Kries will be first MLSer to score 100 goals I know. Y'all are up there in Dallas, bubbling over with excitement, leaving work early to pack the Cotton Bowl and see our boys dry up the Rapids. While I'm here in Austin, looking over the MLS Cup Media Guide, and noticing that Jason is just 21 goals away from being the first MLSer to crack the Century for goals. He's been averaging about 11 goals per season. So it probably won't happen next year, but in '04, he should get it. He's getting up there, so it may take until '05. 'Bout the only players that could nip him are Razov and Cerritos. Wouldn't that be fun? A competition between who can get the century first between two players starting for the Burn? Someone in the Burn office needs to note this for future consideration.
Yea, well he needs to earn his salary after the all-star game if he wants to be known as an MLS great.
No kidding. I'm really wondering if it's time for the Burn and Kreis to part ways. Don't get me wrong, I like Kreis and I could never imagine the Dallas Burn without him. But after seven years, patterns start becoming very apparent. And the pattern is that Kreis has been outstanding in April and May, but nowhere to be found come August, September, and October. And since I know that Hitman is going to mention it, I know that Kreis has been struggling with injury. And perhaps that's a good reason for his utter lack of effectiveness late since August. But is it that way every single year? And if nagging minor injuries are really affecting his play, how about taking a couple of weeks off in July to get healthy for the stretch run and the playoffs? Like I said, I like Kreis. But it's an indisputable fact that whenever this team has done anything in the playoffs, it's because someone else has really taken up slack in scoring. In 1999, it was almost singlehandedly Graziani. In 1997, it was Dante Washington and Damian. Maybe the Burn doesn't need to get rid of Kreis. But it's pretty clear that they need to get a "big game" player to be The Man late in the season and in the playoffs. Someone like Carlos Ruiz, who singlehandedly won Los Angeles the Western Division and Supporters' Shield with two gamewinning goals against San Jose and who responded to the pressure of Game 3 tonight by scoring two goals and setting up another. It's pretty apparent that Jason Kreis isn't The Man when it comes to the big games late in the season and in the playoffs.
It would be a very tough thing to part company with Kreis. But if they do it, now is the time. A year or two down the line and we will not get nearly as much in return. That said - I say we keep Kreis and find him a partner that will complement him. For whatever reason Graziani did not work with Kreis and Graziani / Landon does (did) work. That "big game player to be The Man late in the season and in the playoffs" is not on our roster right now - Lord knows where he is going to come from either.
Kries will be first MLSer to score 100 goals Kreis will be the first MLooSer of the team, lack of respect to his teamates, he was playing injured the whole season and he called himself a "professional"? I like the Burn but there is not "team" in texas, what you have is a bunch of friends playing for MLS, ask Mike Jeffries or JK or Chat how was golf?
Agreed. Even with his drop in production late in the season, he still finished near the top of the league in scoring. That's gotta be worth something to somebody. Here's the problem: Those guys don't tend to come cheap, unless they come from nowhere, like Twellman. (And now that I think about it, even Twellman is probably pulling down the high five figures.) And with Kreis earning league maximum, whoever partners with him has to be cheap. Look at Chicago. Razov earns league max, but until now that was OK, because Wolff didn't earn that much money. But right before the World Cup, Wolff signed a new deal that's going to be paying him league maximum. The next thing you know, the Josh Wolff trade rumors start flying. Reason: If you've got Nowak earning maximum and Stoitchkov earning maximum and Razov earning maximum and Wolff earning maximum, something's gotta break somewhere. Now let's bring it back to Dallas. When we had Graziani here, we had two guys up front eating up major salary cap room. That more or less hamstrung us in improving the rest of the team. When Graziani was traded for a cheaper Cerritos, it was at that point that we were able to upgrade the back line. Bottom line: As long as Kreis is earning what he's earning, we're either going to have to find a "big game" striker out of nowhere who won't earn much money or we're going to have to replace Kreis with a "big game" striker who does earn a decent amount of money. Well, I'm shocked that no one has brought it up yet, but I'm willing to entertain the notion that EJ might be that striker, but for whatever reason hasn't meshed with the team yet. But I'm not confident in that. I can think of one guy off the top of my head. He's currently at odds with his team's management and he's getting a lot of stick right about his attitude problems. However, he's shown a tendency to rise to the occasion and come up big in the big games. Two words, my friends: Clint Mathis. (Mind you, getting him from the Metros would cost probably cost us more than we'd want to pay.)
Actually, we could pull that trade. What could they want that Burn cannot give up? Name any player on the roster that isn't worth Mathis. And besides, they don't want a high salary player anyway, that is why they'd dump Mathis. Don't renew one guy, maybe two, and there's cap room. They've got plenty of draft picks to sell.
