Award 4: The Donnety

By definition, the Donnety award goes to the player who has been the biggest disappointment this year. Yes, harsh, I know. But this award's definition could probably be interpreted in a couple different ways. And because I love controversy, of course I will leave that interpretation up to you. Do you give the award to a guy who has played well at times, but hasn't lived up to the hype or to his high salary? Or do you give the award to a more marginal player who was expected to take a step forward this year, but instead took two steps back? The award's namesake Matias Donnet came to United in 2006 with star potential, having previously played in the Serie A, and having won numerous championships with Boca Juniors. But he made only 8 appearances in DC.

1. Many fans have expressed their disappointment with Marcelo Gallardo this year. There's no question that he's made some positive contributions this year while on the field, but does his 4 goals and 3 assists in 14 league appearances justify his Designated Player status and his $1.8 million salary?

2. After some really encouraging minutes toward the end of the 2007 season, I don't think I was the only one who felt like Rod Dyachenko was poised to have his breakout season in 2008. But now he seems less and less likely to be invited back to the team next year. As a quick reminder, not only did we trade a first round draft choice to Toronto (which they used on Pat Phelan, now of New England), but we also chose to protect Dyachenko last year over Brian Carroll in the Expansion Draft.

3. We heard a lot of hype this offseason from Payne and Kasper about the possibility of having a goalkeeping competition between Zach Wells and Jose Carvallo. As it turns out, the competition was over who could get cut first. Carvallo won. And Wells now seems to be restricted to Champions League duty for the remainder of the season.

4. The forward who made the smallest contribution this year was Franco Niell, who spent only a short time with the club. Niell did manage to score a goal in the Champions Cup, and had a wee bit of success in the Reserve Division, but he spent most of his time with United on the ground.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny Awards)

Mid-Season Review part 1: Acquisitions

Given the focus that this blog has given to United's roster this year, I thought it would be appropriate to base our Mid-Season Review specifically on the roster moves that the team has made. In part 1, we will look at United's acquisitions, meaning the players that the team added since the end of last season that they didn't have to give up anything for. Then we'll move on to look at players who departed since last year and United didn't receive anything in return for. Then in part 3 we'll look at the trades that the team has made. Then we'll end the review with a summary.

Here are the team's acquisitions since the end of the 2007 season, in order from most important to least:

1. I could dedicate an entire post to the trials and tribulations of Marcelo Gallardo, but that's already been done. Specifically here though, we should be discussing what Gallardo adds to United that they didn't have last year. In that regard, he is a playmaker with creativity that has not been seen here since the retirement of El Diablo. But there are doubts about whether or not that creativity is really what the team needed to add. Because with Christian Gomez last year, the team may not have been as creative, but they were certainly more successful. Before the season started, I was insistent that Gallardo was brought to DC because he gave us a better chance in international competitions than Gomez. So how's that going for us? Perhaps it's difficult to truly grade Gallardo's impact since he's been injured for two out of the three tournaments we've played in this year, but if he can guide us to an MLS Cup, or better yet a Champions League title in the months to come, all will be forgiven.

2. United completely rehauled the defense in the offseason with the acquisition of Los Gonzalos. So far, it has been Gonzalo Martinez who has appeared to be the most consistent new addition to the squad this year. He has quickly become one of the best left backs in the MLS, and despite calls for him to play centrally as he did at the start of the year, the left is where he is likely to stay. Gonzalo Peralta had some good games and some bad before going down to injury, and in that regard the early comparisons to Facundo Erpen seem appropriate. He won't have to fight very hard to regain his starting job in central defense from Burch when he returns to the field. But with the new look to United's backline, even though they SHOULD be better than the backline we had last year, why can we still not earn a clean sheet? The team had 8 last year.

3. Maybe the biggest surprise this year has come from the return of Santino Quaranta. With Olsen out, Quaranta has been a revelation (or am I going too far with that word?) on the right wing. He added some attacking flare opposite Fred that was an important part of the team's winning streak prior to his most recent injury before Open Cup. But has his 23-year-old body suffered too many injuries in his career for United to count on him long term? A return to health of Peralta and Mediate might push McTavish ahead of Tino on the depth chart at right wing.

