DC United All-Decade Team: Starting Left Midfielder
by Martin Shatzer on Mar 6, 2025 12:00 PM EST
in All-Decade Team
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PrintSimilar to our list of potential starting left backs, here we have a nice collection of some pretty decent MLS starters. But its hard to see many all-stars among this group, and it sure feels like a significant dropoff after seeing the name Ben Olsen among the candidates for our previous position.
Not unlike the list of defensive midfielders (Carroll and Simms still separated by only one vote!), each of our three leading candidates here played the position in very different ways. Bobby Convey was young and quick and a good crosser, and left United with high hopes of being a fixture on the National Team, but has yet to fully establish himself anywhere since. Josh Gros was the epitome of a workhorse midfielder, running what seemed to be a marathon every match, with a cast on at least one arm at a time. And Fred was an attacking midfielder stuck on the wing, and was at his best when making deep runs and playing off fellow Brazilian Emilio.
This might be the hardest vote so far for me. As tempting as it is to get it over with and vote Gros just because he was a fun player to watch, I'm hesitant to do that, because all three candidates are good. Hell, just take a look at Fred's stats even though he had the fewest games out of the three. How will you decide?
The candidates to be our staring left winger are:
Josh Gros (2004-2007), 110 matches, 9 goals, 14 assists
Bobby Convey (2000-2003), 79 matches, 8 goals, 13 assists
Fred (2007-2009), 72 matches, 11 goals, 16 assists
Mark Lisi (2001-2002), 31 matches, 4 goals, 5 assists
Jose Alegria (2001-2002), 31 matches, 0 goals, 2 assists
Eliseo Quintanilla (2002-2003), 27 matches, 5 goals, 5 assists
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I’ve never forgiven Convey for his full-season pout after the Spurs thing didn’t work out, both as a United fan and as a soccer fan in general. OK, so it sucks that your move was prevented by something out of your control. You want to improve your work permit chances, or score another offer from somewhere else? Play harder and better. Frankly, I never understood why Reading came back for him. Gros should have been starting over him before he was mercifully sold.
So, it’s clear that Convey is not my favorite player, and he didn’t get my vote.
Here, it’s between Gros and Fred. Fred’s got the numbers, but most of those game in 2007 (7 goals, 8 assists). After that, he became a source of massive frustration; if he wasn’t dribbling into trouble, or misplacing a pass that a player of his skill should hit every time, he was blowing a 1v1 with the keeper by shooting directly into his feet or chest. I’ll always have a soft spot for the smiling, rascally players that have audacious skill but sometimes overreach, but as a pro you do need to get results. Fred should be a guy that hits that 7 and 8 mark every season, but he lacks the focus to put all that ability to work.
Thus, I endorse Josh Gros. You know he’s going to outwork everyone on his flank, and the opposing wide midfielder is pretty much not going to create anything all game long. I’m pretty sure Gros was extraordinarily unpleasant to play against. Plus, despite not being a particularly creative or skilled player, he came up with tangible results.
by ChestRockwell on Mar 6, 2025 1:04 PM EST reply actions
Gros redux?
Who on the team now approaches the hustle of Gros? Since we all agree that every player can’t be creative and technically gifted, MLS teams will need hustle players. With Benny retired, who fits the bill?
by Irrlicht on Mar 7, 2025 7:36 AM EST reply actions
I think DiRaimondo has that element of scrap to his game
Of course, there’s not a lot else. He’s certainly not a guy that raises my hopes for winning if he’s on the pitch.
by Brendanukkah on Mar 7, 2025 9:23 AM EST up reply actions
Simms covers an awful lot of ground. Quaranta actually does an awful lot of running for an attacking player. Wallace is also pretty dynamic. McTavish, when he’s in, leaves it all on the field. Even a guy like Party Boy is pretty active, regardless of where we’ve deployed him. Barklage was very feisty before his injury
I don’t think we are particularly short on scrappy players. We might not have someone like Gros, who had both the appetite for endless work and the constitution to actually keep going hard despite working that intensely, but we aren’t lazy either. Last year’s team didn’t work hard enough, but the two players least likely to run hard (Emilio and Gomez) are gone.
by ChestRockwell on Mar 7, 2025 11:22 PM EST up reply actions
Funny about Fred
In his last year and a half, he really lost the fan support. If you look at the numbers, it should be Fred, in a walk. Still, I voted for Gros. I just feel that he was really coming into his own when the concussions did him in., and I never really liked Fred (not true).
While we’re on the subject — you might want to fix the tag for the Starting Forward post. It’s “all decade”, instead of the “all-decade” tag you’ve used for the other 6, so it doesn’t come up when you click on the hyphenated tag. I only found it by clicking a link from a different post.
by fischy on Mar 10, 2025 1:00 AM EST reply actions
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