[retired_mallory08]

The final pieces to the jigsaw??

Clark continued to shuffle his pack in the hope of the perfect hand. "I think we're close" said Clark, beaming ear-to-ear.

A few slick deals have seen Clark address some of the key weaknesses at Spartan.

Eddie Pope returnd after finishing the season at the Rapids. He didn't come cheap as the Quakes coughed up Dwight Pezzarossi for the USMNT stalwart. Clark immediately signed Pope to a cheaper, longer deal. "We needed Eddie to drop his wages a little. He can see the big picture and that money will help us sign a few more quality players."

Clark followed up the EP deal by trading for Clint Dempsey. The young M LC was traded stright out for Arturo Alvarez, who despite enormous promise and coach hype, had not fulfilled his potential last year. "Clint will be an MLS MVP someday, soon. The USMNT beckons......"

The final piece of the jigsaw could be the signing of Dallas' Eric Quill. The AML really had a break out year in 2004 and finished joint third in the MVP race with a 7.52 average. Not a great scorer or provider at FC Dallas, Clark hopes the end product can be enhanced at a free-scoring team like SJ. "Just what the doctor ordered. I'd been drying to get my hands on a left winger, one who could step in now. Quill was the top winger in the league last year so his arrival only makes us a better team. " Clark lost patience with another youngster, Brad Davis who was shipped out in a straight swap deal with Quill.

Ezra Hendricksen was picked up in the Supplemental draft. "To pick up a player who was both the top defender in MLS last year in terms of consistency (7.48) but to a $750/wk contract is an abosulte steal. Omer was crazy to let him go."

Clark also parted with a few players. Jeff Agoos didn't make the cut and departed along with Craig Waibel. Drew Moor was released after it was decided he'd never make the grade. C.J Klass was shipped to Dallas with a 3rd rounder in return for a 2nd in next years draft. Jamaica int'ls Khari Stephenson and Wolde Harris were axed to make room for someof the draft picks - including Greer, who has considerable talent for his age.

The SJ team now looks formidable, and sports several internationals.

GK:
Starter: Joe Cannon
Backup:Johnny Walker
[What a battle between two MVP candidates, both whom have been recognised at the international level for USA]

Fullback:
Ezra Henricksen
Todd Dunnivant

Center Half:
Eddie Pope
Jimmy Conrad

Wingers:
Richard Mulrooney
Eric Quill

Centre Mids (from):
Ricardo Clark
Ramon Ramirez
Clint Dempsey
Pablo Mastroeni

Strikers:
Sergio Galvan Rey
Fabian Estoyanoff

The bench is deep too with Ali Curtis, Wes Hart, Ryan Cochrane, Tighe Dowmbrowski and more.

It's way too early to be calling SJ champions, but they look well poised. The Quakes board wont buy into any plea of team building this season.

[retired_mallory08]

Dallas manager nervous about season ahead...

Dallas manager Stu has completed a massive overhaul of the roster, bringing in no fewer than eleven new faces to last year's seasons end squad of 24. Gone are such illustriuous and familiar faces like Milton Reyes, Jason Kreis, and Eric Quill; among the new arrivals are Brad Davis, (shipped to SJ for a year and has now returned), Eddie Gaven and Taylor Twellman.

"We wanted to address several needs this offseason,"Stu said,"And...I think we may well have ended up raising more question marks than we answered."

"We desperatley wanted to add young talent in goal, (Onstad won't go on forever), and only succeeded in bringing in a young second round draft choice, Todd Taylor. He may well turn out in the future, but this year...it may be asking a little much."

Todd Taylor will start the year as third choice keeper behind incumbent Onstad and the maddeningly inconsistent Jeff Cassar. Onstad has somewhat alleviated management's worries about his age with several strong performances for the Cdn national team during the MLS offseason.

