DC Show Signs of Life

Whle I was secretly hoping for the plug to be pulled and letting this season die quietly, the Black and Red made the statement that they wanted to live.

Here are the highlights:

THE GREAT DC UNITED COACHING DEBATE

This season I have been very quiet in regards to "my team", DC United, but it is now time to weigh in on the coaching issue. I always hate to muddy the waters of BigSoccer with facts but sometimes it is just unavoidable. The current debate seems to revolve around the demise of Tom Soehn and who should replace him.

Currently there are only two people on the face of the planet with the experience to manage DC United. These two people are Steve Nichol and Tom Soehn. Nobody in the world of soccer has experience dealing with the issues that these two coaches do. The only others in the world that come close are Dominic Kinear and Preki. Kinear and Preki are close seconds but don't have quite the travel arrangements to juggle as Nichol and Soehn.

So you can vote to sack Soehn, replace him him with the only other qualified coach, one that loves Route 1 football and seems to enjoy losing the big games. You can forget about Ben Olsen, Jaime, El Diablo or Sir Alex. Get these guys and your throwing a two year investment of On-the-Job-Training away. There isn't a single one that has the experience dealing with the issues that Tommy has. The bottom line is that MLS must address the problems prohibiting the League from being competitive in International competitions while maintaining quality of play in the league.

I guess first and foremost is the congested schedule. This season DC United has 49
fixtures(not counting the playoffs) in less than 8 months (229 days). Compare that with Manchester United's(since we used Sir Alex above) schedule of 47 fixtures in 295 days.That amounts to an average, day and a half more between games for Manchester. Sir Alex Ferguson deals with his 6.28 days between games juggling a roster of 38 players, trying to keep players healthy and working around the inevitable injuries. I would also like to note that the average salary in the Premiership is $1.24M. Tom Soehn deals with his 4.77 days between games with a roster of 18 men and 10 developmental players, with a salary cap of $2.3M. While it is exciting to note that the average wage in MLS is up to $129,395 (the Designated Player Rule has alot to do to with that) the minimum for developmental players is $12,900 and for general roster players it is $30,000.


The other issue surrounding the MLS schedule is the amount of travel involved. DC United will travel over 48,000 miles(that's twice around the Earth) if we don't make the play offs.This is an issue that really can't be addressed but needs to be mentioned. Manchester United will travel close to 10,000 miles this season. They will play in one game where they will have to cross 3 time zones and one game where they cross 1 time zone. DC United on the other hand will travel to 5 games across 1 time zone, 6 games across 2 time zones, and 4 games across 3 time zones. Last year when Beckham was asked if he was surprised by anything in MLS, particularly if he was getting hacked alot, his response was something to the effect that defenders are rough everywhere. His surprise was the size of America, "the most we traveled was one to two hours". This air travel brings into play disruption in circadian rythms(jet lag) and performance issues. The general rule is that you will need a day of recuperation for each time zone crossed before you are back to "normal". Other issues such as increased swelling at altitude have to be managed.

So between jet lag and recovery times following games the bottom line is DC United is almost never training with players at optimum, combine that with a roster of 18 players and ten players that aren't making enough to live in Washington and you've got the 2008 season. Even with a strong Front Office doing a good job finding players as stop gaps the quality suffers. I've heard alot of folks say we were really unlucky with the injuries this season but the truth of the matter is that we would have been lucky to stay healthy. The bottom line is all this talk about development and fitness there really is no time in the schedule for such nonsense.

The Hospital Ward

Here's what MLSNET is showing as our current injuries:

MF Ben Olsen
OUT - ankle surgery

DF Domenic Mediate
OUT - concussion

FW Francis Doe
OUT - foot infection

DF Gonzalo Peralta
QUESTIONABLE - hamstring

MF Marcelo Gallardo
PROBABLE - hernia surgery

Of course we need to add:

GK Zach Wells
OUT - sesamoiditis

MF Fred
OUT - hamstring

Let's go down the list;
Ben Olsen. I believe even the biggest optimist will be surprised to see him contributing on the field this season.

Domenic Mediate. He had a concussion, not the rest of this, we're all too familiar with how this may play out.

Frances Doe.Doe has been out with a serious toe infection, at the end of July this was described as 2-4 weeks out, so we should be getting close.

Gonzalo Peralta. After being pushed into service following his hernia surgery, Peralta "tweaked" his hamstring. According to a report in the DC Examiner United general manager Dave Kasper says he is 2-3 weeks away from returning. This would mean he will not be available for the Open Cup final.