4. Francis Doe has emerged of late as a talented attacking option next to Emilio. I had my doubts about him early on, but with two goals in the Superliga, Doe seems to have learned how to adjust to his new team quite nicely. And with Gallardo injured, Doe's continued production at forward will allow the team to move Moreno into the CAM role without losing too much.

5. Three rookies in Ryan Cordeiro, Dan Stratford, and Pat Carroll have been able to earn quality minutes with the first team this season. I wasn't the only one who criticized the team for drafting Cordeiro over other proven midfielders like Stephen King, but he instantly grabbed my eye in the reserve division, and looked pretty good against Houston in the Superliga finale. Stratford was the first rookie to earn first team minutes, and despite being pulled before half time in that game, the coaching staff certainly sees him as having a lot of potential. Strats picked a poor time to get injured though, because without Gallardo, I think a healthy Stratford will move above Dyachenko on the depth chart very shortly. The youngest Carroll has looked pretty good in Open Cup and Superliga appearances lately, but will likely lose playing time once Peralta, Mediate, and his brother Jeff return from injuries.

6. Three more rookies in Dane Murphy, Jeremy Barlow, and James Thorpe have yet to earn any first team apperances. Murphy has been on the 18-man gameday roster a couple of times, and I think he even got some action in the Rochester match. He's tall and a bit versatile. He seems to play mostly a central midfielder, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Soehn try to convert him into a defender. I saw Barlow score a goal in the opening Reserve Division match this year, but it doesn't seem like the club rates him too highly. He's got a good work rate, but will have to fight to keep his roster spot this offseason. I haven't seen Thorpe play yet, but at least he gave us the depth needed to be able to cut Carvallo from the roster.

7. I have my doubts about the acquisition of Joe Vide. I mean he was cut by San Jose of all places! I don't mind giving Vide a shot, since he was good enough to earn quite a few starts for the Red Bulls last year (yeah, but so could some of the women on my wife's team). But I feel like it might have been too much to give Vide a precious senior roster spot.

8. Let's not waste too much time by talking about these guys who aren't on the team anymore: Franco Niell, Jose Carvallo, and Jeff Curtin. Niell was not horrible in a United uniform, that is the few times that he was standing up (how could you tell?). But his salary was just too much for the team to keep around. I still feel like Frank O'Neal's biggest claim to fame should be this picture. Or this one. Carvallo stunk, we'll just leave it at that. It was unfortunate to lose Curtin due to injury, because he certainly could have been getting some minutes ahead of Burch in central defense if was still with the team.

So with all of those acquisitions, DC United should be a better team than last year. Right? Not so fast. Check back in the next few days for a look at all the players that United has lost.

Open for business

With United's Open Cup debut scheduled for tomorrow evening at the Maryland SoccerPlex, the coaching staff has some really interesting roster decisions to make. Last year, United took a Harrisburg Islanders squad way too lightly, and supposedly have learned their lesson. Even though the Rochester Rhinos are currently struggling in USL, DC should take this opportunity to earn a Champions League birth seriously. Although I can't say I'm too fearful of the Rhinos' lineup. Their "star" player/coach Steve Guppy is suspended due to a red card, and I double checked to make sure that the Ze Roberto listed on the team isn't the same Brazilian national we've all heard of and didn't just transfer to the team from Bayern Munich.

So with Rochester's lack of form in mind, along with the idea of taking the Cup serious for once, I thought we'd take a look at United's roster options. This is not a tournament that United should roll out a full Reserve squad, but then again THEY CAN'T. In Reserve division matches, the team has the luxury of utilizing "guest players" not currently on the roster, but for official matches like this one, the team can only use players currently under contract. With only 9 players from the Developmental roster available, DC will clearly need to mix in at least 9 of the Senior roster regulars. Goff has confirmed that Moreno and Quaranta will not be available, but Olsen and Mediate probably will, and so will newly signed Craig Thompson. (No, I can't believe I just linked BS.)

