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Buzz, you made two references to Clarence Goodson being 20. FYI, he was born 5/17/82, so unless we're in a time warp I don't know about, he's two years older than you're reporting.
*sigh* I know he is 22. If in the entire thing that is my only typo or mistake I will be stunned. On the whole I think it's a fairly good piece.
ahhh. now this is the type of stuff that makes us missing the playoffs almost bareable. good info and thoughts. i was also thinkin about a couple of the guys on panama as good discovery signings. the forward, Brown I think, seemed to be a bull, which could be nice. Like Toni, but with some skill and touch. Medina and whoever the other center mid was. both were good on the ball and worked hard. I look forward to more offseason banter
Good stuff, as always, Buzz. Any word on whether or not the team is practicing this week? I talked to Behncke Saturday night and he said the players didn't know yet- he said they had practice Tuesday morning as usual, but he didn't know if it would be a workout or just an end-of-season meeting. Any idea?
I too was infatutated with several of the Panamanians, particulary Brown, who looked awesome in the slog in Panama, and completely average and outclassed on an MLS track at RFK. -bs
None of the following has anything to do with the cachet of a new stadium, which will be a major carrot for all targeted signings.... All of the following has everything to do with the individual situations.... re: JOB.... ... my take is he is not "down the list" at the Amsterdam Arena.... ... and when fit and in form is on the field for Ajax.... ... and with his injury history is at least 5 years away from being able to agree terms with Ivan should he wish to join MLS. .... he is making SERIOUS coin right now. Reyna-Friedel coin. You can take JOB off your list. He will not be coming to MLS before 2007 at the earliest. And when he does come home, he will go to the Gals. Otherwise, he won't sign. JOB is not and never will be on the radar for FCD. re: Casey and Lewis..... Lewis is starting, and thriving, at Preston. He's making 3 times what he would make in MLS without some type of Luddar/Spitador under-table compensation deal. He will not be an option in the January window for MLS, and if he does come back, has the prestige and cachet to name his City. And it would not be Dallas. Another waste of time for GE to visit, but he should at least make the phone call now, looking 2 years down the line when Lewis wants to come home after Germany. 5% chance we could get Lewis, and in my opinion, we already have the left mid solved: REYES. Now, Conor Casey, that is an intriguing idea..... he could very well find form and find minutes before the January window. He could also decide his best chance of playing in Germany in the summer of '06 is to "do a Gibbs" and get in to MLS.. he could also see that Ching has an "up" on him because he plays with Donovan and they have excellent understanding that comes from playing together at their club. He could counter that caveat that Ching holds by partnering with the latest flavor of the month, the grown-ass man. That's the pitch that GE should take with him on the plane to Frankfurt. Combined with a new stadium, it might be possible to get Casey to "name Dallas only" as part of the requirement for his signature. With all of the shenanigans that are going to happen to get Chivas rostered with latin blood, there might be a way to get Casey further down the returning yanks list... ... but this talk of Casey insures one thing: if it happens, can you keep Kreis as well??? -bs
FC Dallas will hold their end of the season team meeting at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Blue Sky in the Colony. Media are encouraged to be there shortly after 10 a.m. and will have availability with the coaches and players immediately following the meeting.
In regards to your expansion list the only switch I would do would be to unprotect Talley and protect Gbandi. You might very well lose Talley, but I think Gbandi has more trade value because I believe you could find somebody in the league who thinks they can resurrect his game. Talley does a lot of things decently but nothing all that well, which is nice to have on a bench but ultimately too much of a luxury given his salary figure, which I assume is in the high 5 figures. BTW, is there a finalized list of our draft choices? I'm assuming we will get the #4 (own pick) plus #9 (via Metrostars via DC United) in the first round?
final list? no. When did Metro get the DC pick? and the rest of the round is playoff based I believe. not reg season. Burn also get a 2nd from DJ, but give a 2nd for Talley.
Scum got the #1 pick in the Moreno trade (he had to play 20 games to make the pick a 1st rounder. As a MVP candidate, he is well worth the pick).
I'm not a big fan of Casey. He seemed to be able to score at a somewhat decent clip in the 2 Bundesligia but has been largely absent this season at Mainz....and they are having a great start to the season. This weekend, the player who came on for him around the 60th minute scored the winning goal. I think he will be seeing some major pine time in the near term. Meanwhile, he hasn't done a whole lot with the nats either. The one time I saw him in person, here in Dallas vs Mexico, he did a whole lot of nothing. The one thing I do remember was him f'ing up a perfect pass from Donovan on what would have been a 1v1 with the keeper. He's big, he's strong, but that's about all he's got. Now with EJ exploding, Ching coming on strong McBride, Mathis and Wolff in the mix....I just don't see Casey getting decent time. If Bruce is going to throw an inexperienced player out there its going to be EJ. I hope I'm wrong about Casey, but I just dont see it.
Interesting you mention Yi, as DC expressed an interest in him earlier this season. Do you rate him that highly, Buzz, or is he just a name to kick around?
Last I saw him play was with the U20? team I think... a couple years ago... I forget the exact contect.... maybe it was the french tournament? the Tolouse thing? Anyway I can rate him only as he is a former Youth Nat and the two game si saw him play a couple years ago. The reason I mention him now is he keeps getting mentioned to me by both people inside and outside FCD. When the word came around he wanted to come back, the Burn officailly put in with MLS HQ that they wanted him. I am sure other teams did as well [john harkes]. At the time it looked like wieghted lottery, which did not happen so I thnk he will have to go MLS draft like Twellman.
