Roster 2023

Multiple @MLS teams inquired about Ronaldo and his future but 1 team was already at the table: @SportingKC
Their offer was so compelling that Ronaldo’s team had multiple meetings w/SKC before taking the Saudi deal. The package (wages/commercial) was said to be “very close”. #MLS

— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) December 31, 2022

 

any idea why papa ndoye (HD2) and jesse ortiz (RGV/brazos valley/HD academy) were draft eligible? you can draft nextpro players? have we given up on ndoye?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaze_De_Rosario

have we considered scouting CPL and USports?

but anyhow, dero's kid had 12 goals in 27 games in canada. probably making USL money. born in SJ so no slot issue. the all time record CPL transfer is their leading scorer going to second division norway.

make this happen.

 

Cant say I get this move. International slot on a guy that may not play until summer? And he doesn’t really play a position of need (not saying Lundkvist couldn’t be improved on, but LB is down my list on shopping needs).

 

Just about any player outside of the EPL can be improved on. I think Lundy is solid so I agree, weird move, unless he can also play RB.

 

has all the feels of a scrap heap purchase

this FO is sitting on a ton of money and they go to the pawn shop

ps

at least i'll have mesh seats this year right??

 

we have a defense that shipped 56 goals which is awful. where neither wing seemed secured. where we constantly got back doored. i don't think adam was good at his primary job ie defense. if you just have to keep him, as with dest i have proposed retasking him as an attacker which is his actual skillset. dest has played up front for barca some and adam has played mid.

i remember smith being decent but my concerns would be (a) he just did an ACL and (b) he's classified international.

pat does realize as he stacks international picks and signings we can't possibly have everyone? even if they added a slot or two? maybe optimistically it's meant as a signal to other teams we're ready to deal. i'm more inclined based on having to release pasher after exceeding the foreign player limit -- which had to have been true for a while, as we got quinones several days before the deadline, dropped pasher at the deadline, and added no one new -- that we are inattentive to the rules and will face a reckoning where we just throw items overboard indiscriminately.

to me if you want to deal you aren't this subtle. this isn't the closed loop of the NFL where all you have is 30 teams to shop give or take CFL or the other minor leagues. there isn't some limited set of tinker toys and teams to ask for them. this isn't a process of finite teams constantly asking after most of the same players. this is a massive player mall with other countries' stores as well. to me we should be less subtle. if HH or others are for sale -- despite our protestations -- you stick them outside the stadium with a big for sale sign draped over them. you invite a auction for their services with increasing competing bids. jordan's mistake, to me, was not pitting teams against each other, it was resisting what the market told him.

that process would also have the virtue of matching what i witnessed last year, which should result in wide roster churn regardless of expiration dates, by any means possible.

 

TM has him playing almost exclusively left side for AUS or in recent club years. he had "a" right side game in 2020.

as someone who played both sides i think if you're two footed, an athlete, and natural defender the "sides" thing is exaggerated. athletic natural defenders can mark where-ever you put them. it's slow guys who need to be hidden someplace specific --- boswell wasn't going to be an emergency wingback (but then waibel was slow as molasses and could be torched on the counter so what do i know) -- and "sides" to me tends to matter more for players picked to get forward as they seem awkward defending the wrong side. dest on the right. adam ditto. you've also then inverted their footing for attack.

 

Oliver Giroux is apparently interested in MLS. Maybe we can get some French speaking Cajun folks to recruit him

 

Partially solving a problem, at least temporarily

Argentinos Juniors are closing in on a deal to acquire Matias Vera on loan with an option to buy from the Houston Dynamo. The 27-year-old Argentine midfielder has spent 4 years with Houston, appearing in over 100 MLS matches. (@CLMerlo) #HoldItDown #MLS pic.twitter.com/R777fbrQGh

— MLS NETWORK (@mlsnetwork) January 4, 2023

 

re Bogert, you and i both know half that "out basket" list were either not dressing at all or riveted to the bench. that doesn't fix the results of the players who played soccer games.

also coco HH artur would be an even more defensive midfield than before and while raines fits that, castilla is more of a technician.

i personally thought we were getting killed at DM and in transition but i thought HH was the worst sinner of all. vera has sucked for a few years but coco isn't a very good defender, neither is HH, and if those are the 8s, with artur as 6, we will have next to no 8 production, with limited 8 defense since they are both overrated defenders in the present tense.

artur, while semi active and semi mobile was being used more like an 8 in columbus, he was not the 6 having to do actual sideline to sideline cleanup. he struck me as effective tracking but not the next coming of rico sweeping everything that moves.

last point but vera and parker underline that expiration dates can be merely suggestions. we could move some more "under deal" underperformers if we wanted -- and we should. what i see thus far is we offloaded a lot and signed a few replacement level average MLS players and some picks. right now we have one offensive dude and that's it. franco played with sebas but had like one assist to him, and tepid production in general. the defense might be slightly less bad, but most of the backline seems to be coming back. i think to date this looks worse. i keep waiting for an impact signing or several. these have been all like bench or supporting cast types.

i think we have made some headway on demolition, though the effort is incremental and not roster churn. i think we otherwise are continuing the roughly decade long sin of signing bench guys to compete with others' starting 11. once in a while we find a diamond but generally we finish last or near that which is what should happen when a bad team does nothing bad add relegation team type players.

you want off the bottom go sign the next elis instead of sebas' paraguayan pal. replace the whole backline. actually act like we suck for a change.

 

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/houston-dynamo-re-sign-midfielder-matias-vera

re vera, the official announcement of his last deal says, "under contract through 2023 with a club option for 2024." i am fine with off-loading vera and others by any means possible -- and this is ok if sketchy -- but surely you can see where a player only obligated through 2023 going on 2023 loan with option to buy may just be a face saving device akin to "loaning" bajamich and corona until their deals expire. you can tell the fans it's loan-to-buy and pat yourself on the back how good you are at negotiating but the structure implies a lower price than a sale for a player we don't necessarily have rights to for next year. the loan team can simply wait us out and take the player on a free. as such my guess is any purchase option is fairly nominal.

while i am looking at corona stuff, if you remember, he was waived after we exercised our one annual buyout. since some folks on here obsess about expirations, and we need to churn the team, why no 2023 buyout so far? among other things surely people noticed that pat talked about hadebe like he's not meant to be a DP this year after previously carrying a DP designation and deal with that kind of money. we haven't done that yet and even if we did coco is a weak use of a DP. not that good and IMO part of the problem.

 

https://www.houstondynamofc.com/news/houston-dynamo-fc-announce-initial-hires-to-coaching-staff

 

Well, if Vera refuses to leave there's always the once per year free waiver.

 

To be fair, it is hard to pin last years roster on the new FO. Now, this year is a completely different story. Onstad/Mendelsohn will own 100% of this year.