D.C. United Archive

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Expensive Convey brought into the TFC fold

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/16/2013

Bobby Convey

Bobby Convey

Toronto FC acquired veteran midfielder Bobby Convey on Thursday.

In exchange, Sporting Kansas City gets a first-round pick in the 2014 Supplemental Draft. For SKC, it’s the chance to offload Convey’s salary-cap hit. According to the MLS Players’ Union, Convey’s base salary is US$200,000, with guaranteed compensation totaling US$215,000 in 2013.

That was a lot of money for SKC to pay a guy who turns 30 next week — and has played just 122 minutes of soccer so far this season.

Convey has a history of MLS brilliance. He was an All-Star with D.C. United in 2001; when he returned to MLS in 2010 after a five-year spell at Reading, he was the comeback player of the year. He was an All-Star in 2010 and again in 2011 as a member of the San Jose Earthquakes.
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Bruin named MLS Player of the Week: The 11′s nod went to Teibert

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/13/2013

Russell Teibert

Russell Teibert

Most of the time, the bodies of work we look at are fairly consistent when voting for an MLS Player of the Week.

Most of the time, we judge players on the basis that they each play a single match on the weekend.

But in the odd weeks where some teams play two games because of the midweek schedule and others play one — that makes it difficult.

This week, Houston Dynamo forward Will Bruin won the Player of the Week vote. He scored twice and added two assists in a midweek 4-0 win over D.C. United, but didn’t do much in a 1-0 loss at home Sunday to Sporting Kansas City. And that brings up an uncomfortable question: Does a “meh” game on Sunday weigh down what was a spectacular midweek effort?
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MLS salary update: More Canadians working in the league, but making less

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/06/2013

Dejan Jakovic: Now the No. 2 highest paid Canadian in MLS.

Dejan Jakovic: Now the No. 2 highest paid Canadian in MLS.

More Canadians are working in MLS this season than in 2012 — but those new jobs aren’t on the high-pay end of the scale.

The MLS Players’ Union released its salary update Monday, the day when the layers of secrecy are peeled away from the contracts that have been signed by the league’s players.

And what have we learned? That there are five Canadian players making US$35,125 this season, while eight more are on the books for base salaries of $46,500 each. Of those, only DC United’s Kyle Porter and TFC’s Kyle Bekker were able to squeeze some extra dough out of their deals to get a little bit more than their base contracts.

With Julian de Guzman now playing out the string with relegated Bundesliga 2. side Jahn Regensburg, he gives up his No. 1 spot on the Canadian rich list. Dwayne De Rosario, with a base number of $600,000, now takes over as the highest paid Canadian in MLS.
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McInerney named the MLS Player of the Week

By
Steven Sandor
– 04/22/2013

Jack McInerney

Jack McInerney

Is it safe yet to begin the “how many players were drafted ahead of him” talk about Jack McInerney?

The Philadelphia Union forward scored twice in a 3-2 win Sunday over D.C. United, and earned enough votes from the membership of the North American Soccer Reporters to take the MLS Player of the Week honour. McInerney got 17 of the 27 first-place votes cast by the members.

With six goals on the season, McInerney has taken over the MLS scoring lead.
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Spectacular saves gives D.C. United’s Hamid POTW nod over Montreal’s Bernier

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/18/2013

Hamid_BillIt’s not often when a player from a 0-0 draw gets Player of the Week consideration, but D.C. United had no business getting out of New Jersey with a point.

DCU’s 0-0 draw with the Red Bulls Saturday really should have been a loss. Not a one- or two-goal defeat, either. A rout. But DCU keeper Bill Hamid made a series of spectacular saves and allowed his team to get some sort of result even though its performance was flatter than the prairie.

For his heroics, Hamid got the nod from the North American Soccer Reporters; he is the MLS Player of the Week. Hamid got 16 out of 28 first-place votes to take the award.

