Goff reports today (Washington Post, April 6) that Reyes was injured yesterday in the first half of DCU's 1-1 tie vs. the Kickers. The staff fears he may have torn his ACL, in which case he may be lost for the season. He was replaced by Namoff. Our defense, which was the best part of last year's dismal season, is getting shakier. Don't know when to expect Ivanov to return; Prideaux is not yet ready to play; Nelson may have to forget D-Mid and return to the back line. Does this post qualify as a new thread or does it belong in Joe W's "Doom and Gloom" thread?
I'm no moderator, but I think this topic deserves its own thread. This is a catastrophe. Reyes was almost unique in MLS and presented many problems for opposing teams. His speed, defensive savvy, unlimited endurance, and quick dribbling provided a dimension that few opposing teams could control. The closest player in the league to what Reyes provided was, IMHO, DaMarcus Beasley. Without Reyes, my recommendation would be to go a different route, and play a true 352 with 3 center backs. Having David Stokes eventually join Petke and Nelsen (Dmid) in the lineup would provide some legitimate weapons for our inept corner kicks. At least one of those 3 should have a mismatch against the every team except the Fire, Galaxy and Wizards. In addition to all being tall, they are strong as well, allowing them to create space into which our corner service can land a corner kick. -Digital
iiiiieeeeesh! Not what I wanted to read this morning. If he is indeed lost for the year i agree with DigitalTron about changing formations. I'd have to mull over who I put where. Does this change who we might add to the team? If we were indeed still looking at players...
If he is done for the year, Stokes is going to have to step it up quickly. Didn't Steven Goff mention that Carroll can play some defense too? That should be a last resort kind of thing but if Nelsen and Ivanov don't return to full strength we might need him.
Actually Hudson mentioned that he saw Carroll as a left back or left winger rather than a Dmid. But frankly, Carroll isn't ready for MLS playing time at any of those positions. He's still extremely raw tactically and fairly raw technically too. He has the physical tools and attitude, but he needs at least a full season before he is anything more than a sub. I don't think our priorities have changed regarding players. We still need subs at Dmid, left winger and a target forward. Perhaps with his increased speed Eliseo can be the sub left winger, but Dmid and a target forward are glaring holes I'd say. Along the back line I'm comfortable with Petke, Nelsen, Stokes and Namoff until Prideaux and Ivanov return. I think we have enough talent there, we're just going through a terrible rash of injuries right now. It's ironic that all of these injuries have been occuring to our iron men type players (Prideaux, Nelsen, Reyes, Ivanov) in the prime of their careers rather than the old (Stoichkov, Etch, Stewart) or young (Convey, Santino, Eliseo) guys. I was very worried about acquiring injury-prone players, as injuries are inevitable, but I would never have guessed that those four defenders would be our injuries while the usual suspects have all been healthy so far. -Digital
Yeah, we discussed this topic last night... but here my input... We need him and i hope he gets better before playoffs.
Didn't Hudson recently speculate about Convey possibly playing some left back, as he occasionally does with the USMNT? With the injury to Reyes, that may just happen. And I was waiting for Ray to see the light and put Bobby in middle-midfield!
(Jim Mora Voice) "Don't talk about playoffs. Are you kidding me? Playoffs?" (/Jim Mora Voice) Maybe this is not the best time to push the panic button. But still, now I know why I felt so bad for Quakes fans when DeRo went down.
I agree that we still have some decent talent on the back line, but is the plan really to go with Chino at D-mid? Now that worries me.
Well, it's terrible news on several fronts. I always hate to see any player lost for the season b/c of injury (United player or not). Professional careers are just too short to wipe out a season like that without really feeling for that unfortunate player. D-tron is also right--Reyes is a very unique player. He added a lot of team speed (and not just on defense). And this also comes at a very bad time (not that there is ever a "good time" for a season-ending injury) but with 4 defenders either hurt or hurting, the defense faces some challlenges. I'm not so sure I see Convey at left back. He's a big part of the "legs" that Hudson talks about having around Etcheverry. For instance, the big reason Hudson gave for not playing Convey in the middle is b/c his speed is minimized then. Agree or disagree with that statement and at least you start to see why Convey is invaluable (as well as Olsen and/or Kovalenko) when Etcheverry is out there. Stoichkov played some at left back. This might mean a starting role for Namoff. Or, (especially given the shortage of defenders) it may mean playing with 3 stay-at-home guys on back and flooding midfield. In which case, maybe Stokes does get the start. And, for the record (and FWIW), I think the Reyes injury does indeed deserve it's own thread. I started the "doom and gloom" thread prior to this injury. Let's hope the initial diagnosis was wrong.
I think this also begs two further questions. 1) If it is season ending does this warrant cap relief? 2) Does Matt McKeon then become a viable option to sign?
I don't know if there would be cap relief. I'd think we'd get roster relief (since our season hasn't started) but that's just a guess--who knows for sure with MLS rules changing from season to season or even lottery to lottery. Got to say, this makes the Digi lottery result a bit tougher (since Reyes was being looked at as a left back and Digi can indeed play that position). As for McKeon, I think this is an apples and oranges deal. If anything, it would make it less likely we sign McKeon I think. Why? With Ivanov, Prideaux and Reyes all hurt and Nelsen gimpy, priority now has to be on a backliner. Thus, even if we were close to signing McKeon (and I gather we weren't), it would mean making a left back the priority now. And of course, since Reyes had a green card, his injury (if it opens a roster spot) does not open up an SI slot. So we'd still be looking at TI or American talent. Not too many veteran left backs out there. I wonder if this would increase the interest in Salyer (rumor was he has signed with the league and was to be allocated by lottery pretty soon).
