Ok from a soccer perspective here, Yordy Renya is something the team desperately needs. An offensive spark. A guy who can take set free kicks and be a provider. He is 27 so certainly has plenty of years left and it he has not been a total bust as a player in MLS. He plays as a center forward, but certainly plays as a provider which could help this team tremendously. Both Rivas and Kamara are out and out goal scorers. Having a guy who can drop back receive the ball and show the vision to pick out passes is something this team has missed since that other forward from Liverpool departed for Derby last year. From that perspective I like where he fits into this side. This team needs a creator. Someone who can see the game and try things that others don’t have the vision or skill to do. We saw a light version of this from Paredes and Reyna could easily provide this.
So where is the bad in all this? Well off the field, Yordy has a checkered history to say the least. Let’s start with biggest red flag. In 2018 he was under investigation for the death of 16 year old volleyball player Alexandra Chocano. There have been no new updates that I can discern since the Spring of 2018 when he was re-investigated by police in Peru. Steven Goff says he was cleared of any wrongdoing. Regardless of whether he had any direct involvement in her death, his actions were certainly not a good look and raised questions about his maturity and character. Questions he has added on to this season. He violated social distancing protocols in Canada and was suspended for breaching club rules. DC hasn’t even remotely dealt with a player with this many character issues in quite a while. Maybe you could qualify Acosta, but as far as we know he was never suspended for things like this. Could a change a scenery help and could Ben maybe be able to squeeze some good out this? Maybe. But there certainly plenty of character questions about Reyna.
In a way this move reminds me of when the team brought in Eddie Johnson in 2014. There were plenty of character concerns with Johnson, although not nearly to the extent we are seeing here with Renya. DC did pretty well to get a good amount of effort all things considering. A heart condition forced Johnson’s retirement, but if DC can get at least that type of level or more, this could be a viewed as the steal of the year. I will say there is one difference from Johnson’s trade. Reyna is certainly coming a from a way worse off team. As bad as things are with DC, Vancouver has eclipsed them in being just as bad if not worse. They sold a generational talent in Alphonso Davies and have done very little to actually use it to grow their side. They are mediocre team in the West and have several other institutional issues that way eclipse DC in several respects. Fans are upset with Vancouver for several valid reasons. I think the talent level around DC is far superior to Vancouver and that gives me some hope that this can be successful.
So what to make of DC’s ambition? Well this is pretty much what we can expect post-COVID for this team. Ambition is limited to inside MLS, with maybe the occasional splurge in the international market. We won’t see three Flores type moves from this side. We are back to 2014 levels of using the GAM to bring in guys like Yordy Reyna. It isn’t a great place to be in, but it is what is.