Revs release Cassio

Reading too much into it is true, but that doesn't make it a rumor: Clavijo may like Cancela, Casey, and a host of others... Nicol might like any number of players as well, but does that mean he's actively trying to sign them, work a trade, etc.?

No.

As I said, I spoke to a few people, and this "rumor" is nothing more than Clavijo talking off the top of his head.

The Magpie

 

The Cassio move I understand, even if no acquisition is expected right now. The Brilliant move doesn't make much sense to me, unless they have some other moves in mind.

Releasing Cassio saves significant cap space; releasing Brilliant most likely saves very little. Unless there's an attitude problem (doubt it), then I don't see the point in releasing Brilliant unless they have a transaction planned to use his cap space (and/or his SI slot if that is marketable).

 

This is true, but every little bit of added cap space helps, and when you consider how much the Revs shuold have at the moment (also factoring in the cap space we hopefully reclaimed with the off-season departures of Adin Brown,. Joe-Max Moore, Rusty Pierce, and Brian Kamler), we should have enough $$$ available to go after a max. salary player. Having that cap flexibility (if it's the case) along with two open SI slots is a nice luxury to have.

 

Is that necessarily the best use of the cap space? It may be that the best use of additional money is for retaining existing players.

 

That's what I was wondering, if this isn't partly a move with an eye towards long term prospects. Given Garber's recent comments suggesting the league is not going to jump at the first Euro offer for a breakout star, is it possible we're seeing room made in the budget to be able to keep the guys most likely to get competing bids?

 

If that's where this is headed I sure hope the League ups the team budgets to keep pace with things.

 

As I understand it, Dorman will take up a SI slot next year (if we keep him), so one of those slots will be for him.

And we'll need some $$$ to try to make a play for Dempsey when bigger clubs come a-calling

 

Maybe, maybe not. The money could certainly be well used to help in retaining existing players (provided the cap spcse can be applied to the 2006 season), but it's still nice to have the extra money from moving Brillant, and to use that as seen fit.

The Magpie

 

I think this is going towards a player move (or moves), and not to re-structure contracts this year (mid season?).

As far as I know, if you don't spend your MLS salary cap $ this year, it doesn't carry over to the next year. The only thing that we could keep for next year is the minor allocation. But we have already held onto that for a while, so it might just be buring a hole in someone's pocket. Especially if Garber open's things up $ wise next year.

This is the championship year! You make your moves to win the MLS Cup, The Supporter's Shield, and the US Open Cup this year. Who knows what will happen next year. We are not the top league in the world, when our players get better many of them will want to play in better leagues ... and the better leagues will come with $ to get them.

At this point in the season, the bad clubs will make wholesale changes, and the good clubs will fine tune in order to win this year. Or the good clubs take advantage of bad clubs desperate to get anything to right their ship.

We need a third forward, a wide mid, and a central defender (and the central defender is just for depth at this point). And we hope that there are no significant injuries to our existing key players.

If that 3rd forward is good enough, maybe it moves Noonan to the Left mid spot, and that solves two problems at once. If it's a wide mid (right or left) then we could move Ralston to the other side. If we had a really good left mid, this team would be ready for the triple.

Ideally someone with speed, and a good free kick.

 

It is too bad that Cassio's time ran out.

He seemed to the type of foreign player that the team should be signing: good background, still young, decent upside, not too expensive.

But it didn't work out, maybe because he was not 100 percent early and the team won without him, making him expendable.

If the Revos have everyone on the roster able to play, they could still upgrade their defensive corps.

 

There won't be enough MLS money for that until 2030. He could make more money in Regionella or the CCC (providing caps are there). I'd kind of like to see him play in Spain actually, provided of course, I could get the games. There's always Ajax.

 

What are you talking about. MLS just rejected a bid for Eddie Johnson by Benfica. They are lockin up their marquee players. Dempsey is one of them and most likely he'll be in a Revs uniform (if he wants) for awhile.

 

I was referring to player salary. I'm not positive of the numbers, but, I'm sure CD can make a lot more money overseas. I also wouldn't say we are locking up players. We just aren't whoring them out. If WHU takes some of their promotion pay-out to get CD and he wants to go (see previous cap caveat), MLS will let him go at a reasonable profit. I think players got a little more say in this as well after the latest players agreement IIRC.

