From Peglow to Klich, this franchise is an abomination. Only DCU would have a DP at another club. Not sure how they do it, but they do! I also saw a rumor about a Peruvian right back coming here. Makes sense given our second best player is a right back.
Goff with a talk with Mackay: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/12/20/dc-united-mateusz-klich-trade-draft/
Everyone young and talented has left this team, but yea we are one of the oldest teams in the league at the end of the season.
I like to watch videos from PBS Space Time about theories of Quantum Entanglement, dark matter and dark energy. Then I come here reading about cap space, TAM, GAM, DPs and crap and get all confused.
Eating the salary to the extent it still occupies a DP spot is a tough pill to swallow but let’s be real, Klich was one of the biggest disappointments on the team last year, even before accounting for his salary.
Klich was still a good MLS player last year and had 13 assists. I highly doubt this move will improve the team next year given the minimal benefit we are getting from the trade. I'm not a big fan of our recent moves at all. The only player I like is Schnegg. The rest just look like MLS bench level players at best.
I thought Klich was fine but started to look old in the summer and beyond. He also went a little far with some of the shithousery and actually hurt the team.
He took all the free kicks with the golden boot winner in the side and had 5 primary (actual) assists. Enough with the hockey second assist nonsense. He scored twice, both times from the spot. There’s a reason the highest salary another team is willing to pay is $300k. And as Yowza mentioned, there were far too many games last year where he was more interested in winding up the opponent and ref than anything else. The only thing he led the team in was yellow cards, of which he picked up an absurd 10.
I thought of a weird but unlikely scenario. Let’s say Klich has a good start to the year and Atlanta offers him a DP contract extension for 2026. Will he still count as one of our DPs in 2026? I don’t see it happening after an age 35 season but you never know.
A D.C. United Round 1: Hakim Karamoko (No. 10) - F, North Carolina State Round 2: Daniel Ittycheria (No. 40) - F, Princeton Round 3: Jonah Biggar (No. 70) - D, South Carolina Round 3: Grant Bailey (No. 86) - D, Loyola Chicago Karamoko is a dynamic, athletic forward who can help occupy spaces next to Christian Benteke. He has the profile to play right away. Ittycheria profiles a bit more out wide, though both fit snugly into Troy Lesesne’s system
Doesn't mean he necessarily approves.... or thinks they are other than deck chairs But I am curious - does anyone have any more-than-anecdotal info re: do kids from the US that play ball in college before MLS prove to have better (more impactful) pro careers/statistics than kids that skip college and go MLS directly? How many US college kids get drafted/hired for clubs in Europe or SA? I am trying to get some sense of which route turns out overall more pros that make an impact - have longer than typical short pro career.
Here's a list of Americans abroad. I couldn't find anyone keeping the data or a way to just get the college kids who bypassed MLS, but my guess is that outside of 3-4 dozen names that we know from some starts on the NT, theres some kind off heavy split between college & academy players. https://us.soccerway.com/players/players_abroad/united-states/ A more interesting exercise which I have no interest in performing myself would be looking at what percentage of the available playing time is actually played by Super Draft picks. I found 2 resouces on the subject. 2017 - https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/7r9emc/analyzing_the_mls_draft/ 2020 - https://www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2020/10/25/super-or-just-draft I am sure the numbers get better every year, but I'd guess that the numbers don't support going the college route vs the academy route someplace/anyplace. That choice is driven by first building themselves a safety net of an education and second the lack of access to an opportunity as a trialist. I also didn't find any concrete info on what the duration of the average Super Draft pick's career. Google's AI said 3-5 years but I am sure that is a ultra SWAG as a significant percentage don't even get signed which would put a 0 into the statistics dragging down the average. Stroud - Colgate/RB u23/RB/Austin/Stl/DCU Murrell - Georgetown/DCU Herrera - New Mexico/FC Tuscon/RSL/Real Monarchs/Montreal/DCU Birnbaum - Cal/DCU Bartlett - Loyola/Drake/St Johns/Kaw Valley FC/FCD/N Texas FC/Stl/Stl2/DCU Antley - Mercer College/Sounders u23/South Georgia (the state not the country)/Indy 11/Tampa/DCU Badgi - Boston U/pretty much everyone in MLS... Kajima - Wake/Sarasota/Stl u23/Stl <-- edited to add Looking at our list of 1st rd draft picks is a gruesome exercise that would make you question why we even bothered showing up the last few years. Odi Atsem is the last guy to give us some real minutes and none of our departed 1st rd picks have gone to much of anything. Birnbaum looks like the last of our 1st rd draft picks who really stuck around in the game, and we were decent in the draft the proceeding couple of seasons. Taylor Kemp (5 ys), NDL (6, +2 Tor), Perry Kitchen, Pontius, Rodney Wallace didn't have a bad career, but it sorta peters out back to Freddy.
BTW, in case anyone is keeping track of Messi's other than Messi, the Estonian Messi is currently plying his trade with Ho Chi Min City of the Vietnamese V.League 1.
The kids could develop, but most MLS draft picks start out as deck chairs. Joyeux Noel to all and to all a good night.
In keeping with the Christmas good wishes, let me tell you a story. My wife is very crafty. Years ago, she made a nativity scene, and we've displayed it every year at Christmas time. We got it out this year and it just didn't look right, kinda old fashioned and out of tune with the current times. So, we got rid of all the Arabs and Jews and then all the rest of the foreigners. That left us with just a donkey and a bunch of sheep. To all God's children, Merry Christmas.