This blog has come a long way since its creation on October 15, 2007. From those modest beginnings, to the single greatest moment of my blogging career: when Freddy Adu himself retweeted a link to the Freddy Award and we received over 1,500 new hits in one day.
This will be the last post ever in the DCUMD blog.

On the day that DC United's 2010 campaign officially began with the formal introduction of Curt Onalfo as head coach, let's embark on our yearly tradition here at DCUMD and unveil our New Years Resolutions. The following five recommendations should be high on Curt Onalfo's to-do list:
1. Identify your starting lineup and stick with it.

After his loan from Benfica to Belenenses was cancelled last month, word has spread all across the internet that Freddy Adu is contemplating a move to either Aris Thessaloniki FC of Greece or Hull City of the EPL. Either choice would be a positive move for Adu, as long as it resulted in more playing time.

It's the end of the decade, and with just 1 day left in the first decade of the 21st century, it's time to look back at DC United's successes and failures. Over the next few weeks, we will be reviewing DC United season-by-season, from 2000 to 2009, and we will also have a few polls to help choose the best players and greatest stories of the past decade.

DC United has announced Curt Onalfo as the team's new head coach, and I'm having a hard time getting excited about it.

Actually the emotion I'm feeling would be better described as "relief".

I don't know if the team is necessarily "settling" for Onalfo, but I'm relieved to have the coaching search done and behind us.

Merry Christmas and happy Chanukah to all you friends and fans. Hopefully the holidays will bring all of us lots of gifts, and the new year will bring success to us all.

Once every offseason, one MLS team brings aboard a young promising attacking player from CONCACAF. In 2008 it was Marco Pappa. In 2009 it was Freddy Montero. And in 2010, it will be Cristian Castillo.
DC United finalized a loan last week to bring Salvadoran left midfielder Castillo to DC.

The University of Akron announced today that they have agreed to a five-year contract extension with head coach Caleb Porter, elminating him from DC United's search for a new coach.
Frankly I'm surprised. While Akron offers substantially more job security than a position in MLS, it is likely less pay, less prestige, and less potential for advancement.

I don't claim to be much of an expert on college soccer. In fact, I only really became interested in the College Cup to learn more about Caleb Porter to see if he would be a good fit with DC United. But after watching most of Akron's Semi-final win over North Carolina and their loss to Virginia in the Final, a few individuals left me particularly impressed.

The competition to be DC United's next head coach is heating up, and if Goff's hunches are correct, it may be nearing a close. With the list now narrowed down to just Curt Onalfo and Caleb Porter, with the possibility that other foreign coaches may also be considered, we will probably be hearing an official announcement early next week.

Sorry I haven't been posting much on here lately, but that's only because I have big things in the works for the blog. I dropped a subtle hint on here last month to anticipate some changes in the near future, and I've been dropping much less subtle hints on my Twitter for a couple weeks now.
I can't make the announcement quite yet because there's still a few details to finalize, but there will be a pretty big change to the blog very soon, and it should be seen as a positive change for all of us because it will involve a new format that is much more interactive.

As voting on the DC United defenders draws to a close, we seem to have finally found the most polarizing player on the United roster. No one should be surprised that that player would be Marc Burch, who is currently sitting at exactly 50% River and 50% Life at the time of this posting. Moving on now to our final edition of River or Life for DC United players, we turn to the goalkeepers, where there may be a few more difficult voting decisions to make.

After the expansion draft protection lists were revealed yesterday, I wrote on Twitter that DC United is probably the first team in the history of sports to leave two former league MVPs unprotected in an expansion draft. If anyone cares to research the entire history of expansion drafts, feel free, but the point is that there's a lot of talent available to be drafted this year.

With MLS Cup 2009 now behind us, the league turns immediately to 2010. While congratulations are due to Real Salt Lake, with a nod in particular to two of my favorite non-DC players Nick Rimando and Kyle Beckerman, the celebration won't last long for that club, because they are likely to be losing a player just three days later.

If I was Piotr Nowak and was selecting from the list of unprotected players available for the Union, I would select as many players with a connection to Philadelphia as possible. Wait, no I wouldn't, because I don't care about that, and neither should Nowak.
Instead, I would be selecting players who have a proven track record in MLS.