Official Expansion PBP and POST Draft Thread - DC United Edition

In the three years since I got back from Europe, I certainly haven't seen anything in him to write home about. He certainly won't get much playing time sitting behing Adu and Gomez as evidenced in the latter part of this season. His injury lessens his worth as a player and puts him even further down the list of players I want to see on the field next season.

 

Q2's slowness has nothing to do with style. He's just slow in terms of out and out speed. He's got fine skills. Just don't ask him to chase anything or anyone.
The only excuse he could possibly have is really freaking heavy boots, or cast iron shin guards.

When Gomez first got here, out of shape and not ready for summer soccer, he was still quicker that Q2. I just don't see how he's really going to fit into Nowak's high tempo midfield to unseat Gomez or Freddy.

 

I think Nelsen is still gone, but the league has already told KP&Co. that an allocation is on its way. Someone earlier said DCUnited didn't get hurt in the draft? Even with 2 allocations, 2 discoveries, and 2 draft picks, DCUnited is still going to have to find 2 more players on top of those to fill the 28 man roster. Although you won't have to worry about the Senior side, I have a feeling some of the Barra Bravas will be suiting up for the reserve games!

Actually it's not quite that bad because KP&Co. will just trade away the 2006 and 2007 picks for next years' draft. As far as I can tell, it will be one of the weaker drafts in the ten years of the league.

 

Are you implying that Chino's coming back?

I've always figured that there's going to be a couple of really shallow drafts coming up. With P-40 pulling players out of colleges, and fewer and fewer talent even looking at colleges, there just isn't a whole lot left (comparitively) in the NCAA.

 

Didn't Eddie have one or two of those?

I'm not in the "misinformation ploy" camp though.

-dave

 

I don't recall Pope ever seriously (at least publicly) considering making the jump.

 

Just a thought about Ezra -

I wonder if he somehow impressed Mexicans in the 2 recent WCQs between St Vincent and Mexico. I know I saw him recently on Telemundo rolling around on the turf in Pachuca after taking a shot for the team right in the family jewels. Couldn't have been much fun, but maybe that dark cloud wound up having a silver lining for him.

At least he can be at home in LA.

Although he was only a role player or a fill-in for a better defender, Ezra was an important late-season addition and one of the reasons we won back the trophy.

 

Someone on this board might know this ...

Did Brian Kamler's family move to Boston, or did they stay in DC?

 

After the 98 WC there was an offer from Bayern Munich that he was considering, but turned it down because he was just starting up the EPF at the time, and that was more important to him than the money.

 

Moved to Boston.

Will be interesting to see what his plans are.

 

Yeah, I wonder how interested he'll be in relocating.

 

Considering he's considered retiring after previous trades, Salt Lake City may never materialize unless he's not a big fan of Boston.

The only thing is you would have to believe Ellinger has talked to him about it before the draft, and wouldn't have picked him if he had said no to the idea.

 

1. Nowak's system rewards players who work hard, have good touch and are good at quick/one-touch passing. Quintanilla will fit in well. May not be a star but he's a young player with heart and the necessary pieces to contribute. Better to have him than not have him. Besides, we get 4 SI's in 2005 and it's not as if we're going to have the cap and allocation space to acquire a bunch of them. I bet we use the Convey allocation to "acquire" Gomez. So with an allocation for Nelsen, that is our one significant foreign acquisition--and that's for a central defender.

2. FWIW, I recall PSG made an offer to Etcheverry, there was an agreement, Payne admitted that "it looks like he's going" and the next day Marco decided to stay here with United. Stranger things have happened. I won't rule out the return of Nellie until we hear he's signed with a foreign club.

