This thread is to share insight and comments on this prediction made by Sports Illustrated. Personally I am cancelling my subscription because the editors must be on drugs.
I love SI... soft to the touch, thoroughly absorbing (the articles.)... Why it makes a great substitute for toilet paper the moment I run out.
I figured you wanted DC to finish last this year, just so you could show those Etcheverry haters that you were right.
Look, all 10 teams in MLS are very close talent-wise. One good run could take a team from out of the playoffs into MLS Cup. Just ask the New England Revolution and LA Galaxy. I think some teams have improved significantly, like Columbus. If their newly renovated defense (Simon Elliott at Dmid, Robin Fraser and Chad Marshall in Central Defense, and Chris Wingert to compete at left back) slows the bleeding in the back, then they could go all the way. They replaced Brian McBride with Erick Scott, who may actually score more goals for them. If Buddle and Martino stay healthy, they're going to be lethal. Cunningham will get his goals regardless. So, it's a solid prediction that they'll improve. New England gets a healthy Joe-Max Moore and Taylor Twellman, an experienced Jose Cancela, Pat Noonan and Shalrie Joseph, and everyone back on defense. If their central defense can stay healthy without Llamosa showing his age, then they should be quite solid, even if they're rather unexciting to watch. Bob Bradley has added a very underrated defender in Bonseau, and a top forward in Galvan. Guys like Eddie Gaven, Mike Magee and the illustrious Ricardo Clark will be ready for the grueling MLS season. And they may have found another sleeper in this kid Parke. Projecting (dangerously) that Eddie Pope will miss less games this season because of injury (ok, foolishly projecting ...) and this team looks pretty strong. Obviously the Fire were dominant last season, and look to be just as strong this year. So the difference in quality among all 5 Eastern Conference teams is quite thin. IMHO, Nowak will make the difference. He recognizes how to use Convey and Stewart, which should help the attack. Freddy will also energize our scoring. But in the end, we lacked a finisher last year, and didn't add one this season. So I'm ok with SI's predictions, they're safe and retro-spective. I, on the other hand, think that DC United underachieved last season. The solid defense remains, and those ties will be mostly wins this year, and many of the losses should be ties or wins. That can make a huge difference. Now that we've taken the shackles off of the attacking players, we should score more goals, and that'll make all the difference for us in the standings. -Digital
You might want to let Grant Wahl know that so he can quit wasting his time writing MLS articles for the magazine.
Grant Wahl is proof that SI doesn't give a rat's ass about soccer. If he wasn't writing about college hoops the majority of the time, he probably wouldn't be on board at the magazine. Just out of curiosity, I wonder how many articles Grant Wahl writes for the actual SI magazine each year. Props go to him for fighting the good fight, but he's basically trying to sell French wine at McDonalds.
You are aware that in the USA soccer is a marginal sport at best, right? He writes great articles about the league and the sport of soccer, and has done so for a good number of years. At McDonalds I'd rather drink French wine than a Coke. FWIW, no one is forcing soccer fans to buy or read Sports Illustrated. If you don't like it, don't read it. So, why is it that soccer fans are never satisified with the coverage the sport is given in this country?
I can't really blame the magazine for picking DCU last. To refresh the memories, we scored a grand total of five goals in preseason, one of those was a PK, our only wins this spring were over minor league teams, we needed the aforementioned PK to beat a D-III team and our best attacker is 14. This team struggled to score goals last year and, save for Freddy, did nothing to upgrade the attack. The defense is solid, arguably the best in the league. But, our GK is coming back from an ACL and is replacement has never won a game in MLS. Remember, we just squeaked into the playoffs last year but haven't gotten better. And, if a replacement doesn't step forward for Marco, the team may not be as good. At the same time, Columbus is arguably better (I really like the Fraser move), adding Fraser, Elliott, Lagos, Erick Scott, Matt Jordan and two of the best backs in college soccer last year in Marshall and Wingert. I'm not saying United IS gonna finish last, but I don't fault folks for picking the team to do so. And, for the record, I think Grant Wahl does a great job on soccer - and college hoops - at SI and I'm gonna continue to subscribe.
What the hell are you talking about? If you want to take a shot at me and my support of the team, then back it up fan boy. I'm there every game and will be to the end. --On second thought, just stick to the pictures Andy. Your good at that.
I wasn't taking a shot at you over your support for your team. I know you bleed DC red, black, and white. I was taking a shot at you over your belief that Marco Etcheverry was a useful player last year. That's all.
