All surprise aside, I wanted to take a few days to digest it before blasting Hanauer. It's no secret - we need a striker. Look, I love Roger Levesque. I like Nate Jaqua and Mike Fucito. I don't hate Pat Noonan. But none of them make you feel good about our chances as much as say, a Thierry Henry would. With the recent news of O'Brian White's setback, the above 4 are pretty much what we have moving forward. Unless their is some sort of in-league trade, they are going to be Montero's strike partners. So the obvious question is, how much blame does Hanauer get?
If you ask Irish Mike, I know he is going to kill hanauer. He has hated our forwards since day 1 and says we will never be a legitimate championship threat until we pick one up. While I tend to agree with him, I am having a hard time being mad at Adrian.
It could be that I am officially becoming a Seattle sports fan. Hanauer, like Zach Scott, Traylor Graham and Levesque represent the USL Sounders and will always have a special place in my heart. Not only was Hanauer the owner but he bought the team when they were hemorrhaging money and was able to help them get to the next step. He is as important to the Seattle soccer scene as any person and I know is getting a slight pass from me for this reason.
The East Coast fan in me would and should be pissed. We have a really good team but not the best team. If this was NY, we would be yelling for the front office to make the trade to help win the title even if it ripped apart our long-term plans. Making the playoffs is ok, but not winning the title is considered a disappointment. Titles are forever. Prospects might not even be the future.
So what's going on in my head? Well, I think there are several feelings. First, and foremost, while I want an MLS title, I still realize that we are a young franchise. NY and NE have been in the league since day 1 and have never won a title, so for me to expect a title in year 3 is a little arrogant. I'm not saying I don't want a title, I just don't expect one. Right now, I want to make sure we are good for many years. MLS is a fickle league - you can go from penthouse to outhouse in a few months. I want to support a fun, creative and successful team for many years. Long term stability should not be sacrificed for one year success if you then finish out of the playoffs the next year.
Second, bringing in a marquee player doesn't guarantee success. There are so many examples around the league. Looking no further than our own franchise, we were told that Blaise N'kufo, World Cup star and captain of a league winning Dutch team, would be the savior up top. He scored 4 goals in a half a season and was out prior to kickoff this year. He never settled with his role on the team and was generally unimpressed with the league. Alvaro Fernandez was also brought in after the World Cup and finally has seemed to settle in the league. He had a few big goals early on, but then was being benched by Sigi at the beginning of this year. Neither of these were busts, but they certainly did not bring us a title. I know that the entire league is reeling with the news that Robbie Keane was now going to pair with Beckham and Donovan, but their is no guarantee that he will be successful. That is no knock on Keane, it's just that the track record of older European stars coming to MLS has not been good.
Third, it genuinely sounds like Hanauer was working hard to bring in a player, it just didn't work. Ask Cesc Fabregas about that one - the dude has wanted to be in Barcelona for years now but it wasn't until last week that he was transferred. Sometimes player movement isn't as easy as we think. From what I am reading, Hanauer had his sights set on 1-3 players with really no back-up plan. It appears one was on his way, but then was pulled off the table by his club due to other injuries on the team. You might be able to kill Hanauer for not having a back-up plan, but you can't kill him for not getting the player he wanted.
At getting scorned by the targeted players, Hanauer didn't overreact and make a signing just to make a signing. Instead, he held firm and showed faith in his current team. Had they picked up a big-name, high-priced player who then killed chemistry the team would be in worse position than before. Hanauer wants to build this team with young players with tons of upside, not an aging striker on beginning the downside of his career. He has done that twice already (Ljungberg, Nkufo) and twice he failed. His best moves have been for younger, less heralded players like Alonso, Montero, Fernandez and Hurtado. While not exactly young, Mauro Rosales also fits into that mold. So maybe there simply wasn't that type of player available at this time.
With yesterday's news that young DP's would now count less against the cap then older DP's, teams are essentially being encouraged to go younger. If we assume that Beckham comes back for another year, the Galaxy will have $350k tied up for each one of their DP's -I know that they are crazy deep right now, but eventually (probably 1-2 years) the likes of Gregg Berhalter, Frankie Hejduk and Jovan Kirovski are going to be too old to move. This team has a 1-2 year window at best. The Sounders, on the other hand, have a longer window, especially if they can sign an impact player this offseason. Here is the thing about MLS- you don't need the best players to win. I mean, since 2003, only 1 team who won the supporters shield went on to win MLS Cup. In the past two years, we had teams barely sneak in to the playoffs and win. All the pressure is going to be on LA and NY. We are going to be underdogs. While we haven't shown that we can beat LA, all we need is one good game in the playoffs. The difference between the two teams isn't light years - we shouldn't wave the white flag yet.
