D.C. United’s 2024 season ended last Saturday night with a crushing loss to Charlotte FC, which saw the Black-and-Red fail to qualify for the playoffs for the fifth straight year. And, the team is not wasting any time with starting the roster overhaul. Today, the team announced their decisions on contract options for several players, and at least nine players have had their contract options declined by the team.
Only 17 players remain under contract with the team as general manager Ally Mackay begins another offseason attempting to revamp the roster to create a team that can compete not just for the playoffs, but also silverware. Just two players with contract options saw those options exercised by the team: Aaron Herrera – who was a MLS All-Star this year – and Garrison Tubbs.
The Black-and-Red officially declined the contract options for Alex Bono, Cristian Dájome, Nathan Crockford, Jeremy Garay, Tyler Miller, Christopher McVey, Martin Rodriguez, Hayden Sargis, and Luis Zamudio. The moves give D.C. United several million dollars in salary cap space to go after new players. Alex Bono confirmed he was leaving the club in a social media post yesterday.
In addition to the players whose contract options were declined, the club has two players who became free agents: Russell Canouse and Pedro Santos. Both players technically could return to the club with new deals, but it seems clear the team is ready to move forward without them. After the roster decisions were announced, the club posted on social media a post thanking Canouse for his eight seasons of service to the club. Canouse, who was out most of the year recovering from several surgeries to remedy his ulcerative colitis, returned to the field late in the year. However, that coupled with his oft-injured status over the years, probably means he will not be back in DC next season. He departs as a fan favorite among the Black-and-Red faithful and will be credited for being the catalyst for the team’s surge in 2018 into the playoffs in the first season at Audi Field.
Of the remaining 17 players, there are two Homegrown Players who also could leave the club. Kristian Fletcher is currently on loan with Nottingham Forest, and they have an option to make the deal permanent. Matai Akinmboni has been coveted by AFC Bournemouth, with the English club extending three offers already. It’s possible that a deal could happen during the January transfer window to send Akinmboni to England.
Now, Ally Mackay and head coach Troy Lesesne will have to hit the ground running to rebuild the roster with the players they desire to continue to implement the style of play they want. Currently, no goalkeepers remain on the roster, as the four goalkeepers saw the team decline their contract options. Fellow Homegrown Players Jackson Hopkins and Ted Ku-DiPietro remain on the roster along with Designated Players Christian Benteke – who won the league’s Golden Boot – and Mateusz Klich. Young Designated Player Matti Peltola remains along with U22 Initiative player Gabriel Pirani. With those players remaining on the roster, there is little wiggle room to bring in a high profile player. So, expect the team to be active in the offseason with signings and even potential trades.
The updated D.C. United roster:
GOALKEEPERS (0):
DEFENDERS (6): Matai Akinmboni, Conner Antley, Lucas Bartlett, Aaron Herrera, David Schnegg, Garrison Tubbs
MIDFIELDERS (4): Boris Enow, Jackson Hopkins, Mateusz Klich, Matti Peltola
FORWARDS (7): Dominique Badji, Christian Benteke, Kristian Fletcher, Ted Ku-DiPietro, Jacob Murrell, Gabriel Pirani, Jared Stroud
Anybody else having to say they’re not a robot every time they post a comment?
But I am a robot…..
I’ve had to do that every time I’ve ever posted. I think its dependent on how you “log in” to the site
I was logged in through Google. Somehow, it logged me out, and I don’t see the option to log in through Google (or anything besides WordPress) anymore.
Early on, I got WordPress to recognize my login, and for a while I could post with my preferred avatar and everything. Then, for no apparent reason, it stopped allowing that, and I have to run through the captcha all the time now. C’est la guerre?
To be honest login has never worked for me once so I always have to prove I’m not a robot.
Canouse is a gut punch for me. I get the why, but I really think a thank you post so quickly was harsh. He clearly was not the problem unless I am stunningly aloof. Perhaps it was simply a salary issue, and he wouldn’t give motion on that. I am bummed.
He might be retiring. I don’t know how well his side hustle as a realtor is going but it has to be less damage on the body.
Yeah. It’s just that he would have been a true 96er kind of player. I hope negotiations are ongoing. It also is entirely credible that he is spent from all surgery and stuff.
Any “sources” I can find online show that Klich should also be out of contract. Given all of these announcements I’m dubious as to why Klich isn’t among them. If Mackay brings him back on a huge discount that’s fine, I suppose. Most of this community seemed to agree that it was time to move on. Would free up cash and a valuable DP slot.
