Caught in Possession

As promised, I've got a few extra quotes from United's new player press conferences this week. First off, Monday's Carvallo/Martinez/Niell/Peralta introduction...

GM DAVE KASPER

On how long DCU has been tracking these four players:

In all of the four players’ case, they were all within the last year, certainly not as long as Luciano [Emilio]…We worked hard – on and off the plane – to make sure we got these guys signed quickly.

On the league's growing interest in Latin American players:

I think certainly there’s going to be more MLS teams looking to South America. There are no surprises down there, it’s really where everyone – every club in the world outside of Latin America – looks for players and there’s a lot of talent. We expect that. There were a lot of [MLS] teams down in South America this year, some of whom were there when we were scouting. But that’s our challenge, is to try to stay ahead of the curve, and we do try to identify players not just for the current signing period, but for future signing periods, and that’s something that we’ll continue to do.

HEAD COACH TOM SOEHN

On the character issue:

The amount of research we do when we look at players, not just the type of player they are on the field, but the type of person they are off the field and in the locker room. We do a lot of research to make sure we get the type of guy that we feel fits the organization and the expectations we put on ourselves. Between the four of them, we’re really excited that we feel like we’ve gotten better on the soccer field, but we’re also just as good in the locker room and that’s an important step in how we do business here.

On his squad’s depth:

As we looked at the draft, judging by the quality of players we brought in today, I actually feel like we’re going to be a pretty deep team. We all know that with all the competitions we’re in, you have to be a deep team and utilize your roster well enough to make sure you’re getting guys some experience and getting guys some rest.

Here's my MLSnet piece on Gallardo's arrival in DC:

http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20080129&content_id=137097&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp

Attended another eventful, um...event today, as DC United made Marcelo Gallardo's star status clear by giving his press conference the silverware-and-cloth-napkins treatment at the National Press Club, as opposed to the more basic finger-foods-at-RFK setup provided at Monday's four-player unveiling PC. But if "El Muneco" delivers as United expects, it will turn out to be an eminently appropriate introduction to his elegant style.

There's been a lot of thoughtful debate (and some healthy skepticism) around the DC blogo-zone regarding United's decision to invest DP money and DP status on a 32-year-old replacement for Gomez. I hope to touch on that in the coming days, but first I wanted to pass on a few tidbits, starting with a brief note about Ben Olsen.

Olsen was at Monday's training but did not work out with the team, or even put on a pair of cleats. Having undergone surgery on both ankles shortly after the close of the '07 campaign, he expected to be back to normal by this time but is experiencing lingering pain in his left ankle, where a thumbnail-sized bone spur was removed. He's not yet cleared to run or jog and his cardio regimen is largely limited to pool workouts.

He sounds pretty frustrated by the situation, but after umpteen ankle operations, Ben has developed a pretty keen sense of what pain is bearable/acceptable and what isn't. He's traveling to Florida with the team this week, but said that if the ankle doesn't improve soon he'll come back to DC and work on his own.

Later tonight, I'll be posting some bonus quotes from Monday's player intro as well as today's Gallardo shindig.

Looong day, what with DCU’s training and leisurely press conference at RFK, then an afternoon/evening of office work, and dinner with a good friend visiting from out of town. But having finally heard/seen with my own ears/eyes that Christian Gomez is as good as gone from DC, I felt compelled to get a few thoughts on the page before I crash out.

Life moves in cycles, I suppose. I was present at Gomez’s unveiling in August '04, when he arrived as an unassuming vet from the Argentinean second division, brought north to bring a spark of inspiration to a once-proud club redolent in mediocrity and uncertainty. United had produced occasional bursts of brilliance in Peter Nowak’s first year in charge and even occupied first place in the East at the All-Star break, but were equally prone to amazingly anonymous displays – as indicated by their failure to win consecutive league matches until September.

In retrospect, you could say that the Freddy Adu hype – and the classic MLS midsummer blues – had begun to take a toll. You might point out that 2004 was possibly the crescendo of the “meaningless MLS regular season” phenomenon, and chuckle at the fact that when Gomez was signed, DC was in third place, lagging eight points back of the conference-leading MetroStars.

