Off Season Acquisitions?

No DJ!

 

I think they need a big time defender to take Morrow's place. This may be the worst defense of all time and they need a shut down defender. A great midfield destroyer would be another good aquisition or maybe only on e of those two is what's needed. If Toni is not coming back then a big time finisher would be nice. Maybe a left winger if a 3-5-2 is desirable. Davis is more of an interior player and I'm not sure Gbandi can play that spot. O'Brien would be fine on the right. Possibly that great creative attacking mid if the new coach doesn't think Davis, Vaca or Pareja can do the job. If the Burn are able to get Nunez with their first pick then they might be ok, but even then a 18-19 year old rookie might need a little seasoning.

 

If Ali is starting next season, I'm going to be pretty disappointed.

He's works hard, but he plays forward and he simply doesn't produce at a consistent enough level. He's strong and really fast, so I think he would be great as a sub, but he's really not good enough to start for a decent MLS team. Plus, you've basically got three positions you can play him at: LM, RM, and FW; Davis and O'Brien are locks for 1 and 2, Johnson should be a lock for one forward spot, and if we're going to jettison Kreis (which I'm not in favor of), we need to find someone better than Ali Curtis to replace him.

Toni's pretty much the same; it wouldn't bother me if he was on the team next year, if we can't find a better player, but I certainly wouldn't call him a no-brainer.

 

Injuries and the field turf have spoken - relative to trends in developing chemistry.

Just when Curtis/EJ/Nhleko started gelling, Toni gets hurt and Rhine goes back on the field.

If you asked every coach in the league if you though Rhine would play well with EJ and Curtis, you'd probably get a simple 'no' out of every one of them.

Toni just seems to 'fit' in that lineup.

I do, however, believe that Dunseth will hurt this team if he's on it next season. Thomas may learn to deal with EZ's constant pushing, and therefore, stranding him; but I think that another, quick, experienced defender that man-marks well, is in order.

 

If Nunez is in the draft, the Burn MUST take him. The only reason I can see him coming into the draft is due to the fact that the Burn hasve the top choice.

If Nunez decides to take his chances next year, then Buzz has mentioned a big time central defender coming out of Stanford. Seems like the Burn drafted a fellow like that a couple years back. Big guy by the name of Lee Morrison.

 

DJ
EJ
Davis
ROB
Dunseth
Urbas
Curtis
Toni
Gbandi
Sayler
Thomas
Stone
Morrow-as asst. coach

to return. Draft Nunez if he comes out early. Maybe wave a first round draft pick in front of someone and see if they bit. If they bit, we might be able to get a solid player out of the deal.

Maybe the mls should get rid of the Si rule so the Burn can raid Europe for a few loan deals.

 

Yes. But Lee was slow of foot and soccer mind.

Chad Marshall is a wonderful athlete and leader of the youth National teams. A vastly better player than Morrison.

check his bio...
http://gostanford.ocsn.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/marshall_chad00.html

 

This is what I'd like the Burn to do, if possible:

1. Gbandi plays next season as a midfielder. Central d-mid or left mid.

2. EJ plays next season as a right mid.

They both need game time, but in positions where they're either less likely to hurt the team (Gbandi) or where there's not so much pressure on them to produce (EJ).

3. Vaca traded, in order of preference: a) with a draft pick to Chicago for Bocanegra (not too likely, I expect), b) to DC, for Petke (they'll want a replacement for Etch), include Behncke, if that'll seal the deal, c) to LA, with Dunseth, if necessary, for Califf.

4. Trade Kreis to New England for any three of the following: Franchino, Pierce, Cullen, a conditional draft pick.

5. Trade Deering and Rhine to Colorado for Carrieri.

alansl

 

while you're at it... why not send andy rosenbrand and a box of paper clips in a swap deal for maldini, kaka and shevchenko

you don't really expect these teams to go for those deals, do you?... ok, well maybe LA

 

Re: Are we watching the same Defenders?

I completely disagree.

Dunseth has been known to be a bad man-marker, and that will force a young, impressionable Thomas to try and cover his man, therefore, leaving HIS man free. And while EZ is a better man-marker than Dunseth, Ezra constantly strands the middle defenders with countless pushes.

Plain and simple, if another good man-marker is brought in to compliment Thomas, Shavar will become one of the premier backs in this league (he already rules in the air). While Behncke showed promise in that position, I'm not convinced he can be consistent there.

