Okay, enough negativity. The awful season is over. Let's move on. Here's what I'd like to see for 2003. 1)Balboa & Addo should join Ramos at the retirement home. 2) Klinger & Alvarez must be released. 3) Diallo must go, but not for the usual "he's a bad guy." He must go because he's just too one dimensional. If he's not scoring, he's not contributing. AND he doesn't get back "on sides" fast enough. 4) Davis & Akwari must start all the time, no questions asked. 5) Petke must never play central defense ever again. 6) We need a world class defender to organize the back. My man is either Numan (Hup Holland ) as an SI or Berhalter as our "you're awful" allocation. 7) We need a right mid who can cross the ball desperately. We either go the SI route or, more unusually, move Mathis there as (a) is a decent crosser & (b) seems to have no inclination to be a striker anymore. He seemed petrified to take on defenders all season. Maybe we can bring in Earnie Stewart. 8) "promote" OZ to "Director of player development" so he is free to find the next Faria. Hire a new coach, either Ralph Perez, Dave Dir or Shep Messing (I don't know why, but I had a dream a few months ago that Shep coahed the Metros to the championship. I know he's probably not qualified but I keep getting this wierd feeling that he's the right guy for the job. Maybe I'm nuts). 9) Reach out to the NY-area fans more. Life exists on this side of the GWB. 10) Draft Eskandarian. A good player who seems born to be a Metro. 11) All tickets sold in 2003 should be for the lower level. That would get people out of the mezzanie & help create a somewhat better atmopsphere at the Swamp. 12) Sign a "name". Not that it will increase the fan base that greatly, but it will unite the fans in their dislike of one player. By late this season, I was beginning to miss Lothar for this reason. 13) Ideally, my 2003 line -up is: GK) Howard D) Petke, Berhalter (or Numan) , Akwari, Jolley DM) Moore LM) Davis RM) Stewart AM) Williams FWD) Mathis & Faria Moore plays with heart & saywhat you like baout Faria, he always gioves 110% AND was our top scorer despite his missed chances. Man, I hope next year is better.
I like some of your ideas, but ideally, we should be a counterattacking team, all good teams are able to create a loss of possession and advance the ball from the back. As much as we malign Lothar, he did add this dimension in 2000. With that being said, I still think that Petke, in spite of his play improving, holds a fair amount of trade value and could help us add another pick in the draft. I see nothing from Ziadie that makes me want to keep him either, so throw him in with the trade fodder also. Since every one seems so intent on keeping Mathis, fine, do so. We'll use our You Suck Allocation on Tyson Nunez who will add a real spark to the team. Use the Ramos allocation on Frankie Hejduk, bring him home from Switzerland and put him in at right back. His speed and overall pace will be a welcome addition to the backline as he leads counterattacks and overlaps up the flank. Jolley and Akwari play middle, and our trade for Henry Gutierrez pays dividends as he adds some possession and ball skills to the left flank. Good solid defensive unit right there. Jorge Rodriguez is out of favor in Dallas and has a green card plus is always a nice draw for the El Salvadorian crowd in the area and would add some fight to the defensive midfield. After some manuvering, we use our #2 pick on John Thornington who adds another dimension on the right wing and Davis holds down the left side with Williams in the middle. Mathis and Nunez up top. Make a couple smaller deals, add Chacon to the bench (can play central mid or up top) and I even think that RDA would be another nice addition to have, especially if Williams gets his green card. By moving Diallo and Faria, we can add some more depth, maybe a little speed off the bench and some future picks.
The only mezzanine sections open next season will be sections 210-212. They're the Platinum seats right in front of the party box or whatever it's called nowadays. The one Balboa was always coming out of after the game to go downstairs.
I think I'll go with the suburban Jersey altar boy look if I can actually find some one here in Manhattan who knows how to set me up with it.
I seem to recall hearing Stewart say during the World Cup that he was interested in "coming home" to MLS after his current contract in Holland was up. I believe that's after this season, though I could be wrong.
You're right but he wants to play somewhere warm like LA or Dallas. Berhalter moving to the swamp may very well be possible though.
Re: Re: Looking ahead It is. I was there last May and it was 93. The one time I was there in August, uggh. You could smell your hair melting. Also, I have heard that Stewart wants to come back to MLS, but now that he has Bergkamp disease, does he really want to be in a league that might move to 40 games, 20 of which he'll have to fly for? Maybe he's over it. As for the player moves, I'd love to see half of what has been proposed above happen, but I doubt we are getting many if any of the guys like Numan, Nunez, or Hejduk. Maybe someone like Moore comes back to MLS, but they'd have to be retiring or desparate. I don't see Hejduk as either, and at that we'd get friggin Regis with our luck. Of the players I'd like to see gone: Lisi Alvarez Klinger Chrono Addo (if he isn't playing, why pay him) Balboa (ditto) Forko Krupnik (if you can consider him here) Paule Diallo Pick up: 2 quality central defenders to move Petke and Jolley out wide 1 good D-mid to move Moore to the bench 1 O mid to replace Tab 1 right wing to replace the hole our 4-4-2 played with this year. Whether it's a kid or a veteran, we need someone there who doesn't suck. 1 striker as a backup for Faria-Mathis Then fill out the bench with kids. I would rather see 10 players under 23 with potential than the 8 old farts we seem to collect that aren't good and aren't getting better. Do that and move Merlin Villagomez (conditioning coach) into Clint's basement (or send him to Frankfurt) and I think we'll be a better team in 03. Whatever they do, I think we've officially spent enough years trying to "win now". Hasn't worked too well for the Rangers either, and it is sucking for Metro. My one fear is that Nick sees Mathis as a someone departing next year and tries to build a quick fix team around him to win in 03. I don't care about winning MLS cup in 03, just play well for the majority of 28 games. Be a team that is on it's way up, rather than a bunch of has beens and never will bes looking to get lucky.
I've been thinking it over. I can't say I'm enamored with this appraoch but I have a gut feeling this is waht's gonna happen: 1) DC needs a forward with Moreno & Quaranta always hurt. Etch won't fit in when Ray-Ray drags gazza back for one more boozy visit. So, Diallo & a lower draft pick for Etch & their #1, whichj we use on Eskandarian. 2) Berhalter joins Metro as the "you s-ck" allocation. 3) If Williams gets his green card, metros sign Costacurta (yeah, yeah, I know but Nick seems to love him) Line -up: GK: Howard d) Petke Akwari Berhalter Jolley DM) Costacurta LM) Davis RM) Williams AM) Etcheverry Forwards: Mathis & Faria I don'y know, for some reason, this is how I see it shaking out. It's "win now" (i.e. Costacurta, Etc) with an eye towards the future (Davis & Akwari).