quote: One of them, however, could be made available by U.S. Coach Bruce Arena for the Chicago game. please let it be Convey!! please please please...
Wow, bombshell article. It sounds as though DC United is looking to add an impact forward. I just hope he really does make a positive impact. If they're any good, I think we'll have to trade someone away to make cap room for the forward. Any speculation on who that might be? If it's a defender it's not going to be Petke, we just traded for him and he's our organizer along the back line, not to mention he's a scoring threat and playing great defense thus far. Likewise, it's not going to be Nelsen for similar reasons. It would be highly surprising if it were Ivanov, because not speaking English I think he'll stay with Stoichkov, who isn't going anywhere. Plus, he's been injured and hasn't really showed all that well to get value back, and he's an SI. Reyes maybe, but I think he's too good and too well liked by the fans to give up. So, if it's a defender, the only ones with trade value are Prideaux and Stokes. In midfield it could be Olsen or Kovalenko, but I doubt Trask lets his only Inidiana connection go, and I just cannot imagine DC United letting Bennie go. Convey and Santino are untouchable, and Etch is untradable. None of the other midfielders would clear enough cap space. Up top only Stewart fits the bill. -Digital
Zack quote ... (snipped) "We still think we've got a quality team," Zack said. "I don't want to make excuses, but we have been snakebit and had some decisions go against us." ********* HELL!!!!! United has not, well, sucked for the last 3.233 seasons because of bad luck!!!! I'm so sick of hearing this crap. The entire organization has to get rid of this whole "Woe is Us, Why Does the Cloud Hang Over Us" garbage. Why not find players who can take the game into their own hands and get the job done. (i.e.; clone Convey 20 times). Good work Steve. Ed !!LANRUOJ EHT ERIF
"Hudson was hired in early 2002 but has only nine wins in 35 matches (9-17-9) and a 1-13-4 record on the road. " Utterly damning. I'll give the DC front office one thing, at least they're consistent. In standing behind losing coaches, that is.
I hope no one gets there hopes up for this: "Ryan Nelsen, the club's top defender, will return from a one-game suspension."
We have now heard the dreaded "vote of confidence"... Hudson is blowing smoke again... 1 player away... blar blar blar. Here's hoping the striker they bring in is Bruce Arena, that would solve our problems. What chances are our forwards blowing? The non-existent ones produced from lazy long balls? Taylor Twellman isn't going to get on the end of those either.
"We're not thinking about a coaching change," Stephen Zack, the club's senior vice president and general manager, said in a telephone interview. "We're totally focused on improving this team." My question is, what has Zack seen in the first part of this statement that makes him think that the second part is possible? I mean, theoretically, a coaching change would improve the team and the reason the team needs to improve is because of the things done by the coaching staff whose employment is in question. That said, nicely done by Mr. Goff to get Zack on the record. BTW, if there were to be a coaching change, does Zack have the authority to pull the trigger? Also, it was interesting about Ray's contract and how it ends after this season unless the club picks up an option for next year.
Does anyone else wonder if the legacy that Kevin Payne left - he named Kasper and Hudson and formed the new technical director position - is what has created the problem? Hudson inherited Kasper, and vice versa. I have no reason to believe this is the case, but each can blame the other for the team failures. Where does the accountability rest? We have landed buttkiss by way of new players, despite numerous visitors in for trials. We took Earnie Stewart with our allocation when we clearly needed a target forward, which he is not. While a few of our players have improved, such as Nelsen (ok that's really the only one I can think of) far more are stuck in neutral or have not "developed" as much as they've regressed - see Etch, Olsen, possibly Rimando. Our defense is average. Although season ticket sales are up, overall attendence is a push at best, possibly down.
garbaggio, the NY Times piece cited by Knace in the prematch thread also notes that Nelsen will return. Hopefully we'll get Convey for this one. Anyone else tired of the balloons floated on the issue of getting an "impact (or similar termed)" forward?
By the end of the week will be a couple of days closer to finishing this season in last place and drafting Freddie Adu for next year. He is our impact forward.
