The Offseason So Far: More churn than you'd expect from a top-three team in the conference, for sure. It looks like Fredy Montero won't be back, and Yordy Reyna's been involved in a nightmare back in his hometown. David Ousted is out after 4 1/2 very good seasons, and Matias Laba might be as well, and Sheanon Williams is gone, and the Nosa Igiebor stuff is just the weirdest thing. They brought him in and gave him his debut in the final week of the season, then started him (over Tony Tchani, who'd been mostly very good!) in two of three playoff games ... and now they might not even bring him back.
It's just impossible to tell with the 'Caps. It almost always is, so I'll admit that I'm just kind of waiting for things to come together and make sense...
What I will say is that their central defense continues to look very good, Aly Ghazal and Tchani make a solid central midfield combo, and they added a pair of forwards in Anthony Blondell and Kei Kamara who both look like good bets to do the dirty work of knocking down long-balls and winning headers that's so important for this team, in its current iteration, to function.
This team is designed, right now, for hoof-and-hope.
JAN. 2 UPDATE:Jordan Harvey signed with LAFC and Sam Adekugbe appears on his way to IFK Goteborg, which probably means the left back depth chart is now 1) Marcel de Jong and 2) Brett Levis. Add in the arrival of center back Doneil Henry (please god Robbo DO NOT play him at right back!) and it's entirely possible that the 'Caps will have a much more Canadian feel next year.
But who knows, really? We've all thought that in the past from time to time.
JAN. 24 UPDATE: They went out and got Efrain Juarez, who's been one of the more enigmatic Mexican players of what was supposed to be a golden generation. They also, it seems, intend to play him at least a little bit out of position as a midfielder...
Juarez can play there, and maybe at age 29 what he needs is to just settle into that spot for good and make it his? They gave him the No. 6, Matias Laba's gone and Nosa's not coming back, so perhaps that's what the plan is.
Other than that there've been no moves and I find it difficult to look at the 'Caps roster and figure out where the chance creation will come from. It really does seem set up to be another year of bunker-and-counter, except this time with more crosses in the general vicinity of the center forward's head.