I haven't seen any signs of the maturity it takes to properly play a wingback position from Gbandi. True, poor chemistry may be at fault with the tandem of Davis and the need for the left-mid communication with the left-back, but I don't feel as though Gbandi has a strong understanding and the ability to anticipate wide attackers looking to burn him 1v1. That's why, like Broome, I believe that Gbandi's future is at midfield. I too, would like to see Chris on the left side of a midfield with Davis in the middle. The 4-3-3 that we've seen from the Burn has impressed, but it all starts with strong, smart defendera that know how to man-mark and keep wide attackers from beating them to the inside.

 

The link to Marshall says he's a sophmore. So whether he comes out or not is yet to be determined. Right?

Even so, my attitude about him is the same as Gbandi. Gbandi was a gift to American soccer when he came out...and now he's lucky to get playing time. yes he was injured, but he was hardly conducive to victory in his playing time this year.

So a six foot four defender with lots of international experience sounds great. But I have totally soured on college players. Between Rhine, Broome, Suarez, and Gbandi, I don't have any faith that college players have much to offer.

I am a lot more hopeful that some foreign discovery players can bring this team back to life.

 

This will be a very exciting offseason in terms of personnel decisions. The Burn have salary cap room, 3 draft picks in the first round, and a you suck allocation. In addition, one of our SI's has just retired and a few other high paid players will probably be released.

 

My wish list is:

1. Nunez comes out early and we take him with the first pick.

2. We trade our other two first rounders for highest pick available and get Chad Marshall, also assuming he comes out (early I mean, not, of the closet!).

I know people aren't too high on Gbandi right now but, when healthy I don't think he was much worse than any other defender we had and this was his first year. I really think we will become the stud defender everyone initially thought he would. He along with a few other of our young players need some time to develop under a coach that knows how to develop young players.

 

I can't see Marshall coming out, knowing that he would be on his way directly to Southlake. If we had a respectable coach, maybe. But right now, I don't see any blue chips available in this next draft. We've basically got 4 shots in the dark to find another Damani Ralph.

On the back line, I think Dunseth, EZ and Gbandi are a good starting point for next year. Dunseth has looked really bad a few times, but he has had to play with a different lineup every week. EZ is at least competent on the ball. Gbandi will improve dramatically if we can get a competent coach.

The problem is at the other central defense spot, and our lack of depth. I don't think Thomas is ready yet unless he improves a lot in the off season, and we suddenly have absolutely no one available on the bench.

As with any team, everything depends on whether we can find a capable coach.

 

Now that I have more time to look through MLS teams' rosters....

Burn's "keepers" (ie, not tradeable):
DJ (GK)
ROB (M)
Davis (M)
T-Bone (if he stays) (D)

Would like to see more of:
Salyer (D)
Urbas (M)
Stone (M)
Thompson (F)

Tradeable, but wouldn't mind keeping:
Curtis (M/F)
Vaca (M)
Thomas (D)
EJ (M)
Glinton (M/F)

I don't care one way or the other:
Gbandi (M)
Dunseth (D)
Hendrickson (D)

I don't want playing here next year (retired, waived, traded):
Pareja
Behncke
Kreis
Rhine
Nhleko
Deering

Potential acquisitions (I don't know the stories on all these guys. This time, I'm looking for players who may've fallen out of favor at their club and be available cheap. A lot I'm guessing just based on playing time, but they may have been injured.):

Jeff Moore
(What happened to him? I thought he'd been rated highly with the Metros in 2002, but now he's in the A-League? IIRC, he played the midfield destroyer role - could he be the one we're looking for?)

CJ Brown
(He's behind Bocanegra and Curtin on the depth chart in Chicago. Have to imagine he's available for the right price. Could be the most affordable mix of speed and experience we could trade for.)

Devin Barclay
David Stokes
Brian Carroll
(Are any of these three any good? All I remember is Barclay is supposedly really fast and the other two were fairly highly touted in the draft. Only Barclay got a handful of minutes this season. Consistent with Hudson's reputation for prefering veterans.)

Mark Lisi
(I'm guessing he's behind Guevara, Mathis, Moreno, Gaven, Magee and Wolyniec on the depth chart for the next season. I've been impressed in the few times I've seen him - I think he can make the players around him better. We could use someone like that.)

Zizi Roberts
(He played well early, while the Rapids were struggling. Then missed most of the rest of the season with injury, during which the Rapids turned it around and even looked like one of the better teams in the league. Not sure how he looked when he came back or how important he's regarded by Colorado now, considering all that they accomplished without him.)

Zach Kingsley
Matt Crawford
Jeff Stewart
(Don't know enough about these three. Would any of them be available? Could any of them help us?)

Wolde Harris
(8 appearances, 4 starts, 0 points in 422 minutes since he joined KC.)