Despite Hamid’s success, it is clear Impact-mania has gripped the membership. Montreal midfielder Patrice Bernier got seven first-place and seven second-place votes, while forward Marco Di Vaio got one first and six second-place votes. Read the rest of this entry »

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De Rosario suspended for first two games of MLS season

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/01/2013

Dwayne De Rosario

Dwayne De Rosario

D.C. United will be forced to begin the MLS season without its Canadian star.

The league announced Friday — and this was expected — that Dwayne De Rosario has been suspended for the first two games of the regular season. The suspension will include this weekend’s season opener, which sees DCU travel to Houston to face the Dynamo, the team which De Rosario led to a pair of MLS Cup victories

Last weekend, on the final day of the preseason Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic, De Rosario head butted Philadelphia’s Danny Cruz and was sent off. MLS has become more proactive about punishing players for violent conduct committed in preseason friendlies — and the league launched an investigation. Because the game wasn’t televised or streamed, the league needed time to put together exactly what had happened through eyewitness accounts, etc.
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Trade finally allows Porter’s MLS rights to move to D.C. United

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/28/2013

Kyle Porter

Kyle Porter

Kyle Porter’s drawn-out move to D.C. United is finally complete.

Even though his agent declared that the Canadian forward, who represented his country in January friendlies against Denmark and the United States, had come to terms with D.C. United last weekend, the move was only completed Thursday. DCU had to send a second-round Supplemental Draft pick to the Vancouver Whitecaps, who have held the forward’s MLS rights for more than two years.

Porter impressed during his trial at D.C., which began right after Canada’s 0-0 draw with the United States in late January.

FC Edmonton, the NASL side which had been Porter’s team for the last two years, offered the forward a new deal. But, in January, the club made it public that it had set a deadline for Porter to sign a deal, or it would be withdrawn. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Super-Duper MLS preview, 2013 edition

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/28/2013
Philip F. Anschutz Trophy, the big prize at the end of the season

Philip F. Anschutz Trophy, the big prize at the end of the season

With the MLS season moved up to its earliest start ever, forgive us if we don’t feel 100 per cent totally prepared for First Kick. Judging by the way many MLS teams finished preseason, with tentative matches and still looking at trialists with a week to go before the games count in the standings, a lot of coaches aren’t quite ready for the early start, either.

And that could be telling. The teams that got the jump and have their ducks in a row could have a real advantage in these March matchups; and they could find some bonus points that could help them in the fall.

Steven Sandor, Editor of The 11 and contributors Randy Davis, Aman Dhanoa, Mark Polishuk and Gavin Day all submitted their picks. We tallied the scores and we present our picks below.
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Why TFC has to learn from its Designated-Player mistakes

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/26/2013

Kevin Payne

With a bad hip and a big contract, Torsten Frings presented Toronto FC’s front office a real problem.

So, the team and player joined to take the only course they could — retirement for the German midfielder/defender. The process, drawn out over the course of training camp, came to an end Tuesday when the team announced that Frings has ended his playing career.

With Eric Hassli (traded to FC Dallas) and Frings gone, two Designated Player spots have opened up for the Reds. And with that comes the nearly US$700,000 in cap space. And, of course, there will be many who cry that TFC President and General Manager Kevin Payne should go like for like, replacing the two big-ticket items with two new big-ticket items. After all, hasn’t TFC accumulated enough allocation money to build a magic castle at Exhibition Place?
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All signs point to Porter’s D.C. United gamble paying off

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/23/2013

Kyle Porter took a major gamble, and it looks to have paid off.

While the move has yet to be made official by D.C. United, Porter’s representatives at Kudos Management tweeted on Friday that the Canadian forward has signed with the MLS club.

“We confirm Kyle Porter has agreed to terms with DC United. The Kudos family wishes @KylePorter19 all the best with his new team.”

Porter only played seven minutes Saturday in DCU’s final game of the Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic, a 2-0 win over Philadelphia. That’s a sign that he’s indeed a part of the club, as coach Ben Olsen has already made up his mind about the Mississauga native and used the game as a chance to see other prospects.
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