Corrales should be back at a lower salary as a player with some coaching responsibilities. I think the club has given up on Opara. Too bad, but understandable since he has fallen so short of expectations and arguably regressed over his first three years. Hopefully, his career will improve elsewhere. In 2010, my typical reaction: "He played well. He scored (or almost scored) a goal. Nobody beat him in the back." In 2012, my typical reaction: "He played well. He didn't commit any catastrophic mistakes that led to an opposing goal."
I am the biggest opara-fanboy on this board and even I can't agree with that. He made a ton of catastrophic mistakes in 2012. The only time he didn't was a brief period of improved play in his Aug/Sep matches.
ditto, i remember how pumped both you and I were during that draft. We thought we got a stud for the future. Ike has been a Ryan Leaf type of bust. But yeah, best of luck to him. Time to start sizing up central defenders for this years class. We need a new number three.
Ike is an athletically gifted and incredibly nice young man whose development has been hampered by injuries. Ryan Leaf was an immature a-hole. Big difference.
Though JHernandez was never the captain, he was the Vice-Captain before Wondo was. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Yeah, sorry OWNyewuED, that was a ludicrous comparison. I think it's the nature of a fan to overreact and bend too far one way or another. Ike is the savior of the USMNT!! He will lead them to the promised land!! No, wait, he's a Ryan Leafian bust!! I'm pretty sure the truth is somewhere in the middle . The "mistakes!" stuff that most everyone here seems to squawk about, I think was mostly about Ike being rusty / not game sharp, and not confident. When Ike had a non-trivial amount of playing time, w/o long interruption, he got comfortable a bit, got some confidence and did pretty well. I don't think he is a "bust", and I don't think the Quakes have given up on him. They just couldn't rationalize paying him $185k. That doesn't make sense given what he's been able to accomplish so far. But if he can stay healthy and get some consistent playing time he'll be a good player in this league. Assuming the Quakes are interested in keeping him at a lower salary, and I think they are, I hope they can arrive at a salary number that both sides can live with. If I were Ike I'd want to stay with the Quakes - good team, good coach, great area , etc. And he would have a chance to compete for a starting spot next year.
So on the "Daily" podcast on the MLS site today, they said that the Re-entry draft is Friday Dec 7 and Fri Dec 14. Dec 7 is the first phase, where anyone drafted has to be taken based on their current contract salary. Players can choose to be included in the draft or not included, and the list of available players is typically released a few days before the draft. Then, for players not selected on Dec 7, teams can negotiate a new deal with them prior to the Dec 14 second phase draft, and players can decide again whether or not to be included. Players drafted in phase 2 can be signed at reduced salaries - the team that drafts them has a certain amount of time to sign them, or else they become free agents and can sign with anyone in MLS. Most teams have not yet announced which players have had their options picked up and which have not, but there are two interesting central defenders that are likely to be in the re-entry draft from Columbus. Julius James and Rich Balchan both had their options declined by Columbus this week. Balchan was highly thought of, but like Ike, he's been hurt quite a bit and didn't play this year. The strange thing about him is that his salary this year was only $68.5k. That's really cheap for a decent central defender, and unless his injuries from this year are career ending, I'd expect he'll be taken in the draft in Phase 1. Julius James was making $100k, also suffered from a lot of injuries this year, but last year he played pretty well and seemed to be a decent central defender. He may also get picked up by someone else in the first phase, as $100k is not that expensive. It will be interesting to see who else is available and see if the Quakes try to pick up one or two players through that draft.
Thanks for taking the time to look this up. Who we take will depend on how much money we have to throw around, and whether we are looking for starters or not. We are way short on defenders, so that's one area where we might expect the FO to try to snag a player. It also depends on whether the FO decide that the team is built to win right now, and therefore they should spend some cash to improve the squad to where we can win MLS Cup (maybe the Shield too!). Or do they think: "12 was a great year, so it's OK if we aren't that great in '13." I don't like that idea, but it is possible. Were I running the ship, we'd snag a decent MLS defender, and we'd sign someone from overseas, and we'd sign a DP a-mid. But hey, it's not really my money to spend, nor do I have access to all of the information that the FO does. GO QUAKES!!! - Mark
oh id love Balchan here, that guy has the versatility card as well he can play anywhere on the back line.
