Danny Szetela

Today Goff is reporting and United is confirming that the club has officially acquired Danny Szetela via the MLS allocation system. United continues to acquire more young talented players who could turn into fairly big stars.

Almost makes you wonder why FC Dallas would pass on this 22-year old kid with international experience. There have been rumors floating around about Heath Pearce, Damarcus Beasley, and Stern John all potentially returning to MLS through the allocation system, but I think United made the right move by grabbing this guy right now. For Dallas, it might make sense to wait and hope for an older established player like Beasley. But not for United; we've already got plenty of those. Pearce is a little more intriguing, and it would be disappointing if United was to miss out on an opportunity to sign a proven national team caliber left back when that's been arguably our biggest need for quite a few years now. But for me it would make no sense to pass on Szetela in favor of a hope that might never come to fruition. Some of these points might also assume that Dallas actually knows what they're doing, and they've never been particularly known for their player evaluation capabilities.

So now that the Szet is here, what do we do with him? Add Szetela's name to our list of versatile midfielders that already includes Pontius, Wallace, and Quaranta. We're likely to see him competing directly with Andrew Jacobson for a holding midfield position and as the first option to fill in for Olsen when necessary. I could also see him moving ahead of Khumalo, but not Fred, on our winger depth chart. Does anyone know if he can play on either side? What we probably know for sure is that Soehn is going to use him in some different spots, just like we've seen done with Pontius, Wallace, and even Barklage to some degree. Hopefully Szetela gets a couple minutes right away as a substitute in the Open Cup semifinal next week.

The bigger question is what number will the Szet wear?! He wore 7 for the Olympic team and 17 for the Crew, but both of those are taken here. 27 seems to be available, but my money is on 12.

Welcome Danny. Hope to see you stay awhile.

Mid Season Review part 3: Trades

So now that we've already reviewed and analyzed DC United's acquisitions and departures since the close of the 2008 season, let's take a look at the trades. Basically just one big one, and a couple players swapped for late-round draft picks.

1. The biggest offseason move was DC United trading Ivan Guerrero, Colorado's own designated player slot, and a 2010 2nd round draft pick to the Rapids for Christian Gomez and goalkeeper Mike Graczyk. And of course the other player impacted, although not directly involved, would be Marcelo Gallardo, who had previously occupied that DP slot for United. If you're interested in some light reading for additional context, take a look back at my 2008 Gallardo/Gomez analysis, my 2009 Gomez/Gallardo analysis, and some additional analysis of the Gomez trade. The last post provides some real interesting insight into the frame of mind we were all in following this trade. Of course there were concerns about whether Gomez would be closer to his form from 2007 or from 2008 (verdict: 2007). There were also a lot of fans (including myself) who thought Guerrero and a 2nd was too much to give up (verdict: nope, Guerrero didn't play a single game for the Rapids in 2009 before returning to Honduras). And as inconsequential as the Graczyk acquisition was, this was the first sign that United was not pleased with its current set of goalkeepers (Crayton and Kocic). But the biggest outcome from the dual DC/Colorado swaps of 2008 and 2009 might be that the first trade got us the draft pick that turned into Chris Pontius, who is set to make a lasting impact on our club for years to come.

2. When DC United acquired Josh Wicks from the LA Galaxy, few of us were very excited. His 1-2-3 record with a 2.18 GAA in LA was less than impressive. But Wicks has now emerged as our clear starter, and could be a top 5 MLS keeper. According to dcunited.com, we gave up a 2010 4th round draft pick to get Wicks, but I think I recall Goff reporting that it was either a 3rd or a 4th depending on how many games Wicks started. If that's true, then it will surely turn into a 3rd, because Wicks is likely to start 20-22 games for us this year.

3. The final two trades each involved left backs and some conditional draft picks, with DC United losing Mike Zaher to the Earthquakes and gaining Avery John from the Revolution. With an eye on the future, it's hard to spin this exchange as a victory for United. John has been mostly terrible in his few appearances with United, unable to supplant Marc Burch from the starting left back slot as many fans had hoped. Zaher, on the other hand, has started 5 games for San Jose, and while that team is not exactly a defensive powerhouse, Zaher has apparently made some positive contributions. This isn't to say that Zaher would likely be starting ahead of Burchy either, but at least he earns less money than John and takes up a developmental slot (of which we now have two extras) instead of a precious senior slot like John.

