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| Missile Swap: Out with the Clydewinder, in with the Cruz? |
Don’t look now, but the glacial pace of United’s roster assembly is starting to pick up. Hot on the heels of the Maicon Santos acquisition comes the signing of former Dynamo right mid Danny Cruz1, leaving the current roster + trialists looking like this…
Salary Budget Players (minimum 18 required)
- D (I) Jakovic, Dejan
- D Woolard, Daniel - Is he really a starting-quality MLS fullback?
- D Korb, Chris2
- D McDonald, Brandon
- D Russell, Robbie - Past it or the second coming of Namoff?
- D/M Kitchen, Perry3
- M Morsink, Kurt - Under threat from trialists? (the author hopes, knowing it probably isn’t so…)
- M King, Stephen4 - Ditto
- M (I, DP) Boskovic, Branko - Ready to make a statement?
- M Cruz, Danny
- M/F DeLeon, Nick
- M/F De Rosario, Dwayne
- M/F Pontius, Chris
- F Brettschneider, Blake - Wonder how safe his spot is…
- F Wolff, Josh
- F Santos, Maicon
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- -
Optional Salary Budget Players (maximum 2 allowed)
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- -
Off-Budget Players (maximum 10 allowed)
- GK (HG) Hamid, Bill
- GK (HG) Willis, Joe
- D (HG) White, Ethan
- D/M (HG) Shanosky, Conor - Big plus if he’s ready to contribute
- M (HG) Najar, Andy
- -
- -
- -
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Trialists
- GK Dykstra, Andrew - MLS experience, excellent competition for the largely unproven Willis if the price is right
- GK Goody, Carl - Coming out of college. English. Does he have a green card?
- GK Swaim, Will - Another college (UMD) keeper
- D Rodriguez, Charles - Suppie pickup. Projects as left/center back depth?
- D Zayner, Jed - Versatile back-line veteran, but is he healthy?
- M C’deBaca, Seth - Trained with the big boys last year and played with U-23’s so we should have a firm handle on his qualities
- M da Fonte, Mike - Small college and small euro-club experience, just 21
- M Richter, Ryan - Union washout #1, college goalscorer (for what it’s worth)
- M Rozeboom, Lance - Suppie pickup. D-mid depth?
- M/F Berhanu, Yoni - Hometown kid means off-budget possibility?
- M/F Kuhn, Matthew - Suppie pickup. 11 goals, 4 assists in 20 collegiate matches
- F Houapeu, Levi - Union washout #2 and another hometown kid with experience in the DCU youth ranks
- F Oduran, Matt - Academy kid and UMD product, sensing a pattern?
- F Touray, Sainey - Gambian youth nat with USL experience. Green card?
Assuming nobody on the current roster gets bumped (which I wouldn’t argue against – there’s still some dead wood there from my perspective), that leaves four senior roster spots. That’s enough for Dykstra as genuine competition for Willis, a third veteran center back, a left back with quality, and a striker with the same. The only question is: does United have enough cap space to accomodate all those additions and the requisite ambition to pursue them?
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