What now?

Keep Iggy. Dump Fabrio. Pray to the soccer gods that we can find a replacement for Preki. Lay down and cry because I'm sure we'll squander away our draft picks for some third rate has-been.

 

I actually typed this line on the end my original post but backspaced it out because I thought it sounded too synical. Glad to hear I'm not alone on this one.

We do stand to gain some quality players next year if they do make the right moves.

 

It doesn't feel good to crash out. There's no shame in the way they did. LA found a counter attack game that has been hidden for about 2 months. You have to tip your hat to Cobi and forget that Game 3 should not have even been a reality. Oh well. The game was pretty much decided after the set piece went in for 1-0. If you saw NE play tonight you would wonder how LA will run past thier athletes.

Back to KC, The margin between KC and LA is thin. KC's one consistent assassin away from being a carbon copy of LA. Neither team can come back or stop a counter.

1)BG - The record says only 1 more loss than LA, and KC certainly has no Ruiz or Cobi. Fire the players who can't hit net from 6 yds. Fire the GM who can't get a full roster by March and eventually something closer to a Twellman/Ruiz. How many ties are wins if Twellman roams up front at Arrowhead all year? It's a fine line.
2)Preki: C'mon, how do you punt your leading scorer? All he has to do is practice with the Comets and he'll realize where his place is.
3)Fabbro has to greatly improve to be in this league.
4)KC must upgrade speed everywhere.
Draft Needs: a Jim Curtain-like D with a brain and have Vermes teach him everything he knows before thanking him for a good career. A Preki replacement {good luck}. Speed.

If I own the place, only the players change and CJ would understand that the track record of slightly sub-par personel moves is well established and results are expected. Champion to two consecutive #8 seeds is simply a failure of personel decisions.

 

I’m kind of ambivalent about Bob. Sure, he brought us our only two pieces of silverware in 2000, and it would seem wrong to dump him now. We, and the Wizards front office, have to ask ourselves if anyone else could have done a better job with the squad we have, considering injuries and everything else. I don’t know that anyone could. At the same time, there have been occasions when Bob’s tactics seemed suspect. But I’m just a fan with no experience in coaching, so what do I know?

More ambivalence here. It’s no secret that Preki is past his prime, that he’s likely to go downhill from here on out. When I think about the year he spent with Miami (we sure could have used his passion that season!), I get notions that maybe he has a season or two left in him. But then I see him try his Cutback™ move, and all too often this season he was stripped of the ball, not only because defenders expect it now, but because he’s lost a step in his quickness. My guess is that we see him one more season and that his playing time is cut back as his effectiveness wanes.

I’m not so sure we should ditch Dario. At times he has looked brilliant. Same goes for Igor. No doubt their respective injuries have contributed to their loss of form over the course of their time in KC. And while that is a convenient excuse, I do hope the two of them can get healthy in the off season and come back for 2003 to play on the pitch together, forming a potent striking partnership. Failing that, we can always resort to procuring a clone of Miklos Molnar.

Defense, defense, defense. I think we can all agree that we need better defenders. Nicky is turning into a top-rate MLS defender, but he has lapses of concentration that have cost us dearly. Vermes is solid but is getting old and has lost a step or two since his great performances of 2000. I never much liked Talley when he was with DC, but his play this season has definitely changed my opinion about him. And will someone tell me why Burns was ever signed?

Okay, this next bit of opinion may be unpopular, but here goes: Meola must sit and be happy with #2. Get rid of either Bo or Goode. Bring in a quality ‘keeper to be our #1. Hamhock, for all that he’s given us, has really lost it. No less than three of those goals last night were stoppable, or at least should have produced an almost-save, yet Tony was either way off his line or was badly positioned. Experienced ‘keepers shouldn’t make these kinds of mistakes, especially when the stakes are this high. Who to bring in? I don’t have an answer. But there’s bound to be someone better than Tony, someone who is young and has plenty of years in him.

The midfield: all too often I see how beautifully we can strip the ball in our defensive end, pass it neatly and crisply to get it to midfield, and then.... the midfield slows it down and looks confused, or the midfield lobs it forward with little effect. Klein can be dangerous wide right, and I see how they don’t want to resort to using that all game long as it would become predictable and thus easy to shut down. I’ve already addressed Preki’s limitations in the attacking mid. Zavagnin seems to have no creativity for long stretches, and often looks painfully unsure of himself outside his own half. Diego is the bright spot in the midfield; with some better players around him, he’ll only improve. Quill looks like he is about to break out at any time, such is his talent.... but he never seems to really threaten.

These are just some random thoughts, and I reserve the right to change my opinion if someone can present valid or at least plausible arguments.

Up the Wizards!

 

Didn't we learn our lesson in 2001 about writing Preki off?

