Hamdi Salihi Joins D.C. United, Raises Expectations For 2012 Season
by Martin Shatzer on Feb 2, 2012 9:54 PM EST
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PrintD.C. United announced today that the team has signed Albanian striker Hamdi Salihi to a designated player contract. Salihi has scored 163 goals in all competitions as a professional, and 142 goals in league matches. For comparison's sake, Dwayne De Rosario has scored 104. Jaime Moreno scored 149. Wait, really? Salihi has scored almost as many career goals as Moreno, and he's only 28? Yep. That's the truth.
With Salihi's signing, United's chances of doing well in 2012 have improved substantially. With the Philadelphia Union offloading their best player, and with the New York Red Bulls being the New York Red Bulls, D.C. just became a major force in the MLS Eastern Conference.
No longer do we need to worry about De Rosario being the sole contributor of goals to our scoring sheet. If Salihi is as good as advertised, he's more than capable of assuming that responsibility. Already having a relationship with Branko Boskovic won't hurt either.
According to Steven Goff of the Washington Post, Salihi is joining United on a two-year guaranteed contract, with two additional option years upon expiration. Dave Kasper noted that Boskovic actually helped recruit Salihi to join United rather than a club in Scotland or China, where he was also being pursued. D.C. had to pay a transfer fee to Rapid Vienna to bring Salihi to the States, but it might be well worth it.
And the hype has been out of control, and so well deserved. There wasn't this kind of hype around Danny Allsopp. Or Cristian Castillo. There was hype around Charlie Davies, but there were also significant questions about his recovery. There hasn't been this amount of hype or optimism about a United signing since Marcelo Gallardo!
Er, maybe that's not the best comparison.
In the highlights above, courtesy of dcunited.com, you'll see Salihi getting into good positions in the box, and finishing his chances consistently. I don't get too steamed up about seeing bicycle kick goals because I know they won't come often, but I do love to see our new forward striking every ball perfectly just inside the post. Watch it again. Every ball. Just inside the post.
Salihi is good with his head and good with his feet. This year, we should expect to see him get on the end of some Andy Najar crosses, and some De Rosario through balls. Left alone with the goalkeeper, Salihi won't be denied. At 6'-1", he's the target forward that we've been looking for.
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Eastern Conference
It’s kind of nuts at this point. KC should still be about as good as they were last year, and Chicago over the last third of 2011 were very strong. Houston hasn’t been weakened by enough to fall out of contention. United, Columbus, and TFC have made moves that look good on paper, and if NYRB can solve the problem of their own bungling, they’ll be good too.
Even after the recent, negative moves, Philly won’t be that bad due to their defensive strength (lessened with Mondragon leaving, but not by enough to make it their main issue). Montreal has assembled a competent roster, though I think their attack is going to be awfully short of consistency (Davy Arnaud excepted).
The Revs are probably going to suck. Outstanding central midfield, but goals and width are going to be huge problems. Plus, Jay Heaps is their coach, so obviously they deserve the worst luck in the world on top of their roster being poor.
Writer on SBN's DC United blog Black and Red United | @ChestRockwell14 | KEEP UNITED IN DC
Think it's fair to say
That we have one of the runaway best foreign signings this year. I think other teams are going to be surprised. That’s the best part.
I'm over the moon with expectation
First off — This guy has a way better highlight film than even Gallardo had. That’s kind of an inside joke — I wondered about Gallardo at the time of his signing because his highlight reel seemed to be a bunch of free kicks that hit the woodwork. Salahi scores with both feet, he scores with sliding touches, tap-ins long strikes, runs behind the offside trap defense, with a bicycle kick!!…and, all those headers! With all due respect to what Emilio could do, Salihi looks like the best target forward this team has had. Period.
Over the last month, the team has been putting together the pieces needed to win. With draft picks and trialists they appear to have added tremendously to their depth…with greater quality than I can recall. Before that, they filled one of the biggest holes, plugging in Russell at RB — and last week, they added Dudar, who may be the solution to out inconsistent play in central defense. They also added a versatile, experienced but still young midfielder with Cruz. Now, with Salihi, they’ve made their biggest move of the offseason — outside of the DeRo trade, their biggest move in years —with the position where it will have the greatest impact.
It’s hard not be excited — and it’s hard not to have high expectations.Philly has traded their best player..and they let go of their goalie, who was one of the league’s best. In their stead, Philly has some really unproven talent. I like the team’s future, but right now they are ripe for the taking. The Crew have made a few good moves, but they lost some good players, too. They weren’t so good that they could stay pat, and I feel that’s where they are — maybe they will even slip a notch or two. Ching was a huge part of the Dynamo. Unless they come up with a big signing, they will definitely slip. KC — lost a pair of key veterans from their attack. They’re still loaded, by MLS standards, but they’re young. TFC might be better, but they haven’t improved as much as DC has .The Revs have a long climb.