Here are the up-to-date options then for tomorrow night: Barlow, Burch, Fred, P. Carroll, Carvallo, Cordeiro, Doe, Dyachenko, Emilio, Gallardo, Kirk, Martinez, McTavish, Mediate, Murphy, Namoff, Olsen, Peralta, Simms, Stratford, Thompson, Thorpe, Wells, Zaher. Soehn's choices could say a lot about where he feels some of these players are at. Does he choose to start the highly paid Quavas Kirk in this match, or keep using him only in the safety of the Reserve division? Do we dare give another start to the recently demoted Jose Carvallo? Is it worth risking further injury to Ben Olsen just to get him some field time? Are rookies Jeremy Barlow, Pat Carroll, Dane Murphy, or Mike Zaher worthy of their first appearances with the first team?

Here's my proposed starting lineup with a mixture of the regular starting XI with a healthy portion of developing talent:

---------------Wells--------------
Namoff-McTavish-Mediate-Burch
Kirk-Dyachenko-Stratford-Cordeiro
--------Emilio------Doe------------

Subs: Pat Carroll for Namoff. Zaher for Burch (or Murphy for McTavish). Barlow for Emilio.
Bench players not used: Carvallo, Murphy, Simms, Thompson

The worst thing about this match though is that for some inexplicable reason, it will apparently not be shown on USLlive.com like the Wizards/RailHawks, Dynamo/Battery, and Chivas/Sounders matches. Really unfortunate. Which is making me ponder the long drive up to Germantown. Anyone else going?

Should they stay or should they go?

With the July 1st salary guarantee date looming just a week away, that is the question that we ask about two players: Jose Carvallo and Franco Niell. Both were brought to this country in the offseason that saw the additions of five new South American players. Three of those players (Gallardo and los Gonzalos) have earned regular roles in the starting XI. Two of those players haven't played with the first team since Niell's last 10 minute appearance on 5/17 against Chivas.

Now I don't want to turn this post into a Payne-bashing party. Because it would have been a huge stretch to assume that all five of these new players would work out for the club. Arguments about Gallardo's salary aside, I think we can all admit that 60% of Payne's foreign acquisitions have been worthwhile to the team. So I don't want to crucify the guy for being wrong on a couple. A 60% success rate is probably right on par with the rest of the league.

The question here is whether or not you think we should keep Niell or Carvallo past next Tuesday, when their salaries will become guaranteed for the remainder of the year. And I think the answer to THAT question comes in the form of ANOTHER question. Who would we replace them with? The international transfer window isn't far away. Releasing Niell and/or Carvallo would give the team room to move. Exactly how much room? Let's double check the roster breakdown one more time, since it's been about three months since our last reset.

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

10 Developmental roster players:
1 Cordeiro, 2 Stratford, 3 Barlow, 4 Kirk, 5 Murphy, 6 J. Carroll, 7 P. Carroll, 8 Zaher, 9 Thorpe, with one spot remaining.

8 International players:
1 Emilio, 2 Niell, 3 Doe, 4 Gallardo, 5 Fred, 6 Martinez, 7 Peralta, with one spot remaining.

So with the transfer window opening, DC can afford to add two senior international players. But unless Payne has got his sights set on some other new South American talent, that doesn't necessarily mean that we SHOULD cut them both. Niell is suddenly lighting up the Reserve division, but to me, he's the first choice of players to go. Frankito now sits behind Rod Dyachenko and Francis Doe on the depth chart, and at $152,500, Niell's departure instantly becomes the most useful.

I'm a little bit more hesitant about letting go of Carvallo. James Thorpe doesn't appear to be ready for action yet, so if Wells were to get injured by second guessing himself three times, we need a semi-competent backup. So unless DC has some other keeper in mind waiting in the wings, Carvallo probably needs to stay.

That's enough out of me. Should they stay or should they go?

3 goals by 3 rookies

The United Reserves fought back from a 2-0 deficit early in the second half to earn a 3-2 victory this morning at the RFK training grounds. Sitting out there for two hours, my arms are definitely sunburnt. Check out behindthebadge.com for the full match report, but I'll just point out some observations.

Starting lineup was:

--------------Carvallo----------------
Zaher-Curtin-Mediate-P.Caroll
Cordeiro-Murphy-Stratford-Kirk
---------Niell-Dyachenko-----------

Jeremy Barlow came in for Curtin at the half and played CDM, sliding Murphy back to central defense. If you're keeping track at home, Jeff Curtin was wearing #3 and Mike Zaher was wearing #20.

