---Hudson, Trask and Kasper on their way to ACC semifinals tonight, final on Sunday in Carolina. ---Hudson and Payne have had several meetings about Ray's future and plan to discuss things further next week. One of the key subjects discussed was the day-to-day training situation. As I mentioned in an online chat last week, RFK auxiliary is the most likely answer, with DCU taking over maintenance, etc.
Don't local rec teams play there? If that happens, will it stop? Also, nice of Hudson to get scouting religion when we don't have draft picks. Sachin
Re: Re: dcu updates It turns out he's only going because of the free buffet in the VIP section. Not having picks doesn't mean that several trades can't be made for picks between now and draft day, so Ray should be down at the tournament so he can see who's going to be riding the pine next year. Not necessarily. As long as he is currently the coach, it is his job to scout players, regardless of what gets decided in the next few weeks. However, if he is not in attendance, it's pretty much a sign that he will not be back.
Makes it sound like he's not gone. Why would Kevin go with Ray and John if he had decided their future? For all we know, Kevin could be there to find out Ray's thought process on the future. That could be part of the decision. If Ray went without the guy deciding his future, I'd say he was in. If he didn't go at all, I'd say he was out. The fact that they are still talking tells me it's still up in the air.
If nothing else if Ray stays he and Payne and Kaspar have got to start seeing eye to eye. As much as I'd rather see a new coach it seems obvious that Ray was hampered by the lack of communication in management- similar to how the team played on the field. Hmm....a pattern there... fire Ray now.
Do really think they will fire Ray? My guess is the job is his unless he decides to leave due to health/personal reasons.
Re: Re: dcu updates You guys make me laugh. Thanks for the update, Steve. As someone who rallied long and hard last year when Ray blew off scouting the ACCs, and was the only head coach besides Sigi not there, it is good to see that they are there. Unfortunately, by missing Wednesday's games, presumably, they missed out on seeing some good players from North Carolina, Clemson and, to a lesser degree, Duke. And, seeing a player twice is better than seeing him once. Oh well, it's progress, so I suppose I shouldn't quibble.
If I were a player, I'd think long and hard about being drafted by Ray Hudson. Sure, it's nice to be drafted into any MLS team, but Ray hasn't shown any ability or willingness to work with young players.
First, Steve--thanks for the update. Second, I have a radically different take from everyone else on this. Remember--last year Hudson spent most of the offseason overseas. He's said this team has a lot of holes (and realistically, while I value college talent, it's stupid of us to assume even if we had our top 2 picks that we're going to find our target-finisher as a rookie from college or our holding mid. Please don't cite me Ralph and Clark--they had other guys to play alongside and were in special situations.) Don't get me wrong, I think there is talent to be had and guys who could contribute to DCU in 2004. So scouting makes sense. But let's don't assume we're going to get two guys to fill key holes (positions that we holes going into 2003 I might add) with college draftees--that would be unfair to the draftees and unrealistic. No, I see Ray going scouting BECAUSE isn't future with DCU isn't resolved. If it was absolutely clear that he was out, he wouldn't be going. But if everything was resolved and the talks were just to iron out details, I think he'd be jetting overseas to catch league play inseason. That's his MO. And Trask and Kasper and Vanole and Burke would scout the college matches. But instead, he's still an employee and "could" be back next year but doesn't have a contract for 2004 or confirmation so him going to see the ACC semis is like treading water. It's the sort of thing you do when you're still employeed but you don't know if you will be in the future. So you do work but you don't take on the really big project you were planning to take on until things get resolved one way or the other. That's my take on this. PLUS, with the 3 of them going down together, it's a way to continue the discussions.
Re: Re: dcu updates There used to be a league that rented the fields from RFK, I don't know if they still do.
Re: Re: Re: Re: dcu updates Unfortunately the nest would not get a buzz with the amount of beer we could get for him!