"I felt we needed at least one more strong central defender to help the club, and so we signed two young players from the English lower leagues John Burwood and Hall from Oldham. Now that they are here, the consensus among the assmen and me, is that they might still be a little green for the rigours of MLS soccer."

The two English youngsters will more than likely provide cover for the three incumbernt starters from the Dallas backline. MLS Allstar Eddie Robinson, rock Steve Jolley, and dependable Matt Behnke.

"We were toying with the idea of changing our traditional formation and going with two at the centre half position, (instead of three), but we had concerns that while Robinson was an Allstar with extra support...how good would he prove to be with none? The tactical questions soon became moot as I proceeded to trade away most of our width players."

Eric Quill went to San Jose in a questionable trade by the Dallas manager. In return, Stu received young struggling midfielder Brad Davis.

"Al thinks he's getting an all-star winger,"said Stu,"I didn't have the heart to tell him that Quill operated in the centre for us most of last season. Can Quill reproduce his form of last year? I'm obviously betting no. I think he'll quickly become lost in the quality of that side. I wouldn't be surprised if he finds his way back to us after Al has destroyed all his confidence...just like Davis."

The supplemental draft proved fruitful for the Dallas side as they gained the services of Kiwi Duncan Oughton. The arrival of the New Zealand player made the services of former squad member Milton Reyes, redundant.

"I wasn't that sad to see Milton go,"confirmed Stu,"We don't play with true fullbacks, and it seemed difficult for him to adjust to our playing style."

The changes indeed made Dallas threadbare at the outside positions. Only David Wagenfuhr, (a yngstr who will be given every chance to impress this year), Oughton, Davis, and first rd draft choice Ashe are true width players. But, there is cover from the likes of indispensable Ronnie O'Brein, Felix Brilliant, and Eddie Gaven.

The center of the park includes a nice mix of young and old. Reliable Finn Valakari and young superstar in the making Jordan Stone will hold down the ball-winning positions, and age-less wonder Pareja will continue to boss the park. Joining the mix are talented youngster Todd Maurin, Brilliant and O'Brein.

"I love the potential of Jordan Stone,"Stu confessed,"I had him playing centre half, (out of his preferred position), for most of last season and he played spectacularly without complaint. This year he will get every chance to make a midfield slot his own."

The most change was seen at forward, where everyone departed except for superstar Eddie Johnson. Joining the star is Taylor Twellman, (star in his own right), Joe Max Moore, Eddie Gaven, and young rookie Smith. Bobby Rhine continues to stay at the club for the time being...

"We feel we have a lot more depth at forward than last season, and we will start using the talents of EJ a little more judiciously."confirmed Stu,"We're hoping to avoid the second half wilting that EJ displayed last season."

"We've gotten a lot younger this year, and with youth comes question marks...our potential is obviously a lot higher than it was last year, but so is our potential for failure."

The opening day roster looks like this:

GK
Pat Onstad - Agelesss Cdn great
Jeff Cassar - Inconsistent keeper that drives manager Stu bonkers
Todd Taylor - Young punk kid, 2d rd draft pick

DC
Eddie Robinson - MLS Allstar after coming over from SJ
Steve Jolley - Highly valued DC
Matt Behnke - Useful defender
John Burwood - Young DC from England
Hall - plucked from Oldham

Width players

Felix Brilliant - probably starter on the L side
Duncan Oughton - recently acquired Kiwi will be given shot at R side
Ashe - first rd pick, will play some on R
David Wagenfuhr - will battle Brilliant
Brad Davis - will get his minutes...somewhere...

Center Mids

Valakari - heart of team, owns holding role
O'Brein - always starts when healthy
Pareja - still a starter at 36
Stone - will be given every opp at mid or dc, future star
Maurin - will play some...future star...unsure if future is now...

Forwards

EJ - most valuable Dallas player
Twellwood - should be effective partner
JM Moore - first off the bench
Gaven - will get minutes all over the offensive end of park
Smith - shouldn't play much, short of team plane crashing...
Rhine - from EJ's partner at opening day last year to last on team depth chart...

