Photo by DC United 2011
Just weeks after their season drew to a close, D.C. United have already announced the date for their 2013 home opener, a March 9 matchup against Real Salt Lake. United will open the season a week earlier, when they’ll travel to Houston (where they’ve never won) for an Eastern Conference Final re-match with the Dynamo on March 2. The black and red will also get an early crack at the New York Red Bulls when they travel to New Jersey on March 16—whether the Pink Cows will have invested in snow removal equipment by then remains to be seen.
If you can’t stand the thought of waiting that long to see United take the pitch, never fear, you really only have to wait til February 9, when they’ll play their opener in the pre-season Disney Pro Classic tournament against the Tampa Bay Rowdies, who’ll enter 2013 as defending North American Soccer League champions. That’s right: United are going to Disney World! They’ll also face Sporting Kansas City and the Montreal Impact during the two-week tournament.
It’s been a relatively quiet off-season so far for United, but here’s a smattering of DCU-related news that you may have missed in the past few weeks:
>> Right back Andy Najar is training with R.S.C. Anderlecht: The Honduran international is currently training with the Belgian club, and though United had originally intended to have him back in the United States by the end of the year, we learned yesterday that he’ll be travelling to Turkey for Anderlecht’s winter training camp. It hasn’t taken long for Najar to impress his new training partners and coaches, either. Anderlecht head coach John van den Brom had this to say about him: “Najar has fit in very well here and we’d like to have him on board a bit longer.” Whether that translates into a loan deal that would keep him there through the beginning of the MLS regular season or beyond remains to be seen. We’ll keep you posted.
>> Stephen King, Mike Chabala, Maicon Santos and Emiliano Dudar are all gone: The club declined options on all four of those players. Though there was talk of trying to re-sign Santos at a lower rate—despite the fact that he was already making $105,000, a rock-bottom price for a somewhat efficient striker in MLS—the club couldn’t reach a new deal with him and he was picked up by Chicago in the Re-Entry Draft. Dudar had an up-and-down year, but was a very pricey option off the bench. Chabala and King were both used sparingly throughout the year, with King missing a good chunk of the 2012 campaign on the disabled list.
>> Midfielder John Thorrington selected in re-entry draft: The club picked the veteran midfielder in the second stage of the draft and will now need to reach an agreement with him. Thorrington made $170,000 last year in Vancouver, but was largely unproductive. It’s expected United will sign him for less than that—probably closer to what Santos had been making—but whether the former Fire and Whitecaps midfielder will agree to that remains to be seen. Though injury prone, Thorrington has plenty of upsides: he’s versatile, for one, and though mostly a winger he can be used as an attacking or defensive mid.
>> Ridiculous Luis Fabiano Rumors: With United’s scouts presently combing over South America for their next acquisition, Portuguese and Brazilian outlets have reported that the black-and-red have set their sites on famed Seleção playmaker Luis Fabiano. Fabiano, who recently moved from the La Liga side Sevilla to São Paolo F.C., seems like more of a pipe dream, as his most recent transfer fee was in the $7 million range, which seems out of reach for United. It’s also worth mentioning that all of the reports I’ve read which speak of United’s interest in Fabiano reference each other, and none mention any particular source. Seems like general off-season silliness to me.
>> In case you’ve truly been asleep for the past month: The club parted ways with former designated player Branko Boskovic … Kevin Payne left the Black and Red to accept a post at Toronto FC … United fired seven front office employees in a massive front-office shake-up.
