Resetting the roster (again!)

Hey, remember that time earlier this month when I told you that United's senior roster appears set. And that the final senior roster slot would go to Jamil Walker. And that Guy Kpene would remain on the developmental roster. Yeah about that... Um...

Walker: Out! Kpene: Out! Dane Murphy: In! Jeremy Barlow: In! (More on these two in a future post when I get time to do some research.) Leaving us with...

18 Senior roster players:
1 Emilio, 2 Moreno, 3 Niell, 4 Gallardo, 5 Fred, 6 Olsen, 7 Simms, 8 Martinez, 9 Peralta, 10 Namoff, 11 Burch, 12 McTavish, 13 Wells, 14 Carvallo, 15 Mediate, 16 Dyachenko, 17 Quaranta. 1 spot remaining!

10 Developmental roster players:
1 J. Carroll, 2 P. Carroll, 3 Kirk, 4 Moose, 5 Stratford, 6 Cordeiro, 7 Thorpe, 8 Murphy, 9 Barlow. 1 slot remaining!

Removed from these lists since our last chat formally on this topic: Walker, Kpene, David Blumer, Josh Gardner, and Tony Schmitz.

Players still in consideration for contracts: Dan Owens, Jeff Curtin, and Cezar. Goff said it himself that the team will be in no hurry to finalize the roster, and I tend to agree. With 27 players under contract, the team is in pretty good shape, and it's not at all unusual to go into the season with less than the maximum of 28. I guess the front office and coaching staff don't expect to need Owens, Curtin, or Cezar in the next few games, so what's the point in officially adding them to the roster? Now its important to recognize that all three of these guys are eligible for the developmental roster. But also, judging from recent history (Burch, McTavish), United is not cheap about promoting players from the Dev roster to the Senior squad, so a guy like Stratford could always get a bump up if he earns it this year.

Now to back up and say peace out to our old pals 'Mil and Guy. Although both were completely absent from the scoring sheet in 2007 (one due to injury, one due to a lack of skill), both did make significant contributions to the team during their stay in DC, and I'd be surprised if either one didn't earn an opportunity with another MLS team at some point. Walker had 4 goals for the original San Jose Earthquakes in the 2003-04 seasons, so they'd be crazy not to take him back, unless they think they already have enough quality forwards (note the sarcasm?). I know I've been one of Kpene's most frequent detractors, so at the risk of contradicting myself, he did have some great touches/flicks, and was perhaps not utilized by United in the best way. If not other MLS teams, there's always the DC United Canadian Contingent.

A rule change that actually benefits DC

Gasp! And here we were thinking that MLS only made rule changes in order to benefit the Galaxy!

Maybe this was announced earlier and I missed it, but a change to the MLS roster rules has come up today only because of Goff's latest post announcing the signing of Justin Moose to a Developmental contract, and the news that Kpene and Dyachenko are still eligible for Developmental contracts. Wait a minute... Didn't we previously count all three of them as being in competition for Senior roster slots?

Let's go back two months to a Roster Analysis post I wrote back on December 27th. Here's an excerpt:

What has not changed is the basic breakdown of 18 senior roster players and 10 developmental roster players. Straight from the MLS Roster Composition page: "Developmental players can be either domestic or international and must be 24 years of age (goalkeepers may be 25) or younger during the calendar year of competition."

That was a direct quote from the 2007 Player Rules, but when you click on the link now, the 2008 Player Rules says: "Developmental players can be either domestic or international and must be 25 years of age or younger during the calendar year of competition."

This is huge news for DC United, and it completely alters all of our previous forecasts of who is in competition for what spots. What a difference a year makes! So who is definitively eligible for the Developmental roster? The easiest thing to do is just look at the team's website and everyone born in 1983 or later is technically eligible, which means Burch and McTavish could technically be relegated if they were ever to fall out of favor with the coaching staff. Jose Carvallo and Franco Niell are also technically eligible, but I doubt they would have left their home countries for Developmental contracts. So here's how we see it playing out...

18 Senior roster players:
1 Emilio, 2 Moreno, 3 Niell, 4 Gallardo, 5 Fred, 6 Olsen, 7 Simms, 8 Martinez, 9 Peralta, 10 Namoff, 11 Burch, 12 McTavish, 13 Wells, 14 Carvallo, 15 Mediate, 16 Dyachenko. With the competition for the final 2 slots now coming down to Santino Quaranta, Jamil Walker, David Blumer, and Josh Gardner (born in 1982 - I checked). I've got to think Quaranta is probably back, and Walker and Blumer will go at it for the last spot. Sounds like another potential Versus.

10 Developmental roster players:
1 J. Carroll, 2 P. Carroll, 3 Kirk, 4 Moose, 5 Owens, 6 Stratford, 7 Thorpe, 8 Cordeiro, 9 Kpene. With the competition for the final slot now coming down to Tony Schmitz, Dane Murphy and Cezar. Cezar is an unknown so we'll see what the coaches think of him, but right now I think the edge has to go to Murphy since Schmitz has apparently not been traveling with the team (still in school - what a poor excuse!)

So why do I list Dyachenko on the full roster and Kpene on the Dev roster? Others might argue with me, but I feel like Rod has done more to earn the full roster slot and the salary that comes with it. Also, he was on the full roster last year and Kpene was not, so I don't see why they would change it. And lastly, with Niell on the roster and a healthy Jamil Walker (or Blumer), we're a lot deeper at forward now than we were last year, so Kpene will likely be seeing much less playing time, and actually could be potential trade bait if they sign Cezar too.

8 International players:
Competition has definitely increased on the international front. Let's see, we've got 1 Emilio, 2 Niell, 3 Gallardo, 4 Fred, 5 Martinez, 6 Peralta, 7 Carvallo, 8 Stratford, 9... Uh oh... This is a bad sign for Cezar. All indications out of camp seem to be that Stratford has earned his way onto the roster, and may even compete with Dyachenko for playing time. The Brazilian will really have to impress to make the team. David Blumer? According to Goff he's got a US Passport so he won't count against the international quota.

Whew. The MLS Rules committee really knows how to keep us bloggers on our toes. It must be a cool job to be able to just change the rules as you go along without ever really telling anybody. But I'm sure we've all had bosses like that.