That's all for the player movements. I'll do a summary by position of all the changes sometime next week. Quick programming note: I'll be in OCMD this weekend, so don't expect a writeup from the Colorado match until Monday or Tuesday night.

USMNT projected 2010 World Cup roster

This will be the first in an occassional series of posts where we look at the available players for the US heading into the 2010 World Cup, and the players that we think are likely to get the call.

With a second-place finish in the Confederation's Cup, which included a huge 2-0 win over Spain, and a hard-fought championship loss to Brazil, it's hard to argue against using most of the players who saw action in the Confed. But 6 points earned to date in the group stage of the Gold Cup also gives the US a deep list of options. Here's the list of players I see as currently occupying the 23 spots available for the 2010 World Cup:

Goalkeepers:
Tim Howard - One of the best keepers in the world.
Brad Guzan - Played very well in shutting out Egypt in the Confed.
Troy Perkins - Two clean sheets so far in the Gold Cup.

Defenders:
Oguchi Onyewu - Signing with AC Milan this week is huge for US.
Carlos Bocanegra - Full team's captain can start at CB or LB.
Jay DeMerit - Would not have been on this list a month ago.
Jonathan Spector - Has emerged as our best option at RB.
Steve Cherundolo - Tough battle with Spector for starting RB.
Chad Marshall - Gold Cup starter might be our best backup CB.
Jonathan Bornstein - Consistency is hard to come by at LB.
Frankie Hejduk - Fantastic in the twilight of his career in WCQ.

Midfielders:
Landon Donovan - The best player ever to wear a US uniform.
Clint Dempsey - Came up big multiple times in the Confed.
Michael Bradley - Great, calm passer, and with a scoring touch.
Benny Feilhaber - Versatile midfielder can play CM or on the wing.
Ricardo Clark - Love him in the bruiser role, when in control.
Robbie Rogers - MVP of the Gold Cup so far with 1 goal, 2 assists.
Maurice Edu - Injuries have kept him out lately, hopefully he recovers.
Kyle Beckerman - Strong showing at CM in the Gold Cup.

Forwards:
Jozy Altidore - Huge in the Confed, with a goal against Spain.
Charlie Davies - Huge in the Confed, with a goal against Egypt.
Brian Ching - Maintains possession and good at drawing fouls.
Freddy Adu - Always looks dangerous, deserves more time.

Out:
Luis Robles - Third keeper in the Confed, yet to get an opportunity.
Danny Califf - No appearances in Confed. Competing for 4th CB.
Michael Parkhurst - 1 Gold Cup appearance, competing for 4th CB.
Clarence Goodson - 1 Gold Cup appearance, competing for 4th CB.
Heath Pearce - One good cross, otherwise unimpressive for the Nats.
Marvel Wynne - Physical presence, still low soccer skills.
Michael Orozco - Disappeared from Nats for unknown reason.
Stuart Holden - Waiting to see more against stronger opponents.
Santino Quaranta - Earned first international goal against Honduras.
Francisco Torres - Wondering if he was benched for a reason?
Pablo Mastroeni - Former starting CDM at the end of his career.
DaMarcus Beasley - Was terrible in the Confed.
Logan Pause - OK defensive midfielder, can he handle the big boys?
Conor Casey - Great MLS season, done nothing on the national level.
Kenny Cooper - Doesn't score from less than 40 yards from goal.

DC United win vs Harrisburg City Islanders, 2-1

It's pretty cool that for DC United to return to the Open Cup Final, their path to a second straight championship will consist of, in order, wins over a PDL club, then a USL-2 club, then a USL-1 club, then an MLS club.

I didn't go to the match, and I didn't even listen to it.  The below match ratings are given for the sake of my ADRs, and based only on match reports from Boehn and Tenorio, and Insider comments.  I'm open to revisions though, so if you attended the match, the floor is yours within the comments section to agree or disagree.

Top Shelf: Devon McTavish, Andrew Jacobson
Call: Boyzzz Khumalo, Fred
Rail: Avery John

DC United tie at Columbus Crew, 1-1

A 1-1 tie would have been a pretty good prediction going in, and isn't a bad result for us. But it feels good to say that this team deserved better. DC United dominated in scoring opportunities, with 11 shots on goal to Columbus's 3. But they were a bit more effective at converting their few opportunities, as we let the Crew off the hook far too often with failed chances and weak shots straight at the keeper. After we missed out on scoring so often early in the second half, I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt a Crew goal was coming soon.

