“We don’t want to play like Colorado or New England, which most of the season sat with eight or nine guys behind the ball. How many people go to watch Colorado or New England play? That’s a problem for our league. We can’t play like we’re a team desperately trying to remain in 14th place in the Premiership.”

AND

Given a choice, we would rather attack than cynically defend. You look at the way Real Salt Lake played when they came here [a 0-0 tie in May] and sat 10 guys behind the ball. You don’t have to do that. Sometimes that is the best way to get a result — if you don’t care about the product, if you don’t care about advertising your league. Long term, who wants to watch that?”

One more…

“There are a lot of games in our league that I can’t watch. The problem in our league isn’t who is or isn’t in the playoffs; it’s that not enough people want to watch our league yet, and we have to convince them that our league is worth watching. I don’t think [playing conservatively] is the way to do it. I recognize there is more than one way to skin a cat. I’m not saying that everyone has to play an attacking style, but that is our style and identity, and we have to be honest with ourselves and say there are sometimes liabilities [such as missing the playoffs] that come with it.
“We still have a lot more trophies in our case than everybody else, so I think in the long run, it’s the right thing to do. This league is changing [a smaller percentage of teams will make the playoffs as MLS expands by three over the next two seasons] and we are going to see more of that kind of [defensive] approach: results at any cost.”

Making Friends and Influencing People, by Kevin Payne. Needless to say these comments have not been taken well across the league, and the fact that DCU have missed the playoffs twice in a row, along with the fact that DCU tied RSL in goals scored makes the comments ring a little hollow.

Meanwhile, Tom Soehn waits for his future to be sorted as his contract expires this month. This could also be read as, Tom Soehn starts to clear his office as the Front Office searches for his replacement and waits for his contract to expire so they don’t have to pay a guy they fired.

Looks like Moreno and Olsen would like to come back, with Moreno making a here or elsewhere-I’m playing statement, and Olsen saying that his future will be decided by the front office in the coming weeks. For both, it’ll be a necessary pay cut that they’ll have to accept to stay with the club. The team is stronger if they’re able to keep them, but in a reserve capacity. We will soon see how that shakes out, and the new CBA agreement may have a lot to do with it.

Lastly, and kind of interestingly, Fred is a wanted man, somewhere. Looks like Melborne would like to bring back Fred in a CAM role, AKA the role in which he’s a productive player that we never played him in. DC has an option for him in 2010, but I see him moving on.

More as it develops.

DC came off an unlucky 2-1 defeat at the hands of Chivas (but Chivas is very good). Two posts and a missed peno spells unlucky in any language. I’m not going to get into a recap of that game, cause it was a while ago, and it has been dissected already. I’ll only say Wells did pretty good, Simms did pretty bad, and all the rest of the players were eh. Oh, I forgot, Dyachenko sucks.

Atlante got spanked 4-0 by Houston, who if you remember, had a scoring problem earlier this year. Teams respond two ways after that kind of dismantling; they lick their wounds and come out flat the next game, or they get pissed and become very difficult to play against. I think they’re going to come out a lot better than they did on Saturday, and I see a 2-2 tie in the future. I hope I’m wrong.

Some quick and dirty links:
- Goff does an feature of Craig Thompson, who to me is a decent reserve, and nothing more. Some people are getting a little too hyped on this guy. Fighting Talker agrees.
- The Washington Times smelled the same story line, and also offered a profile of Thompson.
- The World Wide Leader (WWL henceforth) noticed that MLS teams are at a disadvantage in international competitions. Well, welcome to the party, boys.
- The MLS preview of tonight’s game.
- On the mainpage of the Offside, the discovery that MLS teams only split $125k of the winnings, and Mexican teams split the whole $1 million. Pathetic. I hope Eddie Pope and the Players Union stick it to MLS next offseason.

That’s it, back tomorrow with a recap and pictures.

Poplar Point Perspective, following D’s lead, has written an interesting piece about the incredible disappearing Fred. I think he’s right when he says that the expectations on Fred are much higher due to his talent levels, and that fans expect him to finish the chances he creates. Fred was a goal scorer in Australia, and he was in 2007. He can be again. He just needs a confidence builder. Next time we get a penalty (that won’t decide the match), let Fred take it. I know that won’t happen, but I think it could break his duck, and snap him out of this string of sitters he’s squandered.

