FRISCO, Texas - FC Dallas' offseason fun began with a splash on Tuesday.
The club announced a string of moves that cleared a number of roster slots and salary cap space, setting the team up for the upcoming Expansion and Re-Entry drafts over the next few weeks. The moves also helped Dallas resolve a few positional issues, especially in goal.
Since Dallas selected MLS veteran goalkeeper Dan Kennedy in the Chivas USA Dispersal Draft in November, the team has had a logjam of MLS starting-quality netminders as Kennedy joined Chris Seitz and Peru international Raul Fernandez on FC Dallas' roster. But the club re-signed Seitz and did not pick up Fernandez’s option, leaving the Peruvian available in the upcoming Re-Entry Drafts. Kennedy was already under contract for 2015.
“I think that Chris has shown not only that he is a quality goalkeeper but that he is a quality human being,” said FC Dallas technical director Fernando Clavijo. “[This year] was an outstanding season for him. The coaching staff made a decision that he is someone we want to have around.
“We are extremely happy that we were able to secure him.”
Clavijo also went out of his way to discuss the move to not pick up Fernandez’s option, stating that the veteran's international obligations to Peru in 2015 played a part in the decision.
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“We don’t take anything away from Raul,” Clavijo said. “He did an unbelievable job, but looking at the future, Copa America, national team commitments and things like that, we felt that Dan Kennedy was a better fit for us. The opportunity to land Dan Kennedy was something we never expected.”
Dallas also declined to pick up the options of Jair Benitez, Walter Cabrera, Andres Escobar, George John, Peter Luccin, Adam Moffat, Hendry Thomas, Jonathan Top and Nick Walker. The Texas club did, however, extend a bona fide offer to surprise jack-of-all-trades player JeVaughn Watson, the Jamaican international who came into the season mostly as a winger, but ended up playing a large number of games at right back along with a game at center back.
“I think we place ourselves in a really good position to improve the team,” Clavijo said. “I want to wish every single player that played for us in 2014 nothing but the best. We had an incredible group of players this year. I want to thank all of them.”
