If DC United ends up making the playoffs this year, will Moreno magically recover from his nagging injuries and play in the playoffs?
What do you think Etcheverry thinks of Moreno's performance this season? I read on an earlier post that Etcheverry would like the same core players to stay, but why doesnt he think that if he has a better striker his stats will go up and make him more valuable?
From what I heard on Sat, he's not physically injured but mentally gone. I spoke to him and said we need you out there and he said no, they can win without me. Another DCU person said he wasn't injured but has lost his confidence. Don't know the answer but it's been an expensive situation this season. K
I wonder if he is the one that Ray has refered to that "drops his shoulders once a goal is scored against United".
Actually that has happened to more than one player in some games. I wonder how close Tino is to playing. He looked pretty fine in warmups on Saturday. Could we see him on Thursday night?
"Recover" means a lot of things when it comes to Moreno. 1. He might be at the point where his body has taken such a beating that he's just not going to be able to play 3/4rs of the season. And I don't know if we can afford a maximum salary player who is only available half of the time. Look at Chicago when they're spending big bucks on Stoichkov, Nowak and Armas--and all 3 are missing for most of the season. The rest of their team has a lot of talent--but it's hard to compete on a $1.7 million cap when $.7 million of your roster usually isn't available. So he needs to recover physically enough to prove he can be counted on to play regularly. 2. He needs to recover his confidence. This has been a lost year for him. In retrospect, he might have been better off if he'd been out all year. Instead, he's gone out there (after the acupuncture treatment in bolivia) and then had problems finishing. Physically he might be better but he's a lesser player right now than he was a year ago. 3. He needs to recover Hudson's confidence. Time will tell what happens with Etcheverry. But I firmly believe that even if we make the playoffs and even advance, Hudson will be looking to open up at least 2 maximum salary slots. Amman's salary isn't enough to improve anything. And right now (especially to read Hudson's comments after Moreno left practice hurt), I think that at best, Hudson is thinking about dumping Moreno for next year and at worst, has already decided to do so. Since the first year, Moreno has been my favorite player on DC United. But when your cap is $1.7 million, you can't keep players on sentiment. We need every one of our maximum salary players to be guys we can count on to play regularly and be impact players (not just good players or blow hot and cold). I still think Moreno is our most talented front runner (not that it says much about this roster) but I think we can get someone who will provide better results for $260K (or find someone as good for far less). Ruiz and Twellman are just two examples. My understanding is that both are making far below $260K (I thought Ruiz was under $100K but could be wrong and heard that Twellman was at the league minimum--though that sounds wrong).
No, you're right... Twellman is only making $24k, but I have a feeling he's gonna be asking for a little contract renegotiation. He took quite a cut to come back here... his salary in Germany was rumored to be around $300k.
At this point, I could care less if Moreno came back for the playoffs. I am willing to give him another chance next season, but I don't get the impression the more important people feel the same way.
Moreno is gone. I think based on Hudson's comments we have all seen the last of Moreno in a United kit.
Obviously I am a big Moreno fan but I can see the thinking with Hudson here.. It seems rather clear that Hudson is more than annoyed with Moreno and his constant string of injuries.. Now obviously you can't be upset with a player if they are injured but it seems to me that Jaime is not exactly giving his best effort to remain healthy or work his butt off to get healthy.. I think Hudson early on realized that without Moreno, this team was lacking some serious presence up front and almost rushed him back into the lineup.. I'm not sure that is exactly what happened but it appears to be the case to the naked eye.. Of course we don't have any access to practice outside of Dyson's reports and few of them of late have been rather critical of Jaime and his efforts.. Too bad as I still maintain that a healthy Jaime is worth the maximux salary, but alas, he has not been healthy for the better part of 2 seasons now and it seems to be time to move on to different options.. I only hope and pray that he doesn't come back in a Metro's uniform to rain goals upon us.....