DC United Signs Jed Zayner

Another convincing move by the DC United Front Office. After scoring 0 goals in the past 2 months and only 12 goals in 19 games the DC United front office decided to sign defender Jed Zayner from Columbus in exchange for a couple of Draft Picks in 2010 and 2012. He has been with Columbus since 2006 and has since then started 26 games. I am not sure how this will solve our problems but I think it is another showing on how underwhelming our front office decision making is. I know our defense has not been the most solid but our offense is the worst I have seen, ever.

Links;
Steven Goff on Zayner
DC United news on Zayner
Wiki

DC United Fires Head Coach Curt Onalfo

After a disappointing  3-12-3 start with 12 points, DC United's front office has decided to fire the head coach Curt Onalfo. Interim coach will be retired DC United veteran Ben Olsen. In my opinion I don't really think that coach got an honest chance to do anything with this team, most players was drafted before he entered the picture earlier this year and with the nasty hamstring virus that has been hitting the team hard he never really had a chance. To fire the coach, would only make a difference if the guys in the front office were fired with him, General Manager Dave Kasper and President Kevin Payne has for years been making bad decision's for this team; like signing Troy Perkins this season the highest paid player in DC United at seasons start, second best paid goal keeper in the league with the worst record in the league. Perkins was never a great goalie and will never be.

What Ben Olsen can do better as head coach instead of assistant coach is a mystery to me. Don't get me wrong I love Benny but with these players and front office nothing will change.

Articles;

DC United Fires Coach Curt Onalfo
DC United front office discusses Onalfo, Olsen
More News Concerning Onalfo's dismissal

DC United Sign Stephen King, Juan Manuel Peña Hamstring

DC United signed Stephen King a midfielder and bench warmer from Seattle Sounders. The bad news is that he was a bench warmer. The good news is that we only had to pay with a second round draft spot in the 2011 draft.

Juan Manuel Pena has recovered from his hamstring and trained for full according to himself he is ready to play against the Red Bulls.


Links;
Stephen King Press release
Stephen King Wiki
Goff's report on Pena

Luci Is Back!

On Wednesday DC United announced that the have signed a 3 month deal with Emilio Luciano. Luci was released by DC United after last years season. Luci went Brazil and when the season was finished he has been looking into getting back and play in the MLS. I think it is a good signing and hopefully between Luci, Najar, Christman they can keep Moreno from being a starter.
There is a small possibility that Luci might be ready for the game against the Pink Cows on Saturday.

Links;
Luci's Wiki
Goff's write up about the signing

DC United Signs Bolivian Juan Manuel Peña

DC United announced that they have signed Bolivian defender Juan Manuel Peña. As we all now Moreno is slightly older than Santa, well this guy would be his big brother. At 37 years old we hope he has more stamina and speed than a traffic cone, sorry I meant Moreno. This guy has been plating in different teams in La Liga (Spain) for the past 14 years. It does not look like he will be playing against Kansas City this coming weekend, he is still waiting for his visa.

Links;
DC United's Press Release
Juan Manuel Peña wiki

Andrew Quinn Close To Sign

According to Goff, Rookie Goalkeeper Andrew Quinn has agreed to a contract with DC United, no offical word from DC United yet. Quinn would be out third string goalie after Perkins and Hamid.

Also check out Goff's article about Andy Najar, the 17 year old kid that got signed a couple of days ago.
People are talking about this kid and it looks like he will get plenty of time on the pitch.

Links;
Goff's Post about Quinn
Goff about Najar

John DiRaimondo waived

DC United released midfielder John DiRaimondo, after being signed a year ago he only had a few appearances during the 2009 season and spend some of his time loaned out to a couple of USL teams.

Links;
Dc United News release
John DiRaimondo Wiki

New Signings and a one cut

It has been a busy week for DC United, here are some roster changes.
Danny Szetela was signed last summer and was given much attention after some years in Europe, many believed that Danny would be a great signing. As far as I can tell it clashed with Coach Soehn and the team quickly and we hardly saw Danny on the field. Not even a new coach and Ben Olsen as a mentor could change that. Szetela was waived the 17th of March. With his 100K+ salary it will leave give us some room for new signings.