I blame Marco's usefullness or lack there of on Ray Hudson. He strips him of the captains armband midseason and says Marco's role will be limited. Marco in the true role of the ultimate professional takes it in stride and says he will do what's best for the team. So what does Hudson do? He plays him 100 plus minutes in a blazing midsummer game. Marco could've come in at the 60-65 minute mark and made a difference and did on occasion. But when Ray saw that his plan was not working, he went back to El Diablo to clean up his mess. Attributing DC's suck ass season on Etcheverry is lame and flat out wrong.
Pretty much every prediction had Columbus winning the East last year and LA being a good bet to repeat. Guess what, this is MLS. Nothing is sure, one or two players stepping up can turn a team around. It starts for real on Saturday.
SI predicts DCU to finish last. Whoopty-do. They have a one-in-ten chance of being right. All this means is that if DC isn't at the bottom of the standings at the end of the season, we can all write letters to SI telling them they suck and to kiss our not-at-the-bottom-of-the-standings asses. I see it as a win-win.
LOL...finally, I'm not the only one that thinks that SI is a pile of bat droppings! And don't get me started on ESPN the Magazine either..lol. Sporting News is the best US sports mag. For football....Four Four Two is the standard! GREAT STUFF, fantastic article about Raul and Southampton vs. Portsmouth (English Southcoast Rivalry). Just picked it up yesterday...I'm going to start getting a subscription. What is the best MLS magazine?
Yeah, losing your best defender and your starting goalkeeper is a good way to look "just as strong." RS
Other than the slams of Wahl and SI, there is a lot of wisdom in these posts. I am very optimistic about this team and see no reason why SI shouldn't rate on last. On paper (and the game isn't played on paper), DCU had a very strong team last year. What we actually had a was a bunch of talented players in a incoherent set of roles and the result was a mess. We significantly underachieved last year. As did Columbus. LA did to a lesser extent (they benefited from a hot and timely Ruiz in their championship year. Fewer "timely" strikes by him and suddenly they're sneaking into the playoffs). On paper, we didn't improve this year. But I'll bet my midseason, the improvement will be obvious and dramatic. I don't think we'll finish last. But any other prediction than last in the East would be based on faith. I think... 1. Columbus has Andrulis, is too dependent upon Martino and still has an incoherent roster. Scott is 5'7" and really is a replacement for Cunningham not Buddle. Fraser, Elliott--both great pickups. But we had great pickups last year too--so much is dependent upon the coach. Someone (Digitial? Ursula?) once said that MLS is a coaches' league--a good or great coach is a huge edge, more so than the Premiership or La Liga. 2. Chicago--I'm not convinced Damani Ralph is the real deal and can replicate his season. I think they might have a terrible defense this year (Bocanegra was such a stopper AND defensive glue, Thornton was such an organizer). I think Chicago will be great in 2005 (when Buete, et. al. have a year's seasoning and have worked with Dave Sarachan for a year. But not 2004--this is not their year. 3. NE--on paper very strong. And they could be if Twellman stays healthy. There's a lot to like here--especially Nicol's track record of teams that peak at just the right time. But I think the center of their defense is weak and getting weaker. 4. Metros--I'm not quite as optimistic as Digital is here. Maybe Pope will stay healthy. I think he'll have more injury issues than usual. There are callups and USMNT camps and his season has already started with health issues. Bonseu is good but not as an organizer--this team is SO dependent on Pope for their backline. And Galvan Rey needs to prove he's a good fit for MLS. There is some fine young talent here. But other than Guevara (who was quite a find), Bradley has been striking out on his efforts to bring in non-American talent and this is a team that struggled even more than we did by the end of the season to score goals. On paper, I'd still have us last. But the game ain't played on paper. I think we'll be more of a TEAM (instead of a collection of egos and all-stars) this year. Roles and systems will be clearer. We'll be more athletic. We'll get more transition goals. We probably won't have a 15 goal scorer. But I think we'll have a couple of players that score 5-8 goals and we'll be in the middle of the MLS pack in terms of goal scoring.
Probably because at best, soccer gets a passing mention. DCU almost never warrant anything more than a small blurb of the result, and replay clips are few and fat between. Hell, even during the World Cup, local news didn't give a damn about it until the USA upset Portugal, beat Mexico, and got screwed by Germany. The Post gives the best soccer coverage I've ever seen in print outside of FourFourTwo, and Sports Illustrated is a joke as far as soccer is concerned. They exist to cover the "Big 4" sports, and I've never liked their hockey coverage, either.
SI is famous for incompetent predictions, which often serve only to predict the opposite of what they claim. The most famous such debacle was SI's choice to predict the Cleveland Indians to win the AL East in 1987--the Indians lost 101 games that year (for those of you that don't know baseball, that's an unusually terrible season). I'd say SI picking us last actually bodes quite well--if anything, we should thank them. On the other hand, expect the team they predicted to win it all to be a major disappointment.