Marcello Gallardo. Having trouble recovering from hernia surgery done the same time as Peralta's. Kasper says 2-3 more weeks before he returns. So he also won't be available for the USOC final.

Fred. Pulled hamstring. Out 3 -4 weeks. No USOC.

Zach Wells.Sesamoiditis Return unknown.

So let's play the blame game. Bad luck? International and League schedule? Training staff? Turf fields? Salary caps? The cost of a DP?
I'll take the easy way out and say a combination of all of the above.

I will emphatically say that you can't be looking at a schedule of a game every four days for two months, with the current salary cap, and expect to see quality soccer.

Great DCU 2007 Video

Well, no white Christmas, not even a Black and Red one as we still await word on possible gifts (a central defender and midfielder will do), maybe we can buy something with our xmas money from the Perkins transfer. But in lieu of players, here's a fabulous 2007 video recap put together by 'jade1mls' with a little help from the Barra Brava. March is a long way away!


A downloadable hi-fi version is available here:http://www.zshare.net/download/60151686f80452/

Veron says he's staying

"he could not fail the fans of Students"

On live TV Veron states he is not going to the United States. On Estudio Fútbol he stated he would be playing for Estudiantes next season. When asked specifically about the possibility of transferring in the June window he said "right now he was focused on the coming season."

Here is an article on TYC's website, the network carrying the interview.

Basically he says the money was good but he couldn't turn his back on the fans. He hopes to be telling the story of Students ten years from now to the newbies. In other words he has political aspirations at his club.

While Goff is on the road to Cary and hasn't confirmed, I call this one dead. Now let's find another number 10 and a center back

Veron -Done Deal? SI says yes, Argies say no

SI.com is reporting that Veron and DC United have agreed to terms and an official announcement will come next Wednesday.

SportingLife.com

SI reports the deal to be worth $3-4 million a year, which fits the 3 year, $10M, figures floating around.

The Argentinian press is reporting he is staying.
OLE has a couple of articles:

"I remain by my people and my companions"

http://www.ole.clarin.com/notas/2007/12/14/01564190.html

Of course until Steve Goff says its a done deal or he is staying, things are still up in the air.

Remember when there used to be a boring off season in MLS?

Veron and Lopez to DC? - (w/video compilation)

As DCenters illustrates it is impossible to judge or evaluate off season trades and aquisitions in a vacuum. The dust will have to settle before final appraisals can be made, but Veron(32yo) and Lopez(33yo) scare me. I guess Lopez more than Veron.

It looks like Gomez is gone and we'll be replacing him with Veron. Okay I get that.

The Lopez pick up worries me though. Moreno's future is up in the air and we need a striker. Lopez and Veron have played together before for Club and Country. The picture above is from the 2002 World Cup. Seventeen years ago they played in the sixth division of Estudiantes de la Plata for six months with Veron's father as the trainer. I don't think that really qualifies as a natural pairing.

So it looks like Moreno might go and if not he is aging and is best as a late minute sub. It looks like we'll be replacing him with an aging striker who is coming in as a late sub for Racing. I don't get that.

That's why I write a blog.

I really don't want to beat a dead horse with this but Veron has a much cooler nickname. Claudio Lopez is known as "El Piojo", the louse, hardly strikes fear in my heart. My wife teaches in an elementary school and it makes her a little uncomfortable. Oh well.

Hopefully Veron will help DC United add to their trophy case. He has seen his share of hardware during his storied career to this point. Veron has won:

UEFA Cup - 1999
European Super Cup - 1999
Italian Cup - 1999, 2000, 2005, 2006
Italian Serie A - 2000, 2006
Italian Super Cup - 2000, 2005
English Premier League : 2003
Argentine Division: Apertura 2006

Here is some video for your enjoyment. If you are short on time go to the 2:24 mark for a sweet free kick... or the pass at 4:05.

Boswell's Gone

NO WAY DUDE!

I don't mean just in this picture. Goff is reporting that Boswell has been traded to Houston for GK Zach Wells and a future draft pick. DC is in need of a keeper as Perkins may be heading to Norway. Keep up with all the wheeling and dealing at Soccer Insider.

Remembering the Customer

It seems the biggest problem with businesses today is delivering quality service. We hear and see the failures continually. It seems that the days of "the customer is always right" idiom has died. I actually think the problem is much deeper than that however, I believe the failures in delivering good service are a result of forgetting who the customer is. The Red Bulls provide a prime example today.



