How on earth could this be a good sign?
Francis Doe, a 22-year-old Liberian forward who had two goals in eight appearances for the Red Bulls last year, is on trial with United. The club has two open roster spots.
Really? We’re retreading Red Bull never-were’s. This has me worried.
Yet again, one of Ives’ headlines fools me. First I thought the Red Bulls had signed Bernie Sanders, now today, I see this headline.
Former MetroStars execs among leading candidates to be new Red Bulls director
I had only one thought, one joyful, gleeful thought… Charlie Stillitano was back!
But alas, it was someone I’d never heard of and someone who might even be competent.
Oh, the disappointment.
You read that right, even on this day of negativity.
So DC United regularly puts out a web article called United Newsstand, a quick list of links to both print and blog stories about United. I often take a look at it and so do many others because it regularly is one of this blog’s largest referrers. I thank them for that.
But I am stunned, absolutely stunned that they linked to my two very critical posts I wrote this morning. This I must commend. It is a very confident and “grown-up” organization that links to articles written by part-time former sportswriters that criticize the team and coach. There are far larger organizations (like the Knicks or Ohio State) that would never, ever do that and probably even ban or threaten me for writing that.
Full credit to United for taking the good coverage with the bad. More teams should follow in their path.
I really thought this was going to be the year that the squad-depth bugaboo that has been hurting United was finally solved. But with just a couple injuries and tactical rests, United goes out and throws a dog turd on the “field” like they did against RSL. As always*, Dave is dead on here:
This continues to expose an issue that I’ve had with United since last year, that its approach towards the draft is hurting the club.
While the college soccer system has a lot of flaws, it has proved to be an effective pipeline for MLS for those who choose to use it properly, with Steve Nicol and Dominic Kinnear are the two most obvious examples. Dave Kasper and Tom Soehn have clearly decided that player development isn’t high on their priorities list. As a result, we have players like Dominic Mediate and Rod Dyachenko who, despite having been in the league for three and four years, have yet to show that they are capable of being anything more than garbage-time subsitutes (although, in fairness, Dyachenko had a decent game tonight).
And, speaking of depth, where is Quavas Kirk already? He’s not on the injury report.
* Unless he is talking about pizza, of course
This is amazing, simply amazing.
Beitar Jerusalem’s notorious right-wing supporters are at it again, this time causing their likely title-clinching win over Hertzilya to be called off for two field invasions. That’s obviously a bad thing. But how about what the club’s owner, Alexander Gaydamak said about the supporters.
“It’s my team, not their team. They should go out from the stadium, they should go out from Beitar, they should go out from our lives. Those people are hopeless, they are insolent…and stupid,” the Russian-born billionaire said in English on Israeli Army Radio.
“I am the team and I have no intention to sell it. The idiot bastards can leave,” Gaydamak told Army Radio Monday. “The fans that went wild yesterday are bastards, and I have no respect for them. While their numbers are in the thousands, they are not the majority.” Continue reading
But Jason Kreis –and I know some RSL fans may not believe this, but I think it is true — Jason Kreis outmanaged Tom Soehn in this game. Once he saw the situation on the field, he shifted his players to take advantage of it.
How often do you think that Coach Soehn gets outcoached and do you think it is a reason to be concerned yet? I am not yet at that point, but I’ll admit, the thought has entered my mind. Especially with this man available. See who after the jump. Continue reading
DC United did not take getting a positive result Saturday night seriously – not tactically, not physically, not one friggin bit. With a CONCACAF match last Wednesday and a divisional game Thursday, the United brass made the decision that it was acceptable for the team to lose this match.
And you know what? They had few other choices. I am going to write more on this later, but what MLS has done to DC and Houston has been nothing short of a disgrace. No wonder Kinnear is getting cranky and that Soehn already did. If MLS wants its teams to succeed internationally, then it needs to allow them to do so, both in terms of roster/salary restrictions and scheduling.
It does no one any good to have MLS teams “take nights off” like DC did on Saturday. One hoped that would stay in the NBA, where the interminable regular season grind makes that almost unavoidable for older players. But clearly this concept has entered MLS now as well, and despite its assault on the old fashioned “we always try to win” ethos of sport, it actually makes sense.
Fighting Talker 