I must say, I became excited with the prospect of Gazza. Not because I thought he was the silver bullet that would catapult us to contention again, but because I thought he might add a spark to the team, he could contribute, and he would be interesting. I'm so depressed right now because we suck, we've wasted so much time chasing Daglish and Gazza, and the guys that have made this franchise great in the past are either over the hill or injured. I guess I can just try to enjoy watching Ben's come back...
Yeah man you've pretty much summed up my feelings exactly, now for a third straight summer of propping up the MLS league table...
Part of what Gazza would have brought to the table would not have been on the pitch. I'm not talking about leadership or teaching skills, but good old competitive reputation. With Gazza there, Etch knows he must play a complete game, and that includes defense. He must not get a red card because he will always be compared to Gazza if he does. He cannot hold the ball forever, because he looks like he's trying to freeze out Gazza. So it brings the best out of Etch just having Gazza around. Moreno realizes this, and must start getting results on othe offensive end. He cannot remain injured because there is this fit 35 year old former drunkard that is bubbling up the team, filling the stands and bringing results. Everyone is on their best behavior, totally motivated to be fit and train well. Gazza's biggest impact from playing the last 8 games would be that our stars would take the offseason seriously. If they had done that in the past, we wouldn't be in last place today. Oh well. It's probably for the best. -Tron
DT, I agree. And, I don't believe we're bringing a striker to the table that has those qualities. Although, and I'm really reaching here, a striker that can really start banging out goals can motivate the Team and bring back that confidence. That being said, there aren't alot of prolific goal scorers, who don't need Visas, sitting on the bench somewhere. The intangibles Gazza would have brought would have been so valuable on a team that doesn't have the confidence to win a game on the road. Does Dante bring that to the table? I don't think so.
Hope we don't finish bottom of the table Hope we don't finish the season scoreless. Yeah, I still have hope.
Now that the Gazza deal is dead because our problems are at forward, Ray is on the spot to bring in someone who will score some goals and bring more to the team than Gazza would have, if we believe all of his glowing comments about Gazza's remaning skills and desire. Dangling all of these tryout players in front of the fans all sesason, indicating all their promise and then sending them away or being afraid to pull the trigger is getting old. He needs to make a decision and live with it or just say we are staying with the players we have for the rest of what remains of the season.
That right there is the key... Now all we have to look forward to is the draft and I swear... if they totally blow a bunch of high picks on either people who can't get work permits or on any 14 year old other than Freddy Adu... Enough of this crap at the draft.. Either draft one of the best college players out there... or the rights to Earnie Stewart if they come up; but don't make anymore obscure picks... I'll say it, If Ray and Dave blow this draft and there aren't two players that come out of it who can play on this team then they should be fired. In the US, drafting is a major component of being involved with player personnel. Remember one of the reasons Charlie Casserly was let go was his H. Shuler, Desmond Howard, and Michael Westbrook triumverate of bad high picks.
I've seen this sort of comment in a couple of places. It strikes me as rather odd. The coaches and management take a look at prospective players not so as to entertain us, but because they want to evaluate the options. We may look on and comment and second-guess, but they're not doing it for our benefit or for some purpose of titilating the fans; they're doing it because they want to knwo whether it would be worth looking at a new player. What, if someone good comes along, they should pass up the opportunity to improve the team out of some misguided belief that "you leave the dance with the person you came with"? That's one of the reasons I *like* Ray; he has a very professional sensibility about team management. Nowhere that I know of outside the US and the odd SEM controls of MLS do I know of teams who think they have to lock down their roster at the beginning of the year. Yes, you try to use the clsoe seson to get the best roster you can to start off the next season, but any manager worht his salt will keep looking to improve his side throughout the year. That's a mixed metaphor worthy of Ray! Marco is a big boy. He needs to do that work himself, or in cooepration with the coaches. We can't afford to go signing league-max salary players as backups and as inducements to players to do their job. We just don't have the cash to do that. We need to employ our resources wisely, on players who will enhance the team. If Marco requires a foil (and a gold-plated, jewel-studded foil at that) to play to his potential, *he's* a liabiltiy we can't afford. Marco has always struggled between letting his passion drive and inspire him and letting his temper run away with him and take him out of the game. He needs whatever help he can get from the team with that, but signing an aging star with off-field issues to a cap-breaking salary just so as to provide him with in-house competition is beyond our resources.
There's one pretty sure fire pick for next year's draft if he decides to sign with the league. Center Back/Left Back Alex Yi...and he's been training with United. Hmmmm.
I think Marco is great. His work rate is second to none on the team. His commitment cannot be questioned. If only the other players on the team exhibited his drive, determination and passion. The high number of cards are as much to do with the appalling officiating as his bad temper. The league is refereed much too softly, Reyes himself commented on how he has to temper his tackling since coming here. The soft refereeing plays into the hands of the play actors (and we have our fair share). I did not see Gazza as a threat to Marco, more to Bobby. In the long term I think Bobby would have benefited from having both Gazza and Marco to learn from. I think Marco could have been (or is) one of the best players in the world. Comparing him with David Beckham. The differences between Marco and Beckham are that Marco can also beat people with the ball at his feet, he has just not had the opportunity to play on as big a team.
It seems Ray is always complaining that the salary cap situation makes it difficult to make the positive changes needed… If Gazza was to be paid the max next year (and I think I read yesterday he was) it seems like Ray’s options would again be limited as to what he can do
Well said. And I totally agree with your take on the refereeing in the MLS. You only have to look as far as Ruiz to see how players like him benefit from the style of refereeing involved. It's true that Moreno has been hacked to death over the years, but most of those "non-called" fouls were from behind after he blew past his defender. Good hard clean tackles are penalized in this league and defenders like Reyes suffer for it. As far as Marco's concerned, it's been a personal honor for me to have met him and watched him play here and in Bolivia. One of the greatest soccer thrills of my life is when he scored against Brazil in La Paz to beat them in a World Cup qualifier. Brazil had never been beaten in a cup qualifier, and the emotion and atmosphere in that stadium that afternoon will be with me for the rest of my life.
There..... is.................... Another................ Sky....................... Walker..................................................
You must be kidding!! This guy,Ech, is the playmaker of DCU team, the last team in the league for the last three years!!!....... May be you are right about drive but, he lost all the necessary means to be a playmaker.He is overweight,has no effort capacity left; if, he runs 30 yards he has to rest 5 min.(while he is walking on the field).Any soccer professional can tell you he is out of shape for more than one year.Drive is not enough,one need physical training to be able to run the whole game. About Beckham analogy,this is the best joke I have come across in a long time !!!!!... IMHO, at this time, Ech,cannot qualify to play in the English second division; when showing the tapes of the last two years games(MLS) .May be the third division. Why do you think there is all this talk about retiring in Bolivia ?? Because his agent told him he has no value on the market, except for the stupid MLS managers.No professional leaque will spend time talking to his agent about that kind of money. I bet, he will accept a 2/3 cut in salary in order to survive as a professional player another year.Although,I do not think he is worth the money. As long as we have him hanging around, we lose the salary of two or three decent midfielders. Remember the last home game ,he was not able to execute a decent corner kick the whole game!!