DC United announced the same day that signed Lyle Adams. The 6' 1" defender was drafted in the 2nd round in the MLS 2009 superdraft. Instead of playing in the MLS he decided to try his luck in Europe, I suspect he was unlucky in his pursuit since he spent last season with the USL team Austin Aztex. If he will add something it will at least be height to our hobbit defensive line.

Yesterday the 22nd DC United announced that they signed 17 year old Andy Najar to its roster. The 17 year old junior from Edison High School in Alexandria has been apart od DC United's youth organization with great success and has been scoring goals like crazy. The young midfielder/forward joined DC United in the preseason and played 4 games. He must have made an impression and I for one is very interested to see this kid play.


 Links;
Danny Szetela Wiki
Lyle Adams Wiki

DC United 2010 Schedule

Here we go, the DC United schedule in a couple of formats.
Here is the HTML format of the schedule for online viewing. If you click on the link, look in the bottom right hand corner there is a Google Calendar Button there that lets you add the calendar to your Gmail account. Here is the link to the iCal, this file can be imported to most calendar software i.e Outllook, Outlok Express,smartphones etc.

DC United Drops One Picks Up One

In January DC United was very excited to announce that they had signed Floribert N’Galula a midfielder who spent 5 years in Manchester United's youth team. Less that 2 months later they announced that they would be releasing him. According to Goff the reason given by DC United was that they had a less expensive option who can do the same job.

In the same statement they announced that they signed Kurt Morsink, like N'Galula, Morsing is also a midfielder so maybe he is the less expensive option. Morsink comes from Kansas City Wizards. I don't know much of either player but one is from Manchester United and one is from Kansas City and we picked the one from Kansas City. Kurt played 47 games with the Wizards and scored 0 goals.








Links;
DC United Announce the signing of Kurt Morsink
Kurt Morsink on WIki
Goof's announcement of the Morsink Signing

Santino Quaranta To Take A Bigger Responsibility In The Midfield

Goff write a really good article about DC United's central midfield and how Tino would be involved in the plan.
In the article he interviews both Tino and Coach Onalfo about Tino's role in the central midfield. Now after reading this article it seems pretty clear that Onalfo is looking in to pairing up Simms and Tino on the midfield, I assume that Simms will take a more defensive role since Tino never really shown any qualities in that area. Onalfo also went on about Tino's work ethic and attacking qualities. And I agree that Tino has that when he wants to, but if he is not inspired he will be invisible and not very productive. Unfortunately I have to say that most of the games last year he was invisible and even though he shows bursts of brilliance and have a great shot they are far apart. To build our midfield around Tino is in my opinion a mistake but I hope Tino will rise to the challenge and prove me wrong.

Read Goff's article here.
Santino Quaranta Info
Watch Tino Score some Goals on Youtube

Chris Pontius Signs A New Contract

Read on Goff's blog that Pontius signed a new contract. Pontius was my favorite player last year and got called up to the national teams training camp earlier this year and again this past week. The are no details released about the contract but I assume that they ended up paying him more that the 36 000 dollars he got last year and hopefully they signed for at least 2 years, with options.

DC United Acquires A New Forward Adam Christman

DC United announced yesterday that the acquired Forward Adam Christman from Kansas City Wizards. We gave the wizards a foreign player spot for 2 years to get him. He will now compete with Allsopp, Pontius and Moreno to take a spot in the starting XI. He was nominated to rookie of the year 2007. He is 6' tall and a 180 pounds so maybe he will add some presence in the box which we haven't had for years. He hasn't scored a lot of goals during his career so far, but at 25 years old he still have plenty of time to do that. Am I excited about the signing, not much but at least we got another forward on the rooster.

Unfortunately I have to report...

..that DC United just announced that they re-signed Jaime Moreno and without giving any details in the announcement we can all assume that we yet again over paid for him. He will at least land in the mid 200' hundreds and for a player that hardly lasts 30 minutes at best I don't even know why our new coach would agree to this.