In a match that featured experienced forwards in Franco Niell and Rod Dyachenko, it was three rookie midfielders that were really the stars, along with some strong support by the two guys who signed just this week. I'm not going to write Top/Call/Rail ratings for the reserves, but this should give you a pretty good idea.

Players who impressed me the most:
1. Dan Stratford - Played the central attacking midfield role well, and had a first-team quality (hell, a Premier League quality) shot that scored early in the second half.

2. Jeff Curtin - Won every header that came his way in the first half. Until the very end of the half, when he went up for a ball and a Crew player cut underneath him, causing a pretty hard landing. That's probably the only reason he was subbed out. Looks like he has the quality to get some first team minutes. Although winning headers against Columbus reserves is probably a lot different from winning headers against guys like Dichio and Angel.

3. Jeremy Barlow - He's got the potential to be our new Moose. He's taller than Niell, but still very short (maybe 5'-7"?) and works hard. I was most impressed by his positioning. He always managed to find his way into open space to give his teammates an outlet pass when pressured. More of a holding midfielder than a true CDM. And his goal wasn't bad either.

4. Rod Dyachenko - Throughout the entire game, the attack constantly flowed through Rod. Without is absolute perfect cross-field pass on Cordeiro's game winner to hit him right in stride, this game would have ended a tie.

Players who I'm not quite sure about:
1. Ryan Cordeiro - Had a fantastic strike in extra time to win the game. Really clutch to bring the ball down and put it away with his left. But I'd like to see him communicate better with Zaher.

2. Mike Zaher - Clearly the FNG was trying to make a good first impression on the coaching staff. He's got some good speed and good work ethic, but he might be a little bit raw. Could have a future as a starting left back if he continues to work hard and refine his skills. I also have a feeling that he is going to be, um, pretty popular with the ladies?

3. Jose Carvallo - Looked shaky early in the match, and was beaten twice early on: once on a shot that went wide, and then on a shot that hit the crossbar. The first goal wasn't his fault, and I didn't have a good view of the second. But Carvallo really settled down in the second half and had a big part in the victory. He had back-to-back saves around the 65th minute on two point-blank shots.

Players I wasn't too impressed with:
1. Quavas Kirk - The dude's pretty big, and maybe needs to grow into his body a bit. There was one point when he lost the ball on the right wing, and then sprinted back to catch the Crew player before he could send in a cross. That's something you like to see. Although I'd rather see him not lose the ball in the first place. The own goal was more his fault than Peralta's was last night. Right off his leg while trying to bring down a corner kick.

2. Franco Niell - Even in reserve matches, he has trouble staying up. He really likes to dive, and obviously there's a language barrier, but he doesn't communicate with his teammates well. He does have a lot of talent though, and he was credited with an assist on Barlow's goal.

3. My camera - I took a bunch of pictures, but they mostly suck. I'll try to upload them to our new Flickr page later tonight or tomorrow so you can see for yourself.

Good riddance Rice-Eccles

After such a tiring and emotionally draining match just three days earlier, I guess it was pretty easy to see this coming. Especially once you saw the starting lineup. Gallardo, Martinez, and Wells deserved the rest, so I won't complain about the lineup, especially since I don't think that starting our true top XI would have even really made a big difference in this game.


1. Devon McTavish - Continued to show well. Especially liked his in-swinging left-footed shot with pace at around the 32nd minute. McTavish plays his position well, knowing when to hang out wide in the open space and when to cut into the far post.


1. Domenic Mediate - I thought he played well in left back, and didn't appear to make any big mistakes, but didn't have a huge impact either. What does it say about Marc Burch that he was taken out for Quaranta instead of Mediate?

2. Rod Dyachenko - Also played pretty well. I like his aggressiveness, but I have a feeling that he's going to earn himself a couple of red cards this year.


1. Gonzalo Peralta - Since when did Bobby Lightning grow his hair out and put on the number 2? Peralta looked Boswellian on the second goal, and the fourth goal was just a joke. Peralta has never been shy about yelling at/to his teammates, but where was the communication with Carvallo?

