This is our second of four posts in review of the moves DC United has made since the end of last season. Last week we looked at their acquisitions, today we'll look at the players who departed, and then later we'll look at their trades.
1. It's hard to imagine how different DC United's season would be had they retained Marcelo Gallardo in 2009. Click to continue reading...

American Anton Peterlin has signed with Everton. Who you ask? Peterlin, is a former midfielder for Cal Poly, and UC Santa Cruz as well as having played in the PDL as many collegiate footballers do with the Ventura County Fusion.

Peterlin grew up in San Francisco around the game with Danish parents and developed a love for the beautiful game.

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Our season has come down to this: cheering for Chicago and New England. Makes you wonder what you're doing with your life, doesn't it? Now, as I've stated before in posts and in comments, I'm of two minds on what I'd prefer to occur this week. Do we, A) eek into the playoffs, lose [...] Click to continue reading...

Coming to you live from Dallas, er, Frisco... actually, I'm in D.C. and my esteemed colleague, Boris Flores, is at Pizza Hut Park today. Regardless, here's the starting lineup the coaches have decided on today.

Louis Crayton; Bryan Namoff, Gonzalo Peralta, Devon McTavish, Ivan Guerrero; Fred, Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, Boyzzz Khumalo; Jaime Moreno, Luciano Emilio.

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After 60 minutes of this match, I was all ready to come on here and say I was wrong about wanting to punt the CCL. A goalless draw would have been a wonderful result. But as is typical with this club, we let up 2 soft goals off of shotty defending. And now we're staring up from the bottom of a fully stacked group. Click to continue reading...

The bad news is that Santino Quaranta will not be dressing tonight. The 23-year old suffered some pretty deep bruises on his ankle and shin Saturday night in LA and will be held out this evening. Bummer.

The good news is that the guys are all feeling pretty positive and will be coming out in a slightly more defensive-oriented posture tonight, running at type of 4-4-1-1.

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As frustrating as it was to watch this team on a roller coaster ride that had its share of ups and downs the past few months, I would trade the past three weeks for that roller coaster. I'm not going to argue that we deserved to win this match, because clearly we didn't, but it sure made it hard for us to have a chance when we suffered from the worst display of officiating that we've seen all year. Click to continue reading...

We're about an hour from kickoff and starting lineups have been named. Here's United's:

Louis Crayton; Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Gonzalo Martinez; Fred, Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, Ivan Guerrero; Boyzzz Khumalo, Luciano Emilio.

And here's the 4-42:

--------------Emilio------------Khumalo-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Quaranta----------------------Guerrero--------------------------------------Fred-----------------------Simms------------------------Martinez-----------------------------------Namoff-------------Burch---------McTavish-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Crayton----------------------- Click to continue reading...

And here.. we... go..

Zach Wells; Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Gonzalo Martinez; Boyzzz Khumalo, Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, Craig Thompson; Luciano Emilio, Ryan Cordeiro

Bench: Louis Crayton, Rod Dyachenko, Francis Doe, Quavas Kirk, Jaime Moreno, Fred, Greg Janicki

And here's what the 4-4-2 will look like:

-----------Cordeiro------------Emilio------------- --------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------Quaranta----------------------- Thompson------------------------------Khumalo ----------------------Simms------------------------- Martinez-----------------------------------Namoff -------------Burch---------McTavish------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------Wells-------------------------- Click to continue reading...

And here.. we... go..

Zach Wells; Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Gonzalo Martinez; Boyzzz Khumalo, Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, Craig Thompson; Luciano Emilio, Ryan Cordeiro

Bench: Louis Crayton, Rod Dyachenko, Francis Doe, Quavas Kirk, Jaime Moreno, Fred, Greg Janicki

And here's what the 4-4-2 will look like:

-----------Cordeiro------------Emilio-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Quaranta-----------------------Thompson------------------------------Khumalo----------------------Simms-------------------------Martinez-----------------------------------Namoff-------------Burch---------McTavish--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Wells-------------------------- Click to continue reading...

A tie at home against a lesser Western Conference opponent certainly should feel like a loss. Somehow for me though, this one doesn't. Maybe it's because we outplayed Dallas, to the point where I think we really deserved the win. This felt like it should have ended at 2-1. Oh well. I guess we'll just have to steal back those extra two points when we play them again on the road in two weeks. Click to continue reading...

