Stephen Goff tells us what you'll get for Stoichkov

Seems about right. Hopefully he scores 15 goals and DC misses the playoffs again.

 

https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=27521&perpage=15&pagenumber=5

If you scroll down you will see I predicted a conditional 2004 pick for stoitchkov two days ago.

 

So the Fire's really gearing up for 2004, it seems. A youth movement in 2003, tank the season and get some young guys used to playing together and get a high draft pick in the 2004 draft, as well as loading up on other peoples' picks.

Which players' contracts will be up after the 2003 season? Hopefully they can open up some roster and salary space to bring in the league's top allocation next off-season, which they'll probably "earn" this year.

Don't judge Dave Sarachan this season... I'm not much of a Peter Wilt fan, but I think this "take a hit in 2002-2003" philosophy may be better than the D.C. United "kind-of-rebuilding" movement from 2000-ongoing. The D.C. United retooling was really held back based on the insistence to not totally revamp the core of the team (Etcheverry, Moreno, Pope, etc.) until just this offseason, but even Etcheverry is still around for another year, so they're not totally putting the past behind them in the interest of better days in the future.

With the Fire, the team is holding onto a few guys who are on the downside of their careers (Thornton, Razov, etc. mostly because they're not tradeable), but without a doubt, Nowak and Stoitchkov weren't going to be around in 2004, so maybe dealing them for 2004 draft picks is actually in the interest of increasing the value of the Fire's 2004 choices by tanking 2003 (if you miss the playoffs, the worst you'll do is the #2 pick and an allocation).

 

We were dealt a crappy hand after the final whistle at NE last year. Bob probably knew he was gonna Bail Out then, if not months earlier. Dave & Peter have done as good as anyone could expect with that hand.

I've had many moments of utter despondence over our fate next season, but in no instance do I think our management is tanking this season, and I refuse to tank this season. Build on our defensive strength to be the toughest team in the league to score against. At the very least, as supporters we can do our best to make Naperville a living hell for visitors to take points from. Our younger players will feed off of that and I promise we will have a better home record than last season (easy one eh?).

So long as we don't totally suck on the road (with a great defense you stand to be in every game) we should do no worse than last year. Our playoff game(s) may be at Soldier Field and any playoff run will be rewarded with large rowdy crowds not unlike the semi-final vs. LA in '98.

 

as if the rest of your post wasn't complete trailer trash, this statement here quite possibly put you over the top and onto the "I am a complete fool with no idea what he's talking about" list.

 

I understand Thornton might not ever get back to his opening season greatness of a 1.17 GAA, but he's still in the top 3 keepers in the US, so if you call that "downhill" bring those sights a little lower. Same with Ante, I don't know, but "slipping" all the way to number 4 on the points list for the season sure makes him on the downhill slide. Watch out obscurity!

Why didn't you mention anything about Armas not being worthwhile since he was invisible during the playoffs?

 

Yeah, not one decent tackle from him in the New England Series.

Even Razov made a good tackle on Jay Heaps' beans.

 

His aim was off on that as well, about 20 rows up.