Maybe we need to bring in yet another forward in the draft if there are any decent prospects. I was hoping for a midfield prospect with some size for once, but maybe we just need to declare full-scale war for starts at the forward position. I remember the 3rd or 4th game this season. I don't remember who it was against. Kreis may not have scored yet in the season or one at the most, and he was BENCHED at 60 minutes in favor of another forward, maybe Johnson before his injury. The next game was when the Kreis early season juggernaut began. Maybe he needs this kind of competitive pressure. I'm in no way questioning his desire to win, just saying that maybe he could use a little time off from having to be "the man" all the time. I tend to think that Kreis's weaknesses can be lived with. Our offensive tactics, on the other hand...
Since Mathis is not signed beyond 2003 and has made it quite clear he wants out ol MLS, I think he might be had for cheaper than you think. And yes, I have a man-crush on him. Do you realize, if we had avoided the shutout in Denver and scored just ONE goal there, we would be on our way to LA? I think we have two deficiencies on this team: finishing and finding a backup for Pareja. As for finishing, is the solution on our team already? EJ? Ceritos? Do we need to go outside? And secondly, this team goes nowhere without Pareja. We have to develope a usable backup, 'cause this team is just disfunctional without him. I think Oscar has several good years left in him, but injuries are going to be on ongoing concern at his age.
Nah. Vaca will walk right into the playmaker role, and Stone will work side by side with Chad, or whoever is in Chad's place by then. Bussey, Gbandi, who knows maybe Behnke. I agree Oscar's injury troubles will only grow. He has not been healthy a whole season yet that I remember, and at our age, he's not likely to see one anymore. You've hit on something that will be something the Burn will be working on for the next couple of years...weaning themselves off of Oscar. If Joselito bulks up a little and Stone has a good off season, it may take a season.
yes he's great with the ball, he just gets the ball taken from him too much. He's like the small kid on the youth teams, has great heart, but is too small and too slow to save himself.
I think the Burn need to do several things: A) Find a striker to partner up with Kries like Bergkamp/Witord/Kanu with Henry at Arsenal. People are saying that can cost $$$, but I doubt it. If the Burn look and scout hard enough, they can find that player. I hate using European teams as examples, but Arsenal picked up three low budget talent in Cygan, Gilberto Silvia, and Toure. Now imagine if they Burn could do just that. Face it, Rhine seemed to give up on chasing the ball. B) Find an attacking mdfielder. That KILLED Dallas. It seemed like every time the ball was passed around the midfield area, it got passed back to the defense. ATTACK DAMN IT!!! C) Quit passing it to the MF and push it up! Why? See above. D) MLS changes some rules such as number of internationals and a bigger budget to the Burn can fill their needs and maybe grab a few Africans from Nigeria, Sengal, or South Africa to name a few. That would help out items A&B.
My thinking was that we would have to find a forward out of nowhere - like Ruiz or Twellman. I think EJ is at least 2 years away from developing a healthy and mature enough attitude to carry this team. Not sure if Jefferies can unearth one of those guys. I think trading Vaca now is way too early - the kid has skills and a great attitude and he is still getting better. Another scary need we will have to fill is an eventual replacement for Oscar. Vaca is not it - yet. But what we will have (that the Metros need) - is 5 competent defenders. Now - I am accepting Gbandi's talent sight unseen - but I was very pleased with the back 4 we had this year. Maybe a Bonseu or Broome or Gbandi to NY would get us Mathis in return. I say we keep Morrow and Suarez.
You said it. Too small and too slow. Oscar's faster than Vaca. Some might argue that Vaca can make quick cuts and distribute, given time, like Oscar; but the truth is is that he's too small. Even Oscar used to get hacked regularly, and only when he started getting 'feisty' did he get the respect that he deserves. I doubt anyone would give little joselito any respect at Oscar's position. He can't bulk up cause he'll be even slower. And, without speed; he'll be relegated to playing on tiny fields like San Jose. Trade him and move Broome up where he belongs. Bring in another 'stay-at-home' defender.
I think the main problem with Vaca is not his size but rather, his grit. Pareja's not a big man either, but he's probably one of the biggest fighters on the team. He doesn't take anything from any opposing midfielders and he's not afraid to get stuck in. He'll fight to win balls and hold onto the ball. And because of that, he's indispensible. Vaca has the skills but he doesn't have the grit yet. I'm saying "yet," because Pareja wasn't always the way he is now. In '98 and '99, he was a bit more easily neutralized than he is now. I think that Vaca can develop into that sort of player with experience. He's not there yet, but he can be. He's already showing more willingness to get stuck and to fight. Look at how many more fouls and bookings he's picked up this year than last year, and even that's been with his playing on the wing. And the times that he came into the middle when Pareja went out, he was a bit more effective than he was last year.
Go to MLSNET.com and vote for Jason on the goal of the year. I hate that almost two of the goals to be voted on are on goals scored against the Burn. At least we made the other team work for it. I saw Santino's, and it was amazing. How Ariel made his, I'll never know.