What's up with DC United? And a correction.

The DCU fire sale is still on. Alecko Eskandarian gets sent up to Toronto FC for a partial allocation. DC depth at forward has now taken a dramatic nose dive. There's an aging Jaime Moreno and...um...Jamil Walker? It's like they're the Florida Marlins of MLS.

We figured that DC was positioning themselves to sign up a great winger and maybe another M/F but man alive. This is starting to get silly. They're picking up allocations left and right and they still have their DP to use, should they choose to.

Good luck in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. They'll need it.


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I have no idea what I was thinking we I stated a post ago that MLS will see 3 new head coaches next season. I seem to have forgotten that Curt Onalfo in KC and Mo Johnston in Toronto will be new head coaches for those teams next year also, raising our grand total thus far to five (5). Duh.

Wildest. MLS. Off season. Ever!

Things have been flying around fast and furious in the US domestic soccer world. Let's recap the action:

Head Coach Bob Bradley and Chivas USA trade their DP slot to New York in exchange for hot and cold midfielder Amado Guevara.

Bob Bradley becomes interim USMNT and permanent U-23 head coach after Jürgen Klinsman abruptly and shockingly withdraws his name from contention. He then leaves Chivas USA with an expensive player that only he may have been able to control.

The Colorado Rapids send previous MLS GK of the Year Joe Canon to the LA Galaxy. The Galaxy then send their previous #1 GK Kevin Hartman out to Kansas City.

Toronto FC wheels and deals with everybody. The get Jason Kreis from RSL then trade him back to them for a partial allocation. Then they pick up Adrian Serioux from Houston and trade him to FC Dallas along with some other incentives to get Ronnie O'Brien out of Big D and up into the Great White North. They also picked up Nate Jaqua from Chicago and then sent him out to the Galaxy.

Out of no where DC United trades GK Nicky Rimando and teenage phenom Freddy Adu out to Real Salt Lake from a backup GK, draft picks, and claims on money should Freddy get transferred abroad.

Steve Morrow is promoted to the head coach job at the FC Dallas club where he was an assistant under former coach Colin Clarke.

DC United assistant coach Tony Soehn is promoted to the head coaches job at DCU after Peter Nowak leaves to become an assistant under Bob Bradley for the U-23s.


There's some more things that have happened but these are the events that stick out the most to me. To be honest it's hard to keep up with the frantic pace MLS clubs seems to be doing things these days. This upcoming season will see three new head coaches (CUSA, FCD, DCU) and old faces in new places. And we've still got 3 1/2 months to go.

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Twellman out, Califf, EJ, and Hot Toddy in.

Taylor Twellman took him self out of camp to help heal is groin and Bob Bradley called in Danny Califf, Eddie Johnson, and Todd Dunivant.

You may recall from yesterday I named Todd Dunivant as a notable exclusion from the camp roster. Glad to see him make it on the list.

A squad to build with (or not)

Just in case you haven't heard, Bob Bradley and US Soccer announced the list of players invited to USMNT camp to train for friendlies against Denmark in January and Mexico in February.

In alphabetical order, he's the list:

Albright, Chris	D					Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS)
Bornstein, Jonathan	D					Chivas USA (MLS)
Boswell, Bobby	D					D.C. United (MLS)
Cannon, Joe	GK					Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS)
Carroll, Brian	M					D.C. United (MLS)
Clark, Ricardo	M					Houston Dynamo (MLS)
Cooper, Kenny	F					FC Dallas (MLS)
Conrad, Jimmy	D					Kansas City Wizards (MLS)
Dempsey, Clint	M					New England Revolution (MLS)
Donovan, Landon	F					Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS)
Eskandarian, Alecko	F					D.C. United (MLS)
Gros, Joshua	M					D.C. United (MLS)
Guzan, Brad	GK					Chivas USA (MLS)
Jaqua, Nate	F					Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS)
Kljestan, Sacha	M					Chivas USA (MLS)
Mapp, Justin	M					Chicago Fire (MLS)
Mastroeni, Pablo	M					Colorado Rapids (MLS)
Mullan, Brian	M					Houston Dynamo (MLS)
Namoff, Bryan	D					D.C. United (MLS)
Noonan, Pat	M					New England Rebolution (MLS)
Pearce, Heath	D					FC Nordsjælland (Denmark)
Parkhurst, Michael	D					New England Revolution (MLS)
Perkins, Troy	GK					D.C. United (MLS)
Reis, Matt	GK					New England Revolution (MLS)
Robinson, Dasan	D					Chicago Fire (MLS)
Robinson, Eddie	D					Houston Dynamo (MLS)
Rolfe, Chris	F					Chicago Fire (MLS)
Twellman, Taylor	F					New England Revolution (MLS)

All domestic players save for Heath Pearce who plies his trade in Denmark. Some notable exceptions from the list are Brian Ching who opted out to rest his knee, Brad Davis from Houston, and Todd Dunivant.

To say this group is green is simply stating the obvious. You could also add the adjective underwhelming. I'm withholding judgment until after I see what Bradley does with them. But even then, win or lose, the results of the Denmark and Mexico friendlies who provide a very clear picture into whether Bradley is successful or not.

Losing the first game will garner apologists saying it was such a young, inexperienced group and plenty of teams lose after a regime change. Should the Nats when one could say that it was a weak national team (Denmark) that didn't really test our MLS boys and even somewhat adequate teams can win every now and then against better competition.

I've seen some people around diss on Bradley's selection of Landon Donovan, claiming his invitation is just a perpetuation of Landycakes getting an automatic invite despite not having to earn his place just because he's a system favorite. Blah, blah, blah. He wasn't the only one that didn't show up in Germany. And yes, he gets a free pass more often than not over other players that have to work twice as heard to get playing time but like or not, Donovan is still one of the US' best players when he wants to be.

I'm looking forward to January 20th. My USMNT flag has be itching to get out of the closet and fly again.