He had a clause in his contract that if he met a “number of games played” threshold in 2023, his option would be automatically triggered for the 2025 season. So he is fully signed for 2025, continuing on the same contract he has been on
Thanks for that! Didn’t know that. That’s somewhat saddening, honestly.
It’s crazy that the option triggered last season. Not great planning, but that regime is gone. He’s still a good player, it just leaves the new FO hamstrung on getting an elite player.
I hate to see Canouse go. He’s class. And he’s gritty. It’s hard to be both of those but he is. However, when you miss the playoffs (for multiple years), there is no-one on the roster who can say “WTF?” if they are cut or moved.
And realistically, when you look at who we let go, the only two who weren’t bargain basement players (ie: we got them on a free or a major discount) were Dajome and Rodriguez. Everyone else was a player that another team didn’t want.
I’m going to make one other point about this roster re-do. We tend to assume this is all MacKay clearing cap room and maybe it is. But I think something that Lesesne showed this year as a coach is: if you fit his system and play how he wants you to play, then he’ll play you. And if you don’t, you sit. What that meant is that for chunks of the season we had guys who couldn’t buy a few minutes of trash time in games, who were rooted to the bench.
I don’t know if that’s a strength of Lesesne or a weakness. The Luftwaffe (German Air Force) in WW2 had a philosophy that it was better to have no senior officer in command than to have a poor one. Consequently, you’d have squadrons or groups that would go months at a time with no-one in command because there wasn’t someone the high command felt was ready to command a squadron or group.
Well, Lesesne seems to be someone who has very specific expectations of what he wants and really has to be pushed to compromise on that (for instance, how long it took us to recall Garay or Sargis just for bench strength on games).
So yeah, I bet MacKay wants some cap room. But I think Lesesne is also saying “none of these guys is truly a fit for how I want to play ball. Some of them (Rodriguez) can kind of/sort of/sometimes fit. But I need players that are my kind of players.” Lesesne was never throwing guys under the bus during the season or whining about how management needs to open the wallet so he can compete with Miami. But my read of him is that he is very specific in what he wants and we just cleaned the roster of players who are not what he wants.
To be clear, and agreed, Lesense never through anyone under the bus.
Two eye brow raisers in the decision, one heart breaker that makes me want to protest.
Bono and McVey I don’t get. Seems like Bono would have stayed on 200K and challenged for a spot. He’s capable of making plays, and I thought he was a rare example of vocal leadership on the team, even if his performance levels weren’t flawless. McVey I don’t know if you want as a starter, but didn’t seem expensive enough to jettison. CB depth is your anchor for a strong run, and I don’t get this.
Canouse deserved better, and it looked like he could contribute next season. He went through all that to be tweet dumped, and that’s shit. Seems like Klich having a contractual obligation to come back made this tough, on top of Peltola and Enow, but dammit, I think this stinks in every conceivable way.
I so entirely agree. Bono, McVey, Canouse. These guys were not the problem.
If the team sucks next year, I am gone.
Bono was a bit of a surprise, but honestly not that much. He had some good moments this year but it never really felt like he was stealing points for us and I don’t think he was quite vocal enough to lead the back line.
The rest were all on pretty high contracts for what they brought to the team. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see McVey and Santos back on reduced contracts. Maybe even Dajome if they need to save some money on transfer fees.
With Santos, it’s down to whether they can find someone else…or someones. Someone who can play on the left. Someone who can take free kicks and have a hope in hell of scoring. If they can’t fill those roles with someone younger and better, they’re going to want to bring him back.
I think letting go of Bono seems like a big mistake. That means they have to find two goalies better than him, and it’s not likely they’ll find them in the US. Maybe they use that first pick in the draft on a top college keeper, but not likely to get someone ready to play in MLS, I’d think. That means going internationally, which is certainly a viable option, but also means using international roster slots they could otherwise use for a field player.
I have to hope they have a plan to replace Bono because yeah, he wasn’t on that high a salary and was proven enough.
I really want Santos back just as an option to throw on late in a game when our opponent is trying to park the bus. His passing range and dead ball delivery is worth a contract if we can get him for around 150k or less. Plus he’s been pretty durable the last two seasons.
At San Diego will be spoilt for choice. Seems like we should get a bye if we just provided a bit of their roster.
I think letting Canouse go is a mistake but I’m willing to accept it as long as Santos is gone, gone, gone. I swear at least half of our goals against were from him passing the ball directly to the other team, getting smoked one-on-one, or making a bad pass leading to a turnover. He was awful.