Carey Talley
(I don't remember how fast he is. Is he fast enough to defend in Dragon Stadium? IIRC, he could also play d-mid as a destroyer-type.)

Diego Gutierrez - KC
Tyrone Marshall - LA
(Why did they play so few games for their clubs? Were they injured or did they fall out of favor?)

Paul Broome
(Wouldn't mind having him back if LA were to waive him.)

Eddie Robinson
(Don't know too much about him. Thought he was regarded as a solid player, but he only played 13 games this season. Could he help us?)

Rodrigo Faria
(Did he join SJ too late to make a convincing impression?)

alansl

 

I think that all of us and our friends on the Crew boards as well are seriously overestimating an MLS team's ability to "turn over the roster." Where exactly do you think you're going to find 10 or so professional-quality players to come in and make a difference on next year's team? The draft? Don't make me laugh. The secret to rebuilding a moribund franchise is to make a few key acquistions via draft and discovery while breathing new life into the role players you have available to fill out the roster. If anyone seriously thinks we're going to just dump the Kreis's, Pareja's and Deering's of this team and expect the Jordan Stone's to take us to the promised land, you're dreaming. Nothing against Jordan, he simply doesn't have the experience to be a difference maker for us yet.

Everything, I repeat, everything depends on the new coach they bring in. A Sarachan (and a lucky shot in the dark like Damani Ralph) could turn a pack of rookies into a championship team. But a shmuck like Lothar Osiander or Alfonso Mondelo would just as surely take the Burn (or the San Jose Earthquakes) straight to the bottom of the table.

 

anyone who thinks dunseth is a keeper on this team need only to watch the game against the crew. granted the man scored, but he gave up the other two goals basically because he has 0 man marking skill. and his team defense is just as bad. say goodbye to pareja, deering in the middle and rhine up top and we may be looking better next season. we will see. as for an inability to turn around a team in a year, have u not followed the mls, the bottom teams generally have a upside the following year, look at metrostars.

 

I hope Behnke has two more good games at inside defender, like he did last week. That PK he gave up was a bogus call. The rest of the game I thought he did well. Until that game I figured he would be the first guy cut in the offseason. Two more good games inside, and Dunseth can be traded for someone who can focus for 90 minutes.

I have no faith in Shaver Thomas as a future anything, except maybe Silverback.

Moving Gbandi to midfield is covering up for the fact that he's not cutting it at defender. At MLS speed Gbandi is not a dangerous attacker, at least so far in his MLS career. Watching Chris Gbandi attack is hardly exciting. As far as I'm concerned he has next year to become something at defender or he's gone.

 

Remember, the Burn has a you suck allocation. That is right, the MLS, at long last, has to give the Burn a player. Last year, DC got Stewart!

Don't expect the Burn to get anyone good.

I am not a conspiracy theorist--well, that is certainly not true--but DC got lucky. They had the allocation when Stewart came back, and he wanted to go to DC, so they got him. Unless a player really wants to come ot the US and does not mind playing on plastic, the Burn will get an A League player. Even if a big player does come to the MLS, Dragon Stadium might force the MLS to send him elsewhere.

An A Legue player might not be so bad, though. If the new coach is like Jeffries, and wants a strong d mid, one of those may be availible in the minors. That is not Chad Deering's position, and while Jordan Stone might develop into that kind of player, he is certainly a long way away, at least a few years, from that right now.

The team we will see next year will not be that different from the one we say this year. It is very difficult in the MLS to turn over the entire team. Teams tend to lose players through attrition rather than trades.

 

Well maybe we could hold off. When does a you suck allocation have to be used by?

I would say if we don't have to use it by the end of the season, hold on to it and use it when Frisco opens up.

Otherwise, we will be lucky if we can get a decent Euro player.

 

Since we know Sucklack II is going to be about the same as Sucklack I, I agree that the you suck allocation should be used in planning for the 05 season. No matter what you try, sucklack is going to kill this team again next year just like it did this year. Why waste the first bona-fide allocation ever on someone like Nhelko?

Take the boatload of draft picks and take every college kid you can. If you throw ten of them on the wall one will stick. Use your discoveries to make more Nhelko additions in order to survive the season but be sure to finish out of the playoffs to get yet another you suck allocation.

So that going into the 05 season in Frisco, the Burn will have had at least 5 first-round college picks plus 4 discovery signings plus TWO you suck allocations in the previous 18 months. Then if we get lucky and skin DC United for something for them getting Adu, well that means we can hurt some people.

When I look at it that way I can actually be enthused about the 05 season. Now if I can be sedated until then I'll be fine.

 

The Burn will get nothing for Adu.