Did you know that..... Diablo does not plan to retire? After Acosta (Bolivian National team coach) called him, he supposedly felt an excitment he hasn't felt in a few years. His plan is to be ready for that next phone call. He claims if he doesn't play in DC, then he's going to be in Saudi Arabia. BLAH BLAH BLAH, same old story from here. I don't want to see him in a Bolivian Jersey, and I would like to see him retire from soccer before his body totally gives up on him. The man has too much fight in him. My cousin showed me the site, but I can't find it now.
Have no fear -- there will most definitely be a testimonial match, even if it's two years from now. At the very least there will be one like Harkesy's. I hope there is a (non-playing) space for Marco somewhere in the organization. GM como nuestro diablo, hay que poner el alma.
Same here. I'm not really a Marco-basher, but I think we all hope that this is his last season as a player. I hate seeing a legend go out this way.
This guy can't play soccer anymore. Can't pass, does not run, cannot do anything useful apart calling the linesman and refs "hijo da *#*#*#*#" ( son of a whore). Somebody should tell him to go. he has become an embarrassment and a liability ( expensive one too). Make him an offer he can't refuse... like saying hasta la vista marco. You're history.
Actually, I want him back next year. I don't want him taking up a huge salary, but he hasn't been taking one for a while anyway. My suggestion is to fire Hudson, make Hristo player/head coach, and have Etch as an assistant coach/player. AQ
That would be such a cluster fvck. I say keep Hristo as a player/assit coach, he is great in that final 30 minutes of a game. Etch either needs to redidicate himself to fitness and drop 15-20 pounds in the off season, or move to the bench as an assitant coach full time.
He's still at max salary and with non-salary cap bonuses (or whatever they call them) the total salary is rumored to be about $400,000.
It's too bad so many fans aren't as loyal to Etch as Etch is to the team. Oh well. Is he past his prime? Of course he is. But there is no reason to continue to bash him the way people on this board do.
Marco made over $100K ABOVE the MLS max this season. He held up the Metros trade (Pope-Petke, etc.) by refusing to sign a contract he'd agreed to earlier to bargain for more money b/c he said he'd already taken enough cuts and wouldn't take any more. Cutting his salary by a third would still put him at or near MLS max. Assistant coach money still means that at least half (and I think it's more actually) of the salary counts on the cap. The precedent was set by Robert Warzycha--the Columbus player-coach a couple of years ago. The deal with Stoichkov is he's rich and can play for a pittance. I also wouldn't be surprised (haven't seen it in print anywhere) where the league guaranteed him money so getting SOMEONE to take him this year and pay some of his salary was better than paying him max to collect dust. This is somewhat similar to the Adin Brown situation last year where he was guaranteed money by the league and was passed over in the dispersal draft--so the league said "make an offer" and NE paid less for him than the league had to pay out for his salary (ie: he didn't count on their cap the true salary he earned). Wouldn't be surprised if that was also true with Stoichkov.
dont worry guys he will most likely leave the team after this season to go play somewhere else then all the marco bashers will have nothing left to say anymore but until then give the man some respect
I have no idea what you're getting at... I was simply saying that the often alleged scourge of this team put in a Herculean effort last night playing 100+ --Sure, he wasn't the man of the match, he wasnt even necessarily the second or third best player out there, but he was there and the team DID get a solid result under enormous pressure. I only wnat to see a little respect. No one has to kiss his ring...(Even if he does have three nice ones...)
Before they retire I want to see Marco and Hristo on the field at the same time when DC gets a free kick 23 yards from goal perfectly placed for a left-footed shot. Staring contest? Rock, paper, scissors? Duel to the death? But to keep this on topic, we owe Etch a ton of respect, but we do not owe it to him to keep him around at max salary considering his output (franly, same for Earnie, but that's a different thread). It'll be interesting to see how it plays out this winter, and it will certainly keep this board lively and our individual post counts high. What else can we ask?
time to go etch doesn't have it. stoich still does and plays his a*s off. DC should be using the salary money more productively.
I don't know what, if anything, it means but Marca (roughly Spain's equivalent to the Sporting News) has a headline on their website saying Marco's been called up again by Bolivia. Right now it's just a headline and not a link so I don't know if it has any real significance. Bolivia has a World Cup qualifier in Argentina a week after the Chicago series would end. And then another game away (I think) to Venezuela a few days later. Obviously it would conflict with the Eastern Conference championship if we did happen to get that far. Kinda weird. www.marca.com
Okay, here's more from a Bolivian website. It's in Spanish of course: http://www.facetasdeportivastv.com/leer.php?id=8905 The article says Marco is happy to be called up and hopes to make the trip for the qualifiers, even though it would conflict with the Eastern Conf. championship, if DC did get that far. Etch is quoted as saying, "I'm going to go because I want to and I have the desire to be with the national team." The article then says, without a quote, that if there is a scheduling conflict between MLS and WCQ's Etch would ask to play for Bolivia. Maybe there was more to that trip to Bolivia last week than bringing back a son... ;(
Well, if your the coach of a National team, and a player that once dominated the league u once coached in (Chilean League early 90's),now has more points and goals then every one in his current team, I'm sure u, and anyone else in the right mind would make that phone call. Statistically, Diablo is a good call for the national team. If they had seen the way he has played this year, I'm sure the phone call would had never been made.
Eventually every dog needs put down. Some of you guys sound like you would rather see the old boy suffer. This is professional sport, you don't keep players around for what they did five years ago. If you started screwing up at work you think your boss will let it slide becuase you were a top company performer five years ago? I love Etcheverry for what he did for us. But like I said every dog has its day.
Did any of the Marco bashers watch the game in Columbus? We could not hold the ball for two passes. Anyone who doubts the value of Marco does not understand what he does. They say ignorant stuff like he slows down the game. They want the ball passed to players without any hope of a shot or a run to the wing for a cross. Almost all of Marco's passes give the player on the other end some opportunity. When he makes a less than great pass everyone wants to bash him. This season I saw one game in all the games we played that we did well without Marco. I believe that was the game in NJ where Stewart played in the middle. For the rest of the games this season we could not keep possesion without Marco. That's what I saw, and I was actually at the games, unlike a good deal of the Marco bashers. Noticed I used bashers instead of haters, and this took alot of restraint.