We're about an hour from kick-off and Tom Soehn has named his starters for this evening's match. Most notable are Boyzzz Khumalo getting the start up top with Jaime Moreno and Quavas Kirk getting his first League start at right mid. Here's the full squad:

Louis Crayton; Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Gonzalo Martinez; Quavas Kirk, Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, Ivan Guerrero; Boyzzz Khumalo, Jaime Moreno.

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In a match where we were missing Emilio, Moreno, Namoff, Fred, Vide, and Peralta, a loss wasn't necessarily surprising. I guess the bright side is that we escaped without any more injuries! Also, I saw tonight that we've got some young players with a lot of heart, and that's got to count for something, even if it didn't earn us any points. Click to continue reading...

No Namoff. No Peralta. No Olsen. No Fred. No Moreno. No Emilio. No matter.

Tom Soehn has named his starting lineup for tonight's match in San Jose. These are the men charged with bringing a result back to the Nation's Capital:

Louis Crayton; Gonzalo Martinez, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Mike Zaher; Santino Quaranta, Clyde Simms, Rod Dyachenko, Marcelo Gallardo, Ivan Guerrero; and Francis Doe.

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Tom Soehn has named his starting lineup for tonight's championship battle against the Battery. The same players who started Saturday's game against New York will take the field, with the only change being Santino Quaranta moving to the middle of thte park and Joe Vide pushing out wide (where they played the second half).

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Kickoff is about an hour away. Tommy's main changes come in the back line tonight, as he shuffles a few guys around, while Santino Quaranta moves from the attacking midfield spot to the right flank. Here's what they'll look like at the first whistle:

Louis Crayton; Gonzalo Martinez, Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch; Santino Quaranta, Clyde Simms, Joe Vide, Ivan Guerrero; Jaime Moreno, Luciano Emilio

And here's what the 4-4-2 formation will look like:

------------Moreno-----------Emilio------------------------------------------------------------------------Guerrero--------------------------------Quaranta---------------Vide----------Simms----------------Burch-------------------------------------Martinez------------McTavish--------Burch-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Crayton------------------------ Click to continue reading...

The Red Bulls will finally be injury free when New York takes the field vs. DC United on Saturday night at RFK (7:30p, FSC). The Red Bulls have lifted themselves into the playoff mix by picking up nine points at home over the last three Sundays, but if New York is to solidify its hold on a playoff spot, RBNY must figure out how to get the maximum points on the road. Click to continue reading...

With his one-time shoe-string shot to give the team a 1-0 lead, I could have sworn I was watching Benny Olsen. Or maybe Benny Feilhaber. But definitely somebody named Benny. Nope, it was Joe Vide. That goal really made me wish I was listening to Dave Johnson and Thomas Rongen do the broadcast. I could just hear Rongen saying his usual "Shoelaces. Click to continue reading...

The big news out of the locker room this evening is that Ben Olsen has been named to the 18-man roster for tonight's game. Benny has been training for the last week and a half and is attempting to salvage the season after numerous ankle surgeries over the last nine months. His lone appearance of the season came on June 29, when United beat LA 4-1 and Ben came on as a 75th minute substitute.

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Head Coach Tom Soehn continues to have to deal with player injuries and absences heading into tonight's match with the Revolution. Ivan Guerrero is with the Honduran National Team for their World Cup qualifier in Mexico this evening, while Gonzalo Martinez is serving a one-game suspension for yellow card accumulation.

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We're about an hour from kickoff now, and Head Coach Tom Soehn has named his lineup. The big change is that newcomer Louis Crayton - who was officially signed yesterday - will get the start in goal ahead of Zach Wells.

Here's the full squad: Louis Crayton; Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Gonzalo Martinez; Fred, Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, Ivan Guerrero; Jaime Moreno, Luciano Emilio.

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With a trip to the U.S. Open Cup final on the line, here is the team Head Coach Tom Soehn has decided to go with this evening:

Zach Wells; Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Gonzalo Peralta, Gonzalo Martinez; Fred, Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, Ivan Guerrero; Jaime Moreno, Luciano Emilio.

And this is how they'll lineup:

--------Moreno---------Emilio----------

----------------Quaranta-----------------

Guerrero---------------------------Fred

-----------------Simms-------------------

Martinez------------------------Namoff

----------McTavish--Peralta----------

------------------Wells-------------------

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So the main question posed throughout our series in review of the player acquisitions, departures, and trades made by DC United since the end of last season is whether or not the club is actually better off now than they were last year. Let's review, position by position.
Goalkeepers:
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Yes, I know this is from last year, but it's still great.
Anyways, the Wizards travel to DC this weekend to take on United. The two teams come in going in entirely different directions. The Wizards are undefeated in their last 6 games (2-0-4). DC on the other hand has lost their last 4 games, all at home. Click to continue reading...

