...would Nelsen still be on this team? Ray seems to have a rather quick draw when it comes to evaluating young players. I don't know if any of the trades made this year were particularly egregious, and there were different reasons behind all of them, but Talley, Armstrong, Zadie, Lisi, and Perez are all contributing to their new teams. We can certainly live without all these players but at the same time when you give a young guy like Nelsen a year to develop you can sometimes be rewarded. Namoff seems likely to be gone next. Obviously Ray's job is to win now, but giving serious minutes to McKinley, Williams, and Lazo every game seems questionable. At least give the young guys a game or two to prove they don't belong. On the other hand, he seems to like Chino. Ray seems to coach as if he thinks we have a reserve team where the young players can get lots of minutes and you only bring them into the first team once they are definitely better than the veteran they're replacing.
I still think either Armstrong or Nelsen would have been traded for the simple reason that we had to trade an SI when we traded Armstrong- we were up against a deadline there. The other possibility would have been to get rid of Etcheverry and it's hard to say what Ray would have thought of Etch after last year. But here's the thinking behing trading Armstrong as far as I can tell: When we traded Armstrong, we still had a starting left wing in Convey, and there was hope that Olsen would be back for the beginning of this season. Then a week later we used our first draft pick on another left winger in Mapp. It was reasonable to think at that point that we had left wing- both wings- covered even knowing that Armstrong had talent. Armstrong also makes more than Nelsen- a consideration given our cap situation back then- and our #1 need was defense, so getting Prideaux for Armstrong is still a good trade for us: a win-win trade for both teams really. Both teams gave up value to get value. As for the other players: Ziadie has been much like he was with us. Haven't you noticed that the metros defense is like a sieve and that they win games now by outscoring the opposition? Speaking of the metros and their usually good offense, Lisi has been only a marginal player in said offense. So, no, Ziadie and Lisi haven't blossomed since being traded. Talley? Not sure why we traded Talley right now unless it was due to cap problems (very possible). But Talley has been the player for KC that he was for us: a decent defender on the level of Cullen or Dunseth say. Just too bad we couldn't get more. The whole Perez situation is bizarre to me. Don't know why Ray wouldn't play him at left back. Bradley in Chicago excels with defenders like him. I'd also say that the small Naperville field would accentuate the abilities of players like Perez. For instance, crosses on that field don't have to go as far making them easier.
Talley could not cover a bed with a blanket when he was here. Take a look at the goals scored against us last year. In most cases the man who scored was being guarded by Talley prior to the goal. Perez was traded because we could we something for him, be it only a 2nd round pick but it was something.
I'd put Talley's defensive troubles last year at Rongen's feet as our former coach sure couldn't organize a defense to save his life. Talley was only example 4 in this theory, the first three examples being Pope, Llamosa, and Agoos all of whom played and now play again defense better than they did under Rongen. Probably Judah Cooks can play decent defense too.