D.C. United is entering the second week of training camp, and a couple of lingering questions still remain unresolved, and we’re going to continue to talk about them.
First, there’s no lease agreement with RFK Stadium. The team and Events DC, which manages the building, continue to negotiate, and there’s no reason to believe that a deal won’t be done. The final terms, whatever they might be, should be interesting to see, including the length of the deal and whether there are out clauses and options for either side, and what other incentives could be at play, given the team’s dogged pursuit of its own building behind the scenes.
Second, there’s still no contract extension for Dwayne De Rosario despite the team’s professed intentions as soon as last season ended to put something in place.
According to United general manager Dave Kasper, Major League Soccer is leading the negotiations on that side, not the team itself, which Kasper said has told MLS of its desire to re-sign De Rosario. The league has taken a hard line with De Rosario in the past.
Negotiations always take time, and though De Rosario has expressed frustration, his agent, David Baldwin, doesn’t have any intention of bailing on the process. They’d like to get a deal done, and with a player that is 33 years old, it’s clearly in his best interest to lock up his future sooner rather than later.
“Dwayne has been fantastic,” United coach Ben Olsen said. “There’s been no secret that there’s been negotiating going on. Dwayne’s been fantastic. We’ve had a good talk about keeping that with them, and keeping the team separate. He’s been great, and he’s got great leadership qualities. He really does. That’s something I never knew about Dwayne before he got here, but he’s really taken that role with this group. Even though that stuff is going on, he’s still doing that part. It’ll sort itself out shortly, and we’ll get down to business.”
De Rosario had this to say: “In a perfect world, I wish it was done before. I can’t lie. I’m not really too pleased that I’m in this position right now. It’s kind of the same song over and over, but I believe that D.C. United are trying to get it done. I would like to get it done. Ben said what he said, and we’ll leave it at that.”
Meanwhile, D.C. United has already jettisoned one bucket load of trialists – eight members of a group that looked more like a local combine as part of the official opening of training camp last week – and added a few more for the two weeks they’ll spend in Florida starting this week. Do the new guys have a better chance of latching on? It remains to be seen.
Who’s in? As was noted first here last week, Danny Cruz skipped the trial altogether, and United hopes he’s out to prove that Houston made a mistake in not keeping him.
Other new additions: goalkeeper Josh Lambo, who spent the last four seasons with FC Dallas but is still just 21 years old; Alanzo Adlam, a 22-year-old Jamaican forward; and Sebastian Svard, a 29-year-old Danish midfielder who has elite training experience, having started his career in the Arsenal system before going on loan in Germany and the Netherlands. Before he’s made out to be a massive signing, he’s also had trials with other MLS teams.
The unsigned players from last week that have also held on: goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra, defenders Jed Zayner and Charles Rodriguez, and midfielders Ryan Richter, Lance Rozeboom and Seth C’deBaca.
A couple notables: in the tiny, tiny bit of play that we got to see last week, Zayner was working with the first team. Why shouldn’t he? Also, C’deBaca has now been around the team for the better part of six months or more. Rodriguez and Rozeboom were draft picks of course, but then again, so was…
Who’s out? Fourth-round supplemental draft pick Matt Kuhn, along with Yoni Berhanu, Mike da Fonte, Carl Goody, Levi Houapeu, Matt Oduaran, Will Swaim, and Sainey Touray.