Regardless, United had just gone more than a month between wins and with the playoffs approaching, there didn’t seem to be much this pedestrian-looking Argentinean would be able to offer. A certain Washington Times beat reporter (who shall remain nameless but whose byline can still be found attached to other summer sports coverage in the city) took one look at Gomez and his bio, threw up his hands and exclaimed, “Twenty-nine years old, small, slow, hasn’t played for a club anyone’s ever heard of – what’s this guy going to do!?!?” Or something to that effect. And many within earshot would likely have agreed.

Three and a half years later, Christian “Don’t-Call-Me-Gomito-‘cuz-I’m-a-Grown-Ass-Man” Gomez is set to leave the nation’s capital. His fingerprints are all over an MLS Cup title, two Supporters’ Shield trophies, a league MVP gong, three Best XI nominations and numerous team awards. He carried his team on his back for weeks at a time. Perhaps he even inspired the ongoing MLS Argentina goldrush. And most importantly…he always, always followed Cantona’s Directive: play beautiful.

“Christian Gomez basically turned this club around.”

-Ben Olsen, 28 Jan 08

DC United officially welcomed four new South American players to the club this afternoon at RFK Stadium, having kicked off what promises to be a long and intriguing 2008 campaign with a light training session beforehand.

The event was somewhat eclipsed by some late-afternoon news out of RFK though, as official word of Marcelo Gallardo’s signing was announced. The Argentinean playmaker and World Cup veteran trained with United on Monday and is essentially a like-for-like replacement for disgruntled #10 Christian Gomez. More on him later…

For now, I think it’s worth focusing on the fact that United took a big step towards upgrading what has become the club's achilles heel in recent seasons, the center of defense, by acquiring Colombian international Gonzalo Martinez and his namesake from Argentina, Gonzalo Peralta. Martinez has the compact, muscular physique of a sprinter and if DC general manager Dave Kasper's repeated assertions of his pace are anywhere near accurate, the Black-and-Red rearguard will benefit from a significant upgrade in that department.

The other Gonzalo’s blond locks and goofy smile are enough to make one ponder a potential genetic link to American skateboarding legend Stacy Peralta. But in Monday morning’s lively intrasquad scrimmage – which featured two mini-goals per side in place of the regulation-sized woodwork, perhaps due to a ‘keeper shortage with Zach Wells still at U.S. national team camp – the tall center back moved along his side’s back line with a graceful economy and communicated confidently in both Spanish and, to a lesser extent, English.

And that’s clearly a trait United find most appealing in Peralta.

“One of the things that we really, really liked about him was his ability to direct traffic and lead in the back,” said Kasper.

Since Ryan Nelsen’s departure after the MLS Cup-winning season of 2004, the coaching staff has tried to plug Mike Petke, Facundo Erpen, Bobby Boswell and Greg Vanney into that ‘field general’-type of role in the center of defense, with mixed results – but more importantly, results that never really measured up to the quality on display elsewhere in the side. Could Peralta be the one to break that underwhelming trend? It’s early, early days but I’d give him a fighting chance.

Also on display was fellow Argentinean Franco Niell, who will be employed first and foremost as a striker to provide a contrasting style to incumbents Jaime Moreno and Luciano Emilio. At this early stage I feel compelled to share the admonition Kasper gave to media on Monday: his family name is pronounced “KNEE-el,” in contrast to the more familiar Anglo-Irish moniker shared by Messrs. Diamond, Armstrong, Cavuto et al.

Now, Niell really is as short as everyone is saying he is – setting him up for knee-jerk ridicule in the blogosphere, yes? – but it looks to me like a pronounced advantage. Whether attacking or defending, one-v-one soccer hinges on one’s quickness and center-of-gravity, and I’ve heard defenders of his era explain how hard it was to dispossess Diego Maradona – the Argentinean legend was devilishly quick, yes, but also diminutive enough to lay a hand on a challenger’s knee or thigh and pivot around them while they were still shuffling their feet to respond. I’m NOT comparing Niell to the legend but I do think the former Argentinos Juniors man could torture some of the league’s big, ponderous defenders with his skills set.