Finally, the supposed cream - the Red Bulls are a mystery. Even with Cooper, they may not be as good as last year, barring a big signing like Ballack. Henry will be a year older. Conde - may be a step up from Ream…or a step down. Remains to be seen. But their biggest need is to find a goalie. I hope they haven’t lost Cepero’s phone #. The Bulls definitely have more star power than United, but the gap isn’t as big as one might think.
Right now, I think the East is up for grabs. I could see NYRB, DC United, KC or, if the kiddie corps comes through, even Philly winning it. Above all, though, I think those four teams have the inside track to the playoffs, and it’s been years since I could say that about United. If United can convince me they have strong back-ups in goal, and if they can find a LB who can defend and push the attack, I think the sky would be the limit. There are questions, to be sure, about the new signings, but I’m extremely impressed with their potential. I think United is very close to being a legitimate championship contending team — close enough that they may get there this year (which would be a good thing, since we also learned today that Hamid’s agent thinks he’s a year away from moving to England).
Columbus, NYRB, Hamid
I think the Crew are going to be somewhat like Schelotto’s first year in MLS, where Columbus was a pretty good team but not a potential Cup winner. Marosevic is the real deal; MLS defenses aren’t accustomed to seeing a guy with his ability to time late runs into the box. Warzycha won’t have them playing pretty soccer by any means, but I think they’ll be quite effective.
I keep forgetting that NYRB’s keepers are a guy coming from the Finnish 2nd division and a college kid. If they don’t address that situation, they’re in a lot of trouble (and that’s even if this Swedish center back Holgersson is a quality partner for Conde).
On Hamid…yeah, I’m not surprised at all that he’s already looking to move on. Once he got the training stint/trial at West Brom, I think the gears started turning. On the spreadsheet I use to keep track of our roster, trialists, and potential departures, Hamid is on the list as a player that might leave soon. It sucks, but it’s also a good problem to have; if your keeper leaves for the Premier League, you are probably doing things correctly at this stage in MLS’s evolution. I trust Willis more than I’ve trusted a United back-up since it was Rimando and Perkins fighting for the job.
Writer on SBN's DC United blog Black and Red United | @ChestRockwell14 | KEEP UNITED IN DC
by ChestRockwell on Feb 3, 2012 9:02 AM EST up reply actions
I also remember seeing in the ESPN piece about Hamid that United was in serious talks with an EPL team to sell Hamid before last season; however, he wanted another few years of guaranteed starting and development before moving on. It would not surprise me at all if Hamid was gone after this season, and I’m also glad that Willis has (so far) been a solid backup. He’ll get more time during Olympic qualifying and (hopefully) the actual Olympics, so it should prepare him well for whenever Hamid leaves.
Gallardo
I am another one who never bought in to the Gallardo hype. When he came in, it seemed like the biggest thing he had going for him was missing a PK for the Argentine nationals.
However, I did buy in to the Castillo hype…
With Salihi, I am having difficulty reigning in my enthusiasm. I am beginning to feel like a Redskins fan…
I am beginning to feel like a Redskins fan…
perpetually disappointed? lol. I’m sorry I couldn’t resist
"I will never have my best season," Brian Dawkins
" Lifes a bitch, but God forbid the bitch divorce me" Nas
"A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing."
...said the Eagles fan
I don’t have a dog in this fight (to choose a horrible metaphor), because I’m a Bengals fan and that’s a whole different level, but this seems like a case of gathering rocks in front of your glass house.
Power Rankings
Opened the MLS website Power Rankings and kept scrolling and scrolling for DCU. Way down at 15 out of 19 there we were (way below the Crew, FCD and Colorado— even below the Quakes!) even with the addition of Salihi. Well out of the top 10 playoff zone. So are we being overoptimistic fans and missing the boat on our analysis in a fit of preseason eternally springing hope? Or are we going to surprise some people?
Ignore those Power Rankings
They’re nonsense at this point in the year, and this particular set was either done with no thought whatsoever or worse. Us being 15th would require every single signing to be a disaster and multiple injuries to returning players.
Writer on SBN's DC United blog Black and Red United | @ChestRockwell14 | KEEP UNITED IN DC
by ChestRockwell on Feb 3, 2012 9:06 AM EST up reply actions
Cracks me up
United is returning three starters from injury (Pontius, Boskovic, Jakovic), added four more starting-quality players (Russell, Dudar, Salihi, Cruz) with some additional depth too (DeLeon, Santos), only lost one major contributor from last year (Simms), and we’re going to be WORSE than 2011?
I guess we’ll never be able to overcome the loss of Joseph Ngwenya.
Managing Editor for BlackAndRedUnited.com. Weekly Columnist for SB Nation D.C..
by Martin Shatzer on Feb 4, 2012 10:18 AM EST up reply actions
Could be a good thing.
Lowered expectations means that we can blow the doors off our first few matches. Here’s hoping.
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Looks like a good player
for you guys. Biggest thing to me is his goal placement. Nice touch and direction. How’s his ball handling skills? Like is he bumped off easily or kinda lead footed when dribbling? Either way if he is a collector, then ya got a nice signing there.
"I will never have my best season," Brian Dawkins
" Lifes a bitch, but God forbid the bitch divorce me" Nas
"A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing."
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