Black And Red United: FanShots

Sao Paulo Striker Alfredo On Trial, Plus Injuries

2012-02-10T21:45:33Z

Sao Paulo Striker Alfredo On Trial, Plus Injuries

D.C. United was supposed to have a couple of Brazilian trialists in camp earlier this week, but after a delay, we now know who one of them is.

Alfredo Francisco Martins - you can call him Alfredo - is a 19 year old forward from the youth team of Sao Paulo FC in Brazil. Sao Paulo has one of the elite youth programs in the Americas, and has sent some pretty good young players to MLS on loan (Juninho of the LA Galaxy is probably the biggest name).

This article from Sao Paulo's website notes that Alfredo was the leading scorer for their under-20 team last year.

The piece from United's site also has some good and bad news on the injury front. New signings Emiliano Dudar and Maicon Santos are said to be at 100% following minor knocks, and should play in tomorrow's game against Sporting Kansas City.

On the other hand, Dwayne De Rosario ("slight" groin strain), Branko Boskovic (calf contusion), and Brandon McDonald (quadriceps strain) are all newly-injured. Other than De Ro, there's no word on the severity of these injuries. We'll probably learn more before/during/after tomorrow's game; if any of this trio plays, their injury can be looked at as pretty minor.

Finally, among the longer-term injured, Chris Pontius is adding time to his training sessions, while Ethan White and Josh Wolff are both still in the process of rehabbing.

Still no agreement on Andy Najar's Olympic fate

2012-02-08T15:05:46Z

Still no agreement on Andy Najar's Olympic fate

Even after meeting for several hours yesterday in person, there is no agreement between D.C. United and the Honduran national team regarding Andy Najar's participation in the Olympics. The meeting was attended by Najar, his agent Chris Megaloudis, Honduran national team coach Luis Fernando Suarez, Honduran U-23 coach Jorge Jimenez, and Ben Olsen. It appears from the article that the disagreement is not over the Olympic qualifiers themselves, but rather how much time Najar will miss prior to the beginning of qualification. As mentioned in an earlier post, Honduras may want Najar as early the season opener.

Hopefully this can be resolved soon and hopefully without antagonizing one of the league's best young players.

Marcelo Saragosa acquired

2012-02-06T16:51:36Z

Marcelo Saragosa acquired

D.C. United added another player to their collection of midfielders by acquiring Marcelo Saragosa. He should provide some nice depth behind Perry Kitchen, especially when he departs for the Olympic qualification and probably the Olympics.

D.C. United Waives Blake Brettschneider

2012-02-03T22:28:08Z

D.C. United Waives Blake Brettschneider

So much for yesterday's optimism and happiness.

For reasons I cannot even begin to fathom, United has waived promising young forward Blake Brettschneider.

Despite the promise shown by Brettschneider and the difficulty of acquiring quality young attacking talent, he was apparently expendable on a team that plans on starting 2 guys that are both regulars for their national teams.

Meanwhile, a quick look around Twitter reveals that just about every other MLS club has a fan or journalist thinking that their team should be calling Brettschneider up right now and getting him into camp.

Feel free to beat your head against a wall now.

This has nothing to do with United, or even soccer, but it's a nice little reminder of what we can...

2012-02-03T19:57:02Z

This has nothing to do with United, or even soccer, but it's a nice little reminder of what we can do as fans, and how our passion can help the players.

Whatever Happened to Christian Gomez?

2012-02-03T19:21:03Z

Whatever Happened to Christian Gomez?

MlSsoccer.com has been doing a bunch of these, and most of them seem to be about former United players. This one is about Gomito, along with this money quote:

"With Jaime [Moreno], Ben Olsen and other experienced players, we had control over that team," he recalls. "D.C. was a top team and we would go everywhere expecting to win. Teams would go to Washington covered in fear. They would line up with all their men playing defense because they had so much respect towards us."

Ryan Nelsen Almost Returned to D.C. United Before Signing with Spurs

2012-02-03T15:52:26Z

Ryan Nelsen Almost Returned to D.C. United Before Signing with Spurs

Rumors out of England are saying that former D.C. United captain Ryan Nelsen was about to come back to the District as a player/coach before Spurs came in at the least minute to give him the chance at Champions League soccer. Needless to say, that would have been an great get for United and, even if he didn't play much or at all, his experience could have helped solidify the back line. I'm happy with the way things have turned out, but Nelsen would have been a welcome, but not desperately needed, addition. Hopefully in a few years he will want to come back to D.C. as a full time coach?

(h/t @cboehm on twitter)

That Was Fast: D.C. United Acquires Hamdi Salihi

2012-02-02T18:16:33Z

That Was Fast: D.C. United Acquires Hamdi Salihi

Not long after word broke that the Black-and-Red were pursuing (now former) Rapid Vienna striker Hamdi Salihi, he's our newest Designated Player and #9.

Quick analysis: Salihi, an Albanian international, is United's third projected starter to have roots in ~~the former Yugoslavia~~ Southeast Europe, joining Montenegran captain Branko Boskovic and Croatian-born Canadian international Dejan Jakovic (who was actually picked up from Serbian side Red Star Belgrade). That's the kind of hard hitting analysis you'll only find here at B&RU.