Peruvian netminder Jose Carvallo was also introduced on Monday, a player who has arrived in DC via the most unique saga of the lot. United was first alerted to him by his mother, an Ashburn, Va. resident whose status gives the club a most precious gift: an international player with a green card. Carvallo may not have the same impact as his fellow South Americans at first. But he’s spent some time with the Peruvian national side (let’s avoid, for now, a discussion of that proud nation’s sadly dysfunctional seleccion) and looks to be an athletic sort of ‘keeper who offers an interesting contrast to the tall, commanding Zach Wells.

Plenty more to talk about, but I’ll close for now and get back to the other work that’s patiently waiting for me. Check back for quotes, more notes, and an update on the ailing Ben Olsen in the next 12-16 hours or so…

D.C United's preseason training schedule is finally taking shape -- Doug Hicks and his DCU communications gurus sent out the following release just a short while ago. Note that there are still a few chunks still to be sketched out: the Cali trip will likely include a friendly with San Jose and as a native Texan, I'm quite curious about the San Antonio leg. There's never a bad excuse to visit the Hill Country...

D.C. United announce preseason schedule

Players, staff to gather for training, followed bymedia availability, Monday, January 28 at 10:30 a.m.

Washington, D.C. (January 25, 2008) - D.C. United announced today the club’s preseason schedule, as the club prepares for the 2008 CONCACAF Champions’ Cup and this year’s Major League Soccer season. The full team will report to RFK Stadium on Monday, January 28 for a 10:30 a.m. training session, followed by media availability, and will undergo closed-door fitness testing on Tuesday, January 29. United will begin pre-season training in earnest on Wednesday, January 30, when the club travels to Bradenton, FL. Other pre-season plans include trips to California and San Antonio, TX.

While in Bradenton, members of the first team will play a host of games. United will face the US U-17 National Team (2/1), the US U-23 National Team (2/2), Toronto FC (2/5) Danish club Odense (2/8) and Kansas City (2/12). The Black-and-Red will travel to the west coast for training February 15-25 and to San Antonio, TX for a preseason tournament February 29-March 10. Detailed information will be available at a later date.

D.C. United will open CONCACAF Champions’ Cup play in March by traveling to Jamaica to face Harbour View FC. The Black-and-Red will host the return leg at RFK Stadium. United’s MLS season kicks off on Saturday, March 29 when the team travels to Kansas City to face the Wizards at their new stadium, CommunityAmerica Ballpark. The team will return to D.C. for a Saturday home-opener versus Toronto FC. Kick-off at RFK Stadium is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on April 5.

Full season, half season, flex ticket plans and group purchases are now available through the D.C. United office at 202-587-5000 and www.dcunited.com <http://www.dcunited.com>. Supporters may also sign up for United’s eNews updates, the Coaches Association or Youth Fan Club on the team’s official website, www.dcunited.com <http://www.dcunited.com>.

Details of D.C. United’s preseason schedule are listed below, though the schedule is subject to change. Members of the media planning to attend a preseason practice or game should contact the D.C. United communications staff in advance.

D.C. United 2008 Preseason Schedule (all times EST):
Monday, January 28: Training at RFK Stadium (10:30 a.m.)
Tuesday, January 29: Fitness Testing, no media availability
Wednesday, January 30-Thursday, February 12: Training in Bradenton, FL
Friday, February 1: Match v. U17s
Saturday, February 2: Match v. U23s
Wednesday, February 5: Match v. Toronto FC
Friday, February 8: Match v. Odense (Denmark)
Tuesday, February 12: Match v. Kansas City
February 15-25: West Coast
Friday, February 29 - Monday, March 10: San Antonio
March 11-13: CONCACAF Champions’ Cup Match at Harbour View FC (Jamaica)
March 18-20: CONCACAF Champions’ Cup Match v. Harbour View FC at RFK.