This is a tough part of the schedule, with a lot of multigame weeks coming up, and not the best time to be missing four starters in Moreno, Emilio, Quaranta, and Jakovic. But to be fair, Columbus was also missing their best defender in Chad Marshall and a dynamic midfielder in Robbie Roberts. We were the better side tonight. Which makes me feel good about our chances if we happen to run into the Crew in a home-and-home playoff series. But that doesn't get us any farther in the standings.


1. The central midfield of Clyde Simms and Ben Olsen was supposed to be a part of our starting lineup all year, but unfortunately seeing them together in the middle of the field has been rare. The new aerodynamically cornrowed Simms was able to go forward more with a trusted holding midfielder next to him, and made two important runs that led to our goal: first a headed shot, and then a run that caused some confusion and knocked over a defender just before Gomez's touch. But maybe the most shocking aspect of this match was Ben Olsen going 90 minutes for the first time in close to two years.

2. Really great team work that resulted in Christian Gomez's goal. Simms to N'Silu to Pontius to Gomez.


1. Remember the two things we thought we learned about Boyzzz Khumalo earlier in the week? That he's not a right wing, and that he's not a starter. Well he started at right wing in this match, but I guess we didn't have too many other choices. Khumalo was once again terrible on crosses, but did well in using his speed to track back a couple times, including one last second shot-saving tackle on Ekpo.

2. Rodney Wallace displayed excellent movement off the ball, putting himself in good spaces. But twice this resulted in shots straight at Hesmer. I'm not exactly sure if it was Wallace's fault that Moreno was so open at the back post for the Crew's goal.

3. Pretty solid match from Greg Janicki filling in for Jakovic. The defense did well to keep the Crew off the board on their many set pieces.


1. I'm not sure whether or not it was a coincidence that the Crew's goal came immediately after Fred entered the match for Khumalo. Fred gave the speedy Ekpo too much space to send in an uncontested cross. With Pontius, Wallace, and Quaranta all playing so well, and now Khumalo also making a strong push, I wonder if Fred might be slipping even farther down the depth chart.

So another strong performance by a United team that remains in sole possession of first place, at least until the end of the Chicago/Colorado match. Also, it's so rare that we talk about decent officiating performances, but that was a very well called match by Baldolermo Toledo.

Mid Season Review part 2: Departures

This is our second of four posts in review of the moves DC United has made since the end of last season. Last week we looked at their acquisitions, today we'll look at the players who departed, and then later we'll look at their trades.

1. It's hard to imagine how different DC United's season would be had they retained Marcelo Gallardo in 2009. My guess? He would have spent most of the season in Argentina recovering from a sprained pinkie or RLS or something. When on the field, he did some nice things, scoring 4 goals and adding 3 assists in 15 appearances (yes, just half the season). But the problem was the amount of time he spent off the field, and a seeming lack of desire to return. He's looked like his old self since returning to River Plate, which makes you wonder what could have been if his heart was with DC.

2. Ah, los Gonzalos. This pair of South Americans was brought here to start in central defense, but that didn't last long. Gonzalo Martinez was quickly moved to left back, where he eventually lost his starting job to Marc Burch. Other teammates complained that they never knew what to expect from Martinez. While being slightly more consistent, Gonzalo Peralta struggled with injuries, and never really emerged as anything more than an average central defender by MLS standards. Peralta has returned to the Argentine second division and Martinez to Columbia.

3. A departure that seemed kind of serious at the time was that of Zach Wells, who started 17 games in goal for us in 2008. Had he decided to return to DC this year instead of leaving soccer altogether, the team may never have traded for Josh Wicks, and now we'd be stuck with Crayton and Wells again. Thanks Zach!

4. Everyone's favorite scapegoat last year was Rod Dyachenko, a guy who showed a lot of potential initially, but dropped off in '08. Not only did we trade a first round draft choice to Toronto to retain Dyachenko in 2006, but we also chose to protect him over Brian Carroll in the 2007 Expansion Draft. It's not Rod's fault that we overvalued him. I mean no disrespect to him when I say that he's better off in the USL, which is more to his skill level. I caught a half of a Minnesota/Portland match a couple weeks back and Dyachenko looked like one of the best players on the Thunder.

