Ben Olsen Retires Today

At 2.30 pm today Ben Olsen will hold a press conference to announce his retirement. It will be closed for the public but DC United will stream it live on their web site www.dcunited.com.

Benny has always been one of my favorite players, the hardest working player in DC United for many years. He might not have scored many goals but he never gave up and has been the only leader for this team. On of my favorite moments is definitely when Benny scored his Hat Trick against the New York Red Bulls in 2007 at RFK. Check out the video.



I hope that DC United will keep him in the organization close to the team. I want to thank him for all the great soccer he has been giving us and wish him all the best.

DC United @ Kansas City Wizards 1-1

DC United plays Kansas City Wizards at Community America Ballpark. This field is really small so the games played here are usually not the most exciting games, lots of fouls and short passes. This game was no different. DC United decided to rest some players since we have 3 games in 7 days that was probably a wise decision. Rodney Wallace scored DC United's first goal after being assisted by Tino and Moreno in the first half. Kansas City scores one in second half to tie and they were probably closer to win than DC United.
With this tie DC United took the first place of the division with Toronto trailing 1 point behind.

Avery John made his debut and I thought he and Crayton was DC United's best players in this game.

Video;
Highlights
Rodney Wallace goal

DC United Signs Avery John

Avery John was signed yesterday ti get some more depth in our defense to make room on the roster they let Francis Doe go. With Pontius playing great Doe was was an expensive bench ornament so it made sense. Check out Avery John's wiki for information about him.

Gomez Returns To DC United

Now don't get me wrong on this, I like Gomez as much as anyone, BUT I would NOT give my left nut to get him back to DC United. With a highly questionable move the DC United's front office traded Ivan Guerrero a Designated Player spot and a second round pick in next years draft to get Christian Gomez.

Some pointers;

1. Ivan Guerrero was probably one of our best players last year, hard working. He is a part of the Honduran national team, he cost about 130K.

2. Gomez was not even in the starting 11 for part of the season with Colorado. For a offensive forward he only had 3 goals in 20 games last year. He is not the hard worker we need in the midfield and he has a tendency to disappear completely in many games. He is not a 90 minute player. His salary is around 385K this season.

3. Designated Player spot, we needed it and we should have used it considering our weak roster this year.

4. Loosing a pick next year might not seem like a big deal but considering that we have so many old players we need any chance we can get to strengthen our roster with young players.

In my opinion just a straight exchange of Guerrero and Gomez would have been a bad move, to give away all the other stuff is just plain stupid. Another concern is that Coach Soehn will go back to a 3-5-2 formation to support Gomez, considering our weak defense this will be a scary scenario.

It seems to be an extremely desperate move by DC United's front office. I know Gomez was MVP in 2006 but that was just a player having a good year, last year Gomez wasn't even a starter for most of the year, he is also 2 years older now 34 and he will not be provide us with much energy in the midfield.

With Slow (Gomez) and Slower (Moreno) it is hard to see how DC United will be dangerous attacking. Both Gomez and Moreno are NOT players that will last 90 minutes that means that you will only have 1 sub per game for tactical and covering injuries which doesn't give you any strategical options during a game. Also the front office must now install Shuffle board for the older guys to warm up with before the game.

Now in all fairness we did get a goalie included in the trade , this is a goalie with NO MLS experience and will be about as useful for the team as Talon, our stuffed chicken mascot.

Last year we went in to the season with some exciting new players and there was at least a hope that we could do something special, this year does not look good. The only good thing about this year is that we don't have any players that will be called up to national team duties, so they can concentrate on shuffle board and community outreach programs.

Links;
DC United News Release
Goff News Release
Wiki
Youtube

Marcelo Gallardo released by DC United!

After a tough year plagued with injuries, Gallardo asked to be released from his contract. He wants to finish his career in Argentina. I seem to be one of few who liked Gallardo, was his worth his salary, probably not. But it can't be easy playing behind the Jaime "the break pad" Moreno.

I loved Moreno in his younger days but for the past 3-4 years he just doesn't have it anymore and as long as he is a part of this team we will not be able to develop a good midfield. He is just to lazy and holds back our offense and midfield. Sure he can take a penalty kick pretty good as long as their is no pressure because we all know he will choke under pressure.

Now we have a DP spot open and there are rumours that Gomez might be looking at coming back to DC United I hope they will not give him the DP spot because he is definately not worth the money, he wasn't even a starter in his year with Colorado.

Anyway I wish Marcelo Gallardo the best in Argentina.

Links;
DC United press Release
Wiki
Youtube

DC United Re-Sign Devon McTavish

We expected this to happen and now the contract is signed. Devon had his best season in 2008, starting out in the midfield in the first games of last season he scored 3 goals, was then moved to buy Coach Useless and did ok as defender. I hope they will play him in midfield where he seemed to be more comfortable. But with Mr Turkey as a coach we will never know.

Links;
DC United announcement
Video's
Wiki

Bryan Namoff Signed A New Contract

This one we have been waiting for, finally DC United manage to finalize the contract with Bryan Namoff. In my opinion Namhoff had his best year last year and definitely one of DC United's best player last year. He was solid out on the right flank and did not make many of the mistakes that we have seen in previous years. Hopefully he will keep it up this year, because we will need it.
As usual DC United has not released any details of the contract.

Links;
Wiki
News Release

No More Peralta

Peralta had a 200K contract and DC United has decided not to exercise the option with him. I know he has been getting a lot of crap, but I liked him and with all the injuries last year he was one of the players I missed the most. He might not have been the fastest player we had, but he was our only guy who could actually win a header and he wouldn't be pushed around, he did not make any major mistakes. After Namhoff I think he was our most solid player in the defense.

I don't think he was worth 200K a year but considering how bad our defense was last year, we need any defensive player we can get. No word on replacement yet but they better start hunting.
Only players that have signed on so far in the defense is Greg Janicki and Marc Burch and that is not looking very promising for the upcoming season.

Peralta is going back to Argentina to play for some division 2 team. Good luck to you Peralta.

DC United Signs Marc Burch

This one we have been waiting for and now it is finalized. Playing 28 games last year (1817 minutes), starting 21 of those. He was a forward in college but has been playing some midfield but mostly defense for DC United. He has a booming left foot, hard worker.
He has from time to time been having problems on the flank, but I think most of that has been caused by inconsistent play by the central defenders which was caused by injuries and horrible coaching. Having shaky Zach Wells in the goal probably didn't build any confidence.

I think Marc could be pretty good on the flank if the defensive line would stabilize, back there it is a lot about trust, knowing what the guy next to you is doing and knowing that the goalie is not sleeping.

Depending on how the negotiations with Peralta and Martinez goes, will probably detemine if Burch will be a starter or not.

Any details regarding the contract is not released.

Links;
Wiki
His greatest goal and only...
Announcement

DC United Signed Santino Quaranta

Goff reports on his blogg Soccer Insider that DC United just announced that Tino signed a contract for the 2009 season. After recovering from drug abuse he made a comeback in 2008 for DC United. Started 23 games and totally played 27 games (1 963 minutes) scored 5 goals and had 4 assists. I expect that he will make a little more money than the 35K he raked in last year. DC United has not disclosed any details of the contract.

I am interested to get some details about the contract, I like Tino he can be really good but some times he has a tendency to disappear in games and he is not the hardest worker on the field.

Question is also wher to play him, last year he was moved around on pretty much all position in the midfield and forward. I do not really like him out on the flank. I would probably like for him to play forward maybe share the position with Moreno who I doubt will muster to play a full 90 minutes this year in every game.


Links;
Wiki
Youtube