While I agree that MLS needs to stem this to a manageable trickle, they'd be foolish to cut off the tap of American exports. At this time, MLS cannot pay the top talent what "foriegn" clubs can.

 

You have to remember, Johnson chose not to leave. If he decided he wanted to leave, the league wouldn't have much choice but to let him go. I'm sure Johnson was holding out for a bigger team in a bigger league and figured he would prove himself for one more year. But it looks like it was a bad move, because of his injury his value and interest in him will go down for now.

 

But make no mistake MLS is trying to hold on to it's top talent for as much as possible, instead of letting them go to sit the bench. They've learn their lessons.

 

That's absolutely true. But the hard reality for some of these players that sit the bench in Europe is....they're just not good enough to compete in Europe. They're not the real deal. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of great American talent in the MLS. Whether they are talented enough to play in Europe is another question. America has made great strides in this sport in the last 10 years. But the players Arena is picking for his starting 11 don't have the talent to compete against Europe. Look at that game against England. The US took that game seriously and got their butts handed to them. England fielded only 4 of their “A” team starters. The rest were from the “B” & “C” teams and they started David James who is really bad.
That's not to say I don't think there's players here at home that can compete in the world. There is. But Arena is an idiot. He's got his favorites and that's the end of the story. The US national team needs a younger manager who will take chances and try different things on the field. Why in the world is Keller the #1 when he sat on the bench for the majority of the 04/05 and didn't play until the last month or two of the season. But yet Howard played for one of the top teams in the world, played in the Champions League and his team allowed the least amount of goals behind Chelsea and he's not even on the roster.
Anyway, I digress. I feel Convey left too early, he didn't develop enough. But as for McBride and Landy Lakes. Way overrated! They're not the real deal

 

I agree with some of what you said, but Howard didn't play much for ManU, and certainly wasn't responsible for their stingy amount of goals allowed. When he did get games, he made big boo boos and went right back to the pine. Keller finished off his season in stellar fashion in Germany, saving his team from relegation. As for why in the world Keller is our #1 keeper, have you seen him play?

 

There's another reason Keller's currently first choice: Timmy's spending the summer resting a nagging shoulder injury. Look for him to return for the fall WCQs.

 

Have a great 4th (and Monty's working on a 5th)

Of course we can't compete. We ambush them from the woods and behind stone walls and then scramble and regroup and do it again.


Oh, I'm sorry. You mean you weren't talking about the American Revolution?

 

I'll give you this one, I had forgotten that Keller had gone over to Southhampton.
And I'm not saying Keller isn't a good keeper. But he's got what another year in him? We got to think about the future. Now's the perfect time to give the younger keepers the mantle and get that international experience in.

As for Howard he played 24 games for United last season. That's counting league games, FA Cup, Carling Cup and Champions League. He had 10 wins, 8 draws, 6 losses and gave up only 11 goals. United's problem last season was they couldn't score for their lives. As for those mistakes, I blame those blunders more on the defense. These blunders were mostly in United's start of the season where their defense was shakey. As for these blunders, they were nowhere as bad as the ones Carroll committed. Did you see the one against Tottenham??
How the heck the linesman didn't see that that was a goal I'll never know.

 

I think this discussion is on the wrong Board. If you want to keep it going please continue it where it belongs.

 

Not their “A” team?
Dude, apart from a few starters out due to injury. All their regular starters were there. Keller, Landy Lakes, Pope,Ralston,etc. They were missing Lewis, Johnson, & De Beasley from their usual starters.

And I knew as soon as I posted my comments, that WC02 would be brought up. 2002 was a fluke! And I'm not just talking about the US national team. The whole tournament was the Twilight Zone. I mean in the history books they should have an asterisk next to it. It was a combination of the location, the heat, the early start date that resulted in most of the big teams getting knocked out early and minnows doing well. Portugal was a joke in 02. The problem with the Portuguese players is this. Mentally, they only show up against the big teams. This is their biggest weakness. That's why they always are more successful in the Euro Championships than they are in the WC.

If the USNT is successful in 06' I'll give them credit. Remember this post, if I'm wrong a year from now. I'll admit it here on the boards.

 

Sorry my mistake

 

Filex Brilliant (and also retired Forward Eric Brill) have been signed to "weekend contracts" by DCU so they can play in this weekend DCU Reserve Match