I would like FCD to have the following priorities in the off-season: 1) Resign Dax McCarty 2) Buy David Ferreira 3) Find another striker as Jeff Cunningham backed up by Brek Shea is insufficient. Lesser priorities: 1) Form loan partnership with River Plate. 2) Send Rocha home.
I get the feeling that Dax won't be back. I don't think Bus coach likes him. I bet we could get a pretty good player in a trade though.
Good topic. I am thinking that Dax is gone if gets any type of offer elswhere, and David stays. I also think Rocha, Pablo, Torres, Wally and Wagner are all gone, with perhaps. Lots of turnover of spare parts this off season, but I think we probably have 9 starters for next season already here. I hope that the CAP partnership gets a young forward who gives JC some competition, unlike Ricardino. I would also like to see a new right mid, but SH seems to really like Harris, so I am probably SOL.
Sign Dax and buy Ferreira. This one should be a no-brainer. Take away a couple of wonderstrikes from Cunningham and these two were responsible for all offense generated during the latter part of the season. Reinforce striker position. As already stated, Shea is not quite ready for prime-time yet and who knows where Jeff ends up? Begin developing next generation of DM and outside MF. VdB and DH are no spring chickens and Harris, while showing the athleticism and willingness to do that which is required by this system; well, he doesn't seem to be great enough at either to be a long-term solution. He will definitely be serviceable for next season if Chavez isn't ready. We need a young DM to build around. Could Wallace be that guy? Buy George John a Cech-helmet. This guy is fragile; we need to keep Davies on the roster
I predict this offseason will feature very low turnover except for Rocha and Ricchetti. With two first round draft picks and Leyva taking up a roster spot next year, this is gonna be a pretty damn competitive training camp coming up.
Don't forget about the expansion draft - I expect to loose one of the players who went to the U-20 World Cup - especially Wallace. (who should have gone but was injured)
This is going to be an interesting off-season for FCD, the most interesting in quite a while. Certianly they need to sign Dax and Ferreira to long term deals. I would also lock up Jair Benitez. Not sure of contract status of Davies but he must be kept as well, he is a salty player - with Pablo leaving and John being fragile, Davies is a key man. Dax I think is THEY key man and hopefully Dax and SH have buried the axe. Seemingly with his PT and style of play and being such a key man in the starting XI I'd hope he is happy and SH is happy with him. My biggest ??s come up top. Cunn. had a re-birth, but only after being benched early, and lots of tinkering with the lineup. SH is married to the 4-4-2, which is fine and my preferred lineup, but right now we only have one proven striker on the team. With all the roster and lineup moves FCD went through this season for Marosovic not to be able to get on the field at all in any meaningful MLS game - that is a very, very, very bad sign. Cunn. won the Golden Boot but is no spring chicken. I'd say we need to sign 2 true strikers. This could be impacted by the health of Sanchez though I have no idea of his status. We need reinforcement up top. I still think Shea can be a fantastic striker for us if given the chance but SH often played him out wide employing more of a 4-5-1. Regardless. Although I don't like the fact that SH could not work with what he had and under-performed for so long, I will give him credit for the team turnaround and the exciting 2nd half. Also now that the team has been molded more to his liking and style, I think FCD will be very competitive in 2010 from the opening whistle. MLS is getting better and better and there is more quality across the board. FCD will need to start the season the way they played the last month or so. I'll be there opening game with high hopes. I would really like to see the River Plate partnership come to true official fruition in the off-season. Also, I'd drop the Tigres partnership and try to link up with America of FMF, don't know if this is possible or not. I see the following players leaving for sure: Pablo Rocha Wallace One of Purdy/Torres One of Avila/Guarda
I would like to see FCD find a way to get Findley from RSL. I think he would fit into SH's scheme very well.
GA players are protected from the expansion draft. That said I have to believe that Wallace has surely graduated from GA.
there is, but it's different per person. When a player signs as young as Wally or Shea did it's much longer than say a player like Avila who was later in college.
