In the Soccer Justice System, Players are Represented by Two separate yet Equally Important Groups...

...The management, deciding when to use the players, and their agents, attempting to get players the best deals. These are their stories.

A summary of the international movement for DC:

Brian Carroll remains on trial at Olympique Marseille. Prognosis: Decent chance of getting an offer, but we wait to hear additional news.

David Stokes' trial at St. Pauli ended without a contract offer. It's interesting, but getting David Stokes in the news has allowed all sorts of people to take shots at him. From the "considered a bust" line in the linked YA article to Du Nord's slam of "if they [St. Pauli] sign Stokes then they are in much worse shape than I thought" he has not been getting kind reviews. I'm not going to say it isn't merited, as Stokes has shown little fulfillment of some of the grander predictions of talent that accompanied him. Still, man, the guy's still human. This is a dehumanizing world at times, especially in the way we talk about soccer players. I don't think there's a way to write nicely about it an be fair, but it does bother me at times, even as I will succumb to the same type of comment.

Freddy Adu's trial is over, and no word on whether ManU will offer him a contract for his Super 18th Birthday Party (Jojo not invited). Tribal Football attempts to take American management to task over their comments on Freddy:

"DC United coach Peter Nowak and technical chief Dave Kasper who indulged in a little lazy commentary....Nowak's uninformed swipe at how United treat their young players does little for the standing of MLS officials outside the 'States."

Yup, but here's the thing. Tribal Football essentially complains about us uninformed MLS types for saying that Freddy won't get time at ManU. Oh no, they say Sir Alex has shown he will play young players...by loaning them to other teams, and then letting them go permanently elsewhere! And this means everyone over here is wrong to write that Freddy wouldn't see time in the First XI at Manchester United how actually? Please. This is a lazy and intellectually dishonest argument and interpretation from those writers. They should know better. We all know Freddy isn't likely to be wearing a kit with "AIG" on the front of it any time soon. But TribalFootball seems content to take swipes at ignorant Yanks by misstating the intentions of Nowak and Kasper. More on other examples of English Exceptionalist interpretations later.