Yeah - with how cheap his salary was, the only reason I can think that Columbus didn't exercise the option is that they are still worried about his health. He was out all of this year, and maybe they don't expect him to be able to play in 2013. Otherwise, why wouldn't you sign someone for the $70k or so that his contract was for? Balchan hasn't been in the league long enough to get his contract guaranteed when he signs it for 2013, so I really am surprised that Columbus didn't sign him and then see how he does in the preseason. According to this article Balchan was healthy at the end of this year and played in some Reserve matches. From the article: I'll be surprised if someone doesn't draft him in the first phase of the Re-entry draft if he's entered into it.
The same article I linked in my previous post talked about Julius James. Seems that he just underwent shoulder surgery that will see him sidelined for 4-6 months, which is the likely reason that the Crew are letting him go. With that timeline, he wouldn't be ready to train until sometime between April-June, so he would likely miss half the season. And with his age and service in the league, any contract he signs is guaranteed, so it's hard to see anyone signing him now, he's likely going to have to get healthy and play in the NASL or something before an MLS team would take him bacck.
In other news, New England declined the option on Benny Feilhaber today. Now he is either going to be in the re-entry draft or else maybe the Revs are shopping him around. I guess Feilhaber could try to go back to Europe, but he wasn't having a lot of luck playing in Europe his last time around. Maybe he's someone the Quakes can get at a significantly reduced salary - take the $200k they were paying Khari and get Feilhaber. That would be worth the risk, and could turn into a great signing.
oh absolutely.....no question. im gonna start looking at other teams for players released right now edit: just saw that Cardenas was in that bunch, thats another left mid type we could throw our hat in the ring for. good player from what i saw
My mistake - Feilhaber won't be in the re-entry draft, as he hasn't been in MLS long enough to qualify. So he will either get traded to another MLS team or else have to go outside of MLS, as New England will still own his rights for a year (I think it's limited to one year in this kind of scenario).
if its come to this that shows they couldnt get any trade offers they wanted either, someone could low ball the hell out of them just to get ANYTHING for him. We could only get a comp. pick for Convey, the same story might be said here. I guess the same thing with Cardenas too, since this was only his first year.
I think the issue with Feilhaber is that no MLS team is going to want to trade for him unless Benny is willing to renegotiate his contract. And Benny may still have a high enough opinion of himself that he tries to go overseas rather than taking a paycut in MLS. Also, I don't think teams can trade until after MLS Cup, as the rosters were frozen a couple of months ago. So there could be trade discussions going on, but no trades can happen until next week (like the Quakes did with Convey last year). As for Cardenas, I didn't watch New England play that much, but when I saw him play he looked ok, but nothing special. He was making $100k this past year, not a really high salary for an offensive player, but still, I'm not sure if he'd help the Quakes much. He also takes an International slot, so you have to factor that into the equation.
They could risk on a player who hasn't done much in the league, or they can invest in a young, talented, prospect player, who costs about the same amount money. I'm talking about Miguel Angel Sainz, a player from Barcelona B. He isn't getting any playing time with Barça B, and may be dilligent to come to a league that would give him playing time. It would be a great satisfaction to have a Barcelona youth talent on the team. If Sporting Kansas City were able to buy Oriol Rosell from Barça B, the Quakes could buy Sainz from there too. It would be great if the Quakes would be able to get a trifecta of players, with CAM Miguel Angel Sainz, LM Chakib Tayeb (from Ajax youth academy), and CB Mohamed Awal (from Maritizburg in South Africa). The price for all three together is $519,680.
Tony Tchani is also available he was also cut. Not sure we need him but i remember Doyle and Yallop were high as hell on him draft day.
I think KC declined the option on Julio Cesar. Quakes should pick him up, with the hope that he would draw in Brutus, his kind of used-to-be-friend. Brutus would have to be a heck of a defender. Imagine a center back line of Bernardez and Brutus. It would be lethal.