I have no idea why NYRB would give up so much for Kimura. Waiving $75,000 'cause of KC's contract is nice but you have to send $100,000 in, one would think, much more valuable allocation money the other way. A 2nd round draft pick is quaint - especially since you had no draft picks to begin with - but you're giving up the rights to a player who everyone seems to think has a high ceiling. I mean, Kimura was criminally poor last year, for both the Rapids and the Timbers. I guess as a backup to Barklage but still it's a head scratcher for me.
To be fair to Kimura, both the supporting talent and coaches at those two teams last year were abominable. Perhaps NY think that putting him with better talent will result in a return to form. And I know that Paul Bravo didn't rate Kimura here in Colorado (didn't protect him for last year's expansion draft, brought in Hunter Freeman in the offseason) and there's been rumors about on Bigsoccer that Kimura's one of the early few of the old guard that didn't buy into Pareja's defensive scheme (with good reason, if you ask me), so perhaps he felt slighted/misused and he didn't give the full effort in return. But, Kimura's ceiling, so far, is an above-average-for-MLS right back who can occassionally contribute to the offense. He's certainly not a "shut-down" right back. So approx $200k would still be a pretty high price to pay even if he returns to form. And you still have to pay his salary on top of that number.
Where did $200k come from? Isn't it more like $25k (allocation fee - Cooper waiver) and Gallego's HG rights for Kimura and a 2nd round pick?
I didn't see enough of Portland to make a judgement, but the Rapids were criminally poor - based on outcomes I'd guess Portland was as well. While the players get to own the black mark on their records, the results - at least in the Rapids case - were a team effort. Being axed from either team right now might be a blessing rather than a curse.
I saw a number of both (all of the Rapids games) and while the teams were bad, Kimura had a very poor year based on his earlier play. The low point might have been his return to Colorado with the Timbers where he got shredded for all 3 goals the Rapids scored that night.
My news feed picked up an article stub with a dead link. Can't tell if the author is preparing just in case, or was planning to drop this in the morning. Author looks like he's linked to an Philly based AM radio show - no idea about how to treat this. Roll out the Barrel: Union Acquire Cooper Philly Sports Live - 4 hours ago Santa may have come early to Philadelphia, and left a target striker under the tree, as the Philadelphia Union today acquired former FC Dallas ...
Because he's 6-3 with broad shoulders and every coach he's ever had has wanted him to play it despite his own preference for drifting.
Philly means that those are the teams that competed in the 2012 CL group stages (and so got 2012 allocation money), and that they all went pretty far in the playoffs. Next years' CCL group stage teams are SJ, KC, Houston, and LA
Ok, got ya. I read that wrong then. Thanks. That makes more sense. I was skimming. Shouldn't do that.
He just plain looked lost a lot of times. A lot of times you'd see him floating in space while a winger made a late run into the box. I think he was actually protected a little bit here in Portland due to the overall poor quality of defending. Stephen Smith often got caught too far up field, and bombing down the wing unopposed is still better than bombing down the wing against a poor defender. If he was teamed up with an otherwise solid back line, I think he'd be specifically targeted.
According to this blog, the Sounders are $400,000+ over the cap, so we can expect some major moves from them.
So an interesting aspect of the LeToux trade is that according to various reports, LeToux has not signed a new contract with MLS. New York made him a bona fide offer, per MLS rules, which means they retained his rights in MLS and could trade those rights. But LeToux can still go sign outside of MLS on a free transfer if he wants to. Just a year ago, LeToux was talking like he expected pretty big money from Philadelphia for a contract extension - according to this article he was asking for around $400,000. His 2012 was not a season to remember, so does that mean he will now agree to sign in MLS for significantly less than he was asking for last year? How much is Philly willing to offer?
Heard he was offered a 250k deal. Likely he already accepted that since you wouldn't see Philly giving up a player and allocation money for just the rights to a player.