3. Pope talked about going overseas after being traded to Metro.

4. I totally disagree that the talent in college is "shallow." This is a fixed pie perspective--that there is only so much soccer talent in the US and it doesn't increase or decrease, so if it leaves sooner (ie: P-40) than there is less left for college. This is exactly what Sasho Cirovski at Md. argued when P-40 was started and it's been proven wrong, wrong, wrong. The reality is that with the creation of MLS, the success of the USMNT, there is far more soccer talent in the USA. Freddie will result in an even bigger blossom of talent as well. There are years where there is really good talent or a drop off, especially for particular positions. But basically, it keeps getting better. When Olsen was ROTY, it was amazing that people could get a P-40 player who could start and have an impact. Now it's pretty common for rookies to start and be impact players (see: Marshall, Chad and Dempsey, Todd to name just two examples). In 1997 or 98, Freddie Adu's production would have made him ROTY hands down. Gros' year would have made him ROTY hands down.

 

Goff's article on the draft (bit about Nellie too)

-dave

 

from Goff's article:

So he doesn't answer our big question of whether or not we get an allocation if he doesn't re-sign.

But, maybe no one knows. Or maybe it's considered too arcane to include in the article.

 

EZ was the only "loss" in the expansion draft. Simply put, neither Ara nor Martins was going to play for DCU's senior side next year. Ara was too inexperienced (and pace Knave, maybe just not good enougth), while Martins realistically would have spent most of next year rehabbing his 3 knee operations.

All the speculation on Nelsen is just that. But if he stays and it turns out non e of the so-called "offers" was anything more than rumor, Payne will have conducted one of the great feats of disinformation/misinformation in professional sports.

To complete the conspiracy, we need Earnie to decide to return and agree to play for 25K "for the good of the team" and to take a victory lap around the league.

 

FYI - Buzz reported on 3rd Degree that the future considerations were a mid-level pick in 2006 and the allocation Kreis will bring when he retires. If, for some reason, there is no allocation, they get a second mi-level pick.

 

He does have that McEnroe headband thing going...

 

I don't think that is usually decided until a guy leaves.

Also, do people really think that if someone picked Nellie and he left that the expansion team would get the allocation? MLS does some screwy thing, but I doubt owning a guy's rights for 45 days will get you an allocation.

 

Meant to post this earlier.


Rob Stone's comment on the Akwari selection: "He's a hard, big-nosed defender."



I'm pretty sure I know what he meant to say, but none of his fellow announcers laughed out loud. I went back and listened for it.

 

Did you see the match up in NE when we came back late to trounce them?

Q2 went to all the right spots on the field, and played lovely passes to the right people.

A ver impressive match.

 

Honestly, I'm not willing to pass judgment on anyone we saw play under Hudson and not Nowak.

So far, almost every player has done better individually with Peter at the helm, and save for Petke while he was worried about his upcoming child, I have barely anyone show worse form this year without having an injury play a role in it. The only example I can think of is Prideaux, but some will argue that he has always been like that in his time here in DC and that it just took Nowak's three-man backline to expose it more.

Quintanilla was a solid player under Hudson, and I think he could really flourish now. This is one of the reasons I was dissapointed in Martins' departure.

 

Masterful draft by the United Coaching Staff and Front Office. Knowing that none of the unprotected players is vital to the team, they used Ezra as bait and put out disinformation to make Nelsen's fate seem more certain than it is. The result is they intentionally protected one extra player ... Nelsen. While it's still probably unlikely that he'll be back, if there's any chance at all, then he needed to be protected. Honestly, I would have expected him to be protected regardless. The real save was Prideaux. Very good defender with a low salary who has minimal drop off from the starters. If we had protected Nelsen initially, most likely we would have lost Prideaux before we could protect him.

Our success next season hinges on
1. Resigning Nelsen or finding another organizing central defender,
2. Injuries (we were extremely healthy in the playoffs),
3. Development of younger players (like Esky, Freddy, Gros, Carroll, Stokes),
4. Resigning Christian Gomez, who really came on at the end of the season, and most importantly
5. Motivation.

 

I saw it, but one breakout match does not make you a superstar or even a great player. I don't think he has the pace for our midfield and he's not high on our depth chart at the moment. If he picks up the pace, then I can see him playing for us, but certainly not at the level he played at under Hudson.

 

I'm also skeptical of him. If we can't keep Gomez, then we have to keep Q2, but if Christian can stay, then Q2 is a real luxry and when you have a cap like we do, you can't always afford those types of players.