As much as I feel (want/hope/wish) Dax needs to stay I don't see a place for him in the lineup. As stated many times, SH is married to the diamond 4-4-2. That makes Dax the odd man out since he doesn't play CDM (although he (Dax) did a great job when asked to, Hernandez is the preferred starter there) and you're not moving out David now that he's really started to figure the league out and play as the #10. You could make a case that David could play as the second striker, but I think you're losing some of his ability when you do that. He will float back anyway and turn you back into a 4-5-1 again, which I think SH will frown upon. Of course there's nothing garaunteed Hernandez is back next year, especially since he's voiced he preferrs Mexico.
The more I think about it, I hope that FCD makes a big signing at forward this offseason. I like Jeff, and think it was an awesome run. But I have little belief that he can duplicate that run next season being a year older, and let's be honest, that was an extreme form he was in. I still think he can bang in 10+ goals, but I still want to see another guy brought in to either be the man, with Jeff playing alongside, or being rotated in. That doesn't play up to JC's ego, which I think helped him strive this year, but I don't really care. Will I get what I want, all signs point to no, but we will see.
i really dont think wally is goin anywhere this offseason. he doesnt count on the cap with his GA status, we are grandfathered on our GA's so we are gold there. we dont really have a bunch of DMers other than Hernandez and With LB solid and chamionship quality depth in Jair and Pierce, wally being pushed to DM makes sense on this squad. Pablo will stay just long enough to be one of the guys we dont cover in the expansion draft. Question: Can a guy like Rocha even be available for an expansion draft or are loans a transaction between 2 clubs? or are all these agreements technical through MLS b/c of the way the entity is setup? for example, we set up a partnership with river, since mls is one entity how do you make an agreement with a club within that entity? can a loaned out player be picked? just curious. expandable: wagner purdy rocha pablo torres Burse bruno is a ga on the mls dunno if he keeps it. ga's wont count as having to be covered so we arent at risk of losing and dont have to protect any of these guys unless they graduate from the program: brek bruno peri llambo wally as ar as i can tell, last time they expanded the rule was you could protect 11 guys their were some restrictions, one was total team internationals (dallas has 5) minus 3 was the max you could put available. so we could put a max of 2 internationals available. internationals: david jair marvin rocha torres bruno is listed as a DI or dev international. guys i want to protect: 5 Jair Benitez D 1979-01-11 Colombia SI 0 17 Marvin Chavez M 1983-11-03 Honduras SI 0 9 Jeff Cunningham F 1976-08-21 Jamaica S 11 15 Kyle Davies D 1989-04-11 USA S 0 10 David Ferreira M-F 1979-08-09 Colombia SI 0 16 Atiba Harris M-F 1985-01-09 St. Kitts S 3 2 Daniel Hernandez M-D 1976-07-23 USA S 8 3 Ugo Ihemelu D 1983-04-03 Nigeria S 4 14 George John D 1987-03-20 USA S 0 13 Dax McCarty M 1987-04-30 USA S 3 24 Heath Pearce D 1984-08-13 USA S 0 44 Dario Sala GK 1974-10-17 Argentina S 4 7 Dave van den Bergh M 1976-05-07 Netherlands S 3 if they go by last times rules, 2 guys out of that list wont be able to be protected. if they take a squad member all the rest are safe.
I think you are right on with these players. Here's hoping we retain Purdy who is young and American rather than Torres. The same thing goes for Avila vs. Guarda...
Am I correct in thinking that Pearce was only signed to a contract through the end of the year? It also seems like if this is the case that maybe we also had an option on the contract. I really forget what's up with his contract. Buzz?
I thought the 50K was for the last part of this season, and that there was some much higher number for next. I just can't believe a USMNT guy would sign for so little money for a full season. Then again, we saw what KCJ was playing for so....