This is an organization that has shown that despite planes overhead , signs around the stadium and the rantings of the "internet nuts" (guilty ) they will stick with a coahing staff through a full season. Now after the 10 game barometer that I have set for this team if they are not up to my standards I will begin calling for the removal of the coaching staff. I however do not expect a midseason change. I will however have 20 games in order to make my feelings known. Now lets look at these quotes from the article. "We still think we've got a quality team," Zack said. "I don't want to make excuses, but we have been snakebit and had some decisions go against us. What we're missing is scoring goals. We need a pure striker like Taylor Twellman [of New England] or Carlos Ruiz [of Los Angeles]." Now Stephen, on many occasions has professed not to be a soccer man, he is clearly able to see what this teams needs are. As Lowecifer has pointed out Twellman nor do I think Ruiz would fit the role this team needs, Stephen is right about the need for a finisher though. D.C. technical director Dave Kasper, who oversees player personnel moves, said the club should be closer to acquiring a forward by the end of the week. He wouldn't specify the possible players, but did say "a couple are in this country and a couple are from overseas." Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. This endless rabble of trials have produced what for United the last 2 years? Q2 and......................................................... It is always the same excuses "We could not come to a $$$ that fit into what we were looking to spend" or "he is a good player and a great kid but just does not fit into what we need". Frankly the players are not the only ones who "choke in front of the net" around this side. Hudson said he is interested in two young Argentine forwards and a Nigerian forward based in Europe. "We're very, very close" to turning things around, Hudson said. "We need one or two pieces to put us over the edge. We need a ruthless game-changer and we're working around the clock to get one." Here we go again. He is enamored with some young foriegn kid but the kids is always A) too imature B) cost too much C) requires a SI slot that the team does not have. Sicne we all know that Americans are not capable of putting balls in the net (sorry Mr. Mc Bride, Mr. Twellman and Mr. Kries you don't count) we have to get that magical foriegn striker who will play for $30,000 a year and score 35 goals. The rest just are not good enough. We won't have to draft him. Based on his age and his mothers wishes United might actually win a weighted draft for him or whatever system MLS wants to use to ensure his family gets what they want, Freddie playing near home for United. For those doubters of that please note that he has already turned down AC Milan so MLS will do what it needs to sign him and then be able to market and then sell him overseas when he is ready. ($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$) for a league that needs $.
Sorry... I respecfully disagree... If DCU suffers a loss this weekend, I'll bet Zack gives Hudson his "Walking Papers" immediately.... Hudson's record is not good, and his choice of Hristo as Assistant Coach was a classic goofball idea: Prediction ~ Hudson gone Sunday night if DCU cannot win! IntheNet
First, let's please stop talking about drafting Freddy. While I think he'll turn pro sometime next year, I doubt he'll be available for the Superdraft. His advisor/Post implied that once he's 15 (june of 2004) he might look to sign with MLS. Besides, I have a major problem seeing a 14 year old as an impact player at this point. Maradona and Cruyff weren't impact players at 14. Second, the story here isn't the "vote of confidence" for Hudson. Yes, people are upset with him. But the team (demonstrated by SZ's occassional posts) know how strong the BS presence is, have surely read the sentiments. I bet they felt a statement of some kind was in order. In any case, while you can look at it as 2 seasons of failure, it's really 1 season with a team that was mostly inherited (and not too much he could do with--though I think we can all agree that a good coach can make something out of nothing) and 10 games with his own players. Third, the real story (at least I think so) is the one that D-tron pointed out: acquisition of a striker. That is the really big news--everything else ain't news but spin of some sort. --Two Argies and a Nigerian. That means Petrov is off the list (he was willing to sign for cheap this year but would have been big money next year). --I'd guess that they are TI's. Or, there would be an SI slot issue. No word on Stoichkov's green card. One option would be to remove him as a player (freeing up that salary room, an SI slot and a roster slot). Though I doubt that would happen. --Could any of them be loans? Think of the Metro situation with Galvan and Fachetti. They are loans from Boca to Metro and TI's to-boot! Metro were in worse shape cap-wise than us so the players are probably getting so-so salary (I'm guessing on that point) b/c they can get playing time here in the states to win them starting jobs with Boca (which then wins them a big-money transfer to Europe). I'd thought that MLS didn't approve loans (well, other than the Donovan situation). Evidently Bradley got around this by arranging 2-year loans for this pair (don't know why that should matter but evidently it does). --Also, Kevin Payne had originally chimed in on this by saying (and I paraphrase): DCU has the players it needs to win (implying he wasn't going to sign-off on major personnel changes such as acquiring new players) and that the pressure is on Hudson. So it seems like there may have some change of heart (in terms of player acquisitions?). --Hudson mentions 3 players outside MLS, Kasper mentions "a couple are inside this country" which probably puts Dante in the mix. Notice he didn't say "in the league" which leads me to believe we could be looking at an A-leaguer or even someone the league owns that is being loaned outside of MLS (Graziani?). Absent more details, this is just speculation on my part. As Dtron pointed out, we would have to clear cap room. Don't see Stokes as much help there--he might be trade bait but he clears no cap space for us. Quintanilla or Reyes possibly. But if we were talking a max salary kind of player, there aren't many options there. An allocation was used on Stewart. I'm guessing here, but if we dealt him, I'm thinking that doesn't mean we get to keep the $75K or $125 of cap space we gained from the allocation. I thought you designated a player on the roster that you applied the allocation to, not that you could move players in and out of the allocation slot. Just b/c we have a logjam at forward, I'd have to think that at least 1 forward would be gone because out of the existing lot, we can't give them enough PT. If we add one more (who is supposed to start as a finisher) than you're looking at 3-5 guys splitting minutes at 1 position--now that's a prescription for unhappiness!