May I remind Wizards fans that Preki led the team this year in goals and assists. He's one of those rare athletes that isn't as affected by age, like Elway or Agassi or Clemens. He had 3 goals in the LA series too. If he wants to play, he's got a spot in my starting 11.

If Fabbro dedicates his offseason to getting in shape for a whole season of MLS, I think he has the skills to be a good possession striker. He holds the ball well and has good instincts around the goal.

We need a good, big central defender to replace Vermes, who is slowing too much. Are they available?

Meola had a terrible series, but I don't think he's done. The season as a whole, he played well.

Any knee-jerk reaction to dump him or Gansler is just frustration talking. But in the past 2 years, C.Johnson has made more bad moves than good, so he'll have to change that this offseason.

 

People have been saying this about Preki since, sheesh, probably '99. Yes, the cutback is old, and yes he gets stripped of the ball a lot, but do we have ANYONE who can deliver a pass like Preki? Losing a step isn't so bad when you can make up for it with other parts of your game.

 

1) Unless he pledges to commit to attack next year, fire Gansler. If he's willing to give us more of what we saw in Games 2-3, (even the 5-2 loss), I'd be willing to keep him.

2) Keep Preki

3) Keep Fabbro - between the injuries to him and Simutenkov, we really don't know what could have been. He does have talent, and he is young. I'm also pretty sure he's cheap.

4) I expect some older players to move on - or get cheaper. Do we really need Vermes, Burns, or McKeon? I think Armstrong, Quill, and Gutierrez are great pick ups. I'm sure Arnaud is cheap, as is Brownie. Obviously the team saw something in Brunt, I'm willing to give him a little slack. If he sucks in spring training, axe him.

Standing pat is not an option. The league does continue to improve. We've gone from 1 of 12 to 8 of 12 to 8 of 10 in three years. Let's not fool ourselves. I don't know that this team is really that much worse than our cup winning side. I do think that the rest of the league is that much better.

 

I think it's a LOT WORSE. Meola is half the player he was. No Molnar. No Prideaux. Get those three guys and back and I think we could win the Cup. We may have been 8/10, but we were 3/10 in terms of not losing. I mean, it's all real close. We're basically an average team, maybe slightly below average.

 

But he is entertaining, which is more than I can say for many of the Wizards' games I watched this season.

 

Kudos on these two points. Thanks KC for playing entertaining soccer, wish all MLS games were like that.

 

Bob- he should go, it is the regular season that matters, without a good regular season we get absolutely no home feild advantage.

Preki- He will come back, he always come back. I don't see him as a problem on this team. Though it would be nice to have his allocation.

Fabbro- he should stay, he is cheap (only was a discovery pick) It is a big IF but if he works real hard with Igor during this offseason they could be a leathal duo.

Defense- should be the #1 priority during the offseason. I am sorry but Vermes just doesn't have it anymore. Maybe we could trade a first round #3 pick for a good starter. Remember we traded a first round #5 pick for Gutierez.

People we should keep are. Deigo, Zavagnin, Meola Preki, Igor, Klein

People I would like to stay but are open for trades are. Talley, Armstrong, Quill, Brown, Fabbro

People I would like to trade or retire. Vermes, Burns, Brunt, Bo, McKeon, Gomez, Buciagra (he injures easily, dump him and pick someone else up in the draft, he should be coming off of Pro-40 status)

 

Prideaux was actually at the home match vs. LA. I said hello to him in section 116 or 117.

Prideaux in 2001 was no where near the player he was in 2000. Frankly, I don't know how he was that good in 2000.

Gansler needs to find a permanent place for Armstrong. He just has too much talent. we don't have that many players with flair that it's a shame to see him on the bench.

Guti sucked last night, but I still like him next to zavagnin at defensive mid, and with klein starting to heat up, preki holding and armstrong, that's a pretty solid midfield for 2003.

 

What is this, Battle of the Bens?

Prideaux was very good. Meola was much better two years ago. And Molnar KC 2000 would cream KC 2002. 1-0 over and over again. We've gotten worse in absolute terms.

I still don't see why my Columbus vs. Colorado is so much more nutty than your NE vs. LA. Columbus is going to the MLS Cup Final, that is FOR SURE!

 

Prideaux is the key.

Don't forget Molnar and SuperMeola. All I'm saying is that if we had those three guys, we would win the Cup.

 

I agree with all of this. Fabbro is very good.

 

That happens when your GK play goes down, you can't stop anyone home or road, AND you can't score consistently. Even worse when the quality of the league has risen noticably. Still, I would take KC's bench this season, man for man, no question.

 

If Bob signs aways his soul and refuses to bunker I will let him stay one more season.

Fabbro needs to be sold, we need to get Henderson back at all cost and for god's sake Igor, fscking run a little bit would you?

 

Diego over Vermes..NO WAY. Vermes may have lost a step in the last year or so but he is still the backbone of what little defense we have. He leads this team from the back. Deigo is good but doesn't bring the same leadership skills.