2. Jose Carvallo - DC continues the tradition of starting reserve goalkeepers at Real Salt Lake, with little success. Carvallo doesn't appear to be challenging Wells for the starting job very strongly.

3. Fred - Love the dude, but that was easily his worst game for us so far this short year.

4. The 3-5-2 - I was hoping Tom Soehn would have read my previous post before this match, but I guess he didn't. The 3-5-2 is good in certain situations, but as DCenters and Fullback have already pointed out, this wasn't one of them.

This game was ugly, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a predictor of anything else that will happen this year. This is the second game this year where the offense has been anemic, but I'm not counting on that happening very often. Just like a lot of other people, I was expecting DC to come up soft in this game, but I'm also expecting them to shoot out of the gates against Columbus on Thursday. In fact, I'll go so far as to predict that Thursday's match will be the start of yet another early season DC United sprint into first place and a considerable lead ahead of the rest of the Eastern Conference.

And so with that we bid farewell to Rice-Eccles Stadium, quite possibly the worst stadium in the MLS. Yes I put you below even a minor league baseball field. Attrociously adorned with bleachers, astroturf (why not just go one step farther and play on concrete instead?) football markings, and about 3 feet between the sidelines and barriers, I don't think I'll miss this field at all. Oh yeah, and with 3 goals in his last 2 matches against us, remind me to start fellow Arundel High School alumnus Kyle Beckerman on my fantasy team next time RSL plays against DCU.

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.

Time for another roster analysis

I came up with most of this while standing in line outside in 20 degree weather for two hours to see Barack Obama speak in College Park yesterday (well worth it).

Major League Soccer is probably unlike any other league in the world that I can think of in its limitation of foreign players and players over the age of 25. The ACLU could have a field day with the MLS rules committee if they wanted to. Because of these rules, it's pretty much required that we review the current roster every other month or so.

18 players on the Senior roster:
First, the senior players from last year who are more or less guaranteed a spot on the senior roster again: 1 Emilio, 2 Moreno, 3 Kpene, 4 Olsen, 5 Fred, 6 Simms, 7 Dyachenko, 8 Mediate, 9 Burch, 10 Namoff, 11 McTavish. (Although McTavish and Burch are both still young enough to be eligible for the Developmental roster - born in 1984 - they were promoted to the Senior roster last year and will likely remain there.)

Next, we have our offseason acquisitions: 12 Wells, 13 Gallardo, 14 Martinez, 15 Peralta, 16 Niell.

That leaves 2 spots left. 17 will likely go to Jose Carvallo. He's only 21 years old so he's eligible for a Developmental contract, but would he leave his Peru club team to make less than $30,000 a year? Unlikely. So he's probably occupying another Senior roster slot. That leaves only spot 18 left, and the competition probably comes down to Justin Moose and Jamil Walker. We'll see how this plays out.

10 players on the Developmental roster:
Assuming Carvallo is on the Senior roster, we've got exactly 10 players remaining who are eligible (born in 1984 or later): 1 Jerson Monteiro, 2 Jeff Carroll, 3 Ryan Cordeiro, 4 Tony Schmitz, 5 Dan Owens, 6 Dan Stratford, 7 James Thorpe, 8 Pat Carroll, 9 Ardalan Attar, 10 Grady Renfrow.

8 International players:
Again we have some controversy, and it involves the same player. We've got: 1 Emilio, 2 Fred, 3 Gallardo, 4 Martinez, 5 Peralta, 6 Niell. If rookie Dan Stratford makes the team, he becomes 7. And finally, there have been unconfirmed rumors that Jose Carvallo has a green card, and therefore would not take up an international slot. But if not, he would be 8. That would put Stratford on very shaky ground, because if the team struggles early in the season, and maybe even if they don't, then they are likely to pursue additional foreign talent before the international transfer window closes in July, and in order to sign anyone else, United will need to cut somebody first. Stratford appears to be the low man on the totem poll, so he'll have to impress.

All of that leaves us in pretty decent shape. We've addressed a lot of needs for depth, but have very little room to add new players if the need arrises. The only area where we're potentially light is, as usual, defense. What happens if say Namoff gets injured, and then one of los Gonzalos (© CL) sits out with a red card? Who do you start? Obviously McTavish should be able to fill in anywhere on the back line, but after that we're down to either Owens or one of the Carrolls. Someone's going to have to step up.

