The Right Side and Bryan Namoff

The story told:


At the beginning of the 2007 season Bryan Namoff was solid on defense and darn near creative on offense. He was dependable at the back and gave us hope going forward. Upon realizing the value of his contributions, we sang praises to his name, in what might have been an EDA... no that has nothing to do with blood flow dysfunctions, simply an Early Display of Affection. Maybe it was our fault, maybe it was his, but either way he got hurt. The next part of the story gets a little fuzzy because I am getting old now, nearly 29, and I do not remember exactly what he hurt. Chances are pretty good he was part of the 2007 DCU Hamstring Club, but there were a couple hernias and groins last year too so it could have been anything. Whatever it was, Namoff was out a few weeks and when he came back it appeared that his level of play had dropped off a bit. Then in Chicago (which I only remember because I was there and it was FANTASTIC!) he was hurt again, although he did not miss any additional games. Throughout the rest of the season he seemed a bit slower and not nearly as willing to go forward.


The fortune telling:

I am writing off last year's drop in performance to injury. And by the way, his performance was not bad, just not as good as Namoff can be. This year I look forward to his return to form which will include going forward in the attack. DCU needs creativity in the attack. And for now I will take diversity in attack for a substitute to creativity, although I will not complain if creativity fights diversity for time in the attack. Although Namoff is not particularly fast, what speed he does have will be desperately needed on our backline. I am wishing for an increase in speed from Namoff in the offseason. I do not even know if that is a possibility, it is not like he his a high school sophomore football player still developing his skill set.

I predict Namoff will have another solid year and if he can get some rest through the arduous season he will have a great year.

Next time: Center Defense and Mr. McTavish

but most of all we support the backline

With Goff's recent news of a possible new central defender from Argentina's second division, it is time to look at what we already have to work with on the backline. Assuming DC United stays with the 4-4-2 in 2008, today our backline looks like this:

*

Some people also think it is important to have backups for injuries or a busy schedule. The sub situation is somewhat ugly. Last year we had McTavish/Boswell, Gros, and Simms as passable backups. This year I am not sure who I can nominate as subs because:

1. Boswell is gone, leaving McTavish as an every game starter
2. Gros is out for the year
3. B. Carroll is gone, so Simms will not be able to step back to play on the backline unless we have somebody else (Arguez) step in at defensive mid. Also, this seems like a backward way of doing things.

I guess we will have to go with Jeff Carroll and Stephen deRoux as our subs (I think deRoux played back there at some point last year). And while we got lucky by completing the already started conversion of Marc Burch, I do not think that Moose, Addlery, or Nolly (only half joking) will be so successful. As a side note, the DC roster only has one player listed as purely defense (Vanney) and two players listed as midfield/defense (Arguez and J. Carroll).

Next time: The Right Side and Bryan Namoff

*Oh and thanks to mlsnet for the pictures.