D.C. United announced its MLS schedule yesterday, and we’ll cut to the chase: you have exactly 183 days before David Beckham comes to Washington. He’ll be here on August 9 for a Thursday night game, but unless you’re planning to buy a full season ticket package, tickets won’t be available until July 2. And that goes for half-season and flex plans too — the August 9 match against Beckham’s LA Galaxy (formerly known as Landon Donovan’s LA Galaxy) is blocked out of those plans as well.
We have to wonder why the club is making tickets so hard to come by that even half-season plan owners can’t reach them. United Senior VP Steven Zack told the Post, “We want people to be exposed to DC United, not just to see David Beckham.” Fair enough, but wouldn’t it be great to use the Beckham match to sell a big batch of half-season plans too? Is this the best way to maximize his drawing power?
But, thankfully, our beloved United can focus less on the marketing and logistical headache that is Mr. Beckham, and more on the season at hand. There’s exactly two months until DCU’s 2007 MLS season gets underway, in a nationally televised game at Kansas City, and in a busy off-season around the league, they’ve made some intriguing moves. They traded away their first round pick in next year’s draft (sound familiar, Skins fans?) to Toronto FC for Rod Dyachenko after Toronto had picked up Dyachenko in the expansion draft just months before.
The Post also reports today that the club will sign left-midfielder Yinka Casal, a 19-year-old English kid with Nigerian parents who was training with Fulham. Fans on the message boards have been working hard to dig up stuff on Casal (best so far: he was part of a record holding under-13 4 x 100 meter relay team), but he comes to United having only played in a handful of reserve matches for the London club.
The most promising signing, though, is Luciano Emilio, a 28 year old Brazilian striker. Emilio previously plied his trade with CD Olimpia in Honduras. The team learned first-hand in its Eastern Conference Final loss to New England that a sharp finisher can often pull a victory out of nothing, so perhaps Emilio — a 4-time leading scorer in the Honduran league — can be the pure striker the team sorely lacked in its stretch run last year. With Alecko Eskandarian off to Toronto, he’ll have to be.
