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Last week was a little bit ridiculous in D.C. United land. The team signed a new designated player in Hamdi Salihi that no one knew they could afford, added some more midfield depth, cut a well-liked forward from last year, and played its first two preseason games of the season.
This week has been decidedly quieter. Almost too quiet. At least too quiet for us bloggers.
But there has been some news, and we've been following along closely, and wanted to give you the chance to comment. Here are some quick items from across the web:
- Chris Pontius and Ethan White have returned to full training. That's fantastic news. We'd heard previously that Pontius was tracking to be ready for full training around Mar. 1, leaving us to assume that he wouldn't be back in his best shape in time for the opener. Now it sounds like he will be. Fantastic news.
- Remember when Andy Najar was benched early last season for fitness reasons? Apparently that won't be happening this year. Via dcunited.com: "I worked a lot more this year than in comparison to last year because I went to England, so I did a lot more work before preseason and I’m in better shape than last year."
- It sounds like the Conor Shanosky loan to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers is all but official. We knew this was coming, but the surprising thing to me is that the loan will last the entire season, as reported by Steven Goff. With Marcelo Saragosa and Emiliano Dudar now under contract, loaning away the young defensive midfielder / center back makes some sense. But when will we ever get to see him actually show some of his potential that we've been hearing about for two years now?
- Fullback Files has a great new feature using Football Manager to evaluate Salihi and Dudar. While we certainly hope that Ben Olsen and Dave Kasper don't use the same tool for evaluating talent, its just the slightest vindication that these guys should be about as good as advertised, which is a small upgrade over the incumbents.