Official Expansion PBP and POST Draft Thread - DC United Edition

At year-end, Brown played with SJ not NE - the Matchtracker is f-ed up for players who changed MLS teams during 2004 (i.e. Digimarino was shown with MetroScum not COL).

 

Alex Yi? Not like I've ever seen him play aside from like a game or two.

 

Its official. DC was virtually unharmed by the draft. Ara is at best a promising squad player, Martins has played a grand total of about 100 minutes in a year and a half, and EZ is easily replacable. Its the beginning of a second period of dynasty

 

Ellinger's interest in Yi might be reduced since he took 2 centerbacks (Pierce, Behncke) in the draft. I would still not want Yi as the starting centerback in a 3 man d-line with Petke and Namoff.

 

That Nelsen loss (unless our protection means something) is huge. If we're gonna play three in the back and as offensively as we do now and contend, we're gonna need a Best XI-level guy to replace Nellie.

 

Oh, I'm happy that we got to keep Lawson, but I think Ara has some potential and would be useful as a backup or in a converted role.

 

I am very happy that we retained Perkins and Quintanilla. These were our best players available. We are lucky they will be coming back.

This whole Nelsen thing is interesting. If it protects the allocation, then BRILLIANT move by Payne, et al. If it signals a possibility that he may return, then DEAR LORD, PLEASE MAKE IT SO!!!

We cleared about $100K to $110K annual salary with those expansion losses, by the way.

Cheers,
Tim

 

You misspelled Alex Yi.

 

Well, I said we'd lose 3 players and we did. But I thought Quintanilla would be the first one to go. I absolutely didn't see pulling back Nelsen--that tells me either there's a chance at an allocation or more likely, his going overseas is not a done deal.

Unless Ellinger is going to work magic with Countess OR he can get Keller this season, relying on Countess as his starting GK ain't so smart given that the player who'd beaten Countess out (Ring) was there for the taking and decidedly cheaper as well.

Williams going to RSL isn't as counter-intuitive as it initially seems--wasn't Ellinger an assistant at Columbus the year that Columbus with Fitzgerald and DCU with Arena got into a big squabbling match about who should be able to claim him (we claimed him first but the league gave him to Columbus b/c their record wasn't as good as our's). And that last sentence may be the longest sentence I've ever written!

I'm not so sanguine about losing those 3 players. I've said throughout that players who provided some value during this year (or those that didn't) weren't necessarily key to the squad--there weren't that many players we can't replace. And if Nellie might still return--that's a heck of an upside. And reallistically, Martins and Ara weren't going to play in 2005--not unless a bunch of people got injured. But that said, I think those 2 plus Ezra were good guys that could fill roles. Good luck to them all and let's hope Nellie is returning after all.

 

While Ezra provided useful cover for DC when Nelson was out, he was in the A League until we picked him up. He's not a one-of-a-kind player, so DC should be able to find someone to take his place (Nelson, of course, is another story). Ara was an unproven commodity. He may be a loss, but he was in a position that DC has Carroll and Olsen playing. With Lawson around, we have another player that can be a back up. Martins never got a chance to show what he could do, and his injuries this year make it unclear what his future will be. Also, he's 28 years old. He's not a rookie and his up side is more limited.

On balance, though it would have been nice to not lose three players, only Ezra played a roll for DC getting the championship. If Novak can get Stokes to perform, and that is a big if, losing Ezra won't be that big of a deal.

 

See what you get when you F--- with Salt Lake?

 

Ah, sh't. You're probably right.

 

I wish we had protected Ara instead of Nelsen. I don';t see Nelsen coming back so why protect him? Martins was a good A League player 4 knee operations ago. He is a huge question mark.

 

Color me pissed that we still have Q2, who has a snowball's chance in hell of ever cracking our current lineup. I just hope that Chivas wants him and will take him in a trade.

 

Does this mean the Ara era is over in DC?

 

Bad, bad pun, shame on you (rep given)

 

Not sure what all of this means...

Martins is one hell of a nice guy. Sad to see him go but very surprised to see him go so soon. He is pretty iffy given that his knees must be like marshmallows now.

The Nelsen piece makes no sense unless somehow in the last 24 hours (i.e. after we left him unprotected) we negotiated a deal to get something for him provided he's still on the team. Even then its curious. Can't imagine he's not going to go to the UK. But (cue music here) perhaps he was so personally moved by the strong showing of support from the fans that he decided to give up fame and beaucoup bucks and stay here working for devaluing dollars.

Right.

Anyone got a better theory?? Is it even possible that DCU could have worked out some sort of trade with someone overseas? Doesn't the league need to do that?

All in all its still a big question -- who's gonna play defense???

 

Steven Goff needs to step up and explain why we protected Nelsen.

 

If Nelsen does go, doesn't our protecting him just give us his rights for only a short time, like 2 years? If he came back to MLS after that, wouldn't we be out of luck?

As for Q2, I don't think it's a given that he won't see the field in 2005. If Gros and Q1 are our wingers, then Q2 and Dema could conceivably be in competition for first off the bench. If Q1 is kept as a second-half replacement for the front line, then Dema probably would start wide, and Q2 would see some playing time, especially if Dema starts losing it. And if we can't secure Gomez, who technically is on loan, then Q2 and Freddy would compete for A-mid. Quintanilla has some real skills, and is a great competitor.

 

I'm sure he will, Goff always seems to come through for us.

 

Stokes?



Actually, we still have the draft, trades and we will get an allocation if Nelsen departs.

 

And if when doesn't, he's pretty cool about email.

 

I just realized Johnny Walker wasn't picked up...this creates all sorts of trouble for the Scum.

 

It seems smart enough to me. Mathis went away after '03, but things haven't worked out in Hannover. Things haven't worked out for Bobby, either, and I'm glad we still have his rights. I think it's worth the risk (exposing Ara) that if the same happens to Nellie, he's still ours.