[retired_mallory08]

Commissioner Helps Out San Jose Manager

The MLS commissioner reminded Al Clark, the San Jose boss, that his newly signed forward is Fabian Estoyanoff. The 22 year old Uruguayan was signed by San Jose as a Transitional International. So far in his career, Estoyanoff has won 10 caps and managed to score 2 goals. The MLS commissioner expressed that he is hopeful Estoyanoff will be able to settle to life in San Jose and become an exciting new addition to the league.

[retired_mallory08]

SJ Boss Speaks with the Media

"Thanks Don", said Clark. "It's embarrasing that I can't remember the name of arguably this side's greatest signing, but there's bee so much traffic through the door this offseason I just couldn't pull it out. No offense to the youngster, he can rest assured that he's firmly in my plans. I didn't ship the leagues #3 scorer out for no reason."

In response to FC Dallas boss Stu's remarks about Eric Quill..."Yeah, I confess, Stu might have pulled the wool over my eyes on that trade but I'm still happy. Either way we have another quality left foot in the mix. I think he will succeed, and frankly, Brad Davis wasn't cutting it. He has all the potential in the world but at pushing 23, he needs to get his game in order or he's going to find things passing him by."

"The Conference looks awesome, every team has a legitimate chance to win it all, and I don't think I'm sticking my neck out too far by saying the MLS Cup 2005 Champion will come from our conference. May the best man win....."

Asked to comment on the salary cap debacle at LA, Clark had this to say..."Well, Tom brought in some talent, lost some talent and got the wages thing all wrong. Easily done in MLS for a rookie. We've all had cap mishaps in our time. Let's not forget how strong LA were last season and most of that core is still around. This is Tom's league right now, if we want to change that we're going to have to see if we can wrestle it away from him. They'll challenge all the way, if you think different you're on smack!"

[retired_mallory08]

[retired_mallory08]

Dallas Coach loses plot...

Dallas coach Stu suffered from a spell of insanity yesterday, unloading his top three draft picks in a brief period spanning twenty minutes.

The top pick arrived in Chicago along with keeper Jeff Cassar in return for in-form keeper Zack Thornton.

"It might look a little one-sided, I admit. But with one fell swoop I've solved our goaltending duties for the next five years, and unloaded that headache Cassar."Stu admitted,"That pick may turn out to be number one overall, but with the arrival of Thornton we're obviously hoping to avoid that."

Stu then sent his number two pick to the Metrostars for US U21 starlet Mike Magee.

"Mike's got 5 goals in 8 int'l matches, I think he's the real deal...and he'll only get better. Besides, it gave me an excuse to release Bobby Rhine."

Pundits could be excused for pointing out that perhaps if Stu had waited a little longer, Magee might have been available on a free. It was common knowledge around the MLS that coach Ricky had too many players for slots.

Stu completed his madness by shipping his third pick to frequent trading partner Al of San Jose. In return, Dallas received solid if unremarkable defender Craig Waibel. Again a player that may have been had on a free...

The arrrival of Waibel signaled the departure of prospect striker Smith.

"There's just not enough room on an MLS roster for developing players,"Stu sighed,"The youngsters you carry have to be capable of stepping in and playing right now...we'll keep an eye on Smith though, and when he looks closer to filling his potential he'll be hearing from us."

The moves overall slightly address the Dallas lack of depth. But for a side rebuilding with youth, trading valuable picks for squad players seems a little insane.

[retired_mallory08]

A Session To Forget....

'********" said a fired up SJ boss. "I've crapped better performances than those games".

This crude assessment followed a run of 3 defeats and a 0-0 tie which saw Bookies (joint) favourites SJ notch one point from six and get uncerimoniously dumped out of the CONCACAF Cup 4-1 on aggregate to Mexican powerhouse America.

