Danny Szetela

by Martin Shatzer on Jul 15, 2009 10:09 PM EDT

Today Goff is reporting and United is confirming that the club has officially acquired Danny Szetela via the MLS allocation system. United continues to acquire more young talented players who could turn into fairly big stars.

Almost makes you wonder why FC Dallas would pass on this 22-year old kid with international experience. There have been rumors floating around about Heath Pearce, Damarcus Beasley, and Stern John all potentially returning to MLS through the allocation system, but I think United made the right move by grabbing this guy right now. For Dallas, it might make sense to wait and hope for an older established player like Beasley. But not for United; we've already got plenty of those. Pearce is a little more intriguing, and it would be disappointing if United was to miss out on an opportunity to sign a proven national team caliber left back when that's been arguably our biggest need for quite a few years now. But for me it would make no sense to pass on Szetela in favor of a hope that might never come to fruition. Some of these points might also assume that Dallas actually knows what they're doing, and they've never been particularly known for their player evaluation capabilities.

So now that the Szet is here, what do we do with him? Add Szetela's name to our list of versatile midfielders that already includes Pontius, Wallace, and Quaranta. We're likely to see him competing directly with Andrew Jacobson for a holding midfield position and as the first option to fill in for Olsen when necessary. I could also see him moving ahead of Khumalo, but not Fred, on our winger depth chart. Does anyone know if he can play on either side? What we probably know for sure is that Soehn is going to use him in some different spots, just like we've seen done with Pontius, Wallace, and even Barklage to some degree. Hopefully Szetela gets a couple minutes right away as a substitute in the Open Cup semifinal next week.

The bigger question is what number will the Szet wear?! He wore 7 for the Olympic team and 17 for the Crew, but both of those are taken here. 27 seems to be available, but my money is on 12.

Welcome Danny. Hope to see you stay awhile.

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Comments

All of the reports talk about him playing right side and mid. Nothing suggests him playing left, which is unfortunate, as we need some real depth on the left side.

If Szetela can't get ahead of Fred on the depth chart, then this was a completely wasted acquisition.

by Jeremy on Jul 16, 2009 10:16 AM EDT reply actions

The kid is still young and I'm hoping for the best, but there might be a reason on why Dallas passed on him. Sigi played him rarely in Columbus. Santander gave up on him and Brescia was a mixed bag because of the coaching changes.

The plus is that he is the type of puzzle piece Tommy seems to like (will fit in multiple places) and he also likes the Gomez-Moreno style of play (keeping the ball on the ground; short passes, etc...). Not sure how good a wing he can be, but he does hustle from box to box when he's in the middle of the pitch.

by Anonymous on Jul 16, 2009 12:24 PM EDT reply actions

Even if he doesn't get much playing time this year, I think it's a good thing because he'll get a chance to learn from guys like Olsen and Gomez, and then play a larger role in 2010.

by Shatz... on Jul 19, 2009 8:50 PM EDT reply actions