Tally Hall

Signing Tally Hall would be a HUGE mistake for multiple reasons. Let me just list a few:

1. Salary
2. IF he creates competition for Deric and splits time with him on starting lineup then you'll piss off Deric who waited patiently for his time to come. You then have an unhappy young GK that will ask for a trade, and a happy older keeper that doesn't have that much, if any, time left in his career.
3. If he doesn't create competition for Deric, then you just spent a chunk of money on Hall for no reason.
4. Injuries.
5. He's a good shot-stopper but cannot distribute the ball. Now that he's older and full of injuries that seems to be fading.
6. Not better than Deric, too expensive as a backup.


If Houston cannot survive a couple of games with a backup goalkeeper, then that's not on Deric. That's on Willis, who has the talent to be in this spot. You can't blame him for opening day. Defense was the problem. Not even Buffon during the 06 World Cup could have prevented last night.

 

Hall is starting to be pretty injury prone at this point. That's a signing you make if Deric has a season-ending injury.

 

Loved Tally when he wore orange (well, teammates did)... but no thanks.
Might as well ask to take back Ngwenya... or Oburro.

 

Tally is great dude, but he is really banged up. If you could get him on the cheap (I don't know much about new MLS FA salary rules) then maybe. But as WC said-that's only if Deric goes down, but even then I think they would expect Brown to hold down the fort behind Willis.

It pains me, but Tally's top flight days might be over. I can't see him playing down a level but if he still wants to play there are teams at the NASL or USL level that could use his services.

But his knee is a major issue, and probably the main reason no one wants to take a chance on him.

 

What do people think of Brown? I had the idea he was being brought in to be another serious option and it looks like he didn't win the 2 spot b/c Willis started the first game with the starter down.

Hall has had two knee injuries in a position that involves constant lateral movement and where excellence involves explosive gymnastic ability (disinterested in Perk these days for similar reasons). His GAA has ballooned up to 1.4 with OC included. He would be a significant upgrade on Willis -- let's not even BS about that -- but he'd also be an injury risk, and for that reason I'd pass. Surely there is some keeper out there we can get with some talent and not bad knees.

That being said, Willis is a hair under 2.0 GAA. I think he has some aerial presence but gets post to post poorly. The goals are often solid (SJ gaffe being one where he in fact screwed up), but Deric (and Onstad and to some extent Hall) underlines that some of your job as a keeper is the spectacular. If you can't make some "how did he get to that" stops, you're not that great a keeper. I would like to see another option, but not one with Hall's injury history.

One of the reasons I didn't like Willis as a choice is I assume he is CBA-guaranteed, even under old rules, as well as on a new deal we voluntarily did, which means having acquired the fruitcake it is difficult to move.

 

One thing I'd like to see end is this treatment of Deric as above it all in terms of competition. This attitude that after the #1 you just need bodies, needs to go. Willis has now played 4 games allowing 9 goals, including a season opener. We need either solid veterans in their own right -- better than Willis -- or we need future prospects. That if the bench keepers play it is more than a hopeful act.

We should be using roster spots purposefully, not just filling space. The offense is better that way this season, but that attitude doesn't seem to be being used on defense (too much mediocrity) or keeper (ok starter, immunized from competition, and then what?). No one should be safe particularly with our stats and standing.

You look at Dallas with Gonzalez and it would have been easy to content themselves with Kennedy. Even when we had Onstad we were grooming keepers like Hall who could hold their own.

 

100% Agree. When we had Onstad we felt secure about our future because we had Hall who seemed solid and had the guts to go Norway to gain some experience (Don't recall if he ever actually played), and below him we had a young academy kid who loved the team and was willing to wait for his chance.

Now we have Willis who although extremely cheap is not very valuable. I'd rather play and groom Calle brown (age 23) and bring in an Academy kid to learn and back them up as needed.