Taking Stock

One more slightly mild winter is nearly behind us. Players start kicking around soccer balls and getting paychecks this week. But who’s here and who’s not? If you’ve been keeping track, you’ll notice that there’s been a lot of roster turnover this offseason, and it means that you’ve had your hands full in keeping track. With the numerous blogs out there that are actually credible, it’s quite easy to find rumors about players moving from place to place. As near as the Nest Liner can figure, here’s an update of who’s in and who’s out for United:

Returning Starting Players:

• Jamie Moreno (pictured)

• Ben Olsen

• Devon McTavish

• Emilio

• Fred

• Clyde Simms

• Bryan Namoff

• Marc Burch

Returning Roster Players:

• Rod Dyachenko

• Jeff Carroll

• Guy-Roland Kpene

• Domenic Mediate

Players Re-invited to Camp:

• Justin Moose*

* Potential victim of the DC Sports Bog Curse.

Unknown Status:

• Stephen deRoux*

• Jamil Walker

* Potential victim of the DC Sports Bog Curse

Departing Players:

• Troy Perkins (sold to Vålerenga I.F. – Norway – pictured with his new boss)

• Bryan Arguez (sold to Hertha Berlin – Who saw that coming?)

• Brian Carroll (taken by San Jose ver 2.0 in the Expansion Draft, and since traded to Columbus)

• Jay Nolly (contract not renewed – signed with the Vancouver Whitecaps)

• Nicholas Addlery (contract not renewed – signed with Vancouver Whitecaps)

• Bobby Boswell and his website (traded to Houston for GK Zach Wells)

• Shawn Crowe (waived)

• Brad North and his very supportive family (waived)

• Mira Mupier (waived)

• Kiki Willis (waived)

Players likely to depart:

• Christian Gomez (out of contract – likely to be traded within MLS or sign someplace else in the world)

• Greg Vanney (contract option not exercised – likely to be traded)

• Josh Gros (by all public accounts he’s sitting out 2008, but it looks like Josh will retire to preserve his head for future use)

Incoming players:

• Zach Wells (acquired via the bobbyboswell.com trade)

• Gonzalo Martinez (likely the best Colombian defender to play for United since Carlos Llamosa)

• Franco Niell (forward on loan from Argentina)

• Andrew Jacobson (draft pick)

• Ryan Cordeiro (draft pick)

• Tony Schmitz (draft pick…..likely the best United player from Creighton since Brian Kamler)

• Brandon Owens (supplemental draft pick)

• Dan Stratford (supplemental draft pick)

• James Thorpe (supplemental draft pick – not pictured to the right)

Rumored Incoming Players (all courtesy of Steven Goff’s Soccer Insider):

• Jose Carvallo (young Peruvian GK who’s Mom lives in VA so he has a Green Card)

• Gonzalo Peralta (a young Argentine Defender…and obviously part of Dave Kasper’s master plan of acquiring all avalable players named Gonzalo)

• Marcello Gallardo (yet another Argentine, a direct replacement for Gomez)

Dead Rumors:

• Juan Sebastian Veron …. United pursued him, then he bailed at the last minute. He’s only mentioned due to the Freddy Adu-like media speculation that surrounded this potential acquisition.

To hit on the big points, United is returning NO goalkeepers from it’s 2007 campaign. By all accounts Zach Wells is a GK ready to step up from backup to starter, and Carvallo should be able to push him. United replaces the three headed central defender pairing of Boswell-McTavish-Vanny with McTavish-Peralta-Martinez. We’ll see how this gells as the weeks and months progress. All in all, though United’s had quite a bit of turnover, but upgraded in nearly all areas. The key element will be how they come together under Tom Soehn as the season progresses.

As for players that have moved on, don’t take it as a personal affront that a player is looking for greener (and perhaps somewhat colder, and in one case a whole lot more humid) pastures. That is, unless they pull a Mark Lisi the next time they roll into RFK…..