Black And Red United

Sao Paulo Striker Alfredo On Trial, Plus Injuries

2012-02-10T21:45:33Z

Sao Paulo Striker Alfredo On Trial, Plus Injuries

D.C. United was supposed to have a couple of Brazilian trialists in camp earlier this week, but after a delay, we now know who one of them is.

Alfredo Francisco Martins - you can call him Alfredo - is a 19 year old forward from the youth team of Sao Paulo FC in Brazil. Sao Paulo has one of the elite youth programs in the Americas, and has sent some pretty good young players to MLS on loan (Juninho of the LA Galaxy is probably the biggest name).

This article from Sao Paulo's website notes that Alfredo was the leading scorer for their under-20 team last year.

The piece from United's site also has some good and bad news on the injury front. New signings Emiliano Dudar and Maicon Santos are said to be at 100% following minor knocks, and should play in tomorrow's game against Sporting Kansas City.

On the other hand, Dwayne De Rosario ("slight" groin strain), Branko Boskovic (calf contusion), and Brandon McDonald (quadriceps strain) are all newly-injured. Other than De Ro, there's no word on the severity of these injuries. We'll probably learn more before/during/after tomorrow's game; if any of this trio plays, their injury can be looked at as pretty minor.

Finally, among the longer-term injured, Chris Pontius is adding time to his training sessions, while Ethan White and Josh Wolff are both still in the process of rehabbing.

Charlie Davies Makes Gameday 18 for Sochaux First Team

2012-02-10T14:05:23Z

Charlie Davies has been generating a lot of talk around the water cooler in the last 24 hours or so. Yesterday, he was featured on MLS' ExtraTime Radio podcast (synopsis by Steven Goff here, in case you can't listen) in which he described his ups and downs while with D.C. United. Although he said that his experience was "wonderful," Charlie expressed dissatisfaction with his playing time and his perceived lack of communication from the coaching staff and front office. Charlie went on to say that "Benny is hard-headed when he makes a decision, and that’s that. I definitely voiced my opinion in his office and let him know I wasn’t happy."

This morning, Gooch tweeted and YanksAbroad confirmed that CD9 will be in the 18 for FC Sochaux's first team tomorrow against Stade Rennes. If he actually gets minutes for Sochaux, this would undoubtedly be a huge step forward for Charlie in his road to returning to top form. I sincerely hope he does well; regardless of how last year ended, I still am a big fan and would love the Cinderella story to continue.

As a DC fan, though, I'm left wondering two main things. First, if he's fit enough to play at a club like Sochaux, why was he struggling so much for United? I understand that this is predicated on his getting playing time, and that this may be a "welcome back" call-up. But, as YanksAbroad writes, Sochaux is fighting hard against relegation out of the French top division and is looking to shake things up.

Second, how much, if at all and if he knew about the selection before we did, did this selection factor into Charlie's comments? I found what he said pretty disappointing, but then again I found his overall attitude as the season wore on to be lacking. Your thoughts?

D.C. United Updates: Chris Pontius, Ethan White Return To Full Training & More

2012-02-09T02:53:24Z

Last week was a little bit ridiculous in D.C. United land. The team signed a new designated player in Hamdi Salihi that no one knew they could afford, added some more midfield depth, cut a well-liked forward from last year, and played its first two preseason games of the season.

This week has been decidedly quieter. Almost too quiet. At least too quiet for us bloggers.

But there has been some news, and we've been following along closely, and wanted to give you the chance to comment. Here are some quick items from across the web:

Chris Pontius and Ethan White have returned to full training. That's fantastic news. We'd heard previously that Pontius was tracking to be ready for full training around Mar. 1, leaving us to assume that he wouldn't be back in his best shape in time for the opener. Now it sounds like he will be. Fantastic news.
Remember when Andy Najar was benched early last season for fitness reasons? Apparently that won't be happening this year. Via dcunited.com: "I worked a lot more this year than in comparison to last year because I went to England, so I did a lot more work before preseason and I’m in better shape than last year."
It sounds like the Conor Shanosky loan to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers is all but official. We knew this was coming, but the surprising thing to me is that the loan will last the entire season, as reported by Steven Goff. With Marcelo Saragosa and Emiliano Dudar now under contract, loaning away the young defensive midfielder / center back makes some sense. But when will we ever get to see him actually show some of his potential that we've been hearing about for two years now?
Fullback Files has a great new feature using Football Manager to evaluate Salihi and Dudar. While we certainly hope that Ben Olsen and Dave Kasper don't use the same tool for evaluating talent, its just the slightest vindication that these guys should be about as good as advertised, which is a small upgrade over the incumbents.