The press surrounding the newly redesigned Red Bull Park has been incredible (of course it is like a Bigfoot sighting).Today's SportsBusiness Journal has an article lauding Red Bull management's decision to move the press corp closer to the action.
Don Muret reports:

"The trend in sports is for teams to design press boxes in the upper regions of their new arenas and stadiums. In the NBA, clubs are moving beat writers farther from the court to free up space on the floor so they can sell $1,000 courtside seats.

By contrast, Red Bull Park, when it opens sometime in 2009 in Harrison, N.J., will position the media in the stadium’s sweetest spot, 100 seats at midpitch behind the team benches."

"In addition, stadium architect Rossetti is designing what project officials are calling the “Flash Zone,” a controlled space on the west side near the entrance of the tunnel leading to the locker rooms where reporters can get quick postgame interviews as the players leave the field.

The open-air interview area will be just a few steps from the media seats, McGowan said. Red Bull Park will also contain a traditional interview room beneath the stands and auxiliary press space on the second of two suite levels."

The article goes on:

"“We’ve got a great group of writers in New York, but they really can’t hear and fully capture the atmosphere of the game,” said Red Bulls spokesman Andrew McGowan. “This way, they will be close to the action and be able to better describe it.”"

"McGowan acknowledged that the Red Bulls could have generated significant revenue from selling the media seats as season tickets at a premium price."

So what's wrong with that? Nothing I guess, until you look at an organization that hasn't forgotten who the customer is. DC United has foregone revenue of their own in prime seats at RFK. Giving group rates to the Black and Red's supporter groups Barra Brava, The Screaming Eagles and La Norte, field level at mid field. Not only did they give up full ticket price the Front Office also decided to create a buffer zone behind the Barra Brava sections. The team does not sell tickets there so fans who want to sit and watch the game aren't disgruntled when they can't see over the standing supporters. In David Montgomery"s Post article, "United Force", he recounts how at first drums were banned from RFK.

"But Kevin Payne, president of D.C. United, did understand. "This is not other sports," says Payne. "Rather than have a band getting up occasionally to play a rehearsed song, our fans make their own music." Deny this urge, and the cost to a franchise in passion, atmosphere, noise and ticket sales is incalculable."

At DC United not only is the customer always right, the customer is always the customer.

Veron Decision a week away

OLE is reporting that Veron will announce his decision between December 15th and 18th.
I think we should start a pool, on when Steve Goff will have a decision. I'll go with the 10th.

Is Veron the way to go?

Dcenters has some good discussion on this and the economics of it. D's point is that if the price is $30M, DC United could not spend that money elsewhere.But as he points out we will have to make salary cap space for him meaning,someone's gotta go. As far as I am concerned, I'm not too excited, if it was Riquelme I'd be going nuts... but that's just me.

I personally get a pretty big kick out of the fact that Emilio was MVP and won the Golden Boot and is not a Designated Player. I enjoy that despite all of MLS's rule changes and advantages that DC United is the class of the League, not LA or NY. I also worry about signing a slow, aging player with niggling injuries already (you'd think I would have learned from the Blanco signing). I also cannot for the life of me figure out the economics of it. I get it with Becks and Blanco but Veron is a signing that isn't going to put more butts in the seats or spark ridiculous numbers of jersey sales. His play and drive could very well put us over the top for the MLS Cup, but that alone can't be worth $30M can it? Perhaps the payoff is the Argentine talent that would be more willing to sign for a club that Veron plays or had played for.

Another plus that should be posted is his nickname beats the hell out of "Fred" and could rival El Diablo's as United's coolest. La Brujita (Little Witch) could go down in Black and Red history, unless of course his play isn't up to par or he starts whining about the referees like "No-Neck" (then it becomes just too easy for the opponents Supporter Groups).

The bottom line is I'll be happy either way it goes because I've got great confidence in the DC United organization.

Waiting by the Veron

While I patiently wait for news on Juan Sebastian Veron I thought I would do a quick review of the 2007 campaign. (Actually patiently waiting was what I was doing a week ago, currently I probably account for half of Goff's 10,000 daily hits). While the end of the season was emotionally crushing let's take a look at accomplishments of the season that every one seemed so eager to throw away.

DC United brought home the Supporter's Shield for the second year running.
For those of you wishing for single table, I want you to honestly tell me, you would have rather the season ended with a loss to the Crew instead of the two intense games against the Fire.

United was the first team in the League to clinch a playoff spot.
(who would have bet on that at the end of April?)

Emilio wins MLS Honda Most Valuable Player.

Emilio wins Budweiser Golden Boot.

