The Week in DCenters

Some interesting comments and developments from the week, so I'm going to devote a post to some of the things that I think were interesting...

DID DCU KNOW ABOUT HOUSTON UNITED? Interesting comment from Bill-DC regarding The DCenters report that United was nearly the team name of Houston. Apparently, at the Screaming Eagle annual meeting, DCU executive Stephen Zack said "he expects another United in the league but DC will always be the best." I'm guessing this means that the league or AEG must have given DCU the heads-up that Houston United was a name being seriously considered, if not already selected. Interesting, since this means the name will also be on the table for the future.

IS ALECKO SAVING DC UNITED FROM THEMSELVES? An anonymous commenter with a provocative idea:

Alecko's loss does not concern me. I feel bad for him, but I think it's to the team's benefit. He's massively overrated, as a result of his powerful shot. If you look a little further, however, you'll see that he loses the ball about 75% of the time he touches it. Compare his holding ability with that of Jaime, Gomito, Freddy, or Tino, and, well, there really is no comparison. We should have traded him when his trade value was high bc he's not good enough to get on the field now, especially if Filomeno continues to improve. Feel bad for Alecko personally, but not for the sake of the team, who will be much better, faster, fluid without him.

Wow... Now, there are a number of things you can take issue with, but this point has merit that can not be dismissed. Alecko has had cold spells in each year he's been in black and red. I look at the end of 2004 and saw what I thought was the potential of Eskandarian up-top, and during that time he had a great touch and ability to control the ball. What made him better was that while he could hold the ball and wait for reinforcements, he would go at the net more frequently than Jamie Moreno, whose offensive technique is superb but often involves holding the ball while waiting for Godot to join the attack. I'm against trading Esky for many reasons: I think he can come back, I think it would be bad style, I don't think he has much value right now. Pick any one of them. But I agree with Mr. Anonymous that we can't view Esky as a cure-all for DCU right now, and that his falling down the depth chart might not be a bad thing.

BRAND X (WHERE X=VALUE): Not going to say much more on the Red Bull New York story, but the comments here argued both sides well. I am very curious to see what happens in 2006 now. However, at the end, The Metrologist comes up with a great counter-argument to my "DCU is too valuable as a brand" argument:

...Look at Salzburg; they had 70 years of existence, multiple championships, a distinctive and well-known color scheme, a good, honest, name - in short, a fine "brand". And all that and 100,000 signatures didn't mean a damn thing, especially when a money crunch hit.

Much to think about there, and enough that I can't instantly shoot back at it.

NOT GROVER CLEVELAND: I see that rumored columnist NDL is also now reporting that Cleveland is the proposed expansion city implied by the Commish during the SuperDraft. You may remember that The DCenters had this same story two months ago. Now, I'm pretty sure that NDL and I have have different sets of sources, so at this point I look at this as a pretty much confirmed story. Cleveland is who Garber was talking about. And he was talking about them, oh, nearly 60 days ago. Watch the skies.