A few more thoughts on Friday’s SuperDraft…

Some MLS clubs depend on the draft for significant roster needs, and sometimes even wind up using their selections to patch up holes in the starting XI. Toronto FC certainly falls in this category, in part because their 2007 expansion status dictated it to some extent – and Maurice Edu’s 2007 development makes it look like a pretty sharp idea, yes? The LA Galaxy have apparently decided to lean pretty heavily on their kids as well, using bargain-priced youngsters to fill in the spots around a pricey “big three” of Beckham, Donovan and Ruiz.

Others see it as an overhyped crapshoot that fills out the back corner of the locker room, at best. Several teams, notably Chivas USA, back-again-for-the-second-time San Jose and, to a lesser extent, DC United, more or less showed up at the Baltimore Convention Center just to punch their time cards (and make sure less competent counterparts weren't ready to have their pockets picked on the ballroom floor), then picked a prospect or two who might make the reserve squad and got the heck out of Dodge.

It’s hard to disagree with that outlook when there’s so much fogginess obscuring what is supposed to be the event’s bottom line: identification of primo U.S. talent. The “Generation adidas” program is “designed to identify and nurture the elite youth soccer talent in the United States,” we’re told, but in practice, it’s now mainly a salary subsidy for the clubs – the harsh confines of the salary cap have made it so. (Gen adidas player salaries are underwritten by the program, not the clubs.)

Foxsoccer.com’s ever-outspoken Jamie Trecker discusses this issue in his latest column:

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/7703874

Columbus head coach Sigi Schmid isn’t too fond of the situation, either, and he shared some interesting thoughts on this topic just after the SuperDraft’s conclusion. The Crew’s defensive needs are such that Schmid and his staff went for the player whom they judged could contribute the most and soonest, selecting Andy Iro with the sixth overall pick, even though he was not a Gen adidas kid and thus would cost more against the cap.

“There were a few head-scratchers, I thought, in the first round,” said Schmid. “But it all comes because there’s such a premium to players that are protected. Are the best players being picked in the first round? I don’t know. I think the best protected players are being picked in the first round, for sure. But that’s something you have to look at.”

So who picks the Gen adidas crop, and how do they draw those conclusions? Well, that’s where the fog rolls in. More on that later…

Crikey…Is it Wednesday already? I am going to have to put an “Enter blog post now!” alarm buzz on my phone and set it to go off every few hours...I'll get the hang of this eventually, though...

Moooooooving right along, plenty of fallout and fodder from Friday’s SuperDraft. I’ll admit, I’ve only been to this event twice now, but I can definitely say it has a certain kind of staged but sincere atmosphere to it, not unlike a high school homecoming dance or a bachelor-party strip club expedition. To wit:

Over the past 12 years, Major League Soccer has grown more and more interconnected with the rest of the soccer world, while that wider world has itself only grown in size, depth and complexity. Many MLS clubs have actually ascended into the second or third tier of the international transfer market (recent example: buy from Argentinos Jrs., sell to Valerenga) and the league’s gradual loosening of its complex roster criteria is allowing increasingly adventurous forays (mainly into Latin American and the European fringe) in search of value and quality.

Meanwhile, the cute, parochial little enterprise that is NCAA soccer continues to chug along in a snowglobe of its own making, handing out laudable college experiences – and lamentably, an inherently limited soccer curriculum from a professional standpoint – to anyone that will play for credit hours instead of actual cash.

Those guys, especially those who actually get their degree, deserve a chance in the nation’s professional league even if they are all too likely to see their skills limited in some way or another by what you might call the NCAA ‘education trade-off.’ SuperDraft is their official welcome into the league – nowadays more of a tryout invitation than a contract offer, of course – and it deserves some dignity as a result.

I didn’t really realize this until long after the final pick had been made. Only when I transcribed my brief chat with Virginia Tech starlet Patrick Nyarko that I was able to really see past my cynicism regarding a draft pool that has been widely written off as thoroughly pedestrian.

