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A look at Davies and his potential D.C. United loan

CharlieDaviesDC (AP)

Charlie Davies will take the field today for D.C. United in a scrimmage against Florida International University in what will be his final chance to impress D.C. before the club decides whether to bring him in on a season-long loan from FC Sochaux.

Davies has already impressed, netting a goal and assist and showing glimpses of his trademark speed. Whether he will show enough to convince D.C. to take a chance on him remains to be seen, but at this point it seems like a safe bet he'll be brought on.

Would it be a good move for Davies? It's hard to argue against it. In my latest Fox Soccer piece I lay out more thoughts on Davies' stint with D.C., and why it's a perfect fit.

What do you think of Davies' loan stint with D.C. United? Has his brief time with the club, and the positive reports coming out of Florida, convinced you it's a good move for him? Think he'd be better off in Europe?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I hope people allow Charlie Davies a little time here, frankly given DC United’s nothing-to-lose position at the moment and Ben Olsen’s own player history its hard to imagine a better situation for CD to be allowed a little more time to regain fitness. I wouldn’t be surprised if DC United do sign him, I’m sure they can work a deal to make the salary hit as gentle as possible. The possible upside as CD regains fitness could be pretty tremendous. What IF he becomes the old Charlie Davies again? Then it looks like a pretty shrewd move by DC.

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  2. Davies struggled in the CFA playing against amateur/semi-pro players who have 9-to-5 jobs when they are not playing football. Yeah, there’s a huge gap.

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  3. I believe. DC United will win the MLS Cup this year, and the USMNT will get to the semi’s of the World Cup in Brazil. Charlie Davies will be a starter for both teams.

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  4. so, i just spend 10 minutes watching the clips of him practicing on the DC united website, and youtube clips of him pre-crash.

    he does not look like the same guy. he looks decent now, but the explosive speed and strength doesn’t seem to be there at nearly the same level. i really hope it comes back…

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  5. Ligue 1 is ranked by UEFA as the #5 league in Europe; #4 is Italy and #6 is Portugal.

    Where MLS would rank in that equation , I don’t know but I don’t think MLS is a better ague than Serie A.

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  6. Do you think DC can afford it if Charlie doesn’t play a significant, on-the- field role? DC have to pick up the bulk of

    Charlie’s salary. And isn’t that salary pretty hefty by MLS standards?

    So if he isn’t contributing in a major way on the field, won’t he have to sell a lot of shirts and tickets to justify his salary?

    And if he isn’t playing well or very much won’t that “buzz” rapidly start to diminish?

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  7. That’s not really Clint’s strength. Clint is a terminator, not “a hold up play-maker”.

    And there is every reason to believe Charlie will never be “super speedy” again at least not like he was.

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  8. I don’t get the, “hasn’t played a pro game in almost 2 years”… I don’t mean to split hairs but he scored a goal at Azteca 18 months ago. Don’t tell me that wasn’t a pro game.

    I’m a United fan and Nats fan to the fullest, but that’s bad cookin’ your stats my man. 🙂

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  9. Imagine Clint Dempsey as a hold-up play-maker forward teamed with a healthy super speedy Charlie Davies. That would be an awesome starting forward pair!

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  10. Yes soccer is a business, and that means the bottom line and being in the black, not red. It doesn’t mean W/T/L as much as the $$$. It is a win-win for both parties.

    DCU gets more revenue from ticket & jersey sales and free publicity with a high profiled player, and CD9 gets MLS experience over the French 4th division.

    If you think the DCU management really cared about on field results, then the front office would have been a foregone conclusion. i.e. Payne and Kasper fired.

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  11. What positive reports are we talking about? when is scoring and assisting in a scrimmage against 17 and 18 year olds considered positive? Any actual real analyisi for his performances out there or is this all biased and controled releases from DC?

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  12. I wish Davies the best, but what DCU really needs most a class destroyer to support a midfield with Najar, McCarty, and Boskovic in it (basically, an upgrade from Simms/Morsink). The advantage that CD9 would have is that Ngwenya and Pontius work best with a speedy forward, and Davies would give the team another option if Wolff and Quaranta don’t work out, plus it will allow Quaranta to focus on backing up the wing midfielders instead of helping out at forward too (there’s not a ton of depth in the non-defensive midfield now, besides Quaranta there’s only Stephen King and Junior Carreiro).

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  13. You are right, but I still think it is good for DCU. They will get lots of attention and followers of the team now that he is there, even if he isn’t doing it big.

    And if he does start to heat up as the season rolls on… they may have the most ‘paid attention to’/buzz creating player in the league.

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  14. Great piece, Ives. I’m pulling for Davies to make a full comeback. At the end of the day though, this is a business. So regardless if he and Olsen were teammates, regardless of the possible feel good redemption stories that could come from such a signing, or how many seats he could sell or jerseys he could move, if he can’t compete at this leave today, DCU should not sign him. Unless of course they see enough in him that they believe he can progress during the season, that he may not be a starter but a contributor, that could be an option too. It’s a great story to follow on so many levels. Here’s to hoping he makes the team. Ives, will Davies get a chance to compete against MLS competition before DCU decides?