He'll be more of an impact player than Zambrano, Lassitter, and Diaz Arce. I think those are the last 3 in season strikers that have been brought in to turn around United. I'll stop talking about drafting him when he is in our uniform.
How many TI's are there in the league? According to the MLS website only 20 TI's league wide are allowed and they don't need to be evenly distributed between the teams. I quote: "For the 2003 season, MLS will allow up to 20 league-wide places for young international players, who need not be distributed equally among all MLS teams. These youth international players will be considered Transitional Internationals." Don't know if this might affect who we can pick up. Zack is great guy but I take his comment about no coaching change with a big grain of salt since he won't make that decision. More than likely Payne will and I'm not sure how much more losing his blood pressure can take. Ray is blowing smoke as usually with his were only 1 or 2 players away crap. He's been playing this tune for a while and it's strated to sound like the muzak version of "Feelings". Freddy to DC!! (Just for you JoeW)
The Solution Bench Etcheverry. Then fire Hudson. I wouldn't be upset if they traded Quaranta either, though I suppose that would be hard to do, saying he's 18 and still lives at home.
hmmm... so it's kind of a win-win situation this weekend, right? either we actually win a game, or, more likely, ray moves back to florida. although onalfo is still the only guy I'd really be interested in. but that's changing. what kills me is the "we'd be better if we had twellman or ruiz'" sentiment. regardless of how either would fit with united, this is a moronic thing to say. a real nadir of whining from an all-stars of whining staff. hey, if we had buffon, we'd have better goaltending. if we had davids, we'd have a stronger midfield. SO WHAT!? how about 'if we still had bruce arena (or bradley or sarachan), we'd be a better team'? there's WAY too much talent here, regardless of being 'snakebit' and missing the mythical 'target forward,' not to have any wins by this point. I'm tired of hearing the coaches telling the press what's missing from the team. what effect does that have on the players we have? and why do they continue to come out flat in 'must-win' games? I think ray's lost this team. there. I've convinced myself. the heck with waiting 10 games (what for? so we can be 1-4-5, at best?). take trask and pookie or whatever his name is and head back to the beach. I'd even take dir at this point, if Onalfo isn't available (I assume he wouldn't be).
Honestly, what do people expect an article to say? Have you ever seen management say "Coach knows he better win at least 3 in a row, with style, or he'll be handed a one way ticket"? Obviously, Hudson knows his job is on the line. Nothing short of a championship will save his job at this point, so I would consider it an act of mercy if he gets fired soon. But as I've said before, a new coach isn't going to save this team, IMHO. The entire structure of the team is awful. We have a mix of faded veterans, mediocre, awful or unproven younger talent, and two legit players in Convey and Nelsen. And I'd say one or both, my bet is Nelsen, is gone next year. It can be debated ad nauseum whose fault that lineup is, but it isn't going to change radically. Unless the rumored striker is Del Piero, this team is sunk. I'd say it's sunk for 2 years minimum as not only will Marco be gone next year, for good or bad, but Olsen has lost it and Stewart hasn't found it yet. Subtract Nelsen or Convey, and there are huge holes everywhere. Bottom line, we suck now, we have sucked for 4 years, and we will suck for a while into the future. Personally, I'd rather suck w/ a young team on the field gaining experience, so here's to the hope of a lineup featuring Convey in the middle, w/ Tino, Esky, Curtis and Q2 at some point in the future.
The reason I wrote that Nelsen's coming back from suspension won't mean much is that I expect him to be unavailable since he's a key part of the Kiwi squad playing us (USMNT) in Richmond Sunday. So I don't expect him to see him in a DC United uniform on Saturday. Or during the Confederations Cup. I'm all for Freddy Adu coming to DC and I expect he will. But anyone expecting a 15-year-old to turn the team around is a bit deluded, I think. It'll be great to see the beginning of his professional career but he'll still be in the early developmental stages. It'll be sad if we get rid of Earnie to clear salary cap. That would be an open and embarassing admission that the team (and to a lesser extent, the league) made a really bad personnel decision. But if we are ponying up any real money for a quality forward it seems we would have to get rid of either Etch, Olsen, Petke or Earnie. Any other big money players? My suspicion is we're gonna cut loose some lesser player(s?) and sign Dante for a relatively modest sum. Can't Ray Hudson do a Google search or something for the striker who can score more than 30 goals a season and play for a little bit of American money and Punkin's left-over dog food? How difficult can it be?
DC will not fire Hudson for 1 reason: They don't want to have to pay for 2 coaches at once. Hudson is guaranteed money through the rest of the year. DC isn't going to fire him and then have to pay him and his replacement at the same time. Its the same reason Rongen wasn't fired before his contract ran out. Its a money thang, plain and simple.