James Thorpe

With all the excitement surrounding the international signings of Gonzalo Martinez, Franco Niell, and Jose Carvallo, it would be easy for us to overlook the drafts that United has participated in the past couple of weeks. So this will be the first in a series of posts taking a look at the players selected by our beloved DCU in the Super Draft and the Supplemental Draft.

We'll start at the end and work our way back, which means we're starting with goalkeeper James Thorpe. This may be the one pick that at first doesn't really seem to address a major need, but it does make sense the more you think about it. Thorpe adds even more depth to the goalkeeping ranks, and should provide solid support in case of injury to Wells or Carvallo.

At first I thought Thorpe would just be a name to fill out the Reserve team. To take Shawn Crowe's spot. I mean c'mon, he played for a Division II school! But the more I read about Thorpe, he could actually have a chance of getting some MLS playing time in the coming years.

Not only did Thorpe guide Franklin Pierce to their first NCAA Division II Championship in 2007, but he was also named the NSCAA/Adidas Division II Player of the Year! And he was just one game away from setting the Division II record for most shutouts in a career with 49 (The record is held by Bo Oshoniyi). And he set the record for most minutes played in a career with 8,391 - that's an all-Division record, not just D2. So I'd say he's probably not prone to injury...

So James Thorpe has got some potential, and I look forward to seeing him dressed in black with the Reserves on the Auxiliary fields. He might not challenge Zach Wells and Jose Carvallo for a starting role this year, but Thorpe could definitely have some potential in MLS.

International update

Looks like our acquisition of Gonzalo Martinez is just about official, and that Said Godinez is probably not heading to the nation's capitol. Nothing further yet on Carvallo. But this is developing quite nicely. Assuming we re-sign Vanney, we might see a rotation of three guys at center back again with Martinez, Vanney, and McTavish. It's nice to have depth again. If we can come away with both Martinez and Niell, I'll be happy. I'm mostly indifferent about Carvallo right now, just because I'm reasonably confident that we can find another decent American goalkeeper, judging from our country's world renowned reputation of producing decent goalkeepers.

Also in the news is our favorite Terp that doesn't currently wear black and red: Taylor Twellman. Twellman wants to take his 29 credits overseas to Preston North End, but the move has been blocked assumedly by the Revolution. New England is good at exactly two things: Losing MLS Cups, and screwing it's top players out of chasing their dreams in Europe. Nice to see Taylor being honest about the whole thing.

Gonzalo Martinez, Jose Carvallo, Said Godinez

Wow. What a crazy week this has been.

Today we've got THREE new rumors about Spanish-speaking players possibly coming to DC United. I said in a previous post that we can take advantage of the new/revised foreign player rules by acquiring 3 or 4 mid-salary foreign talents. We've got the cap space, and we've got the extra foreign player slots.

It's hard to have much faith in these reports from the South American media. My feeling is that whenever there a South American player is in talks with an MLS team, the media could just assume that it is DC United. But who knows, 1 or 2 of them could be true.

So here are the latest possible acquisitions:

Said Godinez
Midfielder, 32, Mexico
Longtime member of UAG Tecos in the Mexican 1st division. Wears the number 7 so I'm encouraged that he could be a winger, but apparently only has 11 goals in his career. Tecos is not consistently a good team in the league, having only one winning season in the last 6.

Jose Carvallo
Goalkeeper, 22, Peru
Has 1 cap for the Peruvian national team, so that's promising. His club Universitario is regularly one of the top few teams in Peru's 1st division, and he's nice and young. Looks to be coming to the US to get noticed by clubs in Europe. Hopefully he can give Wells some competition for the starting job here.

Gonzalo Martinez
Defender, 32, Columbia
Definitely the most promising of the three I think, and plays the position where we need the most help. Martínez was part of the Columbia squad that won the Copa America 2001 as well as playing in the qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup. I guess since the Peralta deal fell through, we had to go find another Gonzalo, and this looks like a good one.

Between Niell and these three guys, we better come away with something decent this offseason. Hoping for an announcement from the front office soon.