If Alex Yi signs with MLS, which I expect, I will be very surprised if he doesn't end up A) with FaKe Salt Lake, playing with his former U17 mentor John Ellinger; B) at DC United playing near his hometown of Maryland; or, C) with the Gals playing in the town where he went to college. Granted, lots of strange things can and do happen in MLS, but I would think the odds of Yi and Ellinger being reunited are pretty good. And quite honestly, Yi isn't going to make the Burn any better. He's a very good young US player, but you've already got Gibbs, Salyer and Behncke to play center back and unless Yi is playing for the minimum, it's really not worth it for the 96ers (hey, gotta start sometime) to use cap room for another center back who isn't a dramatic upgrade. I mean, given how little he's played the past couple years, you're much better with Goodson than Yi as at least he knows the coach and team. (And might end up the better player in the long run, as well.)
I would start the season like this: EJ Allocation Reyes Valakari Allocation O'Brien Behncke Jolley Gibbs Talley Cassar I still believe that Reyes is a way better left mid than he is a left back. He has great dribbling skills but the big bonus is that he will be better in defence than most Left Wingers. I hope we don't go after a big target forward but would prefer a skillful (Guevara type) up top with EJ so he can receive good service for once.
This is the story on Yi. When the Olympic team went to play some exhibition games in England, Yi was the starting left back. The team played Man Utd's reserve team and Yi had the game of his life. Man U then recommended Yi to their sister club in Belgium, Royal Antwerp, which is where Man U sends talented youngsters who they rate highly but can't get a work permit. Yi spent time in the reserves and was becoming a regular first teamer when he dediced to leave to come home. Yi is a player with talent otherwise Man U wouldn't have scouted him and sent him to Antwerp.
I'm not sure Reyes would make a good left mid, or a good left defender for that matter. I counted three times on Saturday that he passed the ball to the other team which started a counter attack. And on SJ's first goal it seemed that he didn't position himself well as Landon came across the field allowing him to make a dangerous run on goal. Reminds me too much of Antonio Martinez. Exciting dribbler but not the best player. We can upgrade here.
He is an upgrade to Davis and Quill at the moment. He can be used as a makeshift left winger while we sign another top forward and center midfielder.
Two schools of thought on Reyes.... one's mine, another is someone else's.... me: Reyes is an undisciplined but exciting player who cost us goals with bad decision making because the coaching staff can't get him to adhere to a "rigid" system. We don't know if he can't cross because he's always busy blowing by, around, and through 2 or 3 opponents, at speed, with the ball on the ground. We might be able to upgrade. If we got Eddie Lewis. On the other hand, a turtle than can cross might be what we need to feed the ball to EJ for the next 2 years, and we've seen what EJ can do with service from the left (Kreis on Saturday, Boca last Wednesday). someone else (plus 10% ad-lib conjecture from me): Reyes is an undisciplined but exciting player who cost us goals with bad decision making because he won't adhere to a "rigid" system. Also, he can't cross. His lack of defense and inability to cross means he's a left back in a 3-5-2. He floats to the middle and leaves a vortex on our left that the opponent (see Saturday, Donovan, Landon, first goal) often exploits to our detriment. "Someone else" thought Reyes might be our left mid answer when originally acquired. Someone other than "someone else" decided that would never be tried. Conjecture: We might be able to move up from #4 to #2/#1 in the "you suck" hierarchy by trading Reyes plus our YS to Chivas for their YS. Extrapolate. ++++++++++++++++ Alex Yi: 2 words.... Chicago Fahr. Further up the food chain, and they need him much worse than we do. "Goodson is the future next to Gibbs". (quotes for a reason).... ++++++++++++++++ "Someone else" also mentioned that using an allocation to burn the cap is feasible and not esoteric, i.e., as in an Adu/Donovan/Luddar/Spitador application. HSG precedent: something non-standard was used to bring Sanneh to Crew. Me: I still firmly believe that no matter what anyone says, when extra dollars roll in or out, above or below the "table", the individual I/O's do not participate equally. It is still my firm belief that HSG is not paying 3/10ths of Adu mk.2004, nor is KraftCo paying 1/10th of Adu mk.2004. -bs
Don't assume he is an allocaiton. He can be a draftable player as Twellman was. and nothing is set in stone for FCD either.
I'm not assuming he "IS" an allocation, but you have to assume that someone will USE an allocation to get him if they want him that badly. Granted, Utah Kings and NorteGoats need "everything", but Chicago needs one thing desperately: with the departure of Boca, and Brown degrading rapidly, they have got to get someone to partner Curtin. It's got to be their biggest hole, and I believe we should use need on their part to our advantage to leverage our hand with whatever else we do. If there is one blessing to missing the playoffs, it's that everyone else other than Wilt and the expansion teams are busy with the playoffs in what promises to be the most important, intriguing, and busiest hot-stove season in MLS history, and GE and Clarke are already planning trips to South America and Europe. -bs
On the Chicago board Wilt posted that they were close to signing a player to fill the hole in defense. This was just yesterday. Perhaps he was referring to Yi. Obviously if he thinks they are close then it would be an allocation acquisition.