Clark was once again busy in the transfer market. More fine tuning was required than wholesale changes yet Al still found time to assemble a blockbuster. Out went top prospect and all-round quality player Ricardo Clark....in came teenage Phenom Freddy Adu. The deal was made even sweeter by the inclusion of Santino Quaranta and a 4th.

"Losing Ricardo is tough, but, when we looked at the roster we had Pablo Mastroeni and new recruit Anthony Vandenborre who were both capable of taking his place. Let's not forget what we got in return - Freddy is the future of the US game and arguably a top 3 prospect inall of world soccer".

Clark was clearly upset that the fans had not taken the time to acknowledge the magnitude of the signing, yet again, yet the did find time to bitch about the signing of Dunseth from NE. The veteran was only ever a make-weight in a deal and was soon released, yet the fans we're out in force questioning the coach's ambitions. "This is why I'm the manager and they're not. They're quick to criticise and slow to priase....and they call themselves fans. Bah."

Clark made a couple more changes, adding versatile D-man Brian Namoff after he was released from DC and signing Pete Vagenas (a 2 time US MNT player) to take the starting DL role. Tighe Dombrowski was released as a consequence. Young GK Bucchanan, taken in the middle rounds of the last draft was also cut.

So far the changes have not worked out well, but Clark predicts that things will turn around soon. "Look at the quality through our side, we'll find our rhythm soon, we've had a lot of changes and it will take some time. I expect us to be right up there and soon."

The bookies had made LA, Chicago and SJ joint 7-4 favourites but the three big guns mustered only 4 points between them out of the opening 18 on offer. But, it's early doors, and although the East has started strongly, Clark still expects a Western Conference team to be triumphant. "Personally, I see it is between LA, SJ, DC and Chicago. Colorado or Dallas could be a dark horse, but I'd say one of those big four will walk away with the plaudits."

Finally, in an apparent reaction to Clark's forgetting his name, new Uruguayan striker Estoyanoff has declared he's finding it hard to settle in the area. "Touche" said Clark, "the boy will be fine. He's going to be a great signing for us".

[retired_mallory08]

SOLID START FOR METROSTARS

Metrostars head coach Ricky Lung jammed in 3 friendlies at the end of March after he realized he had to arrange friendly matches himself. He ended up with 3 victories in those 3 matches.

"Just before we move along in yesterday's session, coach Clark of DC United approached me and offers his number one pick Tom Keevan, he wants my first rounder in next year's draft. I have already expressed interest on Tom at the draft, so I am willing to take him, but since I have a full squad of 24 players, I shipped Mike Magee to Dallas for a 2nd round pick to make room for Tom. The deal of Tom Keevan is cancelled at the end due to the fact that the transfer will not go through until the next year's draft takes place. So I end up losing Magee and will not have the service of Tom this season. But this is still a reasonable move since I have a bunch of forwards on my team, and now I have a spot open on my squad, I will have some flexibility in the future to make some moves."

"Two weeks ago when the opener of the season was getting closer, coach Lung told a reporter that he felt a lot of pressure, since the board and the fans certainly will not accept another last place finish."

The result of the first game turns out to be a dominating fashion by the Metros, with Brian Ching headed in the first goal of the season for the Metros, Jean-Phillipe Peguero scored on a penalty kick after Meola was sent off mid-way through the second half, he missed a penalty kick during the closing seconds of the game.

The home opener at Giant Stadium is a tough one, they had the defending champion LA in town. Coach Tom of LA was not on the sideline for the game, so the assistant manager of LA took over. Joselito Vaca scored a spectacular free kick in the first half, the ball bounced off the post and went in. Coach Lung made a few defensive move in the second half to defence the one goal lead, LA came very close during the last ten minutes of the team when they kept firing shots, but Henry Ring kept the lead and Jean-Phillipe Peguero scored at the spot again during the dying seconds to seal the victory.

After two games, the Metros and DC United both has 6 points, they are leading the East and the league for now. They will square off at the beginning of next session.

