Goff Talks DC United Roster

D.C. United's roster is a work in progress to say the least. With only two additions in Dax McCarty and Joseph Ngwenya and a host of losses over the close season, Ben Olsen, Dave Kaspar and Kevin Payne have a lot of work to do in the next six weeks before the opening of training camp.

There are two areas in which DC has to put some attention--defense, particularly in the fullback areas, and striker. With the loss of Jordon Graye (eh) and Rodney Wallace (ouch), the Black and Red don't have any real quality fullbacks. Devon McTavish and Marc Burch can do the job but I just don't see them as a long term solution. Can Olsen find a quality fullback in the draft? I hope so.

Looking at Ives Galarcep's Big Board 2.0 and DC United's 3rd pick in the first round, Akron's Kofi Sarkodie is the best choice, but will Sarkodie come out. If Akron wins the College Cup--probably. As an underclassman, Sarkodie would likely be a Generation Addidas Player and thus salary cap exempt. DC could also take another Akron defender and U-20 MNT player Zarek Valentin. Valentin is also likely to be a Generation Addidas player.

The challenging part is that DC United then don't have a draft pick until the 34th pick in the second round. Could they take a striker then? DC would almost have to, given the lack of striking talent on the roster, but they could look elsewhere. Is there another Andy Najar in the Academy team? I don't think so. So that means looking outside the organization.

As far as trades, I don't see much in the way of trade bait to get either higher draft picks or allocation money for the purpose of acquiring players.