Wednesday Orange Slices: Cruz 2.0 (Trial Version)

Yup, obviously a guy who has scored 12 goals in 193 games according to Wiki is going to carry us all the way to Title Land. Now the Bear can Dance once more and no longer need to waddle the Trail of Tears.

Humpf!

Perhaps trendsetter Cruz will bring this unheard of concept of passing in some sort of manner resembling forward motion. Then the spaces will open and our offense will no longer pantomime charades of what continental drift looks like. Cement cleats will come off.

Viva Revolution!

Just getting jaded as the rumors start and some true impact players are mentioned and we get Castillo and Cruz.

For weeks, the FO and Dom say:
We’re looking
We’re on it
Things are going to change
We know we need help
These promising players could help us at these positions
We scouted these players at the Gold Cup and are making approaches to some of these (of course, none of whom are mentioned now)

I mean, I can only keep my Dynamo signing impact player(s) erection so long.

Drooping, big time.

watched some you tube videos, he seems to be a left sided attacking mid. he drifts into the space Davis occupies in many of the clips, moving from the middle to the left flank. however, he does seem to hold the ball well and makes positive passes. We desperately need POSITIVE passing, rather than giving up on an attack and simply passing the ball like its a hot potato all the way back to Tally Hall who then boots the hot potato to the other team.

One major difference here between Cruz and Koke is that Koke did not come out on a trial. this guy is willing to trial with us when he would be entitled to scoff at the notion of trying out for a team in a lesser league than the one he just spent 8 years in.

dude, i definitely feel that but we have to be realistic. I wish we could get Dos Santos, but it is impossible to expect that we will get young talent that is already in europe. We have to expect a player that is either 30+ years old with a name people recognize and European experience. Or a player under 25 coming from Latin America with little name recognition.

Cruz, instead is a Latin American player with a decade of experience in Belgium. He certainly has skill but I’m sure we could do better. However, a player coming from Europe with little name recognition (a la Eric Hassli) would certainly be cheaper then a player like Torston Frings or Marquez, etc. and could pan out to be a break out player.

I prefer they find a talented player from the Brazilian or Argentine League, they could provide what we need, creative attacking midfielders and quick strikers that can FINISH!

The most important thing for me is that the player come IN SHAPE and FIT TO PLAY.

Except they probably will pay Cruz 2.0 just like they paid Koke, so if he fails at being anything worth our while, they can dump him without too much salary hit. Either way, a midfielder who is a true CAM would be kinda nice. Especially if he can actually hold AND pass the ball. Two things this team lacks outside of Brian Ching and Brad Davis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/14065566.stm

Riordan signs with a chinese league team. I gues modern football is all about the money, which we need to shell out

i did not think he would be a good fit as he is rumored to be totally self centered and a black hole in the dressing room. however he is quality (3rd all time leading scorer in scottish league).

i agree, my point though is that if somebody we are interested in ends up signing with the chinese league, what does that tell us about our credibility with bonafide talent? in this case, im sure he realized he was going to a much worse league than mls, however i bet his pay check is huge and nearly tax free

I want to mention that we have an international that turned out well…… Hainault!

I was starting to wonder if we even have a scouting system in place after all of these bad signings. having listened to Dominic Kinnear on Glenn Davis’ radio show this past week im now certain that we dont.

Kinnear said on there that the avenues they are using to find players is through contacts that Ralston and Barret have in Latin America and some that Kinnear himself has over in Europe.

-These are the same contacts, from what i understand sort of a scouting agency we contract overthere, that recommended Koke to us. I remember around the time we signed Koke, Kinnear was on the radio show talking about how a deal fell through with a target that had been identified by these “contacts” and that they subsequently recommended Koke. -

Furthermore, Kinnear admitted on the radio show, not for the first time, that they had depended on Youtube videos of players rather then actually going to see them play in person. And when they are seen in person it is always kinnear who goes to see them.

We need scouts, it makes sense for kinnear to watch them play but he cant do that during the season. And since his trips through the Caribbean and Latin America did not yield much we are in this position once again where we will most likely depend on youtube videos, or on players that are willing to trial (which most of the type of players that we fans want would not be willing to do). Imagine asking Torsten Frings to trial with us rather tahn straight up signing him depending of course upon passing a physical as is standard procedure (a man with over 70 caps for germany who was part of the 2nd place team from 2002 WC).

I nominate myself as head scout, haha

we dont need an army, only like 2 or 3 scouts. but i believe you are correct papa, such s the league standard. i just cant believe kinnear could not find anyone in Brazil that would work out.

Eddie Johnson is talking about coming back. I think we are next in line for allocation, the way new england got benny feilhaber. What do you guys think on EJ?