Tuesday Orange Slices: Scouting Barbados

I have to say, looking back over the course of this season its truly been one of the most dramatic and fascinating: as GD noted in his piece, we are effectively in a rebuilding year, yet we’ve been trying to rebuild on the fly. Of course, that rebuilding is still not complete, and as we’ve stated here a few times I hope the playoffs don’t distract from that very real situation. Being in the Eastern Conference helped, of course, and we’re fortunate to be where we’re at right considering that for the majority of the season our premier defender acted as one of our primary midfielders; its a testament to Cameron that he took on that challenge and performed admirably there (though I hope he never has to do that again).

Looking to the playoffs, I dearly hope Dixon gets some playing time against LAG because he could definitely be a factor for us; we desperately need pace and while Carr is supplying some of it, having another quick player puts pressure on teams that perhaps have had an easier time defending us because of that lack of pace. I’d love to see Clark starting on the right and bring in Dixon as a late sub, and then for either the wild card (I hope not) or our first-round match use Cruz instead as a sub on the right. I know I know, I (along with others) have beefed about Dom’s “great game! now sit” strategy over the season but I think in Cruz’ case its necessary. He tends to get worked up and while that can be a great thing as far as energy and hustle, for a young player that is still working on controlling his game I think its more reigning him in before he does something silly. That’s why I’d put Ol’ Faithful (Clark) out on the right and maybe use Dixon instead as a late sub. But we’ll see.

As for the piece on the Barbados camp, I think that’s a nice idea. Good, solid talent there and it’ll likely be cheap, so why not? From what I’ve seen and read, the talent level there from players seems to top out at either lower-table Premier League to Championship-level quality; that’s roughly analogous to solid MLS quality. You may even find a young, tricky quick gem; I know, its much more of a stretch there but hey, from a cost-benefit perspective its tough to argue. Plus, I think its the beginning of trying to establish “feeder” ties to other countries…mind you, it’s Barbados but still, its at least a positive step in the right direction.

And good ol’ Jack…whatever do you have in this “tsunami” that you promise to unleash?

First Jamaica and now a step back to Barbados? Do they even make it to the world cup? How good is their national team? This is a joke. They’re supposed to be scouting for a potential DP not a mediocre player. I’m not going to enjoy this off season since I’ll be thinking to myself “is this the kind of talent I’ll be receiving as a new STH”. I’d prefer they scout another place and not Barbados…C’mon we deserve better!!