Rongen to Chivas, Ellinger to SLC :: DC United Implications?

I don't know. There's potential there, but look at the other expansion draft, Bradley was a United assistant before starting up the Fire and all he came away with was Jesse Marsh.

But who's to say that Thomas doesn't go after a guy like Mark Lisi? He was good when he played for Rongen here, and he's currenty buried in the Metro midfield.

 

Rongen doesn't surprise me based on some of the comments he makes about how the itch for coaching never leaves you during broadcasts. Hopefully he will be LA 4 times a year.

 

I'm absolutely shocked Rongen took this job, if it's true.

 

Both of these hiring are somewhat surprising in that:

1) Ellinger - he only has 1 year as an MLS assistant and has spent most of his coaching as of late with U17 players, not older professionals. SLC seems destined to have a lot of growing pains - they need someone like Kasey Keller in the nets to keep them competitive.

2) Rongen - will he need a translator for the team for whom all communications will be in Spanish? Perhaps Chivas realized that they needed someone who was familiar with MLS and did not like any of the Latino options (i.e. Zambrano).

3) Schmid was available for either team and came up empty with nothing but a weekly guest column on mlsnet.com

I would have guess that Rongen would be more prone to take DCU players but the Spanish-speaking requirement for its players would limit choices to folks like Quintanilla (Transitional International who still has a few years before he would become a Senior International) and Rimando (although he may now get protected in the expansion draft with a good playoff run).

 

Chivas and Rongen. Perhaps the oddest paring of the year.

 

If Sampson hadn't been snatched up by LA, his fluency in Spanish would have made him a natural for the Chivas job. Maybe LA will have buyer's remorse and drop Sampson and re-hire the coach who had them at the top of the western conference.

 

Rongen to coach Chivas?

I guess this means he'll have to stop saying 'we' when referring to DC United...

Well good luck to to him. I didn't like him much as a coach here, but he is a good guy, and I'll actually miss him doing the color commentary for DC United games.

 

Rongen is bilingual, isn't he?

 

Well I'm sure he speaks Dutch and English. Don't know about Spanish, which would presumably be helpful at Chivas.

 

I am shocked that Rongen would go there, I heard he was really happy with the u20 gig. But to start up a franchise you need to bring in as many talented players as possible, and Rongen is a fantastic judge of talent. Personally, I would like to see Payne try and keep Rongen as part of United, namly by taking Kasper's job.

 

Rongen and Chivas is an odd pairing, especially when I recall seeing a blurb on the Mid-Atlantic Soccer website a few weeks ago that Rongen had taken himself out of the running from the SLC coaching race as he liked his U20 gig. If I was Rongen, I would have probably preferred the job with SLC where there are no roster restrictions for its players (i.e. speaking Spanish is not a job requirement).

 

I think this definitely has implications for DC, Rongen knows most of these players very well, I doubt he would hesitate picking up players like Q1 and Q2 who are still very good players despite being off the radar this season.

 

The reason why Rongen is going to coach Chivas USA is because the 2nd in charge at Chivas under Vergara is a Dutchman. I am sure his Dutch connections made this happen.

 

I think the reason they chose Rongen was that when he blames the players after a loss (never himself) they won't understand what the hell he said. I will miss him in the booth though.

 

Good luck to Rongen, except when his team plays DC United.

 

I agree this is an odd pairing, but as mentioned Chivas' technical director is an old compatriot of Rongen's, Hans Westerhof which certainly didn't hurt his being hired. And I don't think his lack of Spanish will be a problem at all. I doubt seriously that the Spanish only thing was ever more than just a pipedream.
However, I don't think the reason he took himself out of the running for the SLC job was his being wedded to the U20 job. I believe his actual quote was more likely something like "Salt Lake City, they don't drink or smoke there, do they? Oh well, so much for that."
I admit, I'm surprised he didn't decide to take the U20's to the tournament in Holland, but I can see the money and higher prestige being quite compelling. I wish him luck except against DC.

 

As far as I am concerned, WrongOne was the beginning of the end for DC United. Yeah, DC won MLS Cup in his first year as coach, but is any one here really going to give him the credit for that? After the Arena residue wore off we went straight down the toilet. I hope he works the same voodoo on Chivas...that would make me very happy as Chivas has already taken the spot right behind the Metro-funking-Scum on my most despised list. Not that I don't like SauRongen, I just don't see much in the guy besides his keen eye for young talent. And if he wants to take Rimando with him, fine.... more salary cap space for DC. Perkins seemed to do fine in his time tending the nets.

 

You would think that would be a good option. Could probably keep his commentator job, too.

 

Rongen to Chivas hopefully means more Garth Lagerway doin' DCU games.

I'm suprised about Ellinger going to the town with streets wide enough to allow your average covered wagon to make a U-turn. Does this mean possibly that he was not that highly thought of last year by Payne for DCU?

Salt Lake does have some nice local beer although the night life sucks and blows. OT: Did anyone see the halftime show of the recent Stanford-BYU football game? The one in which the Stanford band did a trubute to polygamy? I fell of my chair laughing...

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Rongen also spoke Spanish. It's not uncommon for the Dutch to speak several (often four or five) languages.

 

According to his bio, he does not. Soccer America said he is woprking on learning, which shouldn't be a problem if he's already got a few under his belt.

 

And Spanish is a fairly common language, even in the Netherlands. Don't forget that they hold islands like Curacao and Bonaire (north of Venezuela). So anything is possible, I guess.

Or, the Chivas owner realized that there would be way too many political problems if Chivas were to be a Spanish speaking team, and just decided to keep the name (if nothing else).

--kravi

 

Okay, implications for DC United:
--if we leave Quaranta unprotected, I think he'd definitely be claimed by either of the two sides (both Ellinger and Rongen probably think highly of him);
--I think both of these guys are see as "developmental" coaches who are good at growing younger players (so that means putting a Sergio Galvan Rey or Mike Petke available means they're less likely to be claimed while Americans under 25 are more likely to go--than say if Sampson or Schmid or Osorio or Zambrano had been the coaches).
--I think both are also seen as "attacking" coaches who prefer to go forward. Don't know what implication that has for DCU.
--I think both are more likely to draw on talent via the expansion draft and superdraft rather than write those off and rely more on their allocations and discoveries.

 

Yeah, I'd agree that Q1 would be good as gone if DCU leaves him unprotected. Don't think that will happen though.

I think Q2 would go too.

Petke would go before Prideaux if both were unprotected as Rongen has seen firsthand how Brandon has faded this year. And Rongen will take a few vets like Petke, particularly on defense, especially since I think very few teams will leave unprotected any defender who looks to be a solid starter in this league. Bottom line is that in no way do we leave Petke unprotected even with his limitations. Brandon's another matter. Namoff's protected (duh). EZ? depends on if we see someone taking him, but my guess is that he's unprotected.

That said we have no idea who Ellinger will go for.

Wild guess: we leave Nana unprotected and he gets picked by Rongen.