Finally, I think we have a lot of flexibility with our team right now. I know flexibility isn't sexy, but acquiring a big name player would have definitely cost us some depth, something that would be damning in our pursuit of 3 trophies. As it stands right now, we can throw a bunch of different line-ups out and feel ok with our chances. Ok, so Nate Jaqua and Pat Noonan don't do it for you - well, they are much better than the scrubs on the other teams. They might not be flashy, but I honestly feel like they can help us win one of the tournaments we're in. As for other options within the team - Fucito continues to tear up Champions League and might finally be ready to take the next step in MLS play; Rosales has played at forward late in the game when Lamar Neagle is brought on to terrorize tiring opponents. Perhaps a midfield of Alonso-Evans, Friberg and Fernandez could allow him to move up top?
I can talk myself into taking it easy on Hanauer right now, but ultimately, how this team performs in the playoffs will decide my reaction. If we fail to win the US Open Cup and then get eliminated in the first round of the MLS playoffs without scoring a goal, then I am going to be pissed. I don't expect to win Champions League, but a deep MLS run and another US Open Cup title are the goal right now. I know above that I said I didn't expect anything, but another disaster in the playoffs would be hugely disappointing. Again, not expecting us to win 3, but a 1st round win in the playoffs would be nice. We will see if Hanauer knows something that we don't....
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Ok, now a few comments on the previous two games:
- I'm not overly concerned about Saturday's result against Chivas USA. There's something about Chivas that we just have trouble with - oh wait, now I remember, it's that they pummle the shit out of us. I agree with the rest of Sounder nation - the officiating was terrible. We should have gotten the last minute PK after Lamar Neagle was taken down in the box, but I just can't help but give us equal amount of the blame. I mean, how did we miss another PK? Is it just me or are more PK's being missed these days than ever? If El Flacco puts that in, we probably go on to score many more goals as Chivas wouldn't be able to sit back and defend.
After the game, Allan Hinton absolutely blasted Chivas for playing "boring soccer", saying that we could have picked "4 random high schoolers from Bremerton, put them in our defense and still have pitched a shut-out." He said that fans should "write the Chivas front office and ask for a refund." He, Jimmy Gabriel, Pete Fewing and my boy Matt Johnson were particularly hilarious after the game. Oh, and Sigi said that Zach Scott was 'endeaverous' after the game.
- A nice win on home turf last night. Obviously the goal in the second minute made for some tense initial moments of the game. I know that was Riley's guy who scored, but wow, Terry Boss looked lost on the ball. Those are the plays that make you appreciate Keller even more. After that, Comunicaciones dominated for the next 20 minutes before we started to get the better of play. I know I am showing the Seattle sports fan in me, but wow, I just continue to be a big Brad Evans fan. I really appreciate El Flaco, Friberg and Rosales, but Evans just gives the team a different look. He is not spectacular, but rarely do I see him out of place or turning the ball over. With Alonso out of the game last night, it was nice to have Brad and his dreamy looks in there.
The Wife wondered why Jaqua seems to score in US Open Cup and Fucito scores in CCL and yet neither can score in MLS play. I think it comes down to not only confidence, but match-ups. In US Open Cups, Jaqua is most often playing against guys of his skill or worse and he is able to take advantage of his experience. In MLS, Fucito is facing defenders who rough him up. Against the Central American teams, many of the defenders are his size (ok, so maybe they're not 5'4 but you know what I need) and he is allowed room to run unimpeded. And for both, I think they take the different tournaments as an avenue to shine. Instead of pouting, they take it as an opportunity to show Sigi that he is wrong in a positive way.
Our depth was shown last night. I am still surprised that Sigi gambled a little with his line-up, but it seemed to work. Going in I would have thought last night was the most important game of the group stage. After going 1-5 last year and with an upcoming trip to Monterrey, getting a full 3 points was crucial and yet Sigi went with his B team with Boss in goal. It was a gamble that worked as now the A team will be fresh heading into the game with FCD this weekend. But as the Wife reminded me, it wasn't like we had Taylor Graham, Michael Tetteh, Mike Seamon, Miguel Montano and David Estrada out there. Instead, we had Hurtado, Ianni, Evans and Fucito in place of the regular starters. Good job, Sigi...and now on to Dallas and Monterrey.
I read (Seattle Times I think) that Hanuaer had inside info on the new DP rule. If one of the guys he was pursuing was under 23 I would have also been mad if we signed them and the next day could have saved $135K. Go MLS for announcing this rule change after the transfer window.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand is why can't Seattle put Zakuani and White on the year long disabled list and use the cap space to get some replacement players. I think MLS needs to look into this rule.
-East Coast JWill
I hadn't read that, but that is very interesting... I agree that I would have been pissed too had they signed a young guy and then rules changed.
ReplyDeleteMore on this situation in the most recent post.