...I would select:

Defense:
From Colorado: Facundo Erpen. He's a proven commodity with a lot of experience. Erpen was my last defensive selection, and you could take Jim Curtin instead.
From New England: Gabriel Badilla. His previous club was Saprissa, and would start for most MLS teams. Click to continue reading...

I meant to do this before the official protection list was revealed yesterday for the upcoming Expansion Draft. Anyway, here is the list of players I would have protected had I received a promotion from "Irrelevant Blogger" to "General Manager":



My List
Actual List


Luciano Emilio
Jaime Moreno
Francis Doe
Santino Quaranta
Fred
Clyde Simms
Bryan Namoff
Marc Burch
Devon McTavish
Gonzalo Peralta
Ivan Guerrero
Luciano Emilio
Jaime Moreno
Thabiso Khumalo
Santino Quaranta
Fred
Clyde Simms
Bryan Namoff
Marc Burch
Devon McTavish
Greg Janicki
Ivan Guerrero


A couple of obvious differences. Click to continue reading...

In an incredibly close race, the dynamic dud duo of Zach Wells and Jose Carvallo wins the Donnety Award for biggest disappointment. These two heralded acquisitions were supposed to have a heated competition for the starting goalkeeper job, but instead they were only in competition with Rod Dyachenko for this unpopular award. Click to continue reading...

Goff revealed yesterday several changes for 2009 that were unveiled in the Board of Governors meeting yesterday prior to MLS Cup. In summation of the most important change, the league has added senior roster slots, but trimmed the total roster size. Instead of 18 senior roster slots and 10 developmental roster slots as we had in 2008, we will have 20 senior roster slots and 4 developmental roster slots in 2009. Click to continue reading...

Would you make this trade?

This will be the first in a series of posts this offseason with trade suggestions for DC United. I'll try to post one every other week or so. It's your chance to act as the GM and voice your opinion about what roster moves the team should make this offseason. All the trade proposals will be fairly balanced in a way that could conceivably help both teams. Click to continue reading...

Our first recipient in the inaugural Benny Awards is Clyde Simms, who won the Richie Award with 53% of the vote. I thought this award would be much closer with heavy competition from Bryan Namoff early on, but Simmsy eventually pulled away for the victory.

In a bit of a surprise, the Nelly Award for the biggest contribution from a newcomer went to Louis Crayton. Click to continue reading...

Quick thought that I just had...

Is it just a coincidence that the four MLS teams who participated in Superliga and the Concacaf Champions League this year (DC, Houston, New England, Chivas USA) have all been eliminated from the playoffs?

Parity is fine and dandy, but thats just wrong.

Click to continue reading...

In my last post, I claimed that Tom Soehn had an ADR this year of 3.11. What does that mean? Is that good or bad?

Well as readers of this blog know, I've been passing down player ratings of either "Top Shelf", "Call", or "Rail" to players after every match. I've also been tracking those ratings over the course of the year, and displayed all of them here. Click to continue reading...

As first scooped by Goff earlier in the week, and officially announced by VMF and Chang today, Tom Soehn is set to return as head coach next season (as well as Kasper and Payne). This is the first and perhaps the biggest decision that the team will make this offseason, and although I don't fully agree with it, I'm glad that its happening this week instead of later. Click to continue reading...

By definition, the Benny Award goes to the player most recognized for his contributions in the DCUMD blog. The award's namesake of course is Ben Olsen, the guy who everyone likes to call the talisman for DC United. Benny has meant more to this club on and off the field I think than any other player in its history. Click to continue reading...

Remember how our trusted front office brought in all these talented foreign players with the hope of giving us a better chance to advance in international competitions this year? With United finishing the Champions League with just 1 point in 6 matches, that seems like a distant memory. This was more like the team we've all grown used to after watching the Champions Cup and Superliga earlier in the year. Click to continue reading...

By defintion, the Etchy Award goes to the team's Most Valuable Player. The winner of this award should be the player who had the biggest influence in driving the team to victory. The award's namesake Marco Etcheverry helped deliver 3 MLS Cups to the club, and was named League MVP in 1998. He's also a member of the all-time MLS Best XI. Click to continue reading...

As United's season draws to a disappointing but not unexpected completion, you can't help but wonder about what could have been. There are plenty of "what ifs" we could discuss for the entire year, but there's no point in going back and mentioning Moreno's missed penalty in August against the Red Bulls. Click to continue reading...

Last night I was pissed. Today, I'm over it. We weren't going anywhere in the CCL anyway, so unless Martinez's injury is significant, we really didn't lose anything important yesterday. I'm ready to just look back at that match and laugh. Because really, what a freakin embarassment for CONCACAF that was. Click to continue reading...

Dear Mr. Austin "Jack" Warner,

Since when is it the referee's right to decide the outcome of a match after just 30 minutes? That is essentially what Roberto Moreno did tonight in DC United's match against Cruz Azul. Here's what happened...

In the first 10 minutes of the match, Roberto Moreno issued a yellow card to United goalkeeper James Thorpe for a slide tackle against a Cruz Azul player. Click to continue reading...