Looking Ahead To 2008 For DC United

Was winning the 2007 Suporters' Shield enough for the Black-and-Red?

Chris Webb

November 10, 2007

DC United's Christian Gomez dribbles away from Chicago Cuauhtemoc Blanco

DC United's Christian Gomez dribbles away from Chicago Cuauhtemoc Blanco
Photo: Martin Fernandez

United has big questions and major holes to fill for the upcoming 2008 season. The status of Jaime Moreno and Christian Gomez (center) will go a long way towards defining the outlook of the 08' season.

Washington, D.C. It's certainly debatable whether or not DC United had a successful season in 2007. They did garner a piece of major hardware in securing the Supporters Shield for a second consecutive season but yet again fell short in every other Cup competition. We could go on all day examining the reasons why United continually come up short in these competitions over the past three seasons but the reality is that while United has had the best record in MLS over the past three seasons, it's only gotten them two pieces of hardware, the aforementioned Supporters Shields of 06' and 07'.

Looking ahead though there are a myriad of lingering questions as to how DC United will prepare for the 2008 calender year. UnitedMania will take a look at the key issues heading into the New Year.

Issue #1 - Expansion Draft

While most people won't put too much stock into losing only one player to the new San Jose expansion team, whom United selects to protect gives everyone an idea of how the shape of the team will look next season. For example if United chooses not to protect either Jaime Moreno or Christian Gomez, that is a possible sign that one or both of them might not be with the team next season. It's been rumored for some time now that both Moreno and Gomez have been getting sniffs from overseas and may be sold during the winter. As for Gomez, he seems the most likely to go as he turned down United's offer of a significant pay raise during the season to stay. While Gomez didn't start the season well he certainly turned up the heat and now is being considered for actual Designated Player status for next season. More on that later.

However the question remains, who does United protect? We talked about this in last week's edition of The Soccer Show Podcast, but my guess is that United will protect the following 11 players:

GK Troy Perkins
D Bobby Boswell
D Bryan Namoff
D Marc Burch
D Devon McTavish
M Ben Olsen
M Christian Gomez
M Fred
M Clyde Simms
M/F Rod Dyachenko
F Luciano Emilio

You may have noticed that I have left Moreno, Greg Vanney and Brian Carroll unprotected. These are the reasons why. For Moreno it's all about age and mobility. I just don't see Frank Yallop selecting Moreno. As for Vanney, it's mostly about his age and potential salary though Vanney is out of contract and most likely will renegotiate at a much lower salary to stay in MLS wherever he may end up. And finally for Carroll, he seems the most likely to be selected. He makes a decent amount of money (over 100k) and with Simms and Mookie Arguez in tow, the loss won't sting so much though United would be losing a valuable player. As for the eternal battle of Vanney vs Boswell, it's a no brainer at this point. You protect Boswell. He's cheap (will be paid 32k next season due to his own ignorance) and while he certainly had an off year, he has had two very good seasons before this year. Boswell often seemed distracted and hopefully him playing in a contract year (both for MLS and his preferred European option) will boost his play.

UnitedMania.com guess as to who goes?

Brian Carroll will be in Silicon Valley next season.

Issue #2 - Designated Player

United chose not to use their DP slot in 07' and it may have cost them additional hardware. That argument is subjective however as DP flops Claudio Reyna and Denilson didn't exactly bring Red Bull and FC Dallas to championship glory respectively either. However with another off-season of non championships, United's braintrust of Kevin Payne, Dave Kaspar and Tom Soehn will indeed broach the subject this time. Strong rumor has Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastion Veron to United as a done deal according to a source of mine. That would certainly boost United's sometime timid midfield with a player who can create and defend equally well. A potential loss of Gomez could be cushioned by the addition of Veron and the hopeful emergence of third year player Rod Dyachenko who's second half performance (2 assists) against Chicago in their last game gave the United coaching staff something to think about for the future.

There is also the issue of perhaps MLS giving teams a second DP slot, heretofore known as the "Landon Rule" which would keep Donovan in LA with Becks. If this does indeed happen United has a few more options. One of which, mentioned earlier, is the possible promotion of Gomez to DP status. This to me seems highly unlikely as they can still give Gomez a significant raise without breaking the magical 400k (DP money line) barrier.

However, the better option would be to either go after a top line young striker to compliment Emilio or a stud defender who could anchor the backline and hopefully eliminate the seemingly endless string of brain farts on the backline which sunk United in each and every competition this season.

Issue #3 - Depth, quality depth

United's obvious lack of a 3rd striker this season was a big reason why they bowed out early in the MLS Cup playoffs. While Guy-Roland Kpene gave a solid effort, his lack of actually scoring a goal hampered this team. Nicolas Addlery added a midseason goal but little much after that. Dyachenko filled in on occasion at forward but it's pretty obvious he is a playmaking midfielder.

I don't expect any help from the draft in this regard as United recently hasn't gained anything from their draft picks.

United also needs some midfield depth with the shocking loss of Josh Gros' upcoming retirement. While Gros definitely had his faults, he was sorely missed at seasons end. Just like Cinderella belted out in the 80's, you "Don't Know What Ya Got, Till It's Gone". Justin Moose showed early promise but virtually disappeared from the lineup from midseason.

Issue #4 - Speed

Or lack thereof. United is frightfully slow in many areas. When United gets going, they can blitz anybody in the league but it has to almost be at optimal conditions. Ben Olsen is getting older and slower and while he has had his best season in his career this year, it's unreasonable to expect the same production next season. Fred showed some quickness out on the flanks but lacks any real breakaway speed. Moose has some speed as does Steven deRoux but they just don't seem to be trusted by the coaching staff.

The defense is where this team is positively glacial. Vanney and Boswell won't be chasing anyone down anytime soon and while Burch and McTavish have shown some speed, United need much more on the backline. It's not about out and out sprinter speed that Marvel Wynne of TFC posesses, but the speed of thought and foot to cut out dangerous chances in a hurry. All the evidence you need is the three goals that Chicago scored on United in their playoff series to see how lack of anticipation will kill you in an elimination series. In fact, most of United's goals allowed this season seemed to be from a lack of reacting quickly enough to situations where simply positioning themselves better would have cut out a lot of bad goals.

With United posessing the ball the way they do on most occasions, it's critically important for your defenders to stay sharp as counter attack goals seem to be the only way a sharp posessing team like United can give up goals. And they gave up plenty of those this season.

At the end of the day United doesn't seem to have as many holes as most MLS teams will have going into the 08' season. But if United have any intention of winning anything other than the Supporters Shield, they need to make quality improvements to the team in all areas to handle what will be a crowded schedule next season.

Off-season moves will tell a lot about what intentions United and the front office have for next season.