I think I made my feelings clear about Peter Vermes and the DUI arrest the other day, rather than beating a dead horse and getting my panties into a self righteous wad I am now posting the material I was writing when the unfortunate news of Vermes’ unfortunate lapse of judgment broke. It is disappointing to me that this feels lesser for the more recent news…. but in many ways this is representative of how easy it is to tarnish something good.

A tip of the cap to Peter Vermes

Peter Vermes and Pablo Escobar: It hasn’t been a smooth ride
but the Wizards are heading in the write direction.

Football fans are a fickle bunch, really we are. When previous Wizards Head Coach Onalfo was fired there was a certain number of people who wanted Peter Vermes to go with him. As Technical Director he was seen as the guiding force of everything in Onalfo’s reign, including his signings and the teams overall performance. Once Onalfo was gone, and Peter Vermes took as Head Coach the team actually performed worse in terms of points collected than they did under Onalfo. This led to yet more people calling for the import of a new Coach and Technical Director into the ranks.

I actually thought the team performed better under Vermes and he managed to spark some life into players like Claudio Lopez however at the end of the season I was somewhat indifferent to the topic of whether change was needed or not. This changed over the post season as the squad was transformed rather aggressively with the influx of players of quality, Stephane Auvrey, and Ryan Smith especially had me excited for the new season. The resigning of Kamara and the drafting of Teal Bunbury seemed like positives and all of a sudden I was seeing attacking football and a plan and was excited to for the new season. Fire Vermes? You have to be kidding me.

I set my stall out. Essentially the gist was that Vermes as Technical Director and Head Coach was pulling all the strings and was almost solely responsible for failure or success.

I wrote the following in February:

On 27 March 2010 when we kick off against Onalfo, DC United and potentially Adam Cristman in the season opener we will have our first real idea how this torrent of fresh blood will affect things.  If Peter Vermes manages to get the Wizards into the playoffs, if we manage to score more goals than we concede, finish with a winning record and maybe even play the “attractive attacking football” that we have been promised during his tenure already then one man alone will be able to take the bulk of the credit.

The playoff birth remains to be seen but we are clearly in the hunt after our current form and may just still make it – this is a remarkable turnaround given out mid-season form but after good results against quality teams you have to believe that the team has finally settled down. We are playing well, and if we had maintained this form all season we ultimately would be sitting pretty now. If we maintain the intensity and the upward trend for the remainder of the season I will have no problem writing the season off as a success, this team feels infinitely better than it has been at points since Onalfo was fired, we do play attractive football, we are exciting attacking at times and we still have Omar Bravo to come, we are solid defensively and our midfield is hard to contend with.

We clearly do not score enough goals, but given that we have started to score more recently, are winning on the road once in a while things just seem like they are coming together. Maybe a bit to late to fit my predictions for the season but here they are.

Written in pre-season:

So yes, no supporters shield, and we probably will not be in the top four.  With the playoffs leading to the MLS Cup however I will now go on record as saying the the Wizards have the potential to win it all.  We will make the play offs, and we will not sneak in in last place. I look for the Wizards to post around 45 points on the season which is a substantial improvement over the measly 33 of 2009 but is only four wins extra, given the improvements in the squad and the apparent depth I do not think this is unreasonable.  After the regular season things  is just luck and as LA Galaxy will testify, the best team does not always win.

44 points seems to be the target right now for playoff play, it is a bit of a tall order but the players seem to be going for it. If we do actually make it we have as good a shot of winning it all as anybody. We dominated New England during our run, a team on a very similar footing to us in the league standings illustrating the raise in the playing standards, dominated the Galaxy in LA, beat Toronto and managed a draw with defending champions Real Salt Lake. The road win against MLS high fliers Columbus Crew wasn’t to shabby either. Things have improved, considerably and amazingly since the season low point of losing three back to back against the Red Bulls and Chivas at home and FC Dallas on the road.

While the more negative amongst us will say that the Wizards have simply not been good enough over the span of the season, I tend to look at us more as a team that has been through some considerable teething troubles and finally look like a solid and stable unit with a firm game plan and players than are starting to play for each other. They have never given up on themselves or the fans, and they have certainly never quit on the coach. So while I was thinking it was time to kick Peter Vermes out of Kansas City just a few weeks ago, I am going to do the fickle thing again, and say loudly and clearly that he deserves a pat on the back for sticking to his guns and getting this team rolling forward.

He is getting the job done, and whether we make the playoffs or not, I feel that if the season started today or if we maintain the core of this team into 2011 that we should expect to make it comfortably and that is a pretty good spot to be in. Baring a complete and utter collapse over the last nine games of the season I think we will be seeing Peter Vermes back in 2011 and I for one welcome that thought.