Before we get to the award, an announcement...
Over the next two and a half weeks, we'll be running a contest here with some pretty cool prizes to give away. And to win them, all you have to do is vote for the Benny Awards! The team's hooked me up with the following prizes: a DC United/Volkswagen team scarf, the 2009 DC United media guide, and a Gatorade/MLS towel. Click to continue reading...

Peter Nowak head coach of the Philadelphia Union has asked Josh Gros to join his coaching team. "I hadn't talked to him for a few months, but he called me out of the blue to offer me the position," Gros said. "Obviously, I didn't hesitate to take it."

"The whole concept for me behind this relationship is that Josh was always the one guy you could rely on and really trust to get job done no matter the position you put him in," Nowak, hired May 28 as the Union's first head coach, told the Philadelphia Daily News earlier this week.

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The Philadelphia Union Front Office has announced that Philadelphia Union Team Manager Peter Nowak reached back for one of his former players to help build the club's soccer operations by selecting Mechanicsburg, PA native Josh Gros as Team Coordinator. Gros, 26, will be responsible for organizing all matters involving Union players, both on and off the field. Click to continue reading...

There was a bit of an off-hand comment from a user on the Soccer Insider this morning when Goff revealed the news that Josh Gros had been offered a position in the front office by Piotr Nowak and the Philadelphia Union. The commenter b18bolo suggested that Nowak might also go after some of his other former players like Ben Olsen and Bobby Convey.

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By definition, the Grosy Award goes to the player with the most cajones. In general, the nominees for this award are players who aren't afraid to play through injury and leave it all on the field. The award's namesake Josh Gros was famous for his work rate, and his career with DC United has seemingly ended way too soon, thanks to the numerous concussions he'd received throughout his time here. Click to continue reading...

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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Continuing on in our mid-season review of DC United's roster decisions in the offseason, we move on to the departures. For this entry, our definition of "departure" will be any player who was on the club roster last season, but who is no longer under contract with the team, for reasons other than a trade with another MLS club. Click to continue reading...

The 2008 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup begins tomorrow for MLS teams. Eight qualifiers will take on eight lower league clubs in what is always one of the single most exciting days of the season. Last year was not the greatest year for MLS in the tournament, as only 3/8 teams advanced. One of those 3, the Rapids, then lost 5-0 in the quarterfinals to Seattle. Click to continue reading...

Ahh, the end of march, when MLS bloggers awake from their pre-season slumber and start covering their team. Or something like that. This Saturday, United kicks off the 2008 season on the road against the Kansas City Wizards. We're sure to have a full on preview before then, for now, suffice to say that the game is only available on DireckKick and MLSLIVE.

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JOSH GROS, AU REVOIR: We start with the news of a qualified good-bye to Josh Gros, who is taking a year off and will then re-evaluate his health. We're going to put Josh in the good-bye column on the right, and note that we may say "hello" to him next year. I honestly have no basis to speculate, but we're all agreed that Josh's health must come first, and I would rather he retire permanently than come back in 2009 and put himself at risk for a more permanent injury.

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The news of Josh Gros considering retirement is melancholy in the extreme. I think everyone would respect his decision, no matter what, is a given. I would be happy to see him back, but he must put his health first and foremost. Josh Gros played a hard game that relied on physical conditioning and tenacity, and an injury that forces him to play carefully pretty much robs him of whatever advantage he has.

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"I don't know. There wasn't a lot of controversy today. D.C. won."
- classy New England forward Taylor Twellman speaks the truth
"...Kenny had won the ball and was about to move on and Olsen kicked his back leg. It was clear as day, but the ref moved on."
- punk-ass Revolution thug...sorry - defender - Jay Heaps (of Manure) making excuses as usual

Just a few things that stuck to my admittedly well-lubricated brain yesterday:

• Run, Run, Run.

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We already know Gros' season is possibly done. I'd be much happier if his career were done. Today.

Think about the following statement:

"When Josh heads the ball with proper form and heads it with his forehead, he doesn't have a problem," head trainer Brian Goodstein said. "It's any time his head rotates that he has a problem.

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TAURUS DELENDA EST!
RBNY/DCU: The big news is tonight's rubber match against New York. A win or a draw sees United retain the Atlantic Cup again, a loss and it heads north, and once reaching the turnpike may start to corrode with exposure to the air. Of course, people are talking up the playoff implications, and trying to see the big picture. Click to continue reading...

During DC United's match against Columbus this past Saturday, Josh Gros suffered his second concussion of the season and some sources near the player are concerned "the career of the fourth-year midfielder-defender is in jeopardy and he should not play again this season."
The reason for the alarm is due to the way in which he is being harmed by contact with the ball as opposed to knocking heads with another player or hitting the ground. Click to continue reading...

Notice that it's not "Bent Over by Beckham". True, he did hit a good free-kick. Also true, he steered a "dagger ball" through the United back line for the Gals second. But - Perkins was caught admiring the "bend" on Beck's free-kick when he should have been busy trying to save it, and Gros is not a defender. Is Soehn even watching his team? Gros has looked miserable to moderately bad as a left back all season, and yet was borderline man-of-the-match when he pushed up onto the wing in the last two MLS matches. Click to continue reading...

Okay, so let's say that of the 45,000 people that went to see the game, 20,000 were there for Beckham. I think it's safe to assume that at least 25,000 were casual United fans to begin with who also came out for this one. Fair? Good. Let's talk about those 20,000 fans that came first and foremost for Sir Becks-a-lot.

They saw a pretty good game, even in the rain.

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This one wasn't looking pretty before kickoff. With Fred injured and Gomez and Moreno ailing, the keys were handed to Rodion Sergeyevich Dyachenko. Now, pardon the tangent here, but I do have a science background and I'm pretty familiar with relativistic physics and bodies in motion and whatnot, so can someone explain how putting Dyachenko in midfield instead of up top not only makes him about 800 times better, but also makes him physically faster? Click to continue reading...

Just a few quick hits in and around this one, once again viewed with my one-eyed pirate's glare.

• Holy crap on that sitter "Brian" Boswell! That couldn't have been Bobby cause I heard him saying that he got his groove back, right? Oh well, must have been "Brian" cause I heard the announcer say his name three times. To be fair, the announcer did drop the ball on quite a few occasions (Moreno hasn't played since the Copa?

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As usual, Goff comes up with the goods.
Apparently Casal did not make the Nigeria roster. I have no inside information on this other than the Good Word of Goff, but something tells me he got shafted. I think Casal is a great talent and I'm really disappointed he won't get the opportunity to prove it at the U-20 WC. I'm almost positive he would have made the U. Click to continue reading...