DCU camp arrivals/departures
Per Behind the Badge and Soccer Insider, United has made some moves within the squad in preseason camp. TwoBoys Gumede and Ray Burse are on the way out, while Shintaro Harada of Crystal Palace Baltimore and former University of Kentucky center back Barry Rice will join DC's camp now that it has returned to the District.
While Gumede and Burse are definitely not being offered contracts, Honduran center back Quiarol Arzu has returned to his club, Platense, while Curt Onalfo and the coaching staff evaluate whether to offer him a deal. Goff seems skeptical about the likelihood of an offer being tendered, and I would tend to agree. If DC is truly interested, they'd have drafted up a deal and started some kind of negotiation with Platense.
For a more in-depth look at the new guys in camp, follow me beyond the jump.
Taking a look at the new faces, Rice had been reported as a likely trialist just after the draft. He famously (if you can be famous for anything that is only discussed among college soccer diehards and MLS draft know-it-alls) won so many headers that Kentucky began keeping a specific stat ("contested Barry Rice headers won/lost"). Rice ended his senior season having won 87% of the headers he went up for, which is made even more impressive when you note that Rice is only 5'11".
Harada got his professional start with Yokohama F Marinos, who in spite of being oddly named are longtime residents at the top of the Japanese soccer pyramid (going back well before the J-League was founded). After this promising beginning, he bounced around Japan's second and third divisions before coming to the US to play for Crystal Palace Baltimore. He's a pretty versatile guy, capable of playing as a center back as well as throughout midfield (hat tip to Soccer Insider commenter yankiboy, since my previous knowledge of Harada consisted of him being a wide player only).
The big question, obviously, is whether these guys will stick. Rice had some buzz surrounding him despite being left out of the 2010 MLS Combine, and obviously a lot of that had to do with his aerial ability. There is the possibility that, like Troy Perkins and Bobby Boswell before him, DC has found a diamond in the rough. However, for every Perkins and Boswell, there are many more guys throughout MLS that are offered trials that go nowhere. I'm not going to pretend that I know more than I've said about Rice, so I have no idea as to whether he can hack it at this level. However, it seems apparent that the odds are long.
Harada also seems to be a less-than-likely candidate to make the squad. He did make the USL-2 All-League team in each of the last two years, and earned trials with Chicago, RSL, San Jose, and Philly, as well as a three-month trial at the original Crystal Palace of the English Championship. However, the fact that 5 clubs playing at the same level as DC have had a look at him and not made a move is a red flag. There is also the fact that Harada is just 5'8" tall. While Michael Parkhurst's success in MLS was impressive, it is also a very rare example of someone below 5'11" being able to defend a league full of large, aggressive target men. Harada may indeed be the kind of cerebral type that can think faster than his opponents and negate a clear size disadvantage, but it seems pretty odd that such gifts would be passed up by so many already. Personally, I'm skeptical of small center backs (going back to Parkhurst, I always felt he got too much credit and was mysteriously not blamed for mistakes that were his fault), so I'm not exactly betting the farm on Harada sticking.
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Fare thee well, Two-Boys Gumede!
That would have been one of the best names in MLS.
by Brendanukkah on Mar 3, 2025 8:36 AM EST reply actions
Barry Rice
The more intriguing of the two is Rice. We’re in dire need of central defensive depth right now with Burch being out for 4 months. If Jakovic and James are our starters, then our only qualified backup at this point is McTavish.
With Barklage and Hamid being locks, we could have a battle for the final 2 developmental spots between DiRaimondo, Adams, Graye, and Rice
by Martin Shatzer on Mar 3, 2025 9:27 AM EST via mobile reply actions
The lack of center backs is one reason I’ve been losing a little bit of optimism in the past couple days (even before the Burch injury). We keep bringing guys in on trial, but there’s no obvious attempt to get someone better than what we have. They’re all players that look likely to be added depth, not an improved starter (which is what we need).
We will probably improve defensively because of our goalkeeping and the fact that we’ve shed a lot of the offensive players that didn’t work hard on the other side of the ball. I don’t know if we’ll improve by enough to make the kind of big jump forward in the standings that we’d all like to see.
by ChestRockwell on Mar 3, 2025 1:20 PM EST up reply actions








