I love Doug Warren. I'm not about to come out and say that he's going to carry us to MLS Cup but he did look good last night. Sunday will tell us a lot about this guy. Let's give some credit though to Hudson/Trask for getting this guy a lot of playing time in the US Open Cup and against Blackburn. Warren is about as prepared as any rookie keeper can be considering the situation. His distribution looked a little shaky last night when he booted that one ball straight out of bounds.
Warren DC is a better team with Doug in goal. He is now the keeper there and I don't expect to see him lose the job anytime in the near future.
I was going to mention this. He was pretty cocky at first, but had the p!$$ taken out him quickly. He recovered quite nicely though. He's the backup on the U-23 team (behind Countess) as well. I believe that unless he gets Tom Presthaus Disease, he'll be the #1 by 2005. Sachin
Every goalie lets in a soft goal once in a while. Rimando benefits from a good defense but he is also very solid, in my opinion. He has great reactions on shots from close in and makes good decisions as far as when to come out, when to punch, when to challenge and so on. His weakness appears to be hard, high drives from outside the box. One of those, against the Salvadoran National team, might have been saved if he didn't have a cut hand. Still, I've seen him a lot and I would consider him very steady. I think one reason he has been characterized as "unsteady" is that he's smaller than the average keeper these days. The trend is to have huge goalies, it seems. Examples: Adin Brown, Zach Thornton. Adin Brown could also be criticized, probably more so than Rimando (at least from what I've seen). He makes phenomenal stops routinely--and occasionally, even often, lets in one that he shouldn't. I've never seen Thornton do anything outstanding, but he is at least predictably solid. The guy in Dallas (Countess?) makes GREAT saves every week but he has lots of practice, as the defense seems to disappear on a regular basis, perhaps from a sense of futility. Warren looked very good on Thursday. Honestly, he handled things about how I imagine Rimando would have, minus the handing out of a bit of punishment to the opposing players on punch-outs.
I laughed my tail off when I saw that. It was like Clark ran into a brick wall. What made it funnier is Clark had all the momentum and still lost.
Luck has nothing to do with it. Warren was drafted by DC with an appropriately high pick in order to assure his presence at DC. The same management that drafted him has taken unbelievable heat from this forum for their choices. Maybe someday, Esky will find his way, Caroll and Stokesy will muscle up, and it will be very obvious that DC had an excellent 2003 draft. Don't forget that Caroll is a very young player who is at least a year or two away from the decision about whether to keep him (assuming that he makes a pro effort in practice). Stokesy would probably be playing now except that he has to beat out BP, Ivananov, and Namoff for the privilege of playing time. Stokesy is going to make DC dominant in the air, one of these days. I met Warren at the pre-season Gordon Biersch party. He had to inroduce himself but I had a brief chat with him. The guy seems pretty mature and his handshake revealed that he has very strong (and large, for his frame) hands -- all the better to make those tips and control rebounds. Nice lookin' gal on his arm, too! GM
No self-respecting Clemson guy is going to let himself get run over by a Furman guy! If Warren hadn't gotten the best of Clark, Mark Lisi probably would have given it to him no end after the game.
In Sunday's tie/loss, Warren looked strong during play, but at least twice defending set plays, including the last, there was much confusion. Couldn't tell if the wall wasn't listening to him, or if he wasn't giving clear direction. Either way, that needs to be solved quick before the next game.
The ref kept backing up the wall as well. That makes it hard for everyone to get on the same page. Sachin
I think I can explain this, at least I can for myself (and I feel exactly the same way). It's because Warren has an economy of motion -- he doesn't move a muscle more than he needs to move in order to make the play. Rimando is a decent keeper (although I don't think he's better than that), but he flies around with a whole mess of wasted movement, leaping and flinging sometimes when just taking a step would do. Warren just looks so CONTROLLED in comparison.
Re: Re: Doug Warren [R] Or it could be that Rimando plays with a style similar to Jorge Campos and that's enough to make anyone nervous. Isn't Nicky part Mexican? If that's true and Warren continues to show well down the stretch, the next time we see Nicky may be as the #1 for San Diego Chivas. Sachin
GM- I don't think you know what heat is if you call the criticism on this board "unbelievable". For instance I have said management made good choices and I have said that several times..... Warren was very good Sunday. For those at the game, take a look at his save on Mathis' free kick- excellent kick and even better save!
Rimando is of both Mexican and Filipino herritage. http://www.barnburners.com/news/01/mls/0505.html Scroll down to the ninth article from the above link, a transcript of a 2001 Miami-Herald article on Rimando. Here's the relevant quote from the article written by the esteemed. Michelle Kaufman (Barry). Rimando, of Mexican-Filipino descent, is extremely close with his mother (Rosie), father (Marcus) and brother (Marcus Jr.). He wears a rose tattoo on his chest in honor of his mother. Given his herritage and that he is tight with his family back in SoCal, and that San Diego Chivas wants as many quality Latino US citizens on the team as possible, I don't think it's a reach to think that Nicky could end up in San Diego next year, especially if Warren's MLS performances so far are indicative of his quality. I don't know when Rimando's contract is up but when it is, he's gonna be due a nice raise and even now, he makes more than Warren, who you have to figure is at or near the league minimum. From a bang-for-buck perspective, keeping Warren over Rimando certainly makes economic sense and if we can get Chivas to give us a player or picks for Nicky, even better.
Re: Re: Doug Warren [R] Yes, but you're not the only person who comments on this board. I would agree with GM that some of the criticism of the drafting (and trading) that the current leadership has done has been pretty unbelievable.
I saw Doug play for the Kickers a few times during the summer. Showed very well each time, and I have full confidence in him with DC. However, there's an almost scary trend I'm noticing with Doug in the nets. A look at his 3 results with Richmond: vs. Atlanta 2-0 vs. Charlotte 1-1 (goal allowed in the third minute of second half stoppage) at Rochester 2-2 (goal allowed in second half stoppage) And we all know what happened yesterday. Hopefully it is all just a bizarre coincidence. On the flip side though, he's yet to lose a professional game, so that's a good thing.