Still no agreement on Andy Najar's Olympic fate

2012-02-08T15:05:46Z

Still no agreement on Andy Najar's Olympic fate

Even after meeting for several hours yesterday in person, there is no agreement between D.C. United and the Honduran national team regarding Andy Najar's participation in the Olympics. The meeting was attended by Najar, his agent Chris Megaloudis, Honduran national team coach Luis Fernando Suarez, Honduran U-23 coach Jorge Jimenez, and Ben Olsen. It appears from the article that the disagreement is not over the Olympic qualifiers themselves, but rather how much time Najar will miss prior to the beginning of qualification. As mentioned in an earlier post, Honduras may want Najar as early the season opener.

Hopefully this can be resolved soon and hopefully without antagonizing one of the league's best young players.

D.C. United Signs Veteran Midfielder Marcelo Saragosa

2012-02-06T18:47:01Z

In an unsurprising development, Brazilian midfielder Marcelo Saragosa has been signed by D.C. United after a brief trial. At 30 years old, Saragosa has 7 years of MLS experience (with the LA Galaxy, Chivas USA, and FC Dallas) but joins United after a couple of seasons playing in Azerbaijan.

While hardly a big name, Saragosa can at least brag about having friends in the right places; the best man at his wedding was some dude named Kaká. It's also worth noting that Saragosa acquired a green card during his previous stint in MLS, so he will not take up an international roster spot.

Saragosa's primary position is defensive midfield, a position DC happened to be thin at. Regular readers of this blog know how most of us feel about Kurt Morsink and his habit of making huge, game-changing mistakes. With Perry Kitchen a probable member of the US Olympic squad, there is a real chance that United will need 7-10 starts out of whoever ends up as his back-up.

Supplemental draft pick Lance Rozeboom is getting rave reviews from his fellow players, but the percentage of supplemental picks who emerged from college ready for that many starts (especially playing arguably the most complex and critical role in the modern game) is virtually nil. Other options include Stephen King - who has little experience at the position - and Brandon McDonald, who is more comfortable at center back.

Saragosa is not strictly a holding midfielder, however. With the Galaxy, Saragosa played both defensive midfield and also a box-to-box role, though it should be noted that he will never be mistaken for a potential source of goals (he has just 2 goals in 116 MLS appearances). At Chivas USA and FC Dallas, he made rather more than a handful of appearances at right back and even played a few games at right midfield. While he probably won't see too much time in those roles here, it's awfully nice to have that on your bench (particularly if we're trying to protect a lead).

While not a major signing, Saragosa brings numerous positives to the table. He was a member of the 2005 MLS Cup-winning Galaxy side, which fits in with Ben Olsen's desire to fill his roster with players that can be safely described as "winners." That type of player is the guy that will find reserves of energy to make that last sprint to prevent a cross in stoppage time; it's also the guy that will train hard every day even if he doesn't get a minute of first-team action for a long spell. Saragosa's history is one of being a very team-first player, so we can be reasonably certain that he won't get frustrated or stop working hard when Kitchen isn't with the Olympic team.

In terms of what he offers on the field, Saragosa is the kind of player you don't notice too much. His first touch is reliable enough that he avoids costly giveaways, and his passing skills are sharp enough that he doesn't often misplace the ball. Those things are augmented by his understanding that he's not out there to be a star player. Saragosa will rarely attempt anything risky with the ball; he knows very well to leave that sort of thing to guys like Dwayne De Rosario, Andy Najar, and Branko Boskovic.

Defensively, Saragosa is a better-than-average tackler and is strong enough to win shoulder-to-shoulder battles regularly. He also brings a rather rugged - but not dirty - approach to the job. When Saragosa replaces Kitchen, we aren't going to lose too much in the "hard-nosed" category, in other words. In terms of positioning, Saragosa is steady but not exactly the new Claude Makelele.

All in all, Saragosa is reasonable depth for an MLS team. I argued long and loud that United would regret moving on without Clyde Simms, but most of the argument hinged on the fact that we lacked precisely this kind of reliable player as depth at a position that can't be ignored. Signing Saragosa eliminates that concern.

We've talked fairly often about the King Standard here at B&RU, and I think Saragosa can serve a similar purpose for us at the defensive midfield position. If so Rozeboom can blossom into a quality MLS player and surpasses Saragosa, then we've improved as a team. If not, the bar is still higher than it was last year, and that's how you build a championship team.

