I guess we know what Payne was doing in the Middle East last month, because hot on the heels of the draft last Thursday, United announced the acquisition of Australian forward Danny Allsopp (lately of Al-Rayyan in Qatar). According to my list (and I'm still waiting for any confirmations/corrections on international status for some players), that officially puts us over the limit on internationals. Of course, if we assume John and Gomez are gone, we're back under... but barely, considering that much of our likely shopping is bound to be done abroad.
But what about the signing itself? I suppose it attempts to fill the Emilio-shaped void at a more attractive price-point. That said, it feels a bit like the Emilio signing as well: journeyman goalscorerer who probably would have been a more attractive prospect had the FO landed him when he first hit their radar, rather than a few years later, when the man in question was on the back end of his prime years (or probably past them, in this case).
From what I've read, Allsopp isn't completely dependent upon his speed, but his movement is no small part of his game, so you have to wonder how many years the FO expects to get out of him. The other curious aspect of this acquisition is the word that Allsopp is a poacher ideally suited for playing a high-energy counterattacking style and doesn't boast much in the way of touch.
Ignoring the obvious similarities to Emilio for a moment (poor first touch, poacher), doesn't he sound like the type of player who would take like a mallard in the wet stuff to precisely the type of game that Kevin Payne took, well... pains to disparage a couple of months ago? Strange. Though maybe the FO got confused when they heard the rumor that he's not all that good in the air and thought, "Hey, that fits the DC United style!"
To the list...
Senior Roster
1. Josh Wicks, GK
2. Troy Perkins, GK
3. (I) Avery John, D - any word on a green card? hope it doesn't matter, but for the sake of completeness...
4. (I) Julius James, D - still an international, right?
5. (I) David Habarugira, D
6. Lawson Vaughn, D
7. Marc Burch, D
8. (I) Dejan Jakovic, D
9. Bryan Namoff, D
10. Devon McTavish, D/M
11. Rodney Wallace, D/M - graduated from Generation Adidas at the close of 2009
12. (I) Cristian Castillo, M
13. Danny Szetela, M
14. Clyde Simms, M
15. (I) Tiyiselani Shipalane, M/F
16. (I) Christian Gomez, M/F - probably gone, but included until departure confirmed
17. Chris Pontius, M/F
18. Santino Quaranta, M/F
19. (I) Thabiso Khumalo, M/F
20. Jaime Moreno, F
21. (I) Danny Allsopp, F
Developmental Roster
1. (GA) Bill Hamid, GK
2. (I) Milos Kocic, GK - any word on his contract? still eligible for Dev Dollars this year
3. John DiRaimondo, M
4. Brandon Barklage, M
5. Jordan Graye, D - we took a local kid so he could live at home on Dev Dollars, right?
GA = Generation Adidas
I = requires international roster spot, maximum of 8 internationals on senior roster, internationals on developmental roster don't count against that total
So that puts us one over on the senior roster spots, one over on the international spots, and one over on the developmental spots. There are, of course, names on that list who likely won't be returning and others that will need to fight for their spots. We're a couple weeks out from the start of training camp (fingers crossed on the CBA negotiations!), so it's only healthy that the numbers continue to swell.
No comments:
Post a Comment