does anyone know who else Bradley has in mind on picking up? im just wonderin if anyone has any inside info on the board. besides Mario, who else are we gonna see wearing the nicest jersey in the league. another thing, anyone know when they plan to relsease photos of the away jersey's?
"besides Mario, who else are we gonna see wearing the nicest jersey in the league." Are we going to see him? He is a mid distributor right? If we don't get him who plays that position? We already gave away a decent distributer. Will Moreno be worth the price at striker? I doubt it. Did we need a back who is paid the league max Pope. No offense but decent backs are a dime a dozen. Also what we needed in the past and what we need now is a backup keeper. Grafer is not the answer.
Is there any truth to the Giovanni Savarese comeback stuff or is that a bunch of baloney? See "These message boards are getting ridiculous" postings.
I was a little worried about that as well, but with the transfer window closing and Mario not going to England, I'm pretty sure he's ours. I doubt the kid wants to sit for 6 months. I also hope that Bradley wouldn't release a good playmaker without being VERY sure we would get the replacement. I didn't think he would either, but after seeing a couple of articles regarding Moreno, I've come around. He's still going to have to perform, but from the looks of it, Moreno is a type of player who responds more to the coach's style. He responds for some coaches (Arena/Bradley) and doesn't give a crap for others (Rongen/Hudson). All of the reports I've seen since the season ended indicate that Moreno is driven to be the best this season, and apparently blew everyone away in that Nat's camp he trained with. True, good backs are a dime a dozen, but good organizers are a bit more rare. Last season, we had good defenders, but they were clueless as to where they were supposed to be. They didn't seem to have their positioning down and players went through untouched because of that. Pope is one of the best at organizing a back line, and that was one of our biggest needs last season. It was a bit expensive to fill that need, but in the long run, it will likely be worth it. While an upgrade at backup keeper would be nice, it's nowhere near our most glaring need. We need wingmids first and foremost. Howard is one of the most durable keepers in the league. Until that red card last season, I think he'd played every minute of every game for the past 2 seasons.
Build a core. Howard - Best XI keeper. Pope - National Team fixture. Mario - Playmaker for UD Salamanca last year. Mathis - Best in league when healthy. Moreno - Still makes MLS defenders uneasy. Still only 29. And find six guys who will work for them, complement them, so they can do their jobs. Who will these guys be? Jolley? Ziadie? Richie? Ricardo? Discovery? Who knows? Camp will tell. Can Metro be a Cup contender? I think we all agree the answer lies more with the core than the complementary players. If those top five can be among the league's best players, we'll be good. If they're injured, it's gonna be tough.
i don't know about Gio coming back,but he was on the st. Johns sideline as an assistant coach during the NCAA tourament.
That's a good core that shouldn't get any arguments from anyone (but will just because). Unfortunately, MFO hasn't show much core building skills over the years...
"Build a core. Howard - Best XI keeper. Pope - National Team fixture. Mario - Playmaker for UD Salamanca last year. Mathis - Best in league when healthy. Moreno - Still makes MLS defenders uneasy. Still only 29. Ok, when Howard goes to train with the national team we are left with Grafer? I do not believe he can do the job, and has not done the job in the past in my view. I think when he is in and he will be playing in a lot of games when Howard is not there. We can lose a lot of those games. I suppose we will play three backs. Jolley is an outside back and Pope in the middle who is the other outside back? I think we can find a decent out side back. Then we have to Pope excuse me hope no one gets hurt. On the mids you have to have 2 wing mids who can beat people one on one, and help move the ball up the field, and who can fall back and help defensively. Who are they? We have a big hole to fill here. Mario have not seen him play, but he has to be better then the player we let go right, and it is sure we actually have him then? Defensive mid Richie Williams. Strikers Mathis and Moreno start. Need a back up and a good backup who is the backup? Need a back up because Mathis will not always be there for a lot of reasons call ups and cards etc. You can't leave holes and win. --------- I think this scenairo can happen, people saying "wait for the playoffs when everyone returns". That line of bullshiite is used to try and get you to buy playoff tickets. Look at past performance to know that is true, and getting players back for the playoffs does not turn a bad game into a good game if your not playing a good game before. We should know that by now. It takes time playing together to get a good game. It doesn't happen in 2 weeks before playoffs.
Grafer led us to our only playoff series victory, sweeping the Dallas Burn, stopping a penalty in the process. He looked good against Bayern Munich and also against Chivas last year. He was hung out to dry against New England. If Howard was in net for that game, it still would have been a pasting by New England. Grafer is more then capable...... Bradley didn't have a true wing till Beasley came along and developed, he tended to play with defensive minded outside midfielders and play through the middle with the forwards interchanging to create room. I'm not too worried, our outside mids need only to be serviceable. Up top, we need another forward, probably two, and we can pick up those type of role players from the A-League. We can add a Johhny Torres or a John Wolyniec, who knows, maybe we can pick up Wynalda to come back for one year. Regardless, we have Magee to add a little punch to that slot, I wouldn't worry too much.
"I wouldn't worry too much." It must be nice to see the glass as half full rather then half empty. My problem is I just see the glass missing half the water as in not full.
i think getting rid of dj countess was a bad idea..who did we get for that deal anyway? i think he can be a starter in this league and we could have kept him around for a few years to backup howard and when he developed into a solid keeper that could be a starter the metros could have unloaded him for a high end offensive player
Moreno had probably his best season in MLS for Rongen. Moreno's problem is likely a combination of: (a) tremendous frustration at being a pinata in MLS (with goons whacking him so he's increasingly gotten more petulant, done more diving) and (b) injuries the past 2 years. I think that if he stays healthy he'll probably have a superb year. But the frustration factor his a huge one. As for Pope, he's absolutely superb. But be absolutely clear, he's not a defensive organizer (either with DC United or with the National team) and he's not a leader on the backline. Both Rongen and Hudson asked him at times to do that, he gave it the old college try and he just isn't. He's not very vocal on the field, doesn't do a lot of pointing or play traffic cop. However, he won't tolerate crap or half-stepping in practice. I'm not saying this to malign either guy. As United fan, I'll miss both of them tremendously and respect them both despite them wearing different colors now. Just that with Moreno, it has a lot more to do than who the coach is as far as his performance. And with Pope, he'll steady your backline--no MLS central defender matches up so well with so many diverse attackers and is such a steady player--but he's no organizer or defensive leader.
DiGi coming back.... Saw an interesting thread on the Chicago forum. Joey DiGamarino is apparently trying to return to MLS after moving to Leverkuesen. I remember him being a highly regarded left winger that had some injury problems. He played on Colorado before leaving for Germany. I'm sure most of you remember his name..... The Metros are in need of some wingers, and DiGi might be an option at that position if the price is right, not to mention what sort of machinations are in place, IE allocation draft, discovery, etc. Has anyone heard a peep from this guy since he left to go to Europe? No way he commands a high salary.....
He is in camp with DC United, is likely to visit a few other teams as well. The word is that he'll go into a weighted lottery so your team should have a reasonably good shot at him if you're interested.