS, I don't know. Maybe with both he and Boskovic next year, that makes us dynamic enough to swap them out and keep them both fresh and every other team guessing what we're gonna be throwing at them.

It sure as hell gives us all something to talk about and wonder about over the summer

 

I must have the answer to the question this poses.

 

Beckerman.

 

you know he doesn't have the corn rolls anymore, right? I'm assuming that is what you are referring to?

Agreed on the goal celebration but I will tolerate it if he's scoring goals for DCU.

 

Not Lenhart?

 

thought i'd chip in my two cents as a someone who watched dero for two seasons:

there's a duplicity when you have dero on the pitch, on one hand you're getting yourself a proven goalscorer, but on the other you've got a player who holds the ball too long and shoots when he should be passing. you've got a veteran on the field who can serve as a role model for the youth and put asses in seats, but he's also got a season or two in him tops.

he may have a chip on his shoulder, but the man busts his ass every game and rarely packs it in. if you want experience and goals, you have it in dero; there's no mistake about that. for the next few seasons you've seriously won out on the deal.


i'll piss off back to my teams board now

 

I may be talking myself back into this trade.

My first gut-level reaction was "Wow!" I've always like DeRosario, both for his ability to change a game, and for his pizzazz. There have been some times this season where NY has played some damn fine football with DeRo running the point (Armchair Analyst on the league's website points out his numbers this year pro-rate to 6 goals and 12 assists, which isn't quite Best XI material but is a helluva 'plug-in' to an attack whose one real problem was lack of punch in the middle). (NYRB may well ultimately get better, but it's pending their next move with the cap space, because in the short run they don't get better and do get less interesting to watch.) And if DeRo was 29 and satisfied with his salary, this would be the steal of the century.

But, of course, he isn't. And this is how I started talking myself out of it. He's 33, on max cap, and unsatisfied with that. He apparently (I don't know) decided to play for Canada against the coach's wishes, which at that age might serve to grind him down a bit.

But it wasn't expectations for the rest of the season, it's that thing about the future. If DC keeps DeRo beyond this year, it's pretty much a guarantee that at some point in the not-too-distant future, we're going to deal with a guy who takes up a huge chunk of cap and isn't anywhere near deserving of it on the field. I've seen him enough to know that won't be this year, but I've been around long enough and seen enough declines to know it's gonna happen. Managing to unload him before it hits that point is a trick DC has notably failed to pull off in the past.

And it's not like this is a title team even with DeRo, unless more moves are coming. (Certainly the team needs, even after the McDonald trade, which looks good to me, a defensive anchor. I suspect it also needs more depth.)

In that sense, the deal is weird on both sides. DC, the non-contender, is making a clear play for the right now, and NY, who is a contender and given their history arguably should be playing for the right now, instead seems to be making the long play. You would think eking out a playoff birth wouldn't be worth the pain the odds are we'll catch in a year or two for it.

But, this is a franchise in the balance to one extent or another. I believe the upper management was anxious to prove this year that they're still relevant in the DC market. I think that's some part of the plan to keep the team here.

Hiring Olsen, a name people already knew, liked, respected, ticks a small box in that regard. The obviously increased marketing campaign that initially focused on Olsen and Najar ticks another one. Bringing in Charlie Davies was another.

I think they thought McCarty and his feistiness would bring a little of that too (ie not just performance but also some personality), but it went wrong on the field, so the move is for another player with performance + personality--and this time add a third p, pizzazz.

In that context, 'eking out a playoff spot', and adding a major dose of watchability to a team that was already a lot more watchable than last year, doesn't look like so minor an accomplishment. More like a chance to re-build the franchise's standing in the market after the last couple of years.

Plus, there's always the chance that we've got a move or two left in us, and a chance that whatever they are they all gel perfectly and we end up with some kind of magic. A distinct long-shot chance, I think, but when you have some unpredictable players, not a zero-shot chance.

 

No. Beckerman by a mile imo. He did that on purpose. Lenhart is just bad genes. Please don't tell me that's a curly perm.

asitis

 

Agreed. DeRo is in the last year of his contract and he was/is pissed at both MLS and Toronto that non-producers like Julian de Guzman are getting DP money and he isn't. Plain and simple.

Next year you'll have to pay him DP money, guaranteed. Else he's off to find one last payday in Europe. Also, if we are able to buy Charlie Davies, that's another DP slot. And if we keep Boskovic, that's a third DP salary on the books because I'm sure he can go back to Europe and get paid as well. Does Chang have that kind of cash? We don't even have a full roster this season so my guess is no.

I anticipate that this is just a move for this year. To get the team to the playoffs. We've played the least amount of games and are only one point behind Houston with 2 games in hand. Next year's prospects look worse, however, with the possibility that we'll have to replace all these MF-F guys. Plus we churned about half the roster from last season already. Silver lining is that we are (hopefully) going to have a full-blooded defense for the next three or four seasons and by finding the parts to fit around Najar that's how we'll rebuild for the future.

Thx,

Jay!

 

Now that I digest this move...holy schnikes is this gonna open up space for Pontius and Najar.

Defensively you HAVE to provide cover for anybody on DeRo, which means you're either going with 3 on Davies and Wolff (leaving a lot of room for our wingers to run in to) or you are gonna be 1 on 1 on the wings (and how many 1 v. 1 battles are Pontius and Najar not going to win)?

Of course this should mean a lot less pressure on our defense, especially at home, and our ability to hold/extend a lead should get a lot better assuming late in the game we take off an attacker for a player like King/McDonald to add a 2nd d-mid whose instructions will be simply "when you get the ball, find DeRo" and we know DeRo can play that killer pass to a streaking Davies, Pontius, or Najar.

 

Ding! Ding! Ding!

well, that's also an interesting choice. I hate that ********er. But really because he's a jackass and not a very good soccer player who runs over people and manages to score goals regardless of his talent. And I hate that.
But the hair I have to admit reminds me of a happy time in my adolescence .....

 

haha too funny. I actually said I couldn't believe we let the Greatest American Hero score a hat trick on us after that game.

 

Two of DeRo's three goals this season are PK's. I'm assuming Charlie is first crack if he's on the pitch. Pontius took our other two so DeRo might become #2 on the list if CD9 is out.

Anyone know if DeRo's had the requisite sports hernia surgery? Hate to see him miss out on the DCU freebie. Also, since he is foreign, that usually rates the dental package upgrade as well.

Thx,

Jay!

 

No. Since he is Canadian his dental is covered. DC United is also going to use his Canadian health care to cover the bill for his hernia surgery.

 

I couldn't find a great pic of this apocalyptically bad haircut.

 

This one has gone through my head, too.

 

Interesting, according to the stats )) DeRo is a better scorer and assister, is more dangerous - but is actually a worse passer of the ball than Dax - which if these boards are to believed )) means he must be the worst passer of all time

 

I have this real mental block about De Rosario in a United uniform. I'll get over it, but it's weird.

The more I think about it, the more I believe this move is entirely about this year and making a playoffs push. De Rosario was available for the year, and available basically on the cheap. When the DCU brain-trust came around to the realization that Dax was never going to work out, they made the trade. Nothing to lose. If De Rosario sticks around next year at an affordable salary, all the better. But that consideration is neither here nor there right now. This wasn't about building the team long term. This was about right now.

Evaluating this move is totally cut and dry: either we make the playoffs, or we don't. With De Rosario we should. Without him: 50/50.