D.C. United newest player, Ivan Guerrero joined United today for his first training session. With several injuries still holding players out and Gonzalo Martinez unavailable due to last game's red card, the left-sided player may very well be in the starting lineup tomorrow evening against the Wizards.

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When DC United decided to awake from it's collective slumber, I decided I should probably do that same. DC United trades a partial allocation (money) to San Jose in exchange for Ivan Guerrero. This, is a good move. Here's why. Our defense sucks. Horribly. Gonzalo Martinez is playing out of position in an [. Click to continue reading...

This was the first non-Open-Cup game of the season that I didn't see either in person or on tv, and that's probably a good one. Because aside from maybe the match at RSL early in the year, this was easily DC's worst performance yet. I should have taken the Fullback approach and prepped for this game with some red wine, or better yet, I should have been taking in the game with my arch nemesis Jose. Click to continue reading...

As if losing didn't hurt enough, we had to wait almost three hours to do it. We'll have just a few post-game quotes before departing RFK, hopefully before 1:30 a.m. Ugh.

The team has the weekend off, before their August 2 home match against the Kansas City Wizards. In addition to all of the team's current injuries, Tom Soehn will now be without Gonzalo Martinez who got his second red card late in the game.

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Well, it might very well rain on us this evening, but this is attempt number three at trying to play this soccer game so I'm told we're going to do everything we can to get it in before the daylight of Thursdady arrives. Let's hope the rain holds off and we get it in when we're supposed to.

With injuries aplenty, Tom Soehn has made a few changes to tonight's lineup:

Zach Wells; Pat Carroll, Bryan Namoff, Marc Burch, Gonzalo Martinez; Devon McTavish, Clyde Simms, Fred, Craig Thompson; Luciano Emilio, Jaime Moreno.

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Kickoff is just around the corner and Tom Soehn has named his starting lineup. With a few tired players after a bunch of games during the last month, the coaching staff has decided to rest a few key players. Here's the eleven that will take the field to start against Houston:

Zach Wells; Bryan Namoff, Pat Carroll, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch; Craig Thompson, Clyde Simms, Fred, Ryan Cordeiro; Luciano Emilio, Francis Doe.

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As the All-Star rosters are now official, its time to put together the group of eleven that didn't make but had a damn good reason for making it. I've stated my opinion on some that got snubbed but figured that it would be best to put out a full starting lineup of guys that didn't [...] Click to continue reading...

The big addition to today's 18-man roster is the inclusion of Santino Quaranta to the substitute's bench. Tino hasn't played since the team's 4-1 win over the Galaxy on June 29, when he left the game after just 27 minutes with a hamstring strain.

Here's tonight's starting lineup:

Zach Wells; Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Gonzalo Martinez; Craig Thompson, Clyde Simms, Jaime Moreno, Fred; Luciano Emilio, Francis Doe.

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With a host of injuries, Coach Tom Soehn has had to make a few adjustments to his usual starting lineup. The team will be sticking to the 4-4-2 it has recently been running out - here's how they'll start this evening:

Zach Wells; Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Gonzalo Martinez; Craig Thompson, Clyde Simms, Rod Dyachenko, Fred; Luciano Emilio, Jaime Moreno

Subs: James Thorpe, Pat Carroll, Mike Zaher, Ryan Cordeiro, Quavas Kirk, Dane Murphy, Francis Doe.

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Over last weekend I brought to you a list of players that just didn't cut it or have it this year. Guys that were brought in expecting to start in some cases and contribute to their club's run at a MLS Cup this season. Those guys didn't work out but some signings from the offseason [...] Click to continue reading...

We're about an hour from kickoff and both teams are getting ready for tonight's match. With Santino Quaranta, Marcelo Gallardo, Dan Stratford and Domenic Mediate all nursing injuries or getting rest, Tom Soehn has made a few changes to tonight's lineup. The guys will run out in a 4-5-1 in the following set-up:

Zach Wells; Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Gonzalo Martinez; Pat Carroll, Clyde Simms, Rod Dyachenko, Fred, Ryan Cordeiro; Luciano Emilio.

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