Emilio, Gomez, Olsen MLS Best Xl.

Gomez Al Star First Xl.

Tom Soehn in the running for Coach of the Year.
(Honestly even though I hated his line up decision for Columbus, he deserved it. If it hadn't been Preki he was up against he would have won.)


Moreno breaks all time scoring record.

Troy Perkins MLS Player of the Month in August.

Emilio MLS Player of the Month in September.

Emilio MLS Player of the Week twice.

Olsen Player of the Week once.

Fred Player of the Week once.

Ben Olsen MLS Goal of the Week (week 10)

Jaime Moreno MLS Goal of the Week (week 21)

Luciano Emilio MLS Goal of the Week (week 26)

And let's not forget the FO:

Account Executive of the Year (second consecutive year).

Team Public Relations Award (fourth straight year).

Operations Director of the Year.

Ticket Sales Director of the Year.

Athletic Trainer of the Year.

MLS Equipment Manager of the Year.

Would I have traded it all in for a fifth star this year at RFK?
Probably not, because with a quality organization like this the fifth star isn't that far away.

Emilio MVP

The Golden Boot and the MVP. Steve Goff is also reporting that Emilio, Olsen and Gomez have made the Best Xl.

The Myth of the Tahuichi Gold Mine

Paul Gardner, the NY Sun soccer writer, always seems to do a good job staying on message regarding MLS. His message, "you need a more attractive product on the field". That's hardly a controversial stance but I do take some exception to his article, "How MLS lost the Tahuichi gold mine", in October's Soccer America magazine.

Back in 1998 deputy commisioner of MLS, Sunil Gulati, recognized the quality of Jaime Moreno and Marco Etcheverry. Knowing they each came out of the Tahuichi youth club in Bolivia Gulati made a bold move. According to Gardner "He brokered a deal with Tahuichi, under which MLS paid Tahuichi $100,000 a year, in return for first refusal on any promising youngsters." After Gulati lost his job the following year "the deal continued for a couple of years and then was quietly abandoned."

This according to Paul Gardner is "a decision that now stands out as the most stupidly short-sighted gaffe the league has ever made." I'm sorry but we are talking MLS, I'm thinking taken in context this isn't even in the top ten of stupidly short-sighted gaffes the League has made.

At the time $100,000 annually to a struggling League bleeding losses was huge. The fact that MLS was seeing no return on that money was even worse. Only one player began a MLS career out of Tahuichi, Joselito Vaca was drafted by Dallas in 2001.

The decision was also tempered by the fact that the League had no infrastructure in place to handle youth players adequately, as Gardner points out "[Tahuichi has] consistently...produced technically skilled players - young players of considerable promise. No more than promise, of course - this is a youth setup, and the next step is the responsibility of pro clubs." The League wasn't in a position to develop players at the time.

The reality of the situation is that MLS has not lost sight of the need for flair or the talent South of the border. This year a dozen players were signed from Central and South America and only three used Designated Player slots, while all had immediate impact for their team (although Denilson's was negative).

So while Gardner takes jabs at MLS for its short sightedness, Steve Goff reports that DC United is doing what it does best, finding and signing talent.

"United Coach Tom Soehn and General Manager Dave Kasper are in South America this week on a scouting mission. One source tells me they are attempting to finalize a deal with Argentina's Juan Sebastian Veron. Another source tells me they are looking at Veron as well as others."

Back in June when it was announced that Etcheverry would be working for DC United again I had posted a link to an article about El Diablo's visit to San Lorenzo. Who knows maybe another youth academy agreement is afoot. But I gotta tell ya, I'm pretty happy with the job United does identifying and signing talent.

Gut Wrenching-DC loses 3-2 on aggregate

Somehow this was much, much worse than last year. Banner ads will be going up to cover the psycho therapy. Soccer is a cruel mistress. We were a handball call away from finishing this season the way it was scripted. If Gomez's goal stands we would have been a "team of destiny". I felt sorry for Kevin Payne, I haven't had a cigarette in 23 years and I could have lit up tonight.

Beside the obvious off season need to solidify the central defense, Moreno's reaction after the game leads me to believe that his heir will be needed sooner rather than later.

DC - Fire, second leg preview

There are only two things you need to know; Jaime is healthy and he's pissed.

Okay if that's not enough Dan Loney says Ben Olsen is going to go caveman.

"If Emilio comes back on Thursday, this so-called curse the Fire have over United won’t matter. (And if he doesn’t, it probably still won’t matter, because Ben Olsen will go australopithecus afarensis on their asses.)"

