Pirani is not a DP, he's a U-22 player who carries a low cap hit under MLS's Calvinball salary rules. Peltola is a "Young DP" and he was signed as such to permit the acquisition of up to 3 U-22 initiative players. The new rules just adopted do not require a Young DP as the predicate to signing up to 3 U-22 players. Next season Peltola will be a TAM player and DCU will have up to 3 DP spots open depending upon the contract statuses of Klich and Benteke.
That’s good info, Griffin. To my point, however, it’s reported a 1.3 million transfer was paid for him, never mind his salary. It’s not good allocation of funds imo.
I've seen worse busts than Pirani. Plus I'm not ready to declare him "dead to me". I'm just thinking he needs to be a late match sub until he proves he should be starting. Right now, he should be working harder to get garbage minutes.
Akinmboni was lost on the first NYCFC goal. He ran right up middle while the goal scorer drifted in behind him to score. I have only seen highlight reals but no one on this roster impresses me. So yes this FO still picks up Thrift Store players.
And now we get the full story on Canouse: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/04/25/russell-canouse-health-dc-united/ he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis a few years ago that he was managing but after the Dis-Honor Kashoggie Tour his condition worsened resulting in him recently having surgery to remove his colon. He is recovering well but has two more surgeries to undergo. But he fully expects to be able to rejoin the active squad before the end of the season! That wonderful news. Sorry to hear he is going through this but very glad to hear the news the prognosis is very positive and he is recovering! Looking forward to seeing him back on the field soon!
Realy sad news about Canouse. I appreciated Mackay's statement that Russ should take the season off, recover and return to full health and not worry about what happens to DCU in his absence.
You are aware that Akinmboni is only 17 and a homegrown? He shit the bed on that play and looked lost at other times. However, if you look at him today versus how he looked last year in limited minutes, it's clear he is undergoing a teenage growth spurt and his body is bulking up. Right now he's slower and clumsier than last year, hopefully that will change.
And this is the prime example of the kid I want to see getting time right now. What was that, his 2nd start? He should be getting a lot more mins, find out if they want to keep him or not. Instead we run out a fast guy with less final product than Ruan who cost half as much and could actually defend.
"He will undergo additional procedures in May and July. Though Canouse said he could be back in full team training by late summer or early fall, United is planning to place him on the season-ending injury list, which affords not only roster and salary cap relief for the team but time for Canouse to continue recovering." Good luck to him in his recovery. And good luck to us getting the team to do anything with that cap relief.
I would think a problem, er, challenge, is what are the rules on being placed on season-ending injury? Can a player be taken off that list and reactivated? If yes, how do you handle the costs and roster spots of the new player and the reactivated player?
I definitely hear you. I will say if Miami can bring in Federico Redondo to replace Facundo Farias, who went on season ending IR, we can certainly figure out a way to bring in some help while staying compliant moving forward. At least in theory. It is MLS, and we aren't Miami, so there's that.
And this is squarely on Levien/Kaplan for dicking around with a NextPro franchise where players like Akinmboni and Fletcher would be getting serious minutes. I understand the walking away from Loudoun as the USL really didn't want MLS farm teams taking up space in their league. But at that point, Levien/Kaplan should have set up an MLS Pro team. I know they want to be in Baltimore, but in the meantime, they could play day games at Audi Field before the evening main event. This is just so shortsighted and cheap, the motto of this franchise.
It is MLS, some teams are more important than others not for the spend but the location and now for the Messi...
Looks like there will be no cap relief at all. That's good news for Russell. Goff's article was published at 7am. Which means the interviews happened Wednesday, probably afternoon. Goffs piece says the team is "planning" to put him on SEI. But the team published a press release at 9am https://www.dcunited.com/news/d-c-united-midfielder-russell-canouse-underwent-surgery which says he is expected to return to full team training late in the year and has no mention of SEI. So it appears either Goff got it wrong (unlikely) or the team changed its mind overnight/in the morning.
My kids had been enjoying it until the last year or so. Our daughter straight up hates the losing and the thing that really sets her off is the bad officiating. When people go nuts over a bad call (correct or not) she thinks DCU is being cheated. While I've explained that not every bad call is a bad call and sometimes mistakes get made, she's 8 and doesn't see it when we're the beneficiary of PRO's incompetence. And our 14 yo is getting to the point where he's like F it, we suck. My wife has already spent the money 3-4 times. And for me, the last straw was the whole no cap space thing for this season, which is a situation that's entirely of their own making. McKay might the GD messiah, he's not going to be bank rolled to win in a pay to win league, so its not like I am going to ever miss an MLS Cup winning team as long as we have this ownership. Its debatable if I even shell out for the AppleTV pkg next year.
I kept the Apple package -- allows me to watch other, often more interesting games. Now I can watch in the comfort of my climate controlled home, drink my own (cheaper) beer, eat my own (cheaper/better) food, not shell out $30-50 for parking alone and turn the effing game off or watch another one if DCU starts sucking donkey balls. Win-win I say.