Good point about the veteran talent, but he could have gone at any time, and he chose the wrong time to go. As for the rest of it, while I have the utmost respect for your opinion Joe, I categorically disagree. Who have been the best SI imports in the last two years? Assuming that we're really looking for special attacking talent that we cannot get from Americans--let alone rookie Americans--it should stand to reason that they're dominant. I certainly agree that Ruiz is dominant, and while he was a little earlier, I'd say Spencer was a good addition as well. But when you look at it, Twellman has been just as good as Ruiz. Noonan has been about as good as Spencer. Damani Ralph has as well. And that's not even considering the 20 year old Mike Magee who skipped college and gathered rust, or the 18 year old Eddie Gaven who came straight from high school. Either of those guys would have been our highest scoring forward. As for Dmids ... I think you're way off base on Ricardo Clark, as he's a dynamite talent right now and is playing exactly like many of us expected him to play. I think this played out precisely as many of us said it would, and those who continually downplay the draft just refuse to recognize the facts. While the draft is NOT an exact science, it has proven to be an extremely good avenue to get quality talent, even attacking talent. MLS isn't the same as it was in 1996, the quality has improved significantly, but also, the level of the US Youth Teams and general level of collegiate soccer has improved as well. I'd argue that ignoring the draft is tanamount to a baseball team ignoring pitching. It may or may not be the most important part, but it is unrealistic to expect to succeed overall without it. I think Sandon and others are right. Hudson has done a horrible job with young players. He had the resources to get a great Dmid (top pick in the draft, that myelf, JAnderson14 and a few others were pleading for), and if anyone should have known Noonan's talent (and I undervalued him) it should have been Trask, a former Indiana Assistant Coach. Call it lack of research, lack of skill in identifying talent, lack of ability to develop the talent, poor management, or apathy, but don't discount it, because the MLS draft is arguably as important today as the draft is in the NFL. -Digital
As it was we still got a decent d-mid in the draft. Of course, Ray thinks he's some sort of winger and not a good one at that....
And then there are those who refuse to recognize facts that don't fit their little model--like Hudson trying desperately to package something to trade to New York to get that second pick so that they could pick up Clark ALSO. Right up to the time that New York used the pick on him. Maybe Chicago did indeed have superior scouting, and picked exactly the right players to carry them to the first treble in history. But I tend to think they had a pretty decent core of players there already. You fit some guys in, you have a little weird happenstance with Faria, you get hot at the right time, and bingo! You're a genius. That doesn't mean Hudson is an idiot, it means Sarachan and Wilt are pretty damn good at what they do--something we pretty much knew already. People need to get that into their heads somehow. In the meantime, it's a good idea for Hudson to get a good look at the available players. Maybe there's something worth dealing for, and maybe there isn't. But it's always worth the effort of looking. And at least they seem to be talking a bit more this year. That shows the ability to learn--something that's highly underrated on this board.
Thanks for the update Mr. Goff. I thought Ray would be in Florida all winter. Looks like he will be staying for next season, which is ok by me.
D-tron, let me clarify my position. B/c I'm not saying that college talent (which is what is being scouted in the ACC playoffs) isn't worth a darn or can't contribute. I'm also not undervaluing Ricardo Clark. Yes, you did say you'd prefer he be the first pick. I said Eskandarian--but also argued that Clark was pretty darn close. My argument on the college talent boils down to this: there are good players out there every year. But what this team needs isn't a role player or someone who will grow into the position over the next couple of years (b/c that could be Carroll or Quaranta or Eskandarian). We need a strong finisher with a bit of a target ability (strong in the air, some distribution ability). That kind of player we could then slot a younger forward next to. The finisher would draw the attention/marking that would allow the younger guy to get more opportunities, more space, less pressure to perform. Likewise at D-mid, on a team with a couple of guys in the middle of the pitch (Etcheverry and where Stoichkov sometimes fell back to) where there wasn't a lot of speed or defense, plus a backline without speed and no exemplary technical ability (other than Ivanov--who has other limitations), we want to put a rookie? Clark had a great rookie year and will only get better. I think he'll eventually supplant Armas and Mastroeni and get ahead of Mulrooney at D-mid for the USMNT. But he benefited tremendously this year from: either starting out on the wing or being in a D-mid tandem (so he didn't have a lot of pressure), had a coach who develops youth superbly (fitting into roles they can succeed at--Bradley's use of Gaven illustrates this to a "T"), had a veteran next to him (which for all we and Metro fans lambast Richie Williams, if you were going to be a D-mid in this league, he'd be a good guy to have on your team to learn from and the example he'd set in practice and game preparation). As for the strikers, Ralph and Noonan have had great years (and I ridiculed the selection of Noonan by NE--hah!). We would have benefited from having either on this team--perhaps. My point is not to minimize their accomplishments. And totally separate from Hudson's use of youth, I think both would have gotten lost in the shuffle on the front-line. The original point of my post (and probably not very clear) is: that Hudson is going to the ACC finals doesn't mean he's been hired for next year. I take that to mean its a "treading water" situation. B/c if he'd been promised an extension for 2004, I think he'd have gone to Europe. He's going to the ACC finals b/c (a) he and Trask still need to resolve stuff so this is still an opportunity to talk; and (b) he hasn't been told he's hired for next year (so it would be foolish or he wouldn't get approval to go to Europe to scout) but since he's still an employee it would be foolish to stay in his condo or go to Florida when the rest of the staff goes to see ACC soccer.
Does Sarachan want to come back to the DC Metropolitan area? (ala Bradley wanting to return to New Jersey)
That is the sad part, Hudson does not have enough faith in the American soccer player (that is basically what it amounts to).