So I've got the Guiness and the Brats ready, ESPN2, 7:30pm.

Remember wear black. (I think I'll wear my signed Ben Olsen Jersey, thanks Patrick!)

Breaking the Silence

I haven't posted anything on DC United since before the Columbus game. There are several reasons for my silence. There are of course underlying psychological issues as we get to this point in any sport season (I have been a Chicago Cubs fan all of my life). There are of course the usual blogger's issues of family life and paying jobs keeping me from the keyboard. The biggest reason though,is sheer anger.

Here I am pimping Tom Soehn as COY primarily based on his great rotation work with the roster and he makes a bone-headed decision to run out the starting line up in a game that had no meaning, saying we needed momentum going into the playoffs! HELLOO!!! MY GOD we sent the reserves to USOC games and there was hardware involved!

There seemed to be an uproar over Soehn's decision and tactics in the first game in Chicago. As a stand alone game I thought they were great, very smart. Give a couple of injured, key players some rest and try to play for the draw. Everyone felt the 4-5-1 was a huge mistake(the bright side:he didn't give a 3-5-2 a thought!), but Kpene looked better versus the Crew than he had all season, possibly on the verge of a break-out performance. When we dropped a goal he put the key players in and we just couldn't do anything in the final third. Again, I thought the tactics were sound.

But there was absolutely no reason we should have had two key players injured on the sideline!

So after two weeks of pyscho therapy working through my post season issues and my anger, along with guilt from DCenters I'll try to post again.

DC United wins Supporter's Shield

Following Colorado's defeat of Chivas USA, DC United becomes MLS's first repeat winner of the Supporter's Shield. Colorado went a man down in the 46' but still managed two second half goals to beat Chivas and keep their hopes alive. The Supporter Shield also comes with an automatic spot in the CONCACAF Champion's Cup.

DCU will now turn their focus to bringing home the MLS Cup for their fans, in front of their fans.

No One Celebrating

With the 0-0 draw against Chicago,DC United clinched the Eastern Conference Title and Troy perkins gets his eighth shut out, but DC isn't celebrating. Coach Tom Soehn explained:

"Listen: these guys are focused and we've made the playoffs. A lot of teams celebrate when they make the playoffs. It wasn't mentioned. Tonight, we won the conference and I think they expect to do that. But we've got something out there that is very important to us, and they are very focused on that. So, they are actually pretty disappointed right now."

Ben Olsen elaborated on the importance of the Supporter's Shield:

"It's huge. To me, it's the hardest thing to do in this league. The MLS Cup sometimes is about who is hot or who gets a break. The Shield is the best team throughout the entire year. It's 10 months of soccer, and to be the best team over a 10-month span in this league is pretty impressive. I know the team and the front office feel the same, not to mention the opportunities it creates for next season, it's a great feather in our cap if we can win it."

Depending on the result of Sunday's match between Chivas USA and Colorado, United could find themselves in a must-win situation against the Crew if they want to win their second consecutive Supporters' Shield. Remember DC United wins the tie breaker with Chivas. Currently Chivas is three points back with a game in hand. They play the Rapids today and finish with Dallas Thursday.

So what happened that forced DC United on their heels in the first half, as Troy Perkins made 8 of his season high 9 saves. Perkins says;

"It's good and bad, so it's no big deal. I was busy, but that's what they pay me for and this is a good time of the year to do that."

"We were pushing too many numbers forward in the first half. We were basically playing with two lines, so no one was pressuring the ball when they cleared it out. They were running at us the whole first half and we couldn't sort it out."

At half time Tom Soehn sorted things out and adjusted to slow Chicago's attack but it did not seem to improve United's chances on goal as Chicago coach Juan Carlos Osorio noted:

"I think that when they changed to a 3-4-1-2. They had wide players and an extra man in midfield. If I look at my notes I don't think they really got in behind us. We defended crosses very well and chance for chance -- I think we deserved to win."

Defender Greg Vanney liked the adjustment and Troy Perkins only had to make one save in the second half. Vanney said:

"Tactically, we changed it up so we had some numbers in different places so that we could eliminate the counterattacks. We added another central midfielder and we pushed a defender up on the outside and attacked and defended in a different shape. That prevented their ability to find that first pass out, and you can defend one-on-one on the back if you can prevent that first pass."

My thoughts on the game all revolve around a desperate need to find a replacement for Jaime Moreno. I'm not saying he is finished but he will be sooner than later and last night's game is a demonstration of what we look like without him.