D.C. United has decided to take the plunge on veteran wing midfielder Carlos Varela, signing the 33-year-old [tomorrow’s his birthday] just before the MLS roster deadline on Wednesday.
“He’s a guy who can give us a spark off the bench,” said United interim head coach Ben Olsen. “He runs with the players very well. He is still adapting. It’s a good chance for us, for the rest of the year, to take a look at him to see if he is somebody that we want a part of this team in the future.”
Varela, whose deal is a short-term one, running through December with team options beyond that, was impressive against Georgetown – which doesn’t say a whole lot by itself – but the wide midfield is the one place where D.C. has been steady and does have some good depth, with Andy Najar, Santino Quaranta, Branko Boskovic and when he’s healthy, Chris Pontius.
Olsen said he wasn’t concerned about pushing or resting the guys that have been playing, but Najar (1,533 league minutes played, 2nd on the team) has looked spent lately and it wouldn’t surprise to see him get a rest or at least be spared 90 minutes in the coming matches. It’s also worth wondering about the future of Quaranta, who leads the team in minutes played (1,791) but had registered only one goal and one assist.
As for Julius James, he certainly wanted to but didn’t expect to play as much as he has this season. Instead, he’s been holding down the center back spot despite the team’s best intentions to replace him. He also scored the goal last weekend that effectively drove the sword into the technical staff of his former club, Toronto FC, which sacked general manager Mo Johnston and head coach Preki today.
“The former coach [Curt Onalfo], he didn’t have too much confidence in me, you know,” said James. “He brought in two different center backs, three actually [Juan Manuel Pena, Carey Talley, Barry Rice], and they all got a chance before I did. I worked my [male genitalia] off, man, and I kept my head down. Thank god I had the opportunity to play, and I thank god for good health… I spoke to him at the beginning of the season. I told him, ‘I’m a guy who wants to be here. I’m going to fight, scrap, do whatever is necessary to help the team,’ and I guess my little speech wasn’t good enough. I never had anything easy, and it has made me a stronger person.”