Also heard that Gomez is pretty much out of the picture and will not return

DC United Signs Floribert N'Galula

A 22 year old guy from the Democratic Republic of Congo, he is a Midfielder/Central Defender vame up through Anderlecht youth system and was then a part of Manchester United. I have not found much information on him but there are some more reading on Goff's Blog and Behind The Badge.

I really like the fact that they are starting to sign some decent young player and hope that they will actually play them.

Cristian Castillo has arrived!

Our new signing El Salvadorian Cristian Castillo has arrived and was yesterday introduced. DC United is looking to Castillo to be our new Marquee name. Read What Charles Boehm wrote on MLSnet.com.

Check out the the video of the introduction.

DC United Signs Striker Daniel Allsopp

Just saw the news on DC United's homepage, they signed 31 year old Austrailian Striker Daniel Allsopp, he actually looks pretty decent but I have my doubts he will score as much as Luci. He has played in England, Australia, Qatar and he has scored a decent amount of goals over the years.

Troy Perkins Back To DC United?

There have been rumors this week that Troy Perkins is leaving Vålerenga and Norway to come back to the US.
This morning Goff tweeted that this is confirmed. Troy posted a letter to Vålerenga fans on their website saying that he is leaving due to family issues, but as we all know Norwegians are crazy so I am surprised that he stayed for so long. I never been to Norway but I flew over the country several times and felt uneasy every time :).


Anyway Goff also reports that his people is working hard to get him back to DC United, read more in Goff's article. In the same article he also mention that Moreno might go to play for a Bolivian team in the off season.

Luciano Emilio and Ange N'Silu Gone!

I received a twitter saying that forward Ange N'Silu has been released by DC United I have not seen anything official regarding this yet.

Also our forward http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luciano_Emilio became a free agent when DC United decided against exercising the option in his contract, they did offer him a new contract but Luci went home to Brazil to find a deal and now he signed a 6 month contract with Rio Branco.

We all remember his Hat Trick against the Pink Cows.


Check out Luci's goals made for DC United here.

I wish Emilio the best and hope he continues to score goals.

I also hope our new coach starts to look around for new forwards because right now we have nothing.

Ben Olsen confirmed

Ben also is confirmed to be assistant coach together with Kris Kelderman and Mark Simpson he will support Curt Onalfo.

Also read this article by Goff regarding the introduction of coach Onalfo.

Today around 1pm you can also listen to a live interview with coach Onalfo at World Soccer Daily.

Free Trip To 2010 MLS Superdraft

Next Thursday the 14th it is time for the 2010 MLS Superdraft. DC United is offering a a free bus trip to Philadelphia.
Check out the link for more details.

Fred, Gomez, Olsen, Moreno Status

Damn it is cold out there fortunately we are getting news daily that will keep us warm and excited for the coming season.
Goff wrote today that Jaime Moreno is looking for a club to play for during the winter break he said "I'm going to be 36 and I need to be moving," I agree for the past 3-5 years I have been saying that he needs to be moving.

Goff also got confirmed that DC United exercised the option in Fred's contract, he will be with us next season.

Now DC United did not exercise the option in Gomez contract and will start negotiations next week to try to sign him with a new contract.


Our new coach Curt Onalfo should within a couple of days announce his staff, Goff think is is likely that Ben Olsen will be apart of the staff.

To read Goff's full article click here.

Meet The Boss, Emilio and more

As you probably have heard by now we have a new manager in Curt Onalfo, tonight he meets up with us fans at Black Finn, 1620 I Street, NW, Washington, DC between 6 and 8 pm.

As we already heard DC United decided not to exercise the option in his contract and Emilio is a free agent according to Goff he is looking for opportunities in his home country Brazil. DC United has offered him a contract with less pay.

The loan of Christian Castillo is finalized you got to check out the video below he looks like a very exciting player.

Goff also reports that DC United is looking in to getting Julio Martinez another young player, plays the right wing. He would as far as I understand also be a loner from Leon.

Now Check out Christian Castillo;