As mentioned earlier today, lots of clubs are starting to clear off roster space for the summer months. Two clubs cleared out some room today.

DC United waived keeper Louis Crayton.

San Jose waived two, defender Eric Denton and midfielder Kelly Gray.

Crayton was on the block for a while to get released and it was really only a matter of time.

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Perhaps better known for his entertaining unorthodox goalkeeping tactics than a solid steadying presence in goal as well as an unfortunate incident involving a fan in Houston, DC United's Liberian goalkeeper has been released by the club. It should be noted that we received a rumor two weeks ago stating he was gone but at the request of DC United we contacted them for clarification and they denied he was on the outs with the club. Click to continue reading...

The DC United goalkeeping situation is something which has been in flux for quite some time. Ever since the departure of 2006 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, Troy Perkins, the club has been searching for an answer between the pipes. After the 2007 season, Perkins decided to test his mettle in European soccer, signing with Valerenga of Norway.

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With the win against the Chicago Fire, Josh Wicks should solidify his claim as D.C. United's starting goalkeeper. He made a huge stop on the McBride penalty, plucked a lot of crosses out of the air, and has had, not just in this game, excellent reaction stops. Subjectively, its hard to argue to bench him, and I'm not going to try that. Click to continue reading...

Let's try out a different format this time for my much heralded "Versus" series. Here we'll take a look at each of our three potential starting goalkeepers (Louis Crayton, Josh Wicks, and Milos Kocic) on a number of different categories to see if we can come up with a consensus.

Stats to date:
Including Open Cup matches, these three aren't too different.

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This is the second in a recurring series where we look at the DC United season, five games at a time. Of course I failed already because I miscounted and should have written this one last week, so this post is through the Chivas match, and does not include the scoreless draw with RSL.
Results: 2-0-3. Click to continue reading...

Like kissing your sister, as long as your sister isn't hot, or a good kisser.

The thing you'll hear most from any reports you're bound to read about this match is that Josh Wicks did well, and RSL bunkered. Honestly, that's about all I could tell you about it, too. DC started out bad, and finished bad.

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This is part 1 in a...multi part series where we'll go over a situation that needs to be addressed by the Front Office or Tommy and lay out the pros and cons, and ask you to decide.

Today's issue: the goalie position.

As I wrote earlier, Louis Crayton appears to be on the outs. Both from my sources and from Martin Fernandez from United Mania, Crayton appears to be rubbing people on the staff the wrong way with his attitude.

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March 2009: 0-0-2 (2pts, 1p/g, 3GF, 3GA, 0GD, 1.5 gf/g, 1.5ga/g)
April 2009: 2-1-1 (7pts, 1.75p/g, 6GF, 5GA, +1GD, 1.5 gf/g, 1.25ga/g)

We're going to chunk every month of the MLS Season, to see what, if any, insight we can derive from examining a series of games rather than focusing on an individual game.

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New York Red Bulls 2 : 3 D.C. UnitedSix Word Novel Recap

Good day for DC in Nuyawk.

Media, Traditional and OtherwiseThe New York Post, Brian Lewis: "The Red Bulls _ and the MetroStars before them _ have specialized in heartbreaking defeats in their history, but few have been as stunning or as maddening as today's collapse"
The Washington Post, Steve Goff: "A 90-degree afternoon on unforgiving artificial turf had taken its toll on mind, body and soul, and considering United's futility on the road the past year, a draw with the New York Red Bulls might have been sufficient. Click to continue reading...

Tradition
Ah, the annual trip to the concrete jungle, the armpit of america, RFK North. With Red Bull Arena under construction and supposed to open for the 2010 season, this could be the last time United plays the metroscum/pink cows in the spectacularly horrid Giant Stadium.

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This is a big game. I don't care that it's April. I don't care that we're not fully healthy. We need three points, this weekend. That's it. End of story. Houston is not considered to be a contender this year, with losing DeRo, and not many more additions. The team [...] Click to continue reading...

Ok folks, the games finally start counting for something. We'll start to see less of players like Brandon Barklage, and more of the Jaime Moreno's of the world. And that makes me excited. This Sunday, United travels to the Home Depot Center to visit one of the sadder cases in MLS in the last [...] Click to continue reading...