Goal.com has an interview with Bryan Namoff here. I read the interview, and thought it was incredibly stupid, until I saw this disclaimer at the beginning…

Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid? Well, our latest feature is basically a Choose Your Own Interview. We contact one player or coach each week, tell him to choose 10 numbers between 1 and 200, and then ask him the corresponding questions from our long list of 200 random questions. If the interviewee selects his numbers wisely, then it’s a piece of cake. But if he selects a question that’s more difficult and, perhaps, a bit embarrassing to answer … hey, unlucky, son.

Makes much more sense now.

There really isn’t anything else to talk about. It’s Fourth of July weekend (aka death of blog readership) so I won’t be back until Monday. Enjoy your break. Eat more than you should.

My take on his argument? DC knew what it was getting. A holding midfielder is not going to make Sportscenter on most days, and they knew that. With DP status comes increased scrutiny, and when a player’s game is nuanced and sophisticated and the player is not a self-promoting media whore (ahem, goldenballs), a fan can be excused for thinking Gallardo isn’t pulling his weight. I tend to fall on the side of Pro-Gallardo, solely because I believe what needs to happen, has already started, and that is a familiarity and likemindedness necessary for Gallardo’s talents to be utilized and the players around him to feed of his intelligent. Whenever I watch him operate in the midfield, the words that come to my mind are always “Soccer IQ”. He keenly anticipates defenders movements, and often times makes the smart pass. But his artistry comes in when he goes for the thru ball or back heel that is unexpected.

-DCUMD previews the game tonight, and again, we’re on the same page. His lineup looks very similar to mine.

And that’s really all the new stuff. Listen to the game tonight, I might liveblog it since my girlfriend will be getting her hair did.

- Confirmation on the earlier injury news, with Goff confirming that Santino Quaranta is out 2-3 weeks. But that’s not all. Jaime Moreno tweaked his groin muscle, and will not be available for selection. Big deal, you say. We’re playing a USL team, how could we not win, you say.
Well, it’s been a little bit since we’ve won the cup. Try…1996. Yeah. You were a lot thinner then.

- DC has signed Craig Thompson. Who’s Craig Thompson, you ask? A good question, if ever there was one. Craig has played for DC in two reserve matches, and has yet to score. He played in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (Praise be to Google) and scored 18 goals in 22 games last season. He plays right midfield, which is an area we’ll need some depth in the upcoming weeks. He’s taking the spot of the retired Jeff Curtin.

As I said above, DC have performed very poorly in Open Cup play in the last few years. Last year, Harrisburg (Yes, the Mighty Fighting Harrisbergians) swept DC out in their first match. This year, DC comes up against a team who is last place in their division, and missing Steve Guppy (DCU alum) due to a red card in a prior match. DC is coming off a physically taxing victory on Sunday, with injured starters. The team I’d like to see start the match would be…

Doe—-Emilio (1st half, sub with Stratford in M)
Burch—-Simms—–Gallardo (Cordiero subs)—–Kirk (Olsen?)
Zaher——–Martinez——McTavish——Namoff
Wells
Radio: WFED (1050 AM) and WACA (1540 AM, Spanish)
I think that lineup would score a few goals, and likely not give up too many. Maybe give Fred minutes if he’s feeling up to it. Doing this lineup, it becomes clear how few reserves we have in defense. Hopefully, this is remedied before Superliga, or our backline will be run down for the second half of the MLS season and playoffs.

Prediction: DC 3, Rochester 0.

Thoughts?

Update: Here are some links for you to peruse this morning..
Goffster’s preview.
The Examiner’s focus.
The Express.
And this editorial about Sunday’s game.

Meet your two new defenders, Jeff Curtin and Mike Zaher, formerly of Chicago and Toronto, respectively.

Here’s some info from BTB…

Curtin was drafted by the Chicago Fire in the second round (14th overall) of the 2006 MLS SuperDraft. He did not see any first team action during his first year with the club, but figured into three games (all starts) in 2007, notching his first career MLS goal.

And…

Zaher was originally drafted by Toronto FC in the third round (30th overall) of the 2008 MLS SuperDraft. He spent four seasons at UCLA where he contributed seven goals and eight assists in 69 games (51 starts)

More interestingly about Zaher is that he was in a Jojo video. Don’t remember Jojo? She was the really hot girl “singer’ that you were like, “Man, this Jojo chick is hot…what? She’s 14? Crap.” So, that’s pretty cool. The Sports Bog has some more info here.