Nyarko carries a stout reputation based on his exploits for the surging Hokies program, but he’s startlingly thin in build and speaks very softly with a mild accent lingering from a childhood spent in Ghana. Widely pegged as this year’s top selection, he somehow slipped to the seventh spot before the Chicago Fire snapped him up with their first pick.

“Easily one of the most important days in my life,” said Nyarko of the occasion. “I’m making the jump to pro soccer and it’s something that’s been on my mind for these last couple of months. To finally realize this dream is something out of this world, so I’m really excited about the new challenge.”

To get here, Nyarko has worked harder and traveled further than most of us can comprehend, and he is a prize product of the NCAA system. Yet he simultaneously represents the inevitable tug of globalization that threatens the SuperDraft’s self-anointed role as prime pipeline to MLS.

The worldwide circulation of footballing talent is steadily eroding what is left of the league’s well-intentioned, but protectionist, defenses and whether it’s via supplemental draft or Designated Player signing, interested and appropriate players are going to get here somehow. And why not welcome it? SuperDraft’s prominence will continue to fade as its lens captures an ever-smaller rectangle of the talent available to MLS clubs…but I’d rather celebrate the growth of the rectangle than curse the limits of the lens.

During one of his breaks from draft announcement duties at the podium, MLS Commissioner Don Garber popped into the media area to answer a few questions from the ink-stained wretches.

Garber is as smooth as they come in this business, always ready to answer a dumb question -- or adeptly defuse a tough one -- and he's more patient than most of us would be in the process. Future expansion locations are on the mind of many and while everyone's talking about St. Louis and Philly, I couldn't resist a mischievous query about when MLS is going to reward Baltimore and its passionate, deeply rooted soccer community with a franchise of its own.

Garber wasn't biting, though...

“I think it’s DC turf," he said. "Right now this club [DC] is really a regional team – we don’t have a team south of Washington, DC. We’re going to potentially have a team just north of here, in Philadelphia, some time in the next couple of years. My view is that this is part of the DC catchment.

"Our focus is filling in those places where we really need teams. And we need to be south of here, that’s why we’re focused on Atlanta and Miami. We need to fill in the Midwest – that’s why St. Louis is in the mix – and in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve got a team coming on in Seattle, but perhaps north of there in Vancouver. South of LA, in San Diego at some point. So there’s a lot of opportunity. I wouldn’t have thought this a couple years ago."

Testing, testing, 1...2...3...Is this thing on?


Greetings from the 400 level of the Baltimore Convention Center, where I am quite pleased to debut the humble little endeavor that is Caught in Possession on the eve of the 2008 MLS SuperDraft.


Just a few hundred feet away from my location in the dim rabbit warren that is the media work center, one of the league's PR minions just got finished testing the ballroom's audio system with a stream of gibberish not all that different from the first line of this post. Fan groups are already chanting, league and club PR muckety-mucks are everywhere, and you could say I'm surrounded by a who's-who of U.S. soccer media: Steve Davis, Ives Galarcep, Steve Goff, Chris Connolly, Frank Giase, Michael Lewis...just to name a few.


This is my first-ever attempt at blogging and I fully expect to hit quite a few bumps in the road as I learn on the job. Yet I feel confident that I can offer you, the proverbial reader, some useful info and interesting perspectives on our rich local soccer scene and, occasionally, the wider footie world.


The soccer blogosphere in this country has exploded in recent years, and many would contend, with some justification, that adding yet another site to that crowded world is an exercise in futility. But I'll do my best to keep it interesting and minimize the blowhard-edness, if that makes any sense...and I promise to never, ever post in my pajamas. As far as you know.


I'll post a lot more about myself and the background of this blog in the coming days, but for now I'll focus on today's SuperDraft, now well-enshrined as Major League Soccer's first major event on the calendar and the sort of media circus only surpassed by the All-Star and MLS Cup weekends. Most of my afternoon will be occupied by a full slate of writing duties for MLSnet.com, but I'll do my best to pop up here occasionally and post thoughts, reactions, memorable happenings and the like.


Thanks for surfing in this direction -- and remember that from now on, it's a two-way conversation! Please drop a line at any time if you've got questions or observations of your own.