The boxes are being ticked, slowly but surely. With the addition of central defender Emiliano Dudar, the depth acquisition project seems all but complete. Still, the two biggest needs, left back and finisher – the ones we’ve been pointing to all offseason, remain frustratingly unfilled. Stefan Jerome, recently arrived on trial, would be a nice project up top (can’t believe he’s only 19 – my memories of him as a U–17 seem distant), but isn’t the finished product.
Resetting the roster leaves us with…
Salary Budget Players (minimum 18 required)
- D (I) Jakovic, Dejan
- D Woolard, Daniel - Is he really a starting-quality MLS fullback?
- D Korb, Chris[1]
- D McDonald, Brandon
- D Russell, Robbie - Past it or the second coming of Namoff?
- D (I) Dudar, Emiliano
- D/M Kitchen, Perry
- M Morsink, Kurt - Under threat from trialists? Svard inclusion says maybe…
- M King, Stephen[2] - Ditto
- M (I, DP) Boskovic, Branko - Ready to make a statement?
- M Cruz, Danny
- M/F De Rosario, Dwayne
- M/F Pontius, Chris
- F Brettschneider, Blake - Wonder how safe his spot is. Can he be re-classified as off-budget?
- 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 Willis, Joe
- D (HG) White, Ethan
- D/M (HG) Shanosky, Conor - Ready to play with the big boys?
- M (HG) Najar, Andy
- M/F DeLeon, Nick [3]
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Trialists
- GK Dykstra, Andrew - MLS experience, excellent competition for the largely unproven Willis if the price is right
- GK Lambo, Josh - ex-GenAd and youth nat; has pedigree but has yet to live up to it
- 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 Richter, Ryan - Union washout, college goalscorer (for what it’s worth)
- M Rozeboom, Lance - Suppie pickup. D-mid depth?
- M Svard, Sebastian - journeyman Danish d-mid
- F Adlam, Alanzo - 22 year-old Jamaican domestic-leaguer and youth nat. Hope this isn’t the solution at striker or that FO have concluded Santos is.
- F Jerome, Stefan - US youth nat has been toiling in lower-tier Euro-obscurity, but used to have some pretty smooth skills if memory serves.
Just some final food for thought. If we’re entertaining d-mids on trial and the acquisition of Dudar frees McDonald to serve as cover for Kitchen as well, what exactly is Morsink still doing on the roster? Making sure we have enough salary budget players to fulfill MLS regs? Or is Benny just preserving tactical flexibility (assuming he’s more willing to experiment this time around)?
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Korb turns 25 this year, making him (to my understanding under previous year’s rules) ineligible for Off-Budget status. ↩
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Listed as Off-Budget on dcunited.com, but turned 25 last year. Wouldn’t that have made him ineligible for Off-Budget status in 2011? That’s what the rules say anyway. ↩
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Listed as Off-Budget on the roster. Isn’t GenAd, but qualifies for status anyway by virtue of age if United lists him as such. Of course, they still list Kitchen as Off-Budget by virtue of GenAd status, and he graduated from GenAd months ago… ↩
For those interested...My personal wayback machine (otherwise known as the site search box) says it was just over 4 years ago that those fond memories of Stefan Jerome date from.
ReplyDeleteFour years?
Time flies, eh?
Four years! Wow. So, yes.
ReplyDeleteI'm very interested in what Jerome could do at this level.
ReplyDeleteAs for the centerback depth, this seems like a sign we could see one of them tried at left back. Not intentionally, but it seems possible that White or Jakovic would be pushed out to the left out of necessity.
Please, let there be a left back.
Or a sign that we're cautious about missing Jakovic given he'll be playing qualifiers for Canada and doesn't have the best record with getting through seasons healthy.
DeletePrediction? If Dudar beds in well and Shanosky looks like being able to handle some minutes, I wonder if the FO tries to peddle his Canadian-ness to Vancouver, Montreal, or Toronto. Not saying I'd be for this, but he hasn't really progressed from his promising first season and he does sit out a fair few games...
Still, your point is taken. There's certainly more depth, experience, and, yes, flexibility, at the back than we've had in a while.