86 Forever: Eric Hassli A Disappointing Designated Player, But Not Necessarily A Mistake

There’s no question Eric Hassli lacks the name of, well, almost every other Designated Player in MLS. The Vancouver Whitecaps’ newest player has played just one season in a premier European league (Ligue 1), is in the midst of a two-year run in which he’s scored just seven goals and doesn’t even have the benefit of being Canadian.

So, it’s understandable that SB Nation’s Vancouver Whitecaps blog, 86 Forever, was initially pretty bummed to learn how much Hassli is being paid and that he’s reportedly been signed to a four-year contract. Once the initial shock wore off, though, a more rational line of thinking took over.

Hassli fills a position of desperate need. If he fits into the Major League Soccer environment well then he lifts the Whitecaps from the cellar to a fight for a playoff spot. That’s not worth a DP spot? Remember, the Whitecaps have one DP slot left and can buy another one. If three world-class players agree to contracts with the Whitecaps but we can only sign two of them, well, then we’ll all feel like idiots, but as we should be able to see from an entire winter of failing to get any world-class players that’s not going to happen. If we didn’t sign a designated player this year, then we wouldn’t get extra slots in 2012. We just wouldn’t have a designated player and our team would be worse.

Hassli doesn’t necessarily have to be great to be a good signing. If he can score 10 goals, those are probably 10 goals that the Whitecaps wouldn’t have otherwise scored. Those could very well be the difference between finishing at the bottom of the table and competing for a playoff spot. Hassli’s signing won’t win any PR battles, but that doesn’t mean it’s a disaster, either.