As this is the preseason, and the informal roster deadline for MLS teams is Monday, DCU made some moves which are quite interesting. First, coming in. DCU has signed Dejan Jakovic from Red Star Belgrade, in a real, honest to god transfer. It's like MLS is a real league and everything! Some info about Mr. Click to continue reading...

We received the sad news today that Louis Crayton's mother passed away in Liberia over the weekend. We don't know any of the particulars, but do know that Louis will fly home this week to be with his family. If we hear more, we'll be sure to pass it along. In the meantime, please keep Louis and his family in your thoughts in prayers.

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(Summary is not available.) Click to continue reading...

Ben Olsen and Louis Crayton stop for some parking lot soccer en route to deliver the MLS Cup with Deb - the soccer mom.

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Once again, starring Ben Olsen and Louis Crayton.

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Episode 5 of VW's six-part 'Road to MLS Cup' series once again stars Ben Olsen and Louis Crayton. Benny, in particular, has a couple of key lines...

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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...

Courtesy of BehindTheBadge.com
"I'm grateful for all of the support shown by the Houston Dynamo organization, their supporters and concerned fans from all over the country. I've received hundreds of encouraging e-mails over the past several days for which I'm very thankful. I know that one person does not represent everyone in Houston and I appreciate the manner in which the Dynamo and their fans have approached the incident that occurred Sunday night. Click to continue reading...

Earlier this morning, Louis Crayton approached me with his desire to respond to the many people that have sent him correspondence condemning the racial slurs directed at him following Sunday's game in Houston and supporting him through this time. Below are his thoughts:

"I'm grateful for all of the support shown by the Houston Dynamo organization, their supporters and concerned fans from all over the country.

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On many occasions, this blog has written about teams getting highly charged situations horribly wrong. Real Salt Lake with the Piotr Nowak/Atiba Harris incident and Chicago with the Blanco punch both come to mind. Which brings us to the Louis Crayton incident in Houston. There was a way that Houston, in a short minded way of trying to save face, could have played the incident with their fan using racial taunts: "We didn't hear the incident, but it doesn't excuse players going into the stands and endangering our fans.

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In stark contrast to a similar incident earlier this year, Houston Dynamo and General Manager Oliver Luck has quickly dealt with not only the immediate incident but reached out to DC United's Liberian goalkeeper, Louis Crayton personally and issued the following apology and encourages Houstonians to do the same:

The Houston Dynamo would like to apologize to Louis Crayton, the Liberian goalkeeper for D.

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I'm trying not to make this such a Columbus love fest here but when your hot it has to be noted and right now the Columbus Crew are indeed hot. The main reason is because of the way things are clicking on the offensive side of the ball and also to a degree on the [...] Click to continue reading...

I have got to get out of this habit of only posting post game reports... I was there last night, and I was fairly pleased. I say fairly because there were some stupid passes in the midfield, and some questionable play by certain players (I'm looking your way Emilio), and because we SHOULD get three [. Click to continue reading...

1 week ago, DC dispatched a New England reserve side and advanced to the finals of the US Open Cup. This week, DC plays NE again. The faces have changed, but may the result be no different. Again, Matt Reis will not be playing, but NE looks to have more of its attacking options with them, [...] Click to continue reading...

Chicago Fire 0 : 1 D.C. United
Six Word Novel Recap

Black and red likes some yellow.

Media, Traditional and OtherwiseThe Chicago Daily Herald, Orrin Schwarz: "Things changed at the start of the second half Saturday night at Toyota Park. Fans in brand-new No. 20 jerseys sat up straight. Click to continue reading...

Though he has been in D.C. for the last week, we finally announced today the acquisition of goalkeeper Louis Crayton. The Liberian spent the last 11 years playing in the Swiss league and also has extensive international experience. You can read all about his playing career in the press release we put out today.

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According to this report on the Soccer Insider as well as these reports on this German football transfer site, DC United is close to reaching a deal on a senior goalkeeper who played on the FIFA World Stars team. Crayton would be expected to challenge Zack Wells for the starting spot if not start outright. Click to continue reading...

Just as reported earlier in the week, DC United is in discussions with an international keeper. This morning more details of who and where that keeper is from have come out thanks to Steve Goff. United is in talks with Liberian international Louis Crayton. The 30-year old Crayton has spent the past 11 years in the [. Click to continue reading...