I waas thinking that since Nellie and Namoff would almost have to shift into the back now McKeon would be a fit at D-Mid. Before I got to the end of your post I was thinking about Salyer as well.
Unless the rules have changed - and with MLS, you never know - DCU would not get any roster or cap relief. Remember when Benny was on the shelf for so long, he still counted against the roster and the cap. Dallas had to carry Chris Gbandi on the roster and cap all last year and he has yet to play an MLS game. This year, San Jose will carry Dwayne DeRosario on its books and he just did his knee. As I understand it - and again, this is MLS so it could have changed and they didn't make it public - the only time a player who is injured doesn't count against the roster is when the injured player is a GK. The league graciosuly allows teams to not count the injured GK against their 18, as was the case with Mike Ammann and is currently the case with Jon Conway. So, if DC signs a player to replace Reyes, someone else will have to go. I like Joe's idea about Salyer. He's versatile enough to play several positions, including both wing back spots and I imagine that, while he won't be P40, he won't take up much cap room. To sign him, someone will likely have to be dropped and if I were Chino Alegria, I'd be checking out aparments in Richmond or Tidewater right about now. I also agree with something Tron said, either in this thread or another, that we're likely going to be seeing a lot more of Stokes earlier in the season than originally planned.
The Amman case was a special exception (b/c he suffered an injury that was obvious career threatening and the team KNEW in preseason he wouldn't be able to play--but MLS had previously made a ruling that you couldn't cut players injured during the season--the Clint Peay rule we might call it). As for Olsen, the deal there was that MLS had (at the time) a marquee player rule where you could designate in pre-season a couple of players (can't remember the number) as marquee--meaning if they went down, the league would get you a replacement. At the time, Payne and co. thought Olsen (who had been very hardy anyway) was likely being sold to England so it made no sense to designate him as a marquee player. But he went down and DCU ended up with both him and Amman on the roster and the cap. I can't speak to the DeRosario situation. And I thought the situation with Gbandi was that he was a rookie and there was some thought at the begining of the season he might be able to play in 2002.
Joe, Listen closely. There is no injured reserve in MLS for field players, period. Ammann did not count against the roster last year because he was a goalkeeper. Period. MLS used to have a marquee player exemption rule. Olsen was never a marquee player for DC United. For the duration of the time that MLS had the marquee replacement rule, United's marquee players were alwaysMarco Etcheverry, Eddie Pope and Jaime Moreno. Olsen counted against the roster. Chosse to argue about this but you're pissing in the wind as it's a fact. Gbandi counted against the Burn's roster because THERE IS NO INJURED RESERVE IN THIS LEAGUE FOR FIELD PLAYERS. Obviously, this could change because we're talking about a league that makes its rules up as it goes, but for now, there is no injured reserve. Hence, for the duration of the time he's out, Reyes WILL count towards United's cap and roster.
Hmm... Sandon, MLS seems to disagree with you... http://www.mlsnet.com/about/regulations/ Maybe you should check your facts before you blast Joe.
When is the official diagnosis due out? This sucks, it will be interesting to see how Hudson deals with this. I don't know if Convey is going to get P.T. at left back, I don't think that is going to be his position for the future. At least I hope not.
Well, then I was wrong and I'll be the first to admit it. I guess that is a new rule. But, the incidents I referred to in the past - Gbandi and Olsen - those players did count towards the roster and the cap for the season.
I absolutely agree that they counted on the cap in the past and Amman counted on the roster for part of his injury. And that's all past--I don't mean to try to debate details from previous administrations about rules that may have changes in one way or another since then. As for now--who knows? I gather that when the injury takes place (and in the context) matters. For instance, McKinley was hurt in an unofficial workout--thus he isn't on the cap or roster. But my understanding is that if you're hurt in a league/team official capacity during the season (practice, exhibition, game) then you're definitely on the cap. I don't know what happens if the injury happens before your season starts. Roster relief? I guess we'll find out definitely in a couple of days. I don't think Convey would move to left back unless it's out of desperation b/c another defender goes down. We've got bodies, we just don't have depth. And some of our measures (Alegria at D-mid, Kovalenko at D-mid) are, IMO, more stop-gap measures that we might try depending upon the team and for 1 game or 2 to tide us over b/c of a callup or muscle strain. I think Sandon and I both agree that Salyer looks a lot more interesting right now than he did before Reyes went down. Also, don't mean to sound sour grapes on this: I think Digi (being a proven vet, fast and with Convey callups) probably was still a better choice. But if you read the quotes from him at the end of the MLS article, it sounds as if his ankle is by no-means a sure thing. For instance, we all agree that Olsen isn't completely out of the woods yet--and Digi talks about his ankle (at least in that article) as if he's holding his breath to see if it will actually allow him to play. Under those circumstances, Salyer may be an even better selection. Cheap, young, American, D-mid and left-back ability, some pro experience with Werder Bremen, and even some local ties.