Good luck to Mike Petke in the future, he has served the Metros well. However it was time for a change. Any more moves on the horizon?
Great trade for Metros!!! 3 great player for 1 decent player - a steal! Williams - played well for metros. Pope - great defensemen. Moreno - a dangerous attacker. Combine it all and I wonder how DC could have given the Metros those players. Good job management! I look forward to a good year - it seems like one now! -stan
Yes, we just got 3 excellent players, but are we sure that Pope and Moreno will be healthy? Richie isn't getting younger either. We could have signed a really good player with the allocation, and the drafted a young player with loads of potential with the 5th overall pick. And Petke is a durable player that just had an underachieved season in 2002. I don't even want to imagine what will happen if Balboa and Pope are both injured.
I guess my attitude is that I'd rather have the allocation, pick, etc., but we'll have to just trust Bradley and wait and see. I mean, he HAS demonstrated his ability to put together a team and judge talent, hasn't he? And we're not all privy to the actual restrictions that allocations, draft picks, etc. plus money issues put on the Metros. I assume it's pretty much common knowledge around here but, frankly, not to me. So could someone verify that we know, to a reasonable degree of certainty, the Bradley actually was responsible for player personnel decisions @ Chicago? If he was then I think I'd be willing to trust his judgment. =NLK=
I went to check DC's roster to see how old these guys are. Today happens to be Pope's B-day, so happy 29th birthday, Eddie! Moreno turns 29 in Jan and ABMOD will be 33 in June. Basically the Metros are getting 2 guys in the prime of their career. RW may have only another year or two and let's face it, that may be a blessing. Another thought struck me. The Metros now have the USMNT's best defender and arguably their most skilled forward/midfielder, 2 older experienced ex-Nat DM's in Balboa & ABMOD and 3 future Nats in Akwari/Davis/Eska. Adding to that, Moreno can arguably be called one of the top foreign players the league has ever had. So, in trying to look at the cup as half full instead of half empty, the Metros could have a very formidable lineup. .......................Howard......................... Akwari................Pope...................Jolley ................Balboa.............R. Williams A. Williams.........Mathis.................Davis ............Eskadarian...........Moreno Happy Holidays!
Don't count your Eskas before they hatch. The Washington Post is reporting that DC plans to use the first pick in the draft on Eskandarian.
Plus I would much rather see Mathis up front with Moreno. I still don't think Clint is a midfielder. He's a striker who drifts back to collect the ball sometimes, sure, but a striker nevertheless.
Interesting take on the trade from the Star-Ledger's Frank Giase. http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1040715056145820.xml I'm not saying I agree with it, but there you have it.
Here's my "cup-half-empty" view on the trade; We have three players on active call-ups for the US Nats; Tim Howard, Mathis and Pope. There's also two players that have been playing for Jamaica; Andy Williams & Craig Ziadie. That's five good players being out for national team duties and risking injury. Now, Here's my "cup-half-full" view; Bradley did a damn good job with the line-up for the Fire last season; And they had plenty of call-ups and injuries. There's also plenty of time left for more trades and there's also the draft coming up.
all news, all the time Here's everything I could find about last night's big deal... Metros acquire Pope - North Jersey Herald News Trade carousel begins rolling - North Jersey Herald News Metros overhaul begins with a bang - New York Daily News MetroStars deal Petke for Pope - Daily Record Petke exits MetroStars in questionable deal - Newark Star-Ledger Etcheverry signs, clearing way for trade - Washington Post MetroStars, D.C. United complete trade - New York Times
Its a good trade.. Petke was good, and did the team well, but Pope is a much more solid defender now.. and what the Metros lacked last year imo is solid defense... anad of course a scoring touch. Also I think Mathis is much better as a forward... He had his best season with the Stars playing upfront.. and plays that role for the Nats so. We made out better for the time being. IN a few years, that may be a different answer. Collect the cups while we can!
oh... who cares!!!!!!!! I just want to see some soccer played!!!!!! You can't tell who the hell is in those uniforms from that far anyways.
Metro HQ working Christmas eve It's unanimous, every first time poster agrees that this is a great trade for the Metros.
Duh Really? I know that as I said before, stars as far as soccer in the USA is concerned means Metrostars. Not like it was hard to figure that one out...
Re: Great trade for Metros!!! I dunno. If these great players were worth the cap space, DC would have kept them. They think they can do better for the money; maybe we could have done better for the money, too. I'm not sure how RW fits in; he wasn't costing DC that much. Bradley must have wanted him as part of the deal, and I'm not about to second guess this coach. He's probably the best we've roped in since Quiroz (sp.).
Re: Re: trade goes through I've seen our Metro called Star-Star Stars in one of those hilarious translations (in this case from German) posted on the boards from time to time. It was from an article about Mattheaus coming to the (Star-Star) Stars -- a team whose practice facilities did not include hot showers, whose fans numbered in the hundreds (on a good day), and had yet to win a trophy of any kind. It was a hoot, but it hurt, too, because a lot of it rang true.
The best one of those was the BBC one earlier this year about Gazza going to DC where it had a picture of the Scum players celebrating a goal with a motionless, almost empty crowd in the background. The caption was, "The packed DC crowd go wild as United score".