5. I was truly disappointed when the club decided to part ways with Francis Doe shortly into the 2009 season. But apparently I did not forget Doe's incredible performance against New England last year as quickly as the front office did. I guess I should trust Soehn's opinion more than my own when it comes to weighing players' fitness levels, but right now I would prefer to still have Doe on the roster over N'Silu.

6. Clearly two victims of the new MLS roster constraints were Joe Vide and Domenic Mediate. And while I can't find any recent information on Vide to know if he's playing anywhere, Mediate has been an important player for the first place Puerto Rico Islanders. With MLS adding three more teams in the next two years, these guys might get their chances again.

7. Quavas Kirk is another in the endless line of IMG Academy players and Generation Adidas players who haven't panned out. Never the most technically skilled soccer player, Q-Nasty was probably our most physically gifted player on roster last year. Kirk will now try to develop his skills in the USL with Minnesota.

8. More victims of the roster changes were Ryan Cordeiro and Craig Thompson. Cordeiro brought lots of energy to the field in his 8 appearances, and was often the star of the reserve team. Thompson was consistent, if unimpressive, while serving as decent depth during the team's struggles with injuries last year. After both were surprisingly not invited to traning camp, Cordeiro decided to stay local, signing on with Real Maryland, while Thompson is apparently without a team.

9. DC United cut ties with the entire Carroll family when failing to renew the contracts of Jeff and Pat, ending a run of three consecutive years with two Carrolls on the roster. Jeff Carroll suffered from numerous unfortunate injuries during his time in DC, and after showing some potential early on, wound up sitting out the entire 2008 season. Pat Carroll was inconsistent in three starts for United, sometimes playing steady in defense, but more often failing to provide the coverage we needed for him to earn a permanent spot. Both are now with Real Maryland.

DC United win vs. Ocean City Barons, 2-0

DC United should be neither elated nor concerned after the team needed 75 minutes to beat a PDL squad consisting mostly of college players and a few amateurs. It wasn't pretty, but DC is one step closer to defending their US Open Cup title, which is more than you can say about the 4 MLS clubs who lost to USL clubs last night.


1. Others seem to disagree, but I thought Ange N'Silu looked good last night. And while he and Khumalo didn't work together very well, which is exactly what I predicted, N'Silu was involved in almost every decent scoring chance in the first half. He disappeared for most of the second half, but he drew the penalty which ultimately put us ahead, and then popped up again in stoppage time to score our second goal.

2. Were this an MLS game being officiated by MLS refs, Chris Pontius would have earned two penalty kicks. Pontius was the best player on the field in the second half.

3. Marc Burch was the best player on the field in the first half. Despite his flaws, the USLlive.com announcer made a good analogy when comparing Burch to the point man on a hockey power play. From a spot on the back line, Burch was organizing the attack in the first half. He passed well with Wallace on the left flank, and would frequently find Khumalo or McTavish open with long balls across the field. And this match also saw the return of the legendary Burchie-bomb, which seems to be reserved only for Open Cup matches, as Burch hit the free kick that Ogunbiye failed to secure for the last goal.

4. Milos Kocic made two great saves in the final five minutes to preserve the victory. Needs to work on his distribution though.


1. This was my first chance to see John DiRaimondo. He reminds me a bit of Jeremy Barlow: small (5'-7", 155lbs) and not the best athlete, but calm and with good positioning. In a match that was often frustrating to watch, the incident in which Janicki bowled over and subsequently injured DiRaimondo provided a bit of comic relief.


1. Maybe this is being too harsh on him, but I thought Andrew Jacobson looked right at home on a field with a bunch of amateur soccer players. Too many giveaways.

2. Ok so we learned two things about Boyzzz Khumalo in this match. First, he's not a right wing. And second, he's not a starter. He had some terrible crosses, and on one fast break opportunity late in the game, he tripped over his own feet. Probably because he was tired after running nonstop for 80 minutes. Khumalo is best when coming on as a sub as a striker in the 75th minute to run around the opposing defense like crazy after they're all winded.

So those red Barons deserve a bit of credit. They put forth a valiant effort against a first place professional team, and I think they probably have some players whose names we might hear again at a higher level in a couple years. Hopefully the United players congratulated them after the match. But we'll be the ones moving on to face our Open Cup rivals the Harrisburg Islanders next week.