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  15. I don’t think the gap between the MLS and France explains everything. CD said something in one of his recent interviews about his agent telling him to get to a place where he has everyone’s support. After publicly calling out Sochaux management before the start of the WC, I think there may still be some issues there. Not saying he was ready to start at Sochaux, just that if he’s fit and able to play for DC, he could have gotten some time–even a token 5 minutes at Sochaux. And according to Ben Olsen, DC is NOT looking at CD as a project. They want a contributor. I take him at his word.

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  16. to be fair, the injuries were mainly on older players, or people who had played ridiculous minutes (cough, clyde simms) and we only have the league and an open cup qualifying match this season, cuts a good fifteen matches off the peak from a few years ago. unless the club sees something in CD that makes them question his ability to survive for say, 25 matches over the season, I think they should go for it, primarily for the reasons I outlined just above.

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  17. It will be less than DP threshold — and DC has got a lot of cap room flexibility. No one on the team is making $200k or above, except DP Boscovic.

    Of course, they’re not going to bring him in to watch from the bench.

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  18. I agree. I think the value of CD is in ticket sales, buzz and as a pressure valve. DCU is a very young team right now (there is a realistic chance that the team could start four players 20 or younger: Kitchen, Najar, Hamid, White) and key players just moving into their potential prime (Pontius, Dax) let’s see if these guys really are the future, give them (and Benny) a full year with no real expectations and see what they can do. CD is evidence that the team has hope, that the teams WANTS to move forward and is willing to pay to compete. if he’s great, fabulous. if he’s only good? still, people are talking about him, not Andy, or Dax, or Perry. it buys time for the development of the core of the team. that’s a good investment right now.

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  19. Yes, Davies has looked impressive in the 2:30 clip of training, and scoring a goal in a scrimmage. But, not until Charlie scores in an MLS game will I consider him on the come back trail. Right now, he hasn’t proved anything on a professional level. However, I doubt DC passes on him. His physical traits are back, all he needs now is to build consistency from playing games.

    Also, something you did not bring up Ives is IF he makes the DC squad and becomes a starter, how will the long MLS season have an effect on his body? DC United has been notorious in the last 3 years for having injured players. This, combined with the fact that Charlie hasn’t played a full season, let alone one pro game, in almost 2 years makes me concerned.

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  20. You’re not considering the two main components that make this deal possible.

    1) Forward options. We already have Ngwenya, Wolff, Pontius, and other tryouts ready to go. Davies wouldn’t be an automatic starter, but a hopeful project, one who would hopefully blossom down the stretch. He’s a gamble, but so is any forward we’d buy to be that go-to finisher, frankly tired of foreign disappointments.

    2) The buzz being generated and the tickets sold. The question mark is enough to attract season ticket buyers, let alone a healthy return.

    DC knows it is, at best, trying to make it back to the playoffs. Davies won’t hurt that.

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  21. +1, I think this is a bad deal for DCU… I hate to say it, but Davies may be done. I mean look at Jason Williams from Duke- He said he was going to come back also… If you rely on explosiveness and speed, and you break yourself in half… you can’t really come back as the same player. (hell look at owen, he only tore an acl and he’s never been the same b/c he relied solely on speed also)

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  22. My guess is that this is going to be a huge cap hit for DC United. This isn’t just about him being good enough to make the team, but being good enough to start. His salary will be right at or over the DP threshold (my guess is MLS put it right under to give DCU a break because they’re using an allocation spot on a loan), so they have to know they’re getting a starting who is going to score goals. I’m rooting for the guy and I hope to see him at RBA this season. I may even cheer for an away player if he scores, maybe not.

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  23. Davies playing with DCU this season is like the NYC-expansion rumors. Nobody has flat out said it’ll happen, they’re still evaluating things before making their decision, but it’s just a matter of “WHEN” not “IF” it’ll come to fruition.

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  24. I think it’s definitely going to happen. There’s too much positive, it’s a lovefest between Olsen and Davies in every interview. His speed seems like it’s decent, he’s getting back, and his head seems to be in the right place.

    Will he be as good as he once was? Most likely, no. But this move is going to happen.

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  25. I really hope he gets this. It hopefully allows him to play but tt will also allow us fans/media to follow him and have a realistic sense of where he is. no more of these wild speculative swings between “he should have been at the world cup” vs “he’ll never play again” based on non-information.

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  26. the sports illustrated podcast is pretty interesting on the matter with both grant wahl and the other guy saying davies is kind of an immature punk, still.

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  27. Even if physically he is not back to 100%, his mind for the game and finishing ability will come back with game experience in no time. I understand due diligence and all that, but it seems like a no-brainer to me.

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  28. As a DC fan, it would be nice to see him rise off his knees in person and back into the US fold. You have to image that if he’s getting consistent minutes at DC, he’ll be in the 4 striker pool for the Gold Cup no matter how many goals he scored.

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  29. It’s a no brainer if he can run and kick, given what he’s shown so far from the practices. MLS or French 4th division (CFA, where the Sochaux Reserves play), what would you do?

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  30. i pray he gets this. it’d be so good for him to get first team time, especially back home in the US. once he gets his confidence up, i think he’ll really start making strides to his old self.

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