Honduran National Team Coach to meet with Olsen about Andy Najar

2012-02-05T20:29:47Z

The continuing saga of Andy Najar's international career presses onward, with a Honduran newspaper reporting that Honduran national team coach Luis Fernando Suarez has traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Ben Olsen and other club officials about Najar's participation in the Olympics. Hopefully this is not a sign that there are tensions between the two sides, but that Suarez wants to work out details for Najar's international career beyond just these upcoming matches. Keeping a key player's club happy is always the goal of an international coach, but United will also be striving to keep Najar happy as well. If they don't, Andy may soon be trying to go to a club that will.

The newspaper report suggests that Najar would only miss the games that occur during the tournament, which would be against the Vancouver Whitecaps and FC Dallas. This seems to contradict what Suarez has said previously, and what we recently polled, when he wanted his players into camp two weeks prior to the start of qualifiers. It is most likely the newspaper stating only the facts that they currently know, but perhaps they have heard that Suarez is willing to compromise a little more to make sure that Najar gets into his camp.

As a selfish United fan, I want Honduras to lose during qualification so that Andy is available to the team for the maximum amount of games. However, there is another part of me that wants Honduras and the United States to qualify together, because that means that Mexico will not have made it. Regardless, we all hope Andy shines and begins to show the rest of the world what we already know: that Najar is an exciting young player that can compete at the highest level.

D.C. United, Malmo FF Play To 1-1 Draw In MLS Preseason

2012-02-05T17:18:18Z

It feels like its been almost a year since D.C. United played its last preseason game. Or at least a few months. But it's actually been just three days. It's felt much longer because so much has happened since. The team shocked the world, including its own fan base when it signed Hamdi Salihi on Thursday to a designated player contract, and then waived promising young forward Blake Brettschneider a day later.

If you've been following along with this blog, then you know that we've already written plenty of words about Salihi, and given you the opportunity to express your feelings about Brettschneider. So how about we take a step back and look at that game again then?

After battling the Chicago Fire to a scoreless draw earlier in the week, United continued its Florida camp with a friendly match against Swedish club Malmo FF at the IMG Academies in Bradenton, FL. The match ended in a 1-1 draw, with United falling behind in the first half after a free kick goal from former Seattle Sounders player Erik Friberg, and then drawing even in the second with a header from trialist Ryan Richter.

In the first half, United used the following starting lineup, which we thought might actually be their starting lineup for First Kick until those other unexpected changes happened in 24 hours immediately following the match.

		Hamid
Russell	Jakovic		McDonald	Woolard
Najar	Kitchen		Cruz	Boskovic
	De Rosario		Brettschneider

Danny Cruz and Dwayne De Rosario were specifically mentioned in the dcunited.com writeup as creating some good chances for D.C. But this lineup gave up United's first goal of the preseason, meaning Bill Hamid is the only United goalkeeper to concede a goal thus far in 2012. Let's just cut him.

United made wholesale changes in the second half, opting for the following lineup:

		Willis
Korb	Svard		Shanosky	Zayner
C'DeBaca	Rozeboom		King	DeLeon
	Richter		Jerome

Richter scored the only goal off a cross from Chris Korb, with the two rookies Lance Rozeboom and Nick DeLeon also being active on the offensive end throughout the half.

Much has happened since then though. In addition to Brettschneider, United has also parted ways with Sebastian Svard, Jed Zayner, and Charles Rodriguez, leaving Rozeboom as the only unsigned rookie remaining in camp. Stefan Jerome, Marcelo Saragosa, Seth C'deBaca, Andrew Dykstra, Richter, and Rozeboom all seem set to continue on to the next leg of training camp in Arizona, where United will hold scrimmages against Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City.

Richter and Rozeboom specifically have likely done enough to earn contracts for the season as two-way midfielders who have performed well in both scrimmages. Rozeboom has received surprisingly strong unsolicited positive reviews from his teammates already (via comments to @cboehm and @the_amt). C'DeBaca and Dykstra have also survived several rounds of cuts and might have a 50% chance or better of making the roster as well. Saragosa and Jerome probably still have more to prove during the Arizona trip.

D.C. United Waives Blake Brettschneider

2012-02-03T22:28:08Z

D.C. United Waives Blake Brettschneider

So much for yesterday's optimism and happiness.

For reasons I cannot even begin to fathom, United has waived promising young forward Blake Brettschneider.

Despite the promise shown by Brettschneider and the difficulty of acquiring quality young attacking talent, he was apparently expendable on a team that plans on starting 2 guys that are both regulars for their national teams.

Meanwhile, a quick look around Twitter reveals that just about every other MLS club has a fan or journalist thinking that their team should be calling Brettschneider up right now and getting him into camp.

Feel free to beat your head against a wall now.