I’m actually thinking about going to a reserve match, does anyone else do that?

Before our season officially starts against Harbour View FC (where I will be, with bells on), there is scant real news to report.

- Justin Moose, Pat Carroll, Dan Stratford and Ryan Cordeiro have all signed developmental contracts, so they are all officially impoverished. So if you can drop off a bag of canned goods at their group homes, I’m sure it’d be much appreciated.

- Here’s the rest of the roster shakedown according to Goff...

DEVELOPMENTAL (10 available slots)
IN: D Pat Carroll, D-MF Jeff Carroll, MF Justin Moose, MF Quavas Kirk, MF Dan Stratford, MF Ryan Cordeiro.
EXPECTED: GK James Thorpe, D Brandon Owens.
POSSIBLE: MF Tony Schmitz, D Dane Murphy, F Cezar, MF-D Galen Thompson.

SENIOR ROSTER (18 available slots)
IN: GKs Jose Carvallo and Zach Wells; Ds Marc Burch, Bryan Namoff, Gonzalo Martinez, Gonzalo Peralta and Devon McTavish; MFs Ben Olsen, Fred, Clyde Simms and Marcelo Gallardo; Fs Luciano Emilio, Jaime Moreno, Franco Niell.
EXPECTED: MF Dominic Mediate.
POSSIBLE: MF-F Santino Quaranta, F Guy-Roland Kpene, MF-F Rod Dyachenko, MF Josh Gardner, F Jamil Walker, F David Blumer.

Note: Because of their age, Kpene and Dyachenko are eligible for the developmental roster, according to DCU officials.

I imagine Kpene and Dyachenko will sign developmental contracts pretty soon, or else they’ll have to ply their trade in the USL. Truth be told, they may get more playing time down there. Actually, they definitely would.

For senior roster, I’d like to see Quaranta (if he’s in shape), Walker, and Gardner make it. I have no info on Blumer, except that he came from a team called Grasshoppers, and I guess that’s pretty cool.

-Here’s a preview of the Harbor View game, from the Jamaican POV.

- DCU will have 29 of their 30 games televised in the area, either through Comcast or on the World Leader/ABC. So that’s good. Want to see the home opener on TV (like me since I’ll be on a business trip)? TOUGH. You can’t. Suck it.

- Mr. Soccer By Ives himself gives his DC Preview. Read it. I agree with his points about Kirk’s opportunity to shine if Olsen is a slow healer (and I think he will be) and that Niell is the x-factor that could make this team really run on all cylinders. Imagine if you had TWO forwards that could actually score goals in the run of play. I bet you could have the best record in the league with that…oh wait. Well. It’d still be nice.

On second thought, that was a lot of news. So consider yourself schooled for the day.

Houston won the MLS Cup: I was there. It was a great time, but could have been better in United had a bye until the Finals…or just beat Chicago and NE. Oh well.

We cut some players:
M Kiki Willis (waived)
F Brad North (waived)
GK Shawn Crowe (waived)
F Mira Mupier (waived)
Yeah, I forgot we had most of them too. Happy trails, boys.

The Expansion Draft happened: We lost Brian Carroll in that. It’s a shame, but he ended up in a better place (at least temperately). Briefly.

One million rumors about Veron: I could link you to these, but I suggest google, or Dcenters (who are hands down, the best United blog on the internets).

That last rumor has dramatic implications for our club. Again, instead of attempting to do myself, I’ll let D do the heavy lifting on this topic, as he clearly understands it better, and has more time to dissect these issues.

Some random unreleated soccer news: Brian Namoff got married. Some of the guys are entertaining the troops. Burch and Olsen are recovering nicely from surgeries, thanks to Nurse Bobby.

I wish I had more news to share with you, but MLS offseason is about as boring as it gets. I didn’t know a lot about Veron before his name started coming up in talks, so I youtube’d him. Sort of impressive, sort of eh. I asked around and people had a generally negative opinion of him, as pertaining to his work rate, and how much left is in the tank. I suppose we’ll see soon enough.

Feel free to use this post as a place to post any United related news, or rumors, that you hear. Nothing is too unsubstantiated to print! Well, almost anything.