The thing is though, Rolfe had a history of playing well earlier in his career. It's not a question of this guy being past his peak -- he's never had a peak. He's barely had a career. I understand that we needed some more depth because of recent injuries. But you're going to have a hard time convincing me that there wasn't someone out there somewhere that someone else, at some point, thought was a good player.
In the abstract you're right Bootsy. Hell, I could make a credible argument that Freddy Adu has better credentials than this guy. The point is, for better or worse, DCU doesn't have universal knowledge of free agents who "might" be better. They knew about this guy, he was a competent player at Juniors once and a Spanish team paid transfer money to get him. He knows his career is in the balance, he signed for a low salary (assuming less than 100K pro-rated), so there isn't much risk. If he's better than Farfan -- and he may well be -- then this is a net positive. He probably won't be a game-changer, but I don't think anyone expects that. He's simply an out of contract guy you can pick up in May outside of the transfer windows.
Both Rolfe and Opare were "known quantities" within MLS for years. They weren't random guys who hadn't made a MLS roster. [EDIT] @Bootsy Collins beat me to it.
He'll either be Fred 1, or that one guy I can't remember his name... Or that other one from Ell Salvador.... Or was that Panama...? Or the other one, what's his name............
Christian Castillo, Marcos Sanchez, and ? My hope is that he's a slightly better Donnet. The FO dropped the ball on that one.
They were "known" but extremely undervalued by allegedly astute (Yallop and Arena) evaluators of talent. I'm not saying this guy will be great, but he probably isn't as bad as some folks fear. Remember that Chilean guy -- Hernandez I think. He stunk here, all left foot, saw him walk around a ball in the box to strike it with his favored foot. New surroundings and he succeeded.
Nothing against Facundo. I know nothing about him. It's not like we won't cheer for him and give him a chance. Obviously there are plenty of examples of players blossoming in a new environment. For me the issue is the Philadelphia and Orlando games gave me flashbacks of the Olsen offense playing without a striker. It's painful to watch. Our defense is much better now and Kitchen and Arnaud are more capable going forward than the empty bucket of years past so we can probably win games with Rolfe and Pontius and Silva taking turns scoring with Arrieta chipping in once in awhile. EJ was no doubt a bust and Espindola gets pulled wide quite often but it was so nice seeing a starting lineup last year with two goalscorers. We knew we would miss Espindola to start the season and it was evident before the season started that something was wrong with EJ and our solution was a depth player in Arrieta (who has more or less given us what we hoped). We get gifted salary relief for EJ and so far it appears we have no plans to use it to actually replace EJ. Depth is great. Versatile players are great. But I want a striker on the field so I can at least deceive myself every game into hoping for something more than 1-0 on a counterattack.
Neither of these things have happened and/or not happened yet. I hate to have to defend this FO, they've done enough to merit criticism for things they actually have done (or not), I'll wait to see how reality shakes out before I add this to the list. As far as I know, we have not been given EJ's roster spot OR salary back; and as far as we know, DCU is in negotiations with a replacement who will be the biggest star forward striker the likes of MLS has ever seen (okay that's unlikely imo, but as potentially true as what you say )
Only in the sense of his total output - he played up top, stretched defenses and kept defenders honest. Aside from Espindola no defense out there fears us. If Party Boy can get his speed back (and it looks like that might happen) and based on our obvious lack of an offensive threat not named Rolfe - I think he goes up top. James
The team may be setting aside a decent chunk of cap space to give Kitchen a new deal. However, there should be enough cap space left to do more than that, given all the allocation money from trades and CCL...after the EJ thing is straightened out.
Yes I think Goff posted something this week about using some of the EJ money on retaining Hamid and Kitchen. Sounds like a good excuse not to actually spend it if you ask me. We've heard that before. It's important to keep them both, but there should be something else in the pipe as well.
Doesn't have to be foreign...I heard Josh Gatt is walking again. He's fresh, hasn't played a game in two years, prone to major injuries...a perfect fit for DC.
Agreed, things can still work out. The optimist side says wait until the summer transfer window, assess the team's record and overall health, and bring in a DP replacement at a pro-rated cost. The pessimist side says this is another in a long line of cheap, foreign players who will get trumpeted for their "potential" and then rarely if ever see the field or contribute anything. Both sides still have to sit through ugly soccer until something gets resolved.
Totally. I used the word "bust" just because that seems to be the general consensus. I was looking forward to having EJ back this year. Every time a Taylor Kemp cross gets whipped into the box and no one's there I sigh.
But the stadium in 2017, errr, 2018, uhhh 2019 will be the answer to ALL of our dreams. Sunshine and rainbows and Neymar are JUST around the corner. Neymar III maybe.
UPDATE: Facundo Coria has received his ITC and is eligible to play this weekend for #DCU against @NERevolution— D.C. United (@dcunited) May 22, 2015
Just because he's eligible doesn't mean he'll travel. And just because he travels doesn't mean he'll play.
Just because he plays doesn't mean he should. Just because he shouldn't, doesn't mean he won't. Just because he does, doesn't mean we'll re-sign him. Just because we don't re-sign him, doesn't mean he won't score 12 in Mexico next year. Just thought I'd finish the logic.