[retired_mallory08]

Promising start to the new campaign

As the new season approached, D.C. United Chairman and the fans were eager to improve on the prior season. Just before the squad selection deadline, in a suprising move, United shipped off the future of the US national team Freddy Adu to San Jose along with Santino Quaranta and a 4th round pick to acquire Ricardo Clark. United manager was keen to acquire Clark even last season and had been willing to give up Adu to the MetroStars but the trade never went through as San Jose came in to snap up the promising holding midfielder.

"Adu will be good, there is no question about that. But Clark is good and will be better. We made a decision that we really didn't need Adu while players like Robelto, Figueroa, Dinjar, Alva and Sakaliev were in the squad. The holding midfielder role was occupied by Kovalenko but I would prefer to give him a more attacking role so Clark is a great acquisition for us this season and for many more to come." United manager said.

As for adding Quaranta to the deal United manager said "He simply hasn't progressed in the manner we had hoped and was going to be released in a matter of days. I am a firm believer that if a club can't or doesn't use a player, they should step aside and let another club have the player. There is no point to letting these youngsters rot on the sidelines."

For the first match of the season, United travelled south to face Dallas and Eddie Johnson. An early injury to Fernando Carlos Figueroa saw the young Colombian step in on the left wing and make his mark for the rest of the match. Everything went according to plan for DC as their pressure paid off in the middle of the first half. Piero Alva was brought down in the box and Marko Dinjar stepped up to convert the penalty. Dallas pushed forward but generally had trouble breaking down the United defense. An 89th minute counter attack extended United's lead as Piero Alva found Jeremiah White in the box for an easy finish.

Hosting Colorado's much strengthened team, United started playing cautiously as both teams stacked up chance after chance. United were lucky not to go down in the second half after Colorado defended a corner superbly to catch United on the counter. Despite rounding Rimando, Byron Carmichael shot the ball to the side netting as United faithful breathed a great sigh of relief. Only a few minutes later, substitute Jeremiah White saved the day for United by grabbing the goal that won the three points. In a most match interview, United manager indicated how impressed he was with the new look Colorado team that could have won the match with a little bit of luck. "I wouldn't put it past them to compete for first place in the West this season against the seemingly weakened San Jose and Los Angeles teams. They have a good squad, and their manager is a class act." United manager said.

United sit at the top of the Eastern conference after two matches, joint leaders with the suprising MetroStars. The two teams are set to face eachother in the next match as the MetroStars will look to emulate their performance against Los Angeles and United will look to further their promising start to the season.

[retired_mallory08]

Is this Any Way to Run a Team?

Well the 2005 campaign looked to be starting much like 2004. Manager Greg Broz had to step away from the draft due to family issues. He could only hope that his assman would get the contracts done with the handful of players they would be able to acquire through the draft. Key to their plans was a young keeper that they could work into the system. While their first choice was snapped up, their second was still there when Colorado had their choice.

“Going with Eric Magee was a no-brainer. I mean at 17, he was already plying his trade in Utah. I am just glad we were able to pick up such a talented young man.”

That being said, all the draft picks quickly signed except for the last pick who held out for more money. The assist. manager of Colorado finally closed that deal as well and notified Greg of the problems. Greg looked over the players numbers and watched closely at practice for a few days, then dropped the player like a bad habit.

“If the guy was our first pick, I could see his demand to get a few more dollars from us, but come on, we were about last in order and he was in the last round. The guy needs to learn some humility. To top it off he was showing me nothing in practice. I had to let him go early.”

The next order of business was the preseason game schedule. THERE WERE NO GAMES SCHEDULED! Luckily the ass man had ramped up training.. NO WAIT… THEY WERE STILL ON RESTING! The season was about a month away and the squad was doing nothing and had nothing planned!

“Paul Bravo… bless him… he is on his last straw as my ass man. I won’t tolerate and more F%$#$#@$ from the *@&%^$^. I mean, we have missed out on the Champ cup, we barely made it into the playoffs, and we have many new players who need time to get familiar with each other’s style, and more importantly, my style. The only reason he is here right now is because the fans loved him as a player and want that kind of familiarity. I am not sure if he will last the season to be honest.”

News that will shock the Rapids community for sure. Well what came of this impending disaster?

“Well I quickly threw together a schedule against some A-league teams, scheduling on odd days and a few were just days apart. I forgot I was not at home in Chicago so I ended up scheduling Minnesota, Milwaukee, and Indiana pretty close together before I remembered that it was not easy to get there from Colorado. So I ended with Portland and Vancouver. On top of that I threw a hard preseason work out at my players and even made them train on match days. I even forced them to practice the day after the match to keep them moving. All was going better than hoped until we lost to Vancouver in our last preseason game.”

Indeed, a team that had been winning handily finally lost 1-0. But all was not lost as a young Kyle Beckerman emerged and surprised everyone, including the Colorado staff.

“I know Kyle was working hard in the off season on his own, but I had no idea he would come back like this. I mean he scored in just about every preseason game for us, and he was scoring on headers, mid range shots, he even netted one on a free kick from 20 yards out! He is proving to me he wants to stay here and he wants to be a starter.”

There were rumors circulating that you were in talks to get another high caliber goalkeeper in Colorado. What happened?

“I was in some minor discussion to get Zach Thornton, but that Chicago manager is a tough guy to bargain with. He wanted too much for him, I guess he figured that my sentimentality for my hometown squad might sway me to make a deal, and I have to admit he almost had me ready to commit. “

Really? That is not what we were hearing, you were looking at a SI..

“Fine, fine... yes we were also looking at Oman’s national team keeper. The scout I sent out gave a raving review of him and after seeing the report and the scout’s estimate of his skills, I figured it would be with a shot. I tried to get a structured deal, but to no avail as his club side just wanted more money upfront than I had.”

Enough of the preseason, care to discuss your first 2 games of the season?

“Well we went to New England to start the season, and I was hoping for the best, the team had just enough time to recover, and my hectic preseason schedule hopefully prepared them for the early weeks of the season.

We started out cautiously against NE, wary of what had happed to us on the road last year. By halftime we were thrilled. Up 2-0, and time to relax. My biggest idea was to bring in Byron Carmichael for Zizi. While some may question my sanity, I felt it would be better to rest him for our next match against DC.

Now Byron was a bit of a whim of mine. Again, one of my scouts was praising the ability of this kid, and even though his numbers were not stellar, the potential was there. He didn’t see but a few minutes of action last year, and this year he had a fire in him. After subbing out Zizi in the 61st minute Byron ripped apart the NE defense. He was exploiting all the gaps and created 3 breakaway chances. Sadly, he could not convert, but I think that his nerves will calm in time and we will see great things from him. The game’s only blemish came late when Pezzarossi’s countryman, Mario Rodriguez, netted an own goal while trying to keep the ball away from Pat Noonan.”

“Now DC was a different story. Just days after being in NE we had to play DC in DC. Not the kind of trip I like to make. Most of my starters had recovered in time, but some were still a little tired from the win in NE. It was a tight game as Omer has said, what he failed to mention was that I had to use my 3 subs earlier than I had wanted. Then in roughly the 70th min, one of his player’s injured Kyle badly enough that he had to be taken from the game. That left us with 10 men on the pitch. Less than 5 minutes later DC scored the only goal of the game after a barrage of shots to finish out the game.”

“Now maybe I am too nice a guy, but this is the second tie I have been burned by teams taking out my players. I don’t know what the other managers are teaching over at their training grounds, but man this is nuts. If you can’t beat my team in a fair, even match then deal with it, don’t start taking my players out.”

“Oh… before I